Date: 2005-06-24
From: Caesar Brook Campsite

To: Maria McGabe's House - Salisbury, CT
Miles today: 19.8
Weather: clear sky

Miles hiked today : 19.819.1 AT miles + 0.1 mile of side trail + 0.6 roadwalk mileI woke up this morning at 5:25 a.m. and was packed and hiking with Opa at 6:15 a.m. After some minor, but steep ups and downs, I arrived at Pine Swamp Brook Lean-to at 8:55 a.m. and stayed for a 25> minute break, eating breakfast as I rested. Moving on, I had a couple more minor, steep ups and downs, which necessitated a 15 minute rest break at 9:50 a.m. I covered a huge descent down to US7 / CT112, which marks the 700 miles remaining point, arriving at 11:05 a.m. I continued on 0.6 mile to have lunch at a picnic table outside of a high school near Falls Village at 11:20 a.m.I noticed a juice vending machine in one of the hallways, though it was not turned on. Next to the juice vending machine was a classroom with another vending machine. I asked the lady at work in the classroom whether I could use it and was granted permission. It turns out that it was a milk machine, so I had 2 pints of chocolate milk and 1 pint of strawberry milk with my pb&j on rye. Opa had 3 pints of chocolate milk himself. After lunch, I laid on the grass for a brief nap before moving on at 1:00 p.m.After 2.6 miles, at 1:55 p.m., I passed a waterfall with a swimming area. Down below, I could see people jumping from a rock ledge into the splash pool. Very tempting, though considerably dangerous, so I continued on. At 2:40 p.m., near the summit of Prospect Mountain, I stopped for a 15 minute break and then proceeded to the side trail to Limestone Springs Lean-to, arriving at 3:15 p.m.It was a 0.5 mile walk to the lean-to and I had earlier suggested to Opa that we continue into Salisbury to stay at Maria McCabe's house. Maria is a private homeowner who allows hikers to stay for $30. Since it was early in the day, I made the suggestion again and called to see whether there was vacancy. Happily, there was, so we hiked another 3.9 miles to Salisbury, arriving in town at 5:10 p.m. On the way, we passed a massive 12 foot tall vertically standing stone called "Giant's Thumb," which looked just like one would imagine it to.I headed to the post office to see whether I could pick up my mail, though it had closed at 5:00 p.m. It was a little tricky finding Maria's house, though with some help from the locals, we arrived at 5:25 p.m., just before the 5:30 p.m. arrival time I had estimated when I had called her.Maria is originally from Brixen, Germany (near Innsbruck, Austria) and is the sweetest lady. She showed us to our room and when we went downstairs, she gave us a can of soda and fed us leftovers, telling us she'd make us a salad later in the evening.Opa and I departed for the grocery store, where I purchased OJ, root beer, a granny smith apple, and ice cream. Back at Maria's, I showered and began journaling, when Maria called us down for salad. After eating, we sat on the porch with Maria and talked until the mosquitos drove us in at 9:05 p.m.Maria is quite the character and I'm very glad that I'm staying here tonight. Her generosity is incredible and, even after feeding us dinner, she told us to split the melon half in the fridge for breakfast and to eat the last two english muffins.Doing a long day today puts me on a better schedule to hit shelters at 15 mile intervals. Happily, I get to sleep in tomorrow, as the post office doesn't open until 9:00 a.m. Then I've got a little more than 14 miles to hike, which looks challenging based on the number of huge ups and downs that particular stretch of trail holds. The trail became a little easy, in terms of slope, through Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York, though it appears it's warming up for some big ascents in Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine.Bedtime at 11:35 p.m.