Date: 2008-07-31
From: Salisbury, CT

To: Zero Days
Miles today: 0.0

I'm at the Thomaston, CT library so can't upload any photos yet, but will in the next day or two. Jane is coming up from Sarasota, FL for a few days to celebrate our 34th wedding anniversary and give me an opportunity to take a few zero days (hiker jargon for "no hiking").Before I do anything else I want to thank the folks that helped me get from Salisbury, CT to Torrington, CT yesterday so I could pick up the rental car. Deanna (sp?) at the Salisbury Post Office interrupted what she was doing to drive me to Sharon, CT to find a rental car. They we out of cars there, but a gent by the name of "Mick" gave me a ride from the grocery store in Sharon to Cornwall, back at the general store there that I had eaten breakfast at the day before. There, two fellows, Mike and Chris gave me a ride to the RT 4 intersection near Mohawk Ski Resort, figuring it would be a good spot to find a ride; they were correct. I made a cardboard sign with "TORR." on it and in short order a young lady by the name of Keelie (sp?) in her jeep gave me a ride to the car rental shop in Torrington; all wonderful folks, my thanks to all of you.The hiking in CT has been exciting. It is a small state (I was born here), but offers so much variation it surpasses its small size. Initially, it is hard climbs and lots of rocks and plenty of forests. It also has a nice walk along the Housatonic River for about 5 miles, scenic vistas, some really nice campsites and friendly folks everywhere. The hard climbs never seem to go away.I have been caught in a few rather severe thunder storms, once on a high ridge, it wasn't the most fun experience I have ever had, and was glad when it was over. I put on my rain poncho and ducked down inside some large boulders until it was over.We are starting to encounter southbound hikers that started at Katahdin, in Maine. It is the roughest section of the trail and most of them didn't get to start until about June 6 because Mt. Katahdin still had too much snow on it.This will probably be my last good rest before hitting VT, NH and ME, so I hope to put on a bit of weight, I am losing weight too rapidly, a common male problem on the trail; the women fair far better in that department.I may repeat myself here, but it is always fun to list some of the trail names that I encounter, in no particular order I have been hiking with: "Longwe Tru" (she got the name while teaching in Borneo, aboriginal language for something like "go in peace"), "Willow" (friend of "Longwee Tru"), Cookie Monster, "Bilge Rat" (I love his quote: "I'm an alcoholic with a hiking problem"), "Alpine Strider", "Rock Layer", "Solo" and I am certain there are others I don't recall at the moment.I also have to comment about hiking in NY. Western NY, west of the Hudson, is the best kept secret on the trail: it is murder! Big climbs, rare water, lots of rocks and hot! It is a very difficult section. The eastern side is much easier. The good news is the "trail angels", or folks that help out hikers are some of the best. Where water was rare they would leave bottles of water near the road crossings for us, on more than one occasion they would drag us to their homes, do our laundry, feed us and transport us back to the trail and ask nothing in return. These people really made me proud to be an American again, especially at a time when our leadership doesn't make me very proud. I can't say enough about just how wonderful these folks are!Hopefully, as I said earlier, I will try to get a few new photos posted, check there often, sometimes I add new ones and don't have time to post anything to indicate that I added anything.I did have another rattlesnake encounter two days ago in CT. This time I saw it first. It was very large and in the trail. I convinced it to move off a bit so I could get by. It was another Timber Rattler. I could hardly hear the rattle because I was hiking near the Limerock, CT automobile race track and there were cars on the track doing practice sessions, I heard them most of the day. Take care all, I haven't read my email yet, so if you have written, I may not have seen it yet.