Wednesday May 31, 2017
Bearded Woods Bunk and Dine 8.9 miles
Total mileage 460.1
I kind of took it easy this morning and didn’t start hiking until 6:30 am. I was headed to a hostel for the evening and had plenty of time to get there.
Yesterday I ended the day with a walk along the Housatonic River and continued to walk along it this morning. It was beautiful. It reminded me of the Foothills Trail hike along the Chattooga River that Jim and I did a number of years ago.
I came to a sign on the trail that mentioned a bypass around a river that had to be forged and that rock hopping across was unsafe. It stressed to take the bypass if the water was high or the rocks had ice on them. I decided to check it out before I made my decision. I would have to take my shoes off if I didn’t want to get them wet and I’m not hiking with camp shoes which means that I would have to go across barefoot. I was hoping that the sign was just an exaggeration. After seeing the river I decided to take the bypass. The water was moving fast and I couldn’t rock hop all the way across. The river looks kind of small in the above picture but I am standing about 20 above it. Which maybe why it looks so small in the picture.
I had a little trouble getting myself motivated today. It seemed to be taking forever to hike 9 miles. I think it was because I couldn’t call the hostel until 1 pm for a pick up so there was no rush.
I was looking for a place to sit down and eat my breakfast (sweet potato porridge). I came upon a side trail to a summit and view so I decided to take it and check out the view. I was sitting there just watching the clouds move over the mountain tops. After finishing my breakfast I was looking at the maps to see what was coming up next along the trail. When I looked out again at the mountains it had gotten dark-real dark! SHIT!?!? It’s going to rain and I need to get off this mountain top. I didn’t even get back to the trail before it started to rain. Luckily it only lasted about a hour. Then just before noon the sun came out and it ended up being a pretty day.

