Date: 2016-06-05
From: Toymakers Cafe, Falls Village CT

To: The Hemlocks Shelter
Miles today: 20.8
Weather: overcast clouds

It seriously rained last night and was still raining this morning when I got up. Frost was in a bad mood because he accidentally left his sleeping pad and bag stuff sacks out in the rain. He has two days off, though, he'll be fine. Breakfast at the cafe was delish! I got corned beef hash, which was homemade, with big chunks of the salty meat. taking down camp was a process, the first time I've had to take down my tent in the rain, which does not make me happy. Everyone is always impressed or startled when I tell them I've only set up my tent 8 times. It is ridiculous. I said bye to my friends and began a road walk through the town and then back up into the mountains. I barely ate anything out of my pack yesterday and it's still too heavy. The highlight of the morning was Rand's View, an open field up on a hillside with a spectacular view of the taconic range and Connecticut farmland laid out in front of me. It's been the first time I could really see all the peaks in a line and think "wow. I'll be going over those later today." I love when that happens. I stopped at got some water from a spigot in a cemetery in Salisbury - a rather funny experience - before heading back up into the mountains again (real mountains!). At a side trail junction, I began retracing my steps from my college pre-orientation trip, which headed from Salisbury up to the Berkshire School past Mt. Everett over a period of four days. When I reached Lion's Head, I remembered sitting there with the group on a gorgeous sunny August day, and beginning to take turns telling our "Hometowns," which were extemporaneous biographies that every member of the group shared over the course of the trip. The view was still nice, but it was far cloudier today, and I could see a storm rolling in. I hurried my way up to Brassie Brook Shelter where I forwent lunch and just ate a couple protein bars, and then kept on racing up Bear Mountain, the highest peak in Connecticut, trying desperately to beat the weather. (This is the first time the trail's been over 2100 feet since Virginia) I climbed preciptously down into Sage's Ravine, a gorgeous valley filled with Hemlock trees and a stream cascading among the cliffs. I passed Chickenfoot (not the same one) and Disco, a couple whose entries I've seen for weeks. And then it began to rain. Pretty bad. I pulled out my coat and immediately rain-robot-hiker mode set in and I just kinda went. Everything began to soak, especially my feet. These new socks hold an astounding amount of water and I wrung them out twice over the rest of the day. I passed into Massachusetts at the end of the ravine and began climbing Mt. Race. I was disappointed that I had to go over Mt. Race in the rain, because it was the highlight of my last trip here: a half mile of gorgeous open ledges with wonderful views to the east of Massachusetts farmland. Now it was a cold gray whiteout, just cliffs fading away beneath me. The rain let up somewhat, but my pace was slow going up and over Mt. Everett, where the trail clambers over many slabs of rock. Fortunately, the shelter was only a mile down from the top of the mountain, and I made good time on the descent. Someone had even left jugs of water so I didn't have to go filter in the rain! I pulled into the Hemlocks Shelter, an impressively large shelter with bunks and a big loft, and also the first shelter I slept in on the AT! I changed clothes and hung stuff up to dry. The rain kept coming down all evening. A flip flopper named No Schedule showed up, as did two section hikers who did not seem to like me. I found a leak in the ceiling that was bringing water all the way into the shelter, and patched it up. Hopefully I'll stay dry. Tomorrow is into down into the valley of the berkshires, then back up and out. Should be a little drier.