Date: 2015-07-18
From: CT 341 at Mile 1467.1 (Kent)

To: Caesar Brook Campsite
Miles today: 13.7

Today was a really fun day, and I actually got more mileage in than I expected. Win win!I had another very comfortable night's sleep in a very comfortable bed. Two nights in a row, hopefully I'll be to sleep on my inflatable pad again!I got up slightly later than normal (see: comfortable bed) but by 6:10 or so, I was unwrapping the goodies from Cherokee (theme: Christmas in July) and organizing all the loot into three categories: carry now, ship forward and share at trail magic. This was a slightly overwhelming task and took much longer than you'd think. Of course I also drank several cups of tea and ate breakfast in between. When I finally had it sorted, it was time to say goodbye to Jim and Gini. Thank you again for hosting me, I had a wonderful, relaxing time!Jim shuttled me to the post office to forward my stuff, the grocery store for some bars and the outfitter to see if they had found the other package yet, but they weren't open yet. And then we drove the short distance back to the trail head.I started with a stile, followed by a climb (naturally). The weather has done a complete 180 from the splendid last couple of days and it was very overcast and humid, but fortunately not too warm yet.I only had 5 miles to go to where Spot of Tea was going to set up his trail magic, but they went slowly at first. Johns Ledges in particular was a challenging section with big stone steps going down that were hard on the knees. Once those were done though, the rest was a quick road walk to the parking lot. It was great to see Spot of Tea again, and to meet his girlfriend Lisa. The funny thing is that we only hiked together two or three days during the first week, but those are apparently very important days! He did a month long section this year, but is seriously considering a full thru (starting at Springer again) for next year.Spot of Tea knows what hikers like so he set to work making me a cheeseburger while I had a coke and chatted with Lisa and the other two (section) hikers who were there. I also put out most of the home made brownies (saving a couple of each kind for myself!), because I couldn't possibly eat them all. In fact, when I was carrying them those first five miles, I couldn't close my pack!I hung out at the trail magic for about three hours, chatting and catching up and talking gear and food, as hikers do. Flip flopper Science arrived shortly after I did, and Oriole (from Baltimore, who I had met before) got there shortly after that. Time went by really quickly and though I didn't really have a mileage goal for the day, at about three o'clock I figured I probably should get some more hiking done.So I said goodbye to Spot of Tea and Lisa and started down the trail. For the next few miles, the trail followed the Housatonic River, which is quite pretty. It was now sunny and warm and still humid, so I was soon a sweaty mess. Then the trail started climbing again and I became an even sweatier mess.I had decided to shoot for this camping area when I was still about 3.5 miles away and without looking much at what was in between. As it turned out, in between there was a creek that had to be forded or bypassed on a blue-blaze (I think not!) because the rocks were no longer safe to use for crossing. The notice didn't say why though, and Science said he had crossed without issue. So I was going to give that a shot too. I hadn't gotten past the first rock when I almost lost my legs from under me, banana-peel style. So, I scurried back, put on my crocs and waded through without incident. I did manage to throw my hiking shoes into the only muddy area around, so now I have mud splatter on the inside of one shoe. We'll call that an accomplishment!I didn't much feel like hiking the last couple of miles and there were lots of streams that would have made great camp sites if only there had been a level piece of ground. It was not to be, so I'm at the official site, along with the section hikers whose names I don't know but who were at the trail magic when I got there. We discussed my tent and pack (they were primed by Spot of Tea, who had tent envy) while I set up camp,I did my camp chores quickly because there had been rumbling in the distance for quite some time. The rumbling seems to have stopped but it did just start raining. No matter, I am dry and cozy in my tent and we'll see what the weather is like tomorrow.Hopefully the gaggle of Boy Scouts camped in the next site over are a quiet bunch. So far so good, but fingers crossed!Open map in new windowWant to add a map to your journal?