Date: 2005-07-11
From: Sharon Mtn Campsite

To: Salisbury CT
Miles today: 14.0
Weather: mist

I woke early this morning having to get up and go to the bathroom. After returning to my tent I found I had brought in all sorts of skeeters with me. After trying to kill them for a while I decided to get up and start moving. The rain and hot weather is bringing out the bugs. I left without breakfast, thinking I could find a better spot. This forest campsite is not much. I am here with two other folks, a couple from Colorado Springs, CO. They are on vacation to see the AT before he joins the Peace Corps.        After a climb out of the campsite I came across Hang Glider View. A place once used as a launch site. There I stopped to cook breakfast. There was a nice view a nice breakfast and NO bugs. There was only one problem...No hot breakfast remained in my food bag. I sorted through the remaining items and had a cold breakfast.        The trail today was fairly easy and by getting such an early start I finished the hardest climbs before the heat of the day. by noon I was stop Prospect Mountain, the highest point of today's hike. I stopped for lunch and called my wife Marlene. and tried to call Maria McCabe. Maria is a woman who offers rooms in her home to hikers. the machine answered so I left a message. I had planned one more night in the woods, but the hike was easy to this point and I thought I could do 4 more miles into Salisbury for a shower. In this heat you really start to stink. Fast. A half hour later I called maria again and made arrangements to stay in her home tonight.        The rest of the walk into town was downhill and I made remarkable time. At the very end just a mile or so from the road there is a very steep descent. At the top of that hill I found the first hikers I have seen all day. A group of 7 young people resting on their packs at the side of the trail. They were all clean and sweet smelling, and had just started hiking from the road below. Their plan was to go in as far as the first shelter, about 3 miles further in and stay. I didn¢t mention to them that it was all uphill the rest of the way, and the shelter is .5 mile off the At down a steep side trail. I wonder if they made it. It was the hottest part of the day now, 90 and very humid. I was sweating a lot going downhill. One small girl in the group was complaining of not feeling well, and this after only one mile.        Another interesting thing happened when I reached the road crossing. As I approached a tall man came out of the weeds at the side of the trail. Now a hiker avoids tall weed if he can because of deer ticks. They are thick here in CT. He was carrying a huge pack and dressed in town clothing. A sport shirt and long blue jeans. The blue jeans in particular caught my attention. They were the heavy duty kind and looked new. His story was that he had just been dropped off at the road crossing and wanted to start a hike North bound. he was having trouble spotting the trail blazes and was not certain which direction to go for Northbound. I helped him spot the first blaze on a telephone pole across the road and we walked together for the nest quarter mile. That¢s when he told me he was carrying TWO GALLONS of water. I don¢t know what he was thinking. Two Gallons is not too far from my total pack weight coming into town. I wished him luck as he turned off the road to follow the white blazes, and I continued on into Salisbury.        What a find. I am staying with Maria McCabe, a retired widow who lives in a house right in the center of town. She welcomes hikers into her home as though you were some long lost relative. She grew up in Austria during W.W.II and came to the USA as a teen in 1947. She is so welcoming that you feel at home immediately. I had no sooner sat down on her back porch then she brought me a cold soda and an ice cream bar. I am planning a day off here tomorrow. This town has everything I need except a laundry and Maria said I could hand wash my things outside in a bucket. There is laundry soap and solar heated water on the back porch. So all of my problems are solved.