Day 6/7: 5.8 mi. (1503.1 – 1507.5) (+1.4)

The shelter worked out pretty good. Wearing earplugs in a downpour with a metal roof…even better. One thing for sure is it was DARK last night. So dark that when I woke in the middle of the night I couldn’t see my hand in front of my face, and then I wondered, was I really awake? So I deliberately opened and used my eyes and waved my hand just to be sure. Yep. It was that dark.

Morning was leisurely, as we all were waiting for the rain to stop. When it did, it was time to put on wet clothes…again, and start walking uphill, so we could go downhill into town. We were hoping to Zero in Salisbury, CT,  so we could recharge, as this week was brutal for us. Between the heat, the humidity, and the lack of trail legs, we were a bit trashed. But first, we had to make that climb back up to the trail.

Just before we hit the road, we ran into a family of locals and asked them about Salisbury. They showered us with great Intel and even offered to take us in for the night if there wasn’t room at Maria’s (she and her grandson run a hiker hostel in town). When we got to the road, we called Maria’s and booked our spots.

We also ran into Julia, an AT Trail Maintainer for Connecticut, that we had met the day before. We also were immediately treated to trail magic (water and banana) by another family that pulled up to offer trail magic and pray over hikers…if they wanted. We said, “Sure, we need all the prayers we can get.” When they finished praying over us, we made the sign of the cross. This is when Julia leaned over and quietly asked, “Are you Catholic?”  “Yes we are,” I replied. She then told us she goes to Saturday evening mass and wanted to know if we wanted to go. Absolutely! And with that, we walked into Salisbury for some fresh food at Le Bonnes Market (it’s like a small Whole Foods) before heading over to Maria’s to check and get a shower and laundry before Julia came to pick us up.

Julia reminded us of Maureen from our time on the Camino de Santiago. We called her the “pop-up queen”. Julia actually lives in Florida, but “summers” in Connecticut as a volunteer Trail Maintainer.  She’s a retired engineer,  and needed something  interesting and purposeful to do.

Church was followed by resupply shopping and an ice cream from McDonald’s.  It was the only way Julia would let us repay her for helping us out so much.

Back at Maria’s, we discovered from Ed (Maria’s grandson) that Maria recently died (1 month ago) and that he is trying to carry on her legacy.  We thanked him for working to continue her legacy and offered our condolences.

Now earlier, I had posted on Instagram that our battery packs had failed us. Turns out, one of the people who follows us lives in Connecticut and offered to help. She said she had two power packs she could bring us, as she was familiar and had stayed at Maria’s several times while hiking the Appalachian Trail. Ellie, is quite the accomplished hiker, and to be honest, over the years, we’ve gleaned plenty of hiking and gear Intel from her website, ( http://www.averagehiker.com ) It was great to finally meet in person, and especially share hiking stories, and her tips and knowledge of the AT.

After Saturday’s nero and Sunday’s Zero, we were ready to get back on trail. Our water filter was cleaner, and our clothes were clean, smelling, and dry (for now). We replenished our bodies with healthy food. Changed out our long sleeve shirts for short sleeves, courtesy of Ellie, and mailed home nearly 5 pounds of gear/stuff we don’t need for this trail, at least not yet. The weather, or rather the humidity, is supposed to lighten up. Things are looking up! Time to get walking.