Date: 2016-06-26
From: Sharon Mountain Campsite

To: Home of Vanessa Breton, Salisbury, CT
Miles today: 12.7
Weather: few clouds

Day 12 - We awoke at our usual 5am and tried to quietly pack up, since we were surrounded by other hiker tents. However, "quiet" meaning "silent" is not possible, when ?we pack most of our stuff in plastic bags to keep them dry in wet weather. I'm sure we woke up a couple of people.?We hit the trail at 6am with one thought in mind...water! We had about 3 pints left and the next supposed water source was 2.8 miles away. We sure hoped this one wasn't dry like the last few had been. Fortunately, we were hiking in the cool (60 degrees) of the morning and tend to drink less water then. After a few short ups and downs we made our 700 foot? descent back down to the Housatonic River Valley. Just before we reached the valley floor, we saw a sign "Water" at a side trail off the AT. A short distance down the side trail, we came to a spring that was bubbling cold clear water...Whew!!So a little about the water situation. Since we have? been hiking, we've noticed that it's very dry. Most creeks are dry and many of the shelters' water sources are dry. Other hikers have told us that there hasn't been much rain. We definitely prefer hiking in no rain, but it's affecting our hike plan! Out hiking plan was built on the assumption that making it to a shelter meant water...but now we know that is not true.So now we are being careful to take advantage of water sources close to shelters (when they exist!) that we might otherwise have skipped (thus carrying a lot of extra weight of water, in the last mile or so). Or, we're thinking, "what if no water" and preparing our minds (and poor feet) for the possibility of more miles or dry camps. Back to the hike...Once we reached the river, we followed it along periodically walking along its edge. Eventually we came to a road and left the AT to walk 0.5 miles to the town of Falls Village, where we'd planned a nice lunch at the Toymakers Cafe. (It has a reputation for being hiker-friendly.) Upon reaching the cafe, we learned that the wait for food would be 1.5 hours, as they were serving a huge motorcycle crowd. (They were part of "Make a Wish" and we're giving a ride to a very old woman who wanted to ride in a side car.) We were told that soup, chili, and waffles could be prepared faster, so we opted for the lunch of champions...chili and waffles. Weird lunch!!Back again on the trail, we climbed up to the falls of the Housatonic River, for which the village was named. The falls are pictured in the attached photo. At this point we left the Housatonic River for the last time...in Connecticut!! The trail continued on up and along a ridge on easy forest tread, with occasional great views of the farmland below. We've learned that if one side of a ridge is easy, the other side won't be...and it wasn't. The drop down was near-vertical, with a steep, rocky, narrow path, switch-backing tightly. At one point, the drop in the path was so great, we had to go down a ladder. When we reached the bottom, we continued to the highway, and walked roads on into Salisbury, our planned stop for a zero day. We arrived at Vanessa's house, in the middle of town, at 6:00PM. She showed us to our room and told us that the White Hart Inn was a good place to go for dinner. We showered and followed her advice. We enjoyed our dinner, headed back to Vanessa's, and hit the sack.