Date: 2008-05-23
From: West Cornwall Rd

To: Rte 41 (Undermountain Rd)
Miles today: 17.5

Friday, May 23, 2008West Cornwall Rd to Rte 41 north of Salisbury, Amoeba and Benny, 17.5 milesLeaving 7 The Lockup Road, Benny sees the family cat. No response. He just stands there and looks at her, cat does the same. A standoff.I leave my car at the Rte 41 trailhead. Knitting Bull drives me in hers to West Cornwall Rd. Goodbye, good hiking buddy. Rest those joints! Later Knitting Bull and her husband, The Kid, will return to hike the 17.5 miles I¢m doing today with Benny. That¢ll finish Connecticut for Knitting Bull.Sunny, cool, probably 60Ascending. Easy.Feeling strange, like I¢m going to get a migraine. That prodrome sensation. A passing thing.Personally I'm not a fan of the sage green CT trail signage. It seems so intent on not jarring one's visual sensibilities that it blends too much into the background. I like signs that stand out more, which is the purpose of signs, to be seen so that they can inform. They don't have to be fluorescent lime or pink. Brown works. Of course, it's always possible the trouble I¢m having seeing CT trail signs is due to my cataracts, and has nothing to do with objective reality. Guess I'll know only after I have the operation.I scout Sharon Mtn Rd for Knitting Bull and The Kid. It looks passable, but I didn¢t notice any place to park. If it's passable farther down, when they return to hike this section, Knitting Bull and The Kid may hike from here down to West Cornwall Rd, avoiding an ascent.Little stream, Benny takes a couple of licks.Rounded toothed leaves of witch hazel.I try to teach Benny 2 new commands, ¢faster¢ and ¢go first¢. I wonder if I can teach him to go a specific mph? I teach myself a maneuver called dogwalker-in-crocs pirouette, for when I'm wearing a pack and the leash gets behind me.Someone told me there are not so many deer around here because numbers of coyotes have increased. Maybe Dave Campbell?2 young men hiking southbound, I don¢t get their names because Benny is barking at them.Native azalea, soft pink, darker pink and off-white with dark pink veins and stamens.I teach Benny "No pull".¢Ladies and gentlemen, start your engines.¢ I tell Benny. Listen carefully. With the rising price of gas, these sounds may go extinct. You¢ll be able to look back on your life and say, once, in Connecticut, I heard the gutteral crescendo and decrescendo of racing automobiles.For posterity I record the sounds of 3 Pontiac GXP¢s, 3 Porsche 997¢s, 3 Acura TSX¢s, a Mazda 6 and 2 RX-8¢s, a Mini Cooper S and a Chevy Cobalt. Note to trailjournals, let me know when you add audio capability. We hear them for about an hour, me failing miserably to identify a car by its sound, just as I fail miserably identifying a bird by its. I need lots more practice. With the trees and shrubs fully leafed out, our view of the track is blocked. Finally an opening. I can see RV¢s, etc, but not the racecars themselves. Get a photo of parking area at Lime Rock Park.When I get home I look up Lime Rock's calendar. Yesterday, May 22, amateurs were competing against professional racers such as Darren Law and Craig Stanton in Lime Rock Park's 5-K 'Race for Hope'. The race was a fund-raiser for Meisha¢s Hope Fund #338 at Morris Animal Foundation for research into the prevention and treatment of Immune Mediated Hemolytic Anemia, a canine disease affecting Tasha, a 6-year-old husky belonging to Steve Marcus (owner of a Grand-Am KONI Challenge Series car). If we'd been here yesterday, Benny and I could have bushwhacked down the hill and taken part in the post-race one-mile Mutt Strut for dogs and their owners.We meet some backpackers hiking south. No conversation. Why? A tight-leashed dog named Benny is barking and growling menacingly. I talk soothingly to him and hold his lower jaw shut, but it doesn¢t help.   I will have to ask Harley for her advice. She knows a lot about dogs. (I do ask her, and it's the same advice as Knitting Bull's, 2 women who have a lot of experience training animals, including dogs and horses, agree).Meet Scott and his dog Bailey who is 7 years old. Barking at first from Benny, then he quiets and they sniff each other. Scott stops every hour or so to remove ticks from Bailey. Last night she was shivering and Scott piled all the clothes on top of her.20-minute lunch at Belter¢s Campsite, and head out to Rte 7.Bluejay and phlox, some white, some rosy, some pink.More Benny training. He¢s got ¢go first¢ mastered. He trots out ahead and keeps a nice pace. Just before the retractable leash runs all the way out, he checks himself and looks back to see if I¢m following. By holding the leash tight and saying ¢slowly, slowly¢ I¢m trying to teach him a safer way of crossing log bridges. When he trots, he sometimes loses his footing. The first time Benny tried crossing a log bridge, rather than take a chance trotting on the logs, he deliberately jumped into the water and onto the rocks a few feet below. The second time he stayed on the bridge but his leg went down through the space between 2 logs. It¢s a privilege for me to watch Benny learning to become an AT hiker, and to be part of the action. The little guy's doing great.At Rte 7, we cross the road, go over the guardrail and descend into a field, turning right. Looks like quite a few people ahead of us have done the same thing. As we near the river, trail disappears. I look up. White blazes above. We should have stayed on 7. Trail here is a roadwalk. We bushwhack through some poison ivy up the hill to get back on the trail. Pass the Housatonic Valley Regional High School.I let Benny dawdle a bit and follow scents, then tell him it¢s time to go first. He takes the lead and trots ahead.We reach the wheelchair accessible section. Wide trail. Benches. Nature trail.Sunshine, crisp air, low humidity, feels like a fall day. Temps in the 60¢s, enough wind to keep it really comfortable for walking.Housatonic is to our left. I look for river otters, but don¢t see any.Hello to north-bound long-section hikers Pace and Chace, from Maine, hiking from DWG to Maine. Benny doesn¢t bark at them. Maybe because they come up behind me. Maybe he¢s just getting good vibes from them.I see something about the size of a small bear running across the trail up ahead. What is it? It¢s kind of a dark-red-golden-brown color with a little bit of black.Hello to Snotty and Farty, a sweet young couple from Quebec, who are hiking the Connecticut AT this weekend. Benny barks, then quiets. Both of them love dogs. I tell them about The Good, The Bad and The Ugly (the 3 Canadian brothers from Quebec who are NOBO thru-hiking).Hello to a woman hiking with 2 dogs, Beaver and Tori, who are running free. She says to me ¢You are very nice hiking with a leash.¢ I answer I want to minimize possible problems.I recognize Beaver as the streaking crittter we saw before meeting up with Snotty and Farty.About 3PM we summit Prospect Mtn.Take a long drink and eat an apple.Beautiful approach to is it Rand¢s or Billy¢s View? Whatever, the air is perfect for viewing mountains to the north which we¢ve already hiked, Lion¢s Head, Bear, Race and Everett. We can see beyond Everett to more distant mountains in the north.Benny spooks a crow which takes off in a flurry just in front of his face. He reacts with aplomb. Yup, Benny¢s becoming trail savvy.We pass Giant¢s thumb.I see I've got a voicemail, probably from Harley about where and how and when we¢ll meet up tonight, but I can¢t access it due to no cell signal.Just before 44 I leave a note for Pace and Chace that I¢ll look for them to try to give them a ride into town, but I can¢t wait for them because I¢ve got to meet somebody else down in downstate NY.Walking out through tall grass, tick heaven.On Rte 44 I get confused. Road walk not conventionally marked, at least for southbounders. Looking backwards it seems to be better marked for nobos. Out at the 41 trailhead at 5:45. I comb Benny, finding 5 ticks, 2 embedded near his penis. I take those off with tweezers. One comes off easily and one pinches, but just a little. He¢s terrific about letting me examine and treat him. I look at myself as best I can and find only one, crawling on my pantleg.We drive to 44 looking for Pace and Chace. No parking at the trailhead, but there¢s a cutaway north of the trailhead where you can park off the road. No sign of Pace or Chace. And no sign of them between the trailhead and Salisbury.Great reunion with Harley, Crazy Dog, and Georgia. I meet Harley¢s brand new rescue 4-month-old puppy Lily. I meet Liza, Max and Miranda and their dog Suki, 2 cats, lizard and Gizmo the chinchilla. Humans outnumbered by animals 9 to 5. I¢m not used to this! After the initial chaos, it¢s surprisingly calm.Harley and I plot out tomorrow¢s hike. Harley¢s been wanting to hike the AT in western CT. Harley, Crazy Dog, Georgia, Benny and I will hike from River Rd to 341 (Kent). That¢ll be enough for Harley, Crazy Dog and Georgia their first day. I unload all the stuff from the back of the Element, leaving only mattress, water and blanket. We need enough room back there for 2 large dogs and a small one. Also I need to deprive ticks of hiding places as the dogs are sure to leave some in the car. I loan Harley my wide-brimmed cotton hat and give her one of the tick combs. Goodnight!