8/1/12 – 1508 miles
We spent the last two nights at hostels near Salisbury, CT. We heard by way of the hiker grapevine that a new place called the Bearded Woods Bed and Dine just opened for business a few weeks ago, offering thruhikers a place to stay, dinner and breakfast, showers, and laundry, pickup and return to the trail, all for $50. Everyone we ran into on Monday wanted to stay there and by the time we arrived at the pickup point, there were eight of us waiting for rides.
I must say the place was very nice, offering clean showers and beds, serving up some great food, and making us guests feel right at home with their hospitality.
In the morning we hiked on into the town of Salisbury to resupply. Kleenex needed to use the computer at the library to post some blogs. I checked us into the home of an 85 year old lady named Maria McCabe who rents out rooms in her house. Kleenex loves to watch the Olympics and Maria couldn’t have been more obliging. She loves hikers.
Today we moved into Massachusetts, ten states down and four to go. Massachusetts has three pretty good mountains right off the bat and it’s a shock to be back in climbing mode again. There are four Southbounders here tonight and we have been grilling them for information about the trail ahead. It’s said that we have completed 80% of the trail but only 20% of the work. The mountains up north are that hard.
Maybe your SOBO’s (is that what you call them?) haven’t crawled thru PA rocks,faced CT snobs or braved thunderstorms on the mountain tops. Those didn’t sound like a stroll in the park!
And like a fool I am planning to join you just as you hit those mountains up north…