On the AT in Connecticut -- just a training hike

My friend, Bruce Shenker, joined me in doing a small section of the AT in Connecticut, from W Cornwall Road in Sharon up to Route 44 in Salisbury. The guidebook showed the distance to be 15.9 miles.

Where the AT started on W Cornwall Road is only about two miles from West Cornwall, even though the actual town is Sharon. 

There is only one significant hill on AT along our route, Mt. Prospect, which gets up to 1460', as I recall. However, we did a have a short, steep, rocky climb from W Cornwall to start the hike. By the top of that climb, the clothes were coming off quickly.

From there, it was mostly rolling terrain until the trail dropped down to the junction of Routes 112 and 7, just south of Falls Village. I had hike from that junction in the fall, heading north on the east side of the Housatonic River; at that time, I was under the impression that the iron bridge in Falls Village was still crossable, but, alas, it was not and I didn't know that the detour was actually back where 112 & 7 joined. Instead I walked on roads up to Route 44 and then picked up the AT where it crossed 44.

As we were leaving the AT and hitting Route 7, there was a sign saying that the AT did detour by going west on 112 and then taking Dugway Road north. So we went that way, although the rumor was that the iron bridge had been replaced and was open, but was soon to be shut down for further work. Given the good weather that might have allowed for work to start sooner, we opted for the safe, but boring road detour to the bridge. It was open when we got there. :-(

We stopped for a quick lunch and then headed north, passing the beautiful waterfall just south of the dam; there were some folks enjoying the sunshine and the rocks in the river since the water was very low.

Finally, the two-mile climb to Mt. Prospect was upon us and Bruce led the way at a good clip. I managed to maintain contact, but had I been alone, the pace would have been significantly slower. Once past the summit of Prospect, we were treated to a nice view of the Taconic Range to the west:

Photo credit: Bruce Shenker

We assumed, of course, that the rest of the trail would be mainly downhill to Salisbury, but that wasn't quite true--there were numerous little climbs to overcome.

We started to see a few day hikers, but had not seen any before we reached the summit of Prospect. On our way we did get to see this rather unusual rock:

Photo credit: Bruce Shenker

As you can see, it seems to be a popular rock--I wonder why? ;-)

We covered the 15.9 miles in 5:43, with 3,278' of climb. This is certainly one of the easier sections of the AT, but it was fine for me after last week's two-day rogaine.

My knee was swollen and tight after the hike, but an anti-inflammatory did wonders to restore it by the next day.