Date: 2005-07-24
From: Sages Ravine Campsite

To: Campsite beyond Falls Village
Miles today: 12.7

OK, Bug has control of the pocketmail device again. I bet you expected another flowery journal entry by Ms. Priss. Instead, I thought I'd share with you a poem..one of my favorites.The Road Not TakenTwo roads diverged in a yellow wood,And sorry I could not travel bothAnd be one traveler, long I stoodAnd looked down one as far as I couldTo where it bent in the undergrowth.Then took the other, as just as fair,And having perhaps the better claim, Because it was grassy and wanted wear;Though as for that the passing thereHad worn them really about the same.And both that morning equally layIn leaves no step had trodden black.Oh, I kept the first for another day!Yet knowing how way leads on to way, I doubted if I should ever come back.I shall be telling this with a sighSomewhere ages and ages hence:Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.Robert Frost1874 - 1963As we've hiked these last hundreds of miles, we're constantly reminded of how our decision to take a different path has made all the difference...take for instance today's hike. We woke up from a restful night's sleep, had a breakfast of instant oatmeal. We had been planning to go into town at the next road crossing and do some much needed laundry. To put it simply, our clothes stink! Imagine mowing your grass everyday for about a week and wearing the same clothes...well we smell worse than that. So anyway, we had about 3 miles to hike to West Cornwall road. After waiting for about 15 minutes a polite Polish immigrant, Gregory, stopped and offered us a ride to Sharon.Here's where it relates back to the road not taken...you see, Sharon, CT is about 5 miles off the trail, which is a really great distance from the trail relative to some of the other trail towns. Also, it isn't even mentioned in one of the guidebooks...probably because of the distance. We were able to get our laundry, shop for groceries, and get a meal at a local restaurant. As Ms. Priss was walking through the parking lot a guy stops and starts talking to her. I figured it was just another guy hitting on my lovely wife! But I was on the other side of the lot, so I couldn't hear the conversation. As it turns out it was a former thru-hiker, Millipede, and he was offering to shuttle us back to the trailhead. We arrived at the trailhead and got to talking with Millipede, and he told us the story of how he recieved his name. Believe it or not, this dude ate a millipede in exchange for a Milky Way candy bar. The things we go through to increase our caloric intake out here. He then offered to slackpack us 10 miles to Falls Village. This was a real blessing because we were already behind schedule after staying in Sharon for so long. This afternoon's hike went by really quick. There were many great views along the way. We even got to watch a car race from Lime Rock and have been told that this is where Paul Newman races his car! We couldn't see him though. We made it to Falls Village and met Millipede who was waiting with our gear.We took the time to cook dinner and clean both our cookwear and our bodies since there was a state-provided spigot and shower at the hydro-electric plant. We then hiked on to take in the falls. Great Falls is apparently pretty impressive when there are big rains. It was pretty impressive even without the huge rains, we thought! As we were leaving, Mr. Clean, Jr. was stung repeatedly by yellow jackets as he was climbing up some rock steps. It wasn't funny, because if you've ever been stung by one, you know it hurts like the dickens! However, as he was stung, he fell backwards about 10 feet down the steps, flailing his arms, and shouting obscenities as he went (Vicky, we owe him $2.75 in quarters). In the process of all this, he managed to drop his trekking pole right on top of the nest. Fortunately though, the tree broke his fall. I thought that I had given the yellow jackets enough time to settle down, but apparently I misjudged. I braved the rock steps only to suffer the same fate as Clean, minus the fall. After stumbling forward, I still had to get his trekking pole. After that, Priss and Clean bush-whacked it around the steps so as to avoid getting stung (again). We found a place to camp, although we are stealthing it, so I had better turn off the headlamp before someone notices we are here.