Date: 2006-08-02
From: Belter's Campsite

To: Salisbury, CN, White Hart Inn
Miles today: 10.5
Weather: haze

We all slept soundly last night, and I think that if we didn't have the peer pressure, we'd all have rolled over for another hour or so. That would have been a mistake, as it would have meant hiking a long ascent in a hotter part of the day, and Veto's possibly not getting in to see the doctor. As it was, we didn't get going until 7:30am.Initially we hiked down to the road, then further down to a bridge across to the east side of the Housatonic River. There was a long level section on a road, partly because a train wreck destroyed part of the trail. That was welcome, as it eliminated some mild ups and downs. I was in the lead today, and I kept to the shady side of the road. Although it was early morning, the sun was hot and the humidity very high.Next we passed by the power plant, a hydro station that has a free outdoors shower for thru hikers. Cheesewhiz had just finished one and said it was great. We decided to skip it, knowing we had a big ascent ahead of us, and expecting that we'd just get all sweated up again there. Before the major ascent, we followed the river upstream to the Great Falls of the Housatonic. Very impressive.We were right about getting all sweated up on the climb. I kept a slow pace on this up, and we reached the summit about 10:30am. It was already getting quite hot, and, on the way up, we had to apply 100% DEET to keep the bugs at bay. Biting flies and mosquitoes were all over us. At the summit there was a combination of breeze, shade, relative lack of bugs, and a view. We took a snack break. I called into Salisbury during the break and made reservations at the White Hart Inn. It was nice knowing there were only some minor climbs on the remainder of the day's hike, and that it would end in an air conditioned inn with sheets. We decided to skip the 1/2 mile steep downhill to the nearby shelter in favor of filling up our water at a potentially dry stream a bit ahead that crossed the trail. We found the stream running pretty well, and all drank our fill and took what we thought we'd need with us. Then it was on to an overlook toward the west, where we broke for lunch about 1:30pm. Throughout the day we took more breaks than usual, due to high temperature and humidity. We had 3 miles to go, mostly down, from lunch to the road where it was a half mile into town. We made it to the road about 1:30pm and to our hotel in another quarter hour. We tried to hitch, but wound up walking the half mile into town.The first order of business was to get showers and into town clothes, and then to get Veto to a doctor. The hotel desk clerk gave us the names of doctors with offices in Lakeville, 4 miles to our west. Veto was able to get an appointment for 3:30pm, but couldn't reach the "by appointment" taxi. I talked to the desk clerk, who agreed to drive us over there when she got off work around 3pm. Since there was a laundromat there but not in this town, I gathered all the FDOM laundry and went along.The laundry was in the dryer, and I'd downed a large slice of pizza and a root beer by the time Veto had walked over from the doctor to the laundromat. He has to return tomorrow for the Lyme blood test and to submit to a throat culture at the lab, but did have a script to relieve his throat pain. Since the doctor offered to drive us back to Salisbury if we were back to his office by 5pm, we hustled to fold the laundry, and made it back to his office with time to spare.The doctor dropped us at the pharmacy here and Veto filled his script. We then crossed the street to get milkshakes. They hit the spot. Veto needed to rest so he laid down before dinner. About 6:30pm we went to the Tap Room in a 200-year old section of the inn. Had a great meal of burger, fries and a salad, then came back to the room to journal.Decided to zero here tomorrow since the temp is again forecast to be about 100* with high humidity and we all need a break. The forecast for Friday and the weekend is for cooler, less humid weather.On respite from, Maine Ho!