Date: 2023-06-18
From: Skiff Mountain Road

To: Pine Swamp Brook Shelter
Miles today: 14.2

Hiking Day 93, Elevation 1078 feetCoffee this morning¢¦.one of the things Kerry and I both miss on the trail¢¦we just have chocolate covered coffee/espresso beans and though tasty, it¢s just not as wonderful as that hot black stuff running down your throat.Brian made Kerry a tasty drink concoction (he said it wasn¢t a smoothie, but it looked like one), which Kerry thought bore some resemblance to a milkshake (it had chocolate milk in it?). After this repast, we took our time making sure we hadn¢t forgotten anything and tidying up after ourselves. Then Brian took us back to Skiff Mountain Road, where he picked us up the day before yesterday. On the way, he stopped at Dunkin¢ Donuts where I got a breakfast sandwich for Kerry and me.Before I go on about today, I don¢t want to forget about a little magic we had last night. Brian, a retired teacher, went to see some of his students graduate so Kerry and I were left to ourselves with Felix and Ziggy (Brian¢s daughter¢s dog). Ziggy is very cute, some kind of terrier mix and a puppy still at 11 months old. We were sitting watching television and he was busy getting into stuff, specifically Brian¢s couch. As we were sitting there, Ziggy came up with what we thought at first was play money, but when Kerry took it away from him it turned out to be a real $100 bill. When Brian came home he said he had no idea where it came from and did we put it there? We assured him that we did not¢¦.I choose to believe the fairies were at work!I¢m really glad that Brian picked us up at Skiff Mountain Road and not River Road on Thursday. We immediately had to climb up to Caleb¢s Peak and soon after that we had to tackle the climb down St. John¢s Ledges, which Brian had told us had been made easier by the addition of stairs. This may be true, but easy would not be a term I would use here; more like torturous¢¦in both up and down directions!After that, we had a lovely several mile walk by the Housatonic River before heading back up into the mountains again. I thought we would not see more mountain Laurel but as walked on toward Cornwall Bridge, there it was again, blooming away. I truly think we are following spring north.We decided to stop at Pine Swamp Brook Shelter¢¦we could have gone on but it would have been 7ish by the time we reached the next campsite and it¢s Father¢s Day! One young hiker passed us early and we met Just Todd and Short Changer, a couple of talkative south bound section hikers from Asheville, NC. Short Changer is a trail maintainer in NC so we told him how impressed we were with the condition of the trails. The two men were very nice!I forgot to mention how every night we carefully brush Felix and go over him with our hands to find ticks. Kerry got a record 25 off him earlier last week. Tonight he got 10. They hide in his paws and legs, poor thing!Our visit with Brian is one of the ¢people¢ highlights of our trip. We¢ve met many kind and interesting people, but I think it takes someone special to invite complete strangers into one¢s home. He did tell us that he doesn¢t give his phone number to just anyone! It was a privilege to meet him and some of his family and he confirmed my belief in the goodness of most people.The coyotes are calling in the gloaming¢¦time to rest.