In the middle of August, we came back to Cornwall for about a week to go to my grandfather’s memorial. We also used the plentiful time, resources, and space to do some trail-related projects, like:
dehydrating some food, like pasta and tomato sauce (below, dgenna takes a tray of dried tomato sauce out of the dehydrator);
for dgenna, making a new, very geometric rain hat;
and for me, finally buying some new Superfeet insoles to replace the ones I’d been wearing since Georgia.
On August 14, we got back on the trail. It took a little while to reach the AT, but it was very pleasant: we started in my parents’ front yard, hiked over the hill, and down into Cornwall Bridge. The walk over the hill, which I’ve done countless times while growing up, was beautiful as always: in the photo above, a waterfall cascades through an old, impressive stone mill structure. We roadwalked across the bridge to the Breadloaf trailhead, just where Route 4 splits off from Route 7, and hiked up the steep but short Breadloaf trail to a pretty lunch view.
I have lived in Cornwall Bridge all my life, but, amazingly, I had walked almost none of the trail between Cornwall Bridge and Salisbury. (I have walked the 4 or so miles that follow the Housatonic River many times, but we started north of it this time.) I’ve driven through all the tiny towns that the Trail crosses since before I can remember: Cornwall Bridge, Sharon, Falls Village, Salisbury. Often, in crossing a road, I found out for the first time exactly where the Appalachian Trail went, instead of simply seeing the signs.
Mad Science and Sunshine 