Date: 2017-05-02
From: Pine Swamp Shelter

To: Salisbury, CT
Miles today: 15.6
Weather: scattered clouds

No Bears last night. But I didn't get all that much sleep either. Pine Swamp shelter has a tin roof and evidently is the nighttime playground of the squirrels and chipmunks on this hilltop! So between their scampering and the drumming sound of rain every 30 minutes throughout the night, I was awakened frequently. Finally at about 5 a.m. I decided to spend some time refining my hiking plan for the next legs of this journey. I studied the locations and services available at several of the upcoming towns where I might need to stop for resupply. This would include today's stop at Salisbury, Connecticut as well as potential stops at Great Barrington Massachusetts in a couple of days, Becket, Dalton or Cheshire, Mass after that and potentially North Adams, Mass as well enroute to Bennington, Vermont. Interestingly it still looks like I should arrive in Bennington around the 9th or 10th of May as originally planned. That is about 3 days before Jenna¢s graduation (Associates degree from a 2-year college) in Putney, Vermont,  so I will have effectively walked to her graduation from Maryland. I'm also looking forward to hitting the 500-mile mark on Thursday or Friday.For breakfast this morning I had the last of my peanut butter and a pack of Gatorade chews as well as one Clif bar and two cups of coffee. My food bag is now completely empty except for one instant coffee packet and the trash from all the food items I've consumed since leaving West Point. I saved two Clif bars to put in the waistband pocket of my backpack for snack and lunch today while I'm on the way to Salisbury.While finishing my coffee I packed my stuff and made my first journal entry for the day. I was done with all that and ready to hit the trail about 6:30 a.m.I left a Pine Swamp shelter and headed north past the Sharon Mountain campsite and probably around 8:30 arrived at what the guidebook calls the Sharon Mountain hang gliders view. I took a picture from here of the view out to the north-northwest. The high today was at Point Pleasant where the forest was damp and lush with a multitude of shades of green. In addition to the rhododendrons, which have been along the trail ever since I started it in Maryland and the ubiquitous oaks, today's forest has a scent of pine and the combination of oak leaves and pine needles covering the path makes it softer. So whereas yesterday I had noted the damp, musty smell of the riverbank, today the pine smell reminded me of hiking and walking in the woods as a child. While the forest was peaceful, it was not quiet. There were a multitude of birds communicating with one another. I wish I could identify them. Some of the calls I recognize and have been hearing ever since I started the trail, but some of them are new. Despite the fact that it had been raining on and off last night and the ground was damp and the rocks slippery, the climbing wasn't too bad and the walk all in all was very pleasant.At about 9:30 I came to the intersection of US Highway 7 and CT 112. Crossing the roads, the trail briefly circumnavigated a grassy field and went north along the west bank of the Housatonic River. It then parallelled CT 112 to the west and crossed over the Housatonic River on a modern bridge. Then bearing north, it went through the edge of the small town of Falls Village. Well inside the limits of the town, I passed one day hiker and three short section hikers who had taken a shuttle to get on the trail at the Massachusetts border and were hiking south to Pawling, New York.The trail then went along the northeast bank of the river and by the Falls Village hydroelectric plant. As described in the guidebook, there was an electrical outlet on the outside of the building at the plant. I stopped for about 30 minutes and took a break and charged my phone.While on my break I heard from Sneakers that she had done 24 miles yesterday and intended to do 20 today to make it to the Massachusetts border. I was impressed. For a moment my inner overachiever had my attention and suggested that maybe I could do that too. It's only five miles more than I was planning to do today. But then my mind quieted again and I hiked my hike. The trail then went back across an iron bridge to the west bank and I had several points at which I had a nice view of the actual falls for which the village is named. I took a picture of one of these.Continuing northbound, I passed features described in the guidebook is Giant's Thumb and Eric's View. I took a picture at the latter.  Continuing, I arrived at the outskirts of Salisbury Connecticut at about 2 p.m. and I hiked the half mile into town to the post office where I retrieved the package Teresa had mailed me. I had tried to call to hostels to see if I could find a place to stay in this town, but hadn't had an answer, so I was on Main Street looking for a restaurant where I could have a meal, relax and repackage my food bag. Then I got a call back Maria McCabe with whom I'd left a message earlier. She confirmed that she had room available, so I walked up to her house another quarter mile.  $35 covers a good bed, breakfast, shower, a ride to the laundromat, soap for the laundry machine and picture with Maria, age 87. I also met Running Bear and Jag Happy, two hikers who we're already at Maria's house. After taking a shower, Maria gave me a ride to the laundromat where I did laundry and repackaged my food bag. Then I went back to her house, updated my trail journal and prepared to go to dinner with the other hikers.We had dinner at the Inn across the street. I had a burger with fries and a Caesar salad with chicken. I also learned that jag happy is retired from his own practice as a personal injury attorney in San Francisco. He is also a cancer survivor. Since his retirement he has given away most of his personal possessions and he lives on a futon in his son's apartment in San Francisco when he is there. He does not know what he will do when his hike is over but he seemed optimistic about the future and looks forward to an opportunity to contribute to political activism. I also learned that Running Bear is a teacher and coach from Waycross Georgia. He's very familiar with the area around Fort Stewart where I lived from 2002 to 2004. Between the years 1987 and 2000 and 7 Running Bear completed the entire AT in a series of section hikes. Evidently he got hooked and he was hiking again. After dinner we went back to Maria's House chatted for a little while took some pictures and Brie and make sure that she got a hug from each of us before we all said goodnight. I was in bed by 8 p.m. Hiker midnight.