Date: 2005-08-16
From: Sages Ravine Brook Campsite, CT

To: 2 miles north of Pine Swamp Brook Lean-to, CT
Miles today: 21.2

21.2 miles today2 m. n of Pine Swamp Brook Lean-to, Ct I woke up at 5:50am, had breakfast and coffee and was hiking by 7am. I walked by the last little bit of Sages Ravine then started climbing Bear Mountain. That turned out to be my biggest climb of the day and it was only a 1000 foot climb. It was humid out so it was hard to breathe during the climb. I ran into a nobo by the name of Piece Pipe at the summit of Bear Mountain. He was a short person, so I kept getting all the spider webs across my face after I passed him. If I was a short person, I'd be courtious enough to wear a turkey feather in my hat to knock out the webs above my head. ;-))) He didn't and there were alot of webs this morning. I decided to go back to carrying just 1 litre of water for a while. That 2 pounds makes a big difference in how my backpack feels. I came down the mountain and stopped at Brassie Brook Lean-to and signed the register, then hiked on. I walked by Riga Lean-to without stopping and climbed Lions Head. On the way down from there, I scared a couple of turkeys that hadn't come out of their roost yet. The one's wings hit an old branch and broke it off. I was surprised they were still in the tree, but it was kind of foggy this morning. I passed by the first road that went into Salisbury and walked another mile to the second road. It was a shorter walk into town from there...just half a mile. I got into town just after 10am and tried sending in my journal entries, but the phone wouldn't work with the pocketmail device. I remembered that I had the same problem last year and the girl at Town Hall let me use her phone. I went there and she let me use the phone again this year. I went to the grocery store and they had just put out some fried chicken. How could I resist?? :-))) I got the chicken, some chips, a coke and some chocolate milk and went outside and sat at the picnic table and ate. Next I went to the coffee shop and got a large coffee and a cranberry scone and went back to the picnic table and ate it. Next I went back in the grocery store and bought some hard salami, cheese, flour tortillas and a quart of milk and went outside and sat at the picnic table and had a sandwich and drank the milk. I went back to Town Hall and sent Moosie an email. I'm trying to connect with him so he can feed me and I can get a shower. ;-))) I went back to the grocery store. Ha!! You thought I was going to eat again, huh??? Well, I just resupplied with enough food for another day on the trail. :-))) I was walking back to the trail and I saw a commercial truck come by with a business name that, well, I don't think is a good one for the business they were in. It said; "Floods Portable Toilets." That's almost as bad as the one in Bland, Va I see every year. It's a big building, but the business is no longer operating. They took their name from the name of their town...Bland, Va and called their sportswear company; "Bland Sportswear." I hiked out of Salisbury after about 3 1/2 hours in town. That was a good town visit. I had a steep little climb of about 500 feet to Billy's View, then walked by a geologic formation called Giants Thumb. It's just a rock in the shape of a thumb that stands straight up about 9 feet high with no other rocks around it. I kept walking and got up to Prospect Mountain. A couple miles after that, I found a nice, cold spring and drank a bunch and filled my water bottle. I was walking along and got buzzed by a hornet. I looked up and saw that I had walked almost right under the nest. I got a picture of the nest from a distance and another one buzzed me, so I started walking again. I walked by some falls on the Housatonic River and I had a hornet sting me about 3 inches above my ankle on the outside of my leg. Lucky for me, that's probably the toughest area on my body from all this walking and he didn't hurt me that bad. I kept walking and crossed over the river on an old iron bridge, then walked by a hydro-electric power plant and back into the woods. I remembered a little restaurant off the trail .2 miles so I headed there. They were closed for dinner, but I checked my email on the phone to see if Moosie and Mrs Moosie were back from their trip yet. No email, so I sat there and dried out my tent while I ate dinner out of my own pack. The restaurant is still open, but for breakfast and lunch only until the weekends, then they serve dinner too. I hiked on and had another steep, but short climb up to Belter's Campsite. I checked the spring there and it was flowing good and cold. I drank more water and carried out 2 litres since I knew there was a swamp ahead on the trail. I kept walking for another hour or two and picked out a nice soft spot to sleep near Sharon Mountain Campsite. I got in my tent in a hurry because the mosquitos started attacking me. The bugs haven't been too bad all day until just before dark. I only had five big horse flies come after me today and I'm happy to say that they are all deceased. ;-)))I saw more nobos again today, but most of them came late in the day. Their names were Piece Pipe, A-Train (No, not the one that sits in a recliner now), The Dude, Spartan, Boose, Reality Check, Swingin' Jane and her dog, Simon the Wonder Dog, Brit, Stretch, Night Crawler and Cruise Control. Hey Krankin '02, I got your email about wanting to hike with me in NY, but you sent the wrong email address. Get ahold of me again if you read this.