July 31, 2012

Start: Falls Village, CT

Today was great day!! We took a shuttle from Great Barrington to where we left the trail in Falls Village at 9:30 and started hiking at 10. Right away we saw some gorgeous waterfalls! There was a beautiful stealth camping site right beside the falls, but it was way too early to stop. We hiked up and over Prospect Mountain and out to a field with a beautiful field of mountain ridges in the distance. We reached Cobble Rd. in Salisbury, CT, which was 8 miles away, in 2 hours and 55 minutes! We sat on a bench that was just off the road at the entrance to a housing complex and ate lunch and dried our feet out. We then continued on for the 3 climbs that were coming this afternoon. The first was right away and was 400 feet. At the top, we ran into Miles Supertramp who we met back in PA. He is an awesome guy and we really enjoy talking with him. We caught up a bit and then climbed about 500 ft. up Lions Head. There was a stunning view from the top. The climbs are starting to have some playoffs in New England! After Lions Head, there were 2 miles of gradual climbing before we reached the 500 ft. climb up Bear Mountain. This climb reminded me of some of the climbs in the Whites because it had a lot of ledges and the trees were dwarfed as we reached the summit. The climb was just much shorter than those in the Whites. At the top, there was a rock observation tower. We sat there for a while enjoying the view from the highest point in Connecticut. We walked down a very steep .4 miles descent and then a gradual descent of .4 miles in to Sages Ravine and into Massachusetts. Sages Ravine is beautiful! We can hear the streams flowing and we are camping at the campsite which is full of the deepest greens and richest red pine needles. We did 15.1 miles today and I feel great. The time off definitely helped my feet and now I'm ready to get some miles in!

Having such a pain free day allowed me to really pay attention to my thoughts and to the beauty around me. So many times today I felt so lucky to be out here doing this with Brian and to be experiencing these moments with him and with the trail. I'm really looking forward to tomorrow!

End: Sages Ravine Campsite, MA

Peace Be The Journey
~Flicka