Date: 2006-05-24
From: Housatonic State Park

To: Toymaker's Cafe (Falls Village, CT)
Miles today: 12.0

I sometimes get the feeling that I am the strangest of all hikers out on the AT.To start with, a vast majority of the long distance hikers out here are what is known as "gearheads". They spend over $1,000 before they ever hit the trail for top of the line hiking gear. They wear space age clothing that breathes. So I'm sure I look funny in my khaki cargo pants and black t-shirt. They have fancy bag covers for when it rains. I, with wonderful ingenuity... use a Hefty bag. They all have exquisite hiking poles...I picked up a stick when I started in NJ. Most of them carry stoves...I eat granola, energy bars, poptarts, and tuna in a bag.My gear expenses have been very low:a backpack purchased for $4 at a garage sale, a tent for $6 on E-bay, an .89 cent emergency rain poncho (one-time use?!!! who's counting?) from Target, water purification tablets, and some DEET.What also makes me strange, though perhaps, is where I sleep. It seems that hikers like to go from shelter to shelter. Here is the running tally of where I have slept so far:stealth campsite-4 timesdesignated campsite-3 timespicnic shelter at a monastery-1 timeAT shelter-3 timestown park-1 timehotel-1 timeWell tonight, I am adding another category....backyard.The trail goes directly through Falls Village, CT. This is a first since I started back in NJ.From my guidebook pages, I noticed this restaurant, Toymaker's Cafe, that "lets hikers camp out back". This seemed like a good stopping point for the day, so here I am.Does it feel weird to me to camp in a strangers' backyard in a strange town? It would have before I came to the AT.But truthfully, nothing feels too weird out here anymore.Annie & Greg are the couple that own this place. I am sitting at their picnic bench, as Annie is doing some gardening. She's a writer, who is working on a book about [Myers-Briggs] personality types. We discovered that we have the exact same personality type (and it is supposedly "rare"...1-5% of the population), INFP.This amuses me slightly as the "I" stands for introverted, and yet here the two of us were talking so easily. Greg is in his workshop making motorcycle parts. I look up at their restaurant, which is also their home on this quiet little residential street, and dream of waffles and eggs and muffins and coffee. They only serve breakfast and lunch, and are only open four days a week. Tomorrow is one of those days.The whole town is so picturesque and quaint, quite the bucolic setting. I mean in some ways it seems like it's just a little backwater town that time and technology left behind. This whole area of Connecticut has that feel. It reminds me of the town in the tv show Gilmore Girls (you know... because sometimes I catch bits and pieces as Bethany is watching it)(ok, fine...it is the first show on my Tivo season pass list.)Anyway, the hiking was good today. my body doesn't feel too bad. I slept very well last night under the influence of wine. My leg still has that nagging pain, but I will be taking a day off for rest very soon. It is still very cold, but they are calling for warm weather any day now.so it is off to sleep now. This maybe the most tranquil setting that I've had out here so far. There is a dog barking in the distance, which inexplicably adds to the calm somehow.