Date: 2014-08-05
From: Sharon Mountain Campsite

To: Bearded Woods Hostel
Miles today: 13.1
Weather: clear sky

We didn't have great sleep tonight as the woods were alive with random noises and and footsteps that kept us all up at different parts of the night. There was a mouse walking around the outside of the tent right by my face that woke me up and another time the wretched barred owl was hooting and that noise stills scares me. T-Rex wasn't feeling to good today, his feet are in bad shape and the blisters just keep on coming. He didn't know how far he could walk so I try to convince him to get to Salisbury and we can make arrangements from there if he couldn't keep on.   The morning was pretty quiet and I eventful until we got to the top of a mountain and saw Stardust and Viking sitting there. We haven't seen them for almost a month and we hiked with Stardust for awhile before she got off a bit so it was great to see her. Her and Viking both were fizzled out with the trail and wanted to finish it simply to finish it and be done with it. It's a weird feeling to see people you've met at various points on the trail and had such enthusiasm and fun and now months later are mere shells of those people. This trail takes it's toll on you mentally and physically and can't fault anyone for losing that motivation to keep going on, the out used world permeates into this one and can drag you back there very easily and quickly. I'm thankful that I still have the passion and motivation to get to Kathadin and have people hiking with me who feel the same way.    We hiked with them for a bit and spilt off from them when we got the hydro plant outside of Falls Village,CT. At the hydro plant is a small building with an outside shower and electrical outlets so we stayed there for a bit to charge up and have a snack. It was here where T-Rex made the decision to fall it quits after today and head back home, his feet got the best of him and the blisters prevailed. His brother was going to pick him up that weekend but now we would have to find a way to get him back to his car and thankfully the ATC has a list of shuttles that could help him so we would hike into Salisbury and get everything arranged.   We hiked into Salisbury which is a nice quaint upscale town with it's streets lined with boutiques and restaurant, we stood out but the people there were friendly to us. We went to the grocery store which had a deli inside and ordered some sandwiches and then tried to find a place to stay so he could go home in the morning. Unfortunately every place in area was real expensive but there was a hostel nearby that was 50$ but it came with breakfast, dinner,laundry, shuttle and other amenities so in the end it was a good deal. We called them up and got the last three spots.   The hostel is owned by Hudson and his wife and is an amazing place. Hudson is a thru hiker himself and is going back in September to finish up, he started in February and the constant bad weather slowed him up a bit and is going back after the hostel season is over. We arrived at the hostel and saw some faces we knew from the trail-Puzzle and No Rush were the two I remembered immediately. We got cleaned up and had a amazing Italian dinner of raviolis and salad with a glass of red wine. It was real cool exchanging stories from the trail so far, the bond between thru hikers is a strong one. A big storm came in that night and brought a strong wind with it that we enjoyed in the enclosed porch. It's sad that my friend has to go but I was able to spend some days hiking with him on this amazing journey that I'm partaking on and only adds to the specialness of this journey. We'll be heading into a new state tomorrow-Massachusetts. We're knocking them down one by one, ten down four to go!