18.2 hiked today, 1476.7 miles N, 697.3 miles left
Toymaker's Cafe in Falls Village, CT
We stayed up late last night talking so I woke up late today. I set off early to make in to Cornwall Bridge CT and then out in time to keep up with everyone. The hike to the road crossing went well and I found a ride the .9 miles to Cornwall Bridge. There everything I wanted was within sight of each other. I ran into great string of luck and everyone I spoke to was a pleasure. First at the post office the clerk was friendlyest I had met yet. It was very hot outside, near 90, and she offered me a bottle of
Propel to cool off. In my resupply box I found some amazing cookies my mom made for me and a bottle of hot sauce to pep up my meals. Then while I packed my bag I noticed a hiker box. It turned out someone had given up on their thru-hike and asked the clerk to pitch their resupply box. Instead the cleark put it out for other hikers and I am sure glad she did. It had primo food. I took a bout a dozen clif bars, some GoTarts, a one of three bags of beef jerky for McGyver, a Knorr dinner, EZ Mac, and sports drink mix. 
They had much more but my food bag was already over way weight. The food they were ditching was the pricey nice stuff and it was nice to treat myself.
That wasn't all though. One of my fellow backpackers, Janet, sent me a care package of delectable dehydrated foods. She included beans, watermelon, tomatoes, banannas, cantalope, stawberries, avacodos, and even more that I can not recall at this moment. It is all homemade, no sugar added stuff that is delicious to taste. My meals for the next week are going to be great!
Next I went to the outfitters next door to see if he could help me with my popped water bladder. I was in luck, they had a perfect replacement. They let me borrow their phone and I called Platypus and managed to get them to authorize as swap through the store. In the end I walked off with a functional bladder and the store gets a new one in their next shippment.
Finally the guide book said I should go by the package(liquior) store and ask about the bridge. The owners, Richard and Patty were a very nice and we ended up talking for about half and hour. It turned out the trail used to go right through town and over the bridge in front of the store. He offered me a beer and suggested a shady spot under a tree near the parking lot where I took great pleasure in drinking a Magic Hat Circus Boy. I never had it before and it turned out to be very good and refreshing in the heat. I picked up a bottle of Blackberry Brandy to share with the others tonight.
The only problem was getting a hitch back to the trail but after about 20 minutes I managed to pull that off too. I would normally have walked .9 miles but the road was curvy and had narrow shoulders making me feel unsafe.
It was a very hard climb up from the road with my overburdened pack but I did surprising well I suspect in part due to the additional sugary GoTarts. At a odd zig zag where the trail climbs up a steep rocky crevase I noticed and odd sound. It sounded like an air leak or something breathing hard. I turned around and to my shock I saw a baby vulture around 10' away. It was about the size of a chicken, black head, and rouck coat of beigh colord down like feathers. I stopped and took a few pictures but I did not stick around long to see if momma came around.
My paceing held steady and soon I had made it to the Pine Swamp Shelter where I caught up with McGyver. We hiked together for the remainder of the day. We relaxed and hung out at the shelter for while but I wanted to get to Falls Village so I could get a shower at the power plant there. After about and hour McGyver finally agreed to go too and we made the push to town before dark. We did pretty well getting down to the road to town before dark. As we got closer the heat started to take it's toll though. The last 3 miles were agonizing with both of us totaly running out of energy. Along the road we missed a blaze and to my shame we ended up doing about a mile of the trail on a road about 100 feet next to the trail. We accidently followed signs of old blazes that used to lead the trail down the road. I suspected something might have been wrong but I didn't know until I saw the trail come back cross the road a mile later. At that point we were far to weak and sore to go back and continued on to the power plant. There they had a shower. The only problem was it was located on the side of a building next to a popular road and on top of a ledge above a river with a beach on the other side. I was so foul from the the heat and lack of shower in a long time that I didn't care and took a shower in my underwear. Cars wizzed by every few minutes and a woman on the otherside of river spent 30 minutes staring up at McGyver and I. It sure felt great to be finally be clean or at least not gross. In town there is a cafe, Toymaker's, that allows hikers to pitch tents in thier back yard. In the dark we were having a devil of a time finding the cafe and after wandering around for a half hour a local we had met earlier saw us and drove us the rest of the way.
In additon to hatchling I saw and took some hopefully good photos of water bugs and a couple frogs.
The night is very hot and muggy and the skeeters are horrible so i am pretty much miserable tonight. :(
To conclude I would like to give a hearty thanks to Janet, Cronwall Bridge Package Store and postal clerk, and my parents for the all of the various joyious surprises had today. I may be too hot now but I don't suffer from my warmed heart!
After yesterday's large elevation changes today was much easier. It contained a large flat with a descent in and climb out.
Finally there were farmers fields with the expansive horizon they give and the large numbers of birds that enjoy these open spaces.
