WhimsySeasons: October 9- Connecticut!

From Hemlocks Shelter to Route 41 in Salisbury, Connecticut!

Miles Hiked today: 13.4
Hours Hiked today: 12

Overview of Massachusetts
Total Miles in Massachusetts: 90.4
Total Days in Massachusetts: 13 no ZERO days! This is the first state in which I took no zero days!
Average Miles per Day in MA: 7

Total Miles on the Appalachian Trail: 572
Total Days on Trail: 84
Average Miles per Day on Trail: 6.8

I woke up at Hemlocks Shelter with Glassman and Teddy Bear this morning. Teddy Bear needed to hike quickly to get to a town and use a library computer to apply for a job. Glassman and I decided to take our time and stay in the first shelter after the Connecticut state line.

I had a pleasant day of hiking, the weather was clear and the temperature was good. The area around the state line is called Sages Ravine. It is a gorgeous place with about a mile of trail that meanders along waterfall after waterfall. When I arrived there I marveled that no hikers had told me how beautiful this would be. But then I noticed that the first three miles or so of trail in Connecticut are a pretty difficult rock scramble and boulder climb. So I think that maybe other hikers forget about the waterfalls when telling me about the state line crossing because the memory of the boulder climb blocks it out. But I'll tell you-the waterfalls were beautiful.

We reached the first shelter in Connecticut around 4:00, comfortably before dark.  There were signs banning camp fires and it was getting cold, so Glassman suggested that we hike to the next shelter, less than two miles up the trail, and see if we could make a fire there. So we hiked on. We reached a sign marking a campground and guessed the shelter would follow quickly after. In hindsight I guess the campsite sign was a marking for the shelter, because we never did find that shelter. Which is a bummer because my hiking book claims that it has the best view of any shelter in Connecticut.

When we realized that we had missed the shelter we studied our maps again and determined that we would have to camp for the night unless we wanted to continue hiking all the way into the next town, Salisbury. The first town after the shelter that we did not find is another 3.5 miles of hiking. So we pushed on because weather reports called for more rain tonight and we did not particularly wish to have a wet tent.  We took turns leading because it can be difficult to find the trail and follow the blazes in the dark. I was leading and we came to a sharp turn in the trail, but I was confident when I found a blaze. After a little bit Glassman noticed that the blazes I was following were blue, not white. So we had to backtrack until we found the white blazes. Finally, around 9:30 we reached the road, after hiking about three hours in the dark. We were tired.

A co-worker of mine graciously, generously, sent me a See's chocolate loli-pop for my birthday. I decided this was just the stressful time in which I would endulge in this treat, making the night go that much more smoothly. I had no idea what a good decision that would be. Thank you, Joanna.

We found in the hiking guide book that a woman named Vanessa opens her home to hikers for $35 per person per night, lets you use the laundry, and take a shower.  This sounded a little expensive to us because most places charge only $20 for a room in their home (so I licked more chocolate), but we decided it was better than camping in the rain. We tried to hitch-hike for 15 minutes, and many cars passed us, but hitch-hiking in the dark is difficult (chocolate), so Glassman called Vannessa and asked if she could pick us up at the trail head, about 3 miles from her home.

A middle-aged woman drove up ten minutes later in an SUV, pulled up close to us and got out of the car while it continued to roll down the road. We yelled for her to stop the car, so she jumped back in and slammed the break. She looked at me a little confused and said-"You know, I thought I could just put my foot down on the pavement and the car would stop, like a bicycle." I put the chocolate in my mouth and stared at her. Glassman and I exchanged looks that asked-should we get in this car and trust her to drive us three miles? And then we shrugged and jumped in with our packs, because it still seemed better than camping in the rain- again.

On the way to her house she complained that her 34 year old son lives in the home and uses her car, and blamed him for the messy state of the car. I looked out the window, concentrating on my chocolate, while Glassman talked with her. He told her he makes glass and she said she is starting a business making jewelry and would like to buy some of his beads-so that was promising. She told us that there was already one hiker at her house tonight. We asked if it was Teddy Bear but she had no idea what his name was, where he was from, or in what direction he was hiking. Now, we have spent time with Teddy Bear, and I am sure that he had a nice conversation with Vanessa, that somehow she just doesn't quite absorb the name of the person staying in her house struck me as a little bit strange.

Please allow me a slight rant: Vanessa advertised in the book that she has four places for hikers to sleep. What she did not advertise is that two of those places are on couches in a living room that has two doors you cannot close, a living room that is between all other sleepers in the home (five people) and the bathroom, front door, and kitchen. Nor did she advertise that she is the caretaker for a bedridden man with Alzheimers who screams obscenities throughout the night-in a room adjacent to the living room with two couches. Nor did she advertise that she has two indoor cats and a son who chain smokes cigarettes in the home-though to his credit-only upstairs.
Well, that killed the chocolate.

When we arrived, smelly and hiker-hungry and admitted that we had not yet eaten dinner Vanessa took us into her beautiful kitchen, told us she was a professional caterer and fed us left over brisket. The brisket was delicious. Glassman, I may have mentioned before, has a gift for bargaining. So after surveying the situation of the home and the listed price of $35 per person in the book he started bargaining. I left the room and pretended to be busy while he worked his charm. In the end she took two of his glass beads and I paid $20 and we called it even. Good job, Glassman!

Teddy Bear was indeed the first hiker! He had arrived in town early in the afternoon and spent the day applying for jobs and catching up on phone calls. He was a little incredulous that it had taken us all day to hike the same number of miles, but he was amicable about it. Then Vanessa went to bed while we chatted with Teddy Bear for a little longer before getting showers (with no hot water), starting laundry, and settling into the couch for what was to be a restless night's sleep.

Views from the Trail

Fugitive at the MA/CT state line! (On the bottom third sign someone wrote in sharpy-"this sign is useless-enjoy!")

The area at the MA/CT state line where the A.T. crosses is called Sages Ravine. It is a beautiful stretch of waterfalls-each one we came to was more beautiful than the next.