Date: 2005-07-12
From: Skiff Mountain Road

To: Cornwall Bridge, Ct.
Miles today: 8.3

Last night, Vern and I had a meeting, and we both agreed that we need to take some time off the Trail. His feet still hurt everyday, they still have not recovered from Pennsylvania. His feet are beat up, I'm just plain beat up. I have been feeling physically and psychologically run down. I have been very down on myself. I recognize this from before, that something is physiologically wrong with me. The best thing is to get off the Trail and hang out for a day or two. We need to beef up and recover. So, that's what we decided to do. We looked in the book and discovered that there is a motel in Cornwall Bridge. We headed that way. The walk this morning, for a good part, was a long, flat, beautifully scenic walk along the Housatonic River. It must have lasted 4-5 miles. The crystal clear water ran through the rocks. Very beautiful. We made a morning stop at the Stewart Hollow Brook Lean-to. We cooked there. We were both hungry this morning. Somebody had left some spatinni and tomato paste at the shelter. I added it to my chicken and ramen. It came out really excellent. I'll have to remember that. We walked out onto Connecticut 4, which is the road leading to Cornwall Bridge by around 10 o'clock. We stopped at the gas station that was close to there.   We sat on the curb there for a while and had Cokes and I had a pint of Ben and Jerry's vanilla ice cream. Then we walked over the bridge into town. Cornwall Bridge is a little, upscale town. It's very tiny, not much here. They have an outfitter that mainly is geared towards fly-fishing, a general store, a hardware store, a package store, and a motel.It turns out that it was the perfect place for us to take a break. We walked over to Baird's General Store and ordered a coupel of breakfast snadwiches, then crossed over to the Housatonic River Outfitters. The guy had come across the street to greet us into town. Obviously, he had wanted our business, so he made himself available to us. We walked over and talked to him. I ended up spending quite a bit of money there as well. I bought a new Gerber knife, which cost me 65 smackeroos. I got some other stuff there, too. I walked out of there having spent over $100.00These town stops are getting to be expensive. Yesterday, in Kent, I spent close to $400.00 between the hotel and food. It's going to cost me close to $300.00 here. It's getting to be expensive, $700.00 for 2-3 days is getting out of hand now.After the outfitter, we went over to the Hitching Post Motel. We booked a room, got showers, and gave the lady $5.00 for our clothes to be washed.We spent the rest of the day messing around town. We went to the hardware store and I got some waterproofing for my new pack and my gaiters. The rest of the day was spent eating, working on our gear and watching TV. We had room 103 here. We found out later in the evening that the boots that were out in front of room 101 belonged to Bootz and Blue Light. They were also beat up and taking 'zeros' in town.   We have been reading the registers for the last couple of days. It has been a common theme that many are getting down on themselves emotionally or physically, or are hurt. Alot of folks are talking about getting off of the Trail. In one way it's scary, in another it's comforting to know that we aren't the only ones. It's all a matter of sticking it out and working through it. That's what we are going to do.