Day 111
After getting nearly 12 hours of sleep, we were ready to tackle the day and get at least to the next shelter 10 miles out before the big storm they were calling for came through. We began the day with a flat walk next to the Housatonic River through fields and sandy paths followed by a climb up to the Silver Hill campsite. From here, I walked with VOR, Peach, and Overdrive down the steep backside to Guinea Brook before continuing on alone. When I got up and over the hill to Hatch Brook, I met Headin’ Out and Tag-a-long, an older couple from MI who have hiked the AT before and nearly every other long distance trail in the country. While talking with TAL, Nokey showed up and had a mini reunion with them, having not seen them since the NOC nearly 4 months ago. We climbed another hill and had lunch at the top and listened to the thunder for a while before heading out to the shelter. We climbed yet again and passed through some boulders before the clouds turned super dark and the thunder ominous. We made it down the hill and rocks and stepped into Pine Swamp Brook Shelter just as the rain started to fall. The storm quickly turned nasty with hail and lightening accompanying the downpour. We sat there with two SOBOs while our group showed up in the rain one-by-one. After two hours, we decided to head out another 3 miles to the Belters View campsite. When I got there, it was barely 6 pm and the small spring was running so the boys were filling up. I flipped to the next page in our guidebook to see what terrain awaited us in the morning to see we only had 3.1 flat miles to Falls Village, where we could camp in the yard behind a restaurant that opened for breakfast at 7 am! Needless to say, we booked it down to town and made it there by 7:30. Manboy, VOR, Peach, Overdrive, Testament, Nokey, and me all set up there and headed to the B&B, the only other place in town, to eat dinner. We feasted on gourmet burgers before staggering back to our camp in a food coma. The photo today is of a silo in one of the fields early in the day.