Day 107: Showerless

Lightning and thunder woke us all up around 3:30 in the morning. I did a quick check to make sure everything was covered and dry, listened to the storm a bit (it went right over us), then went back to sleep. Rain is the hiker snooze button, so when 7am rolled around and it was still raining, we were all quiet in our tents (and Tattoo in his hammock). Slowly around 8, the rain was pretty much gone, so we slowly packed up and ate breakfast as the trees drizzled.





Off we were for 6.8 miles to a cafe we'd heard about. When we got to the road, though, there was a detour sign. We had to road walk for a few miles because the bridge was being worked on - only vehicular traffic. Ugh. Xan, Neutron, Scatters and I walked the road. It wasn't too bad in the shade, but it didn't seem all that safe with semi-busy, sometimes curvy roads. Xan and Neutron got ahead and went into the town of Falls Village. Scatters and I parked at a picnic table across the river from the hydroelectric plant.




We laid our tents in the grass to dry and ate lunch in the shade. It was quite nice. We thought Tattoo would show up, but only an old brown Labrador did. His collar said his name was "Bear," and it seemed as though he was a bit blind - bumping into the table and walking into twigs. He hung around while we ate, rested and packed up, and then he followed us as we went looking for a public shower that the book said was close.


Well, it turns out that the dog is a town dog that likes to wander (and somehow avoids getting hit by the cars of Falls Village), and the shower was merely a shower head sticking outside the side of a building (within plain view of the cars of Falls Village).




We had been SO excited about a shower!! But this wasn't exactly what we were hoping for... A nice man working at the plant said we could charge our phones for a few minutes, and Scatters and I did our best to take public sponge-baths. It was satisfyingly refreshing, though far from ideal. It was better than nothing. This may end up being both of our longest stretches without a proper shower. The last one was Sunday morning at the hotel, and the next one will be Saturday afternoon, so it should be almost a full week. Ha!! (gross)

We sat in the grass a bit and talked about the next few states. The nice man brought our phones over when he closed up shop, and we headed out of town. The guys decided to stay in Falls Village to recharge their legs, and we hadn't heard from Tattoo.




We walked by the falls, which were pretty cool, and hiked through a very pleasant, pine-needled path for 8 ish miles to Salisbury. We skirted the town and headed back up a hill to find a place to camp. We found a stream and a flat spot, and we were set. Tents up. Water filtered. Dinner made (and spilled - Scatters) and eaten. We came to find out that Tattoo is camped less than half a mile behind us, so we should see him bright and early in the morning.

Massachusetts, here we come!!!
(18.2mi 3st)


-- Posted from the trail...

Location:1.8 miles north of Salisbury, CT