Today's miles 15.5. AT miles 1495.7
Another lovely sunny day on the trail. We were packed up and walking for 8am. Initially the trail was quite up and downy still over lots of small peaks but the paths were a lot nicer, far less rocks and obstacles. The trail descended down towards the Housatonic River again going along some lovely grassy paths with loads of pretty spring flowers. We crossed a newish road bridge (2010) over the river that had the AT logo embedded in it. The trail followed the river along a lovely path for a while. We stopped at a bench briefly and then started off again along the wrong trail, there was another trail off the AT. We realised when we hadn't seen any white blazes for a while so had to retrace our steps.
We made a short detour to Falls Village, a lovely small picturesque village, to the Toymakers Cafe for lunch. We sat outside in the sunshine and I had a cheese salad and Nigel a ham sandwich, both very nice. There were quite a few bikers (motorcycle) there also. The cafe had a bit of a British theme going on, a Union Jack flag on a mug on their sign and in the toilet were posters of British Prime Ministers and British stamps, we didn't ask why.
After lunch it was an up and over Mount Prospect. Just after the summit there was a fantastic view over some fields. A nice steady two mile ascent followed by a steady four mile descent on a lovely path. Gone were the rocks and obstacles, we were able to get a good stride and rhythm going for once. There were a lot of chipmunks on the trail today, we could hear them constantly squeaking and see them running away from us. They don't sit still long enough to get a photo.
We reached Undermountain Road, Salisbury just after 3:30 and awaited our pickup by Hudson from Bearded Woods One-of-a-Kind Bunk and Dine Hostel. We'd said as we were walking to get picked up how nice it would be if he had a cold soda for us. We were offered a cold coke on getting in the truck, what a great first impression. Bearded Woods is ran by Hudson and his wife big Lou. Hudson is a current AT thru hiker taking a break during the busy hiker season to run his Hostel, he will finish the trail in September. It is a fantastic Hostel, very welcoming, very clean, very relaxing and amazing food. It was BBQ chicken night. Cooked by Big Lou, she'd been saving BBQ night for us as she'd been following our blog. We had corn muffins, corn salad, potato salad, BBQ beans and BBQ chicken, all delicious followed by cookies and ice cream. We even got a complimentary glass of wine. Both Hudson and Big Lou were excellent hosts, we had a very enjoyable evening with good company. Staying with us were Heinz, Salt and Gracie the dog, Lucky and Moxie & Ibex who we haven't seen since the Smokies. Moxie and Ibex told a very funny story over dinner about their stay at a nudist resort near Palmerton.
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