Date: 2005-07-21
From: White Hart Inn, Salisbury, CT

To: The Hemlocks Lean-To
Miles today: 14.1

Red Wing:   At the risk of sounding like a broken record, let me say, this has been another amazing day. We got up at the Inn, I got a morning coffee and we bought some cereal and milk at the grocery store (which is very classy, and high priced to go along with it). We brough our bowl and spoons with us so we ate our breakfast at the tables outside the store. For some odd reason, I love those "hiker trash" moments when we're doing something that seems perfectly reasonable to us and someone from the "real" world thinks we're crazy. This morning as we poured a whole box of cereal into our steel cook pot, and added a quart of milk and then at the whole thing in a few minutes, we got a really funny look from a lady walking by. Hopeful doesn't get as excited about hiker trash moements, I think they're hysterical.   At some point yesterday, the humidity began to break-- good news for us. The heat of July is still here, but is much more manageable. We've been hearing about more people getting off the Trail back behind us, we hope this isn't true, but fear that maybe the humidity was the straw that broke the camel's back. Getting back on the Trail felt nice. A days worth of town food paid immediate dividends as we had a long climb at the beginning of the day. It actually felt good. 1,100 feet later we were at "Lion's Head" where we had a great view off to the east, showing us the valley, with Salisbuy back behind and the "Twin Lakes" which we would judge our progress by all day. A very short time later, we were able to have a look west and north, revealing the Adirondacks (northern New York) and Mt. Greylock (on the far side of Massachusetts). The next big land mark was Bear Mountain, which had a great on three sides. While on top we met "Strider" and his son, DJ. Strider attempted two thru hikes in the 90's and very obviously has a real love for the trail and its hikers. We wish him the best of luck as he looks forward to thru hiking next year.    Down (way down) from Bear Mtn. is "Sages Ravine", which serves as the Connecticut/Massachusetts state line, and more importantly to us, was one of the most beautiful 1-2 miles sections of Trail we've seen yet. Waterfalls, steep banks, clear streams... this area has it all. Psalm 98 jumped to mind, "Let the rivers clap their hands, let the mountains sing together for joy; let them sing before the Lord". And sing they did! We saw a youth trail crew moving rocks around in the ravine, along with a ridge runner and some day hikers. Up (way up) from Sages Ravine was "Race Mtn" with its cliffs revealing a view as far as the eye can see. Again, we sent down and up steep climbs before finally reaching the summit of Mt. Everett, our highest peak since Virginia.    Tonight we're alone in the shelter. It's kind of weird as we make our way through this hiker void. We saw only three thru hikers yesterday and none at all today. This is the first time in 1,500 miles that we've been the only two at a shelter. There are signs all over claiming recent bear activity and warning of their lack of fear of humans. Its not the first time we've seen signs, just the first time that we've them while we're alone. I guess this shelter in particular has had bears get into empty tents and mess with backpacks looking for food. Well, as it has been getting dark early lately (as we go farther northeast and it gets later in the year), I feel that I should wrap this up and jump into the shelter, out of the sight of any roaming beasts.