Day 111: Adding to my hobo cred

Hiked 19.1 miles, tenting at Rand's View.

I slept in today and got out of camp only shortly before everyone else.  Since the water at last night's campsite was dry I stopped at the first stream to fill up.  It was too buggy to stop and purify there though.  Luckily there was a short side trail to the top of Breadloaf Mountain, my only view of the day, so I hiked up there and took a long break to enjoy the view and purify my water.

Last night's camping spot at Silver Hill campsite

Breadloaf Mountain

By the time I got going the others had caught up with me and I hiked with them for the rest of the day.  The terrain was bumpy but no horrible climbs.  Partway through the day there was a big rock cleft that we had to pass through that was very similar to the Lemon Squeezer which was a lot of fun.  The mosquitos were awful for a lot of the day but we managed to find a spot at the peak of one of our climbs that was somewhat bug free to stop for lunch.

9 AM photo

Red Knees passing through the Lemon Squeezer part 2

While eating lunch we watched an insect carrying a spider that was twice it's size across the rock we were sitting on.  We also ran into Big Red, Yooper, Pacemaker and Runner-up and they stopped to chat.  They informed us that both Sticks and Trucker have gotten off recently.  It was a fun reunion though. I last saw them at Fort Montgomery but Monk hadn't seen them since southern Virginia.  Srocket also caught up and apparently she has new hiking clothes since last I saw her.  Wow was it a lot of pink.  She admitted that "It looks like I got puked on by a watermelon", but indicated she had few options when she went to Target.

The meeting of the hikers

Booboo strikes a pose while Monk photobombs

The town of Falls Village is only .3 off the trail and we decided to head in for some food before pushing on.  Obie and I walked faster than Monk and Red Knees and the two of us walked in together.  The town is tiny and was completely dead.  All food places (there were only two) were closed.  The package store had Gatorade though, so we headed over there.  For those of you not from Connecticut or Massachusetts, a packie (or package store) is where you go to get beer, wine and liquor.

Monk directs traffic at a bridge crossing

Evening crossing of a river while leaving Falls Village

Monk and Red Knees showed up a little later and we made plans for the rest of the day.  The heat has been awful and we decided to wait out the worst of the heat in Falls Village then do a night hike.  The packie owner indicated that a pizza delivery place was open.  So my afternoon consisted of getting pizza delivered to the liquor store then sitting behind a busted car on a two by four with a beer and pizza, followed by a nap on a park bench.  I really upped my hobo cred today.

Pretty flowers in someone's yard during our road walk out of town

The locals warned us that Prospect Mountain, which we had to climb out of Falls Village, was extremely intense and difficult.  I thought it was one of the easiest climbs that we've had recently.  It's interesting how perspectives change after 1400 miles.  The only problem was that it was dusk which is peak mosquito hour and boy were they out in force.  I had gotten ahead of everyone else and came to Rand's View, a big open field on top of Prospect Mountain, and decided it would be a good place to wait for everyone.  The sunset was just finishing and the colors were fantastic.

The view from my tent

The bugs were so bad though that I had to set up my tent to wait for them so that I could remain sane.  By the time everyone caught up I was just too settled in and couldn't work up the motivation to go back out into the bugs, so I camped here.  The view was great and I had a decent mileage day.  I'm trying to take it easy to hopefully let my foot heal so overall I think stopping there was a good decision.  The bugs are all over my tent to the point that they almost obstruct my view and I can hear the buzz of mosquitos very audibly.  On the plus side there are dragonflies darting every which way feasting on the mosquitos which was really fun to watch.