Date: 2007-07-28
From: Stony Brook Campsite

To: Falls Village, CT
Miles today: 17.8

Today was another humid day of hiking in damp clothes, with light rain off and on. When I left my campsite it quickly began to rain hard, but the downpour didn't last more than an hour or so. I was already wet from the high humidity, so a little rain (actually, a lot of rain) really didn't make much difference on a warm summer day.I crossed a rain-swollen Hatch Brook with Lunar close behind and got a good photo of Lunar sloshing across the muddy brown creek as it poured down a deeply incised creek bed. It was slippery going so we both crossed slowly and were thankful for the help our hiking poles provided, making it less likely that we would take a sit-down into the fast-running chocolate water.I had a big surprise while ascending Mt Easter. It was a surprisingly steep climb, although relatively short, up and around a series of rock outcrops. This seemed to me to be CT's version of NY's Lemon Sqeezer. While hoisting myself up and through a narrow rock passage a loud hiss came from within a few feet of my head! I jumped back, instinctively reacting to the thought of a rattlesnake close to my head. However, I immediately realized this was no snake. Hoisting myself back up for another look I found the source of the hissing. Instead of a snake, it was a nestling bird standing about 2 feet tall and wedged as far back as it could get into a rock crack that was only about 3 feet from my head. It was a Black Vulture chick about a month old, too young to fly. It had hissed when my head appeared at its rock ledge nesting site; and I'm not sure which one of us of was more surprised by the presence of the other! I waited a while and finally saw the adult Black Vulture come in with an old bone it dropped off for the chick on the ledge. It seems that the Trail is full of surprises!I finally arrived in Falls Village in early evening, hoping to get water from a spigot on the side of the home at the Toymakers Cafe. Trail registers said that the cafe owners sometimes allowed hikers to tent in their yard. Unfortunately, no one was home and the cafe was closed. I filled all my water containers at the outdoor spigot then walked down the street to the Liquor Store, the only business in town that was open. I bought some snacks and gatoraide then asked if there was anywhere hikers could camp near town. The proprietor told me that hikers often camped at the picnic tables across the street from the Hydro plant. I sat for a while on a park bench on the village green talking with a women who was out walking her dog.Finally, I walked back down the road to the Hydro plant and set up my tent near one of the picnic tables. Not long after I got my tent up and just prepared dinner, a violent thunderstorm suddenly rolled in and blew hard with lots of rain and lightning. I sat in my tent and ate my dinner while trying to ignore the hard rain pounding on the canopy of my tent. The storm finally left an hour after dark and I was able to hang my food bag and secure my gear for the night.Later, I was glad I had taken the time to hang my food in a nearby tree because a bear passed close to my tent and rummaged around the picnic tables for a few minutes before lumbering off across the road towards the Hydro plant.Another interesting day on the AT!