Day 112
After a great breakfast last night, waking up in the yard to a cafe was the most epic feeling. We wandered in to fresh muffins out of the oven and three types of coffee. It was tasty, but we had to hike on. We headed out and climbed Mt Prospect and did some undulation before coming to a strange rock formation called Giant’s Thumb. We then walked downhill and did a road walk through Salisbury. We passed a large cemetery and then turned back into the woods for a lunch break. The crew from last night all caught up and we met a new hiker, Pacecar. We all had lunch and then moved on to another ascent to the lions’s head. After coming down from the rocks, we had a pretty flat section to walk through with several shelters and streams before we climbed our second Bear Mountain. At the top, there was a giant stone pile with views in to both MA and CT. We took photos before heading down. The steepness was reminiscent of the ledges a few days ago. We had to sit and scoot in some of them! At the bottom, in Sages Ravine, we were finally across another border and in to MA! We climbed an old roadbed up to Laurel Brook camp. We found an awesome spring up top with cold and clear water and filled up. We set up tents and decided to sleep with rainflies off since it was a 20% chance and finally cool enough to sleep. The photo today is Manboy on the rock tower on Bear Mountain.

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.

Day 110
I woke up at 1 am unable to bend my bad knee. After getting no sleep from the pain, I woke up at 7 am and got up, trying to walk unsuccessfully. We finally set out from the shelter around 8:30 and it took me 3 hours to go 2.9 miles. Nokey and Testament took turns carrying my pack for me and when we made it down to the first shelter, I finally got the knee to pop and the pressure relieved. We decided to go ahead and have lunch, skipping going into Kent, and then move on. we now had the hot midday sun to us and had some big climbs ahead of us, Caleb’s Peak and St. John’s Ledge. The ledges were steep and I actually fell down off them at one point, but no one was around to see me. I finally got some help from a southbounder and hopped back up to find Nokey and Testament waiting for me. It was pretty hot and we were all worn out. We decided to just stop at the next shelter making for the longest 10-mile day ever. The video posted sums it up. We went to bed at 7:30.

Day 109
We had time to kill this morning so we sat at the pavilion when a familiar face showed up - Trail Momma! She gave us the ride the 1 mile to town to get to the post office and also gave us Gatorade and candy. We sorted through our drops at the library and then hopped back out on the road for a quick hitch to the trail. We immediately began climbing Hammersly Ridge. The ridge was a bit tough, but the scenery was beautiful and I saw a fawn and doe on the ridge. We descended to a point only 1 mile from the CT border and got some trail magic from Mac and Cheese, who welcomed us to the state with ice water and cookies! We got to the first CT border quickly and crossed into and out of the state 3 times. We climbed Ten Mile Hill and then back down to Ten Mile River. We sat down there for a break before our big ascent into camp. Testament decided his shoes were too wet to walk in, so he took them off and continued barefoot! We climbed a huge mountain up to Indian Rocks and then slowly walked on an undulating ridge to our campsite. We got there totally out of water after passing several dry streams to find there was a small, muddy, mosquito-filled pool of water. Overdrive and Peach were also there! I haven’t seen Overdrive since Damascus, Va over 1000 miles ago! We pumped water and hung out for a few hours after eating all the junk food we had in our drop boxes. The photo is me at the CT border.