What doesn't kill you only makes you stronger
It was 9:45PM when I awoke quite suddenly to a bang of thunder and a crack of lightening. When I looked out the front door I could barely see 100 feet. Rain was blowing sideways through the bug netting of my front dooe. The wind was gusting and the sky was constantly being illuminated by the jolts of lightening descending from the heavens. I was trembling in fear as I sat upright in my tent, wondering how long the beast would linger above me. Another jolt of fear went through me when I heard a town siren in the valley, generally used to warn of tornadoes. By 10:30PM the storm had calmed down, and I was asleep by 11:PM. It was the most powerful storm I've ever seen.
I re-awoke at 5:10AM, still trembling in fear. I talked with Cookie about the storm in an attempt to grasp what happened. He told me lightening was illuminating the sky 30 minutes before any rain came. He could tell I was shaken by the storm and told me it was the worst storm he had seen in a while.
We were walking at 6:30AM. The first 13 miles of today were spent going up and down view less mountains that seemed to exist simply to torture us.
The most noteworthy thing about these 13 miles was all the damage. There were quite a few downed trees and numerous newly fallen branches from trees that lived to see anther day.
At some point in the early afternoon we rolled into the Housatonic river, and we had lunch just north of here. We were tired due to the lack of sleep we received last night, courtesy of the storm. It felt nice to relax and eat some food.
We then came to "great falls", which is a fairly large and powerful waterfall. This was easily the most interesting thing the CT AT has offered thus far.
When I reached the summit of prospect mountain, I turned my phone on and listened to a message from my dad telling me a new debit card would be waiting for me in Great Barrington, MA, my next town stop.
The stretch from Prospect mountain to Plateau campsite had 13 blowdowns, that's and enormous amount for a five mile stretch. Clearly mother nature was raising an extra amount of hell here last night.
It felts nice to roll into the campsite and end my day.
Tomorrow I hope to do 21-22 miles into the road crossing for Great Barrington, but things change out here.
The storm last night was the first time where I felt like I might legitimately die. For a period of 30 seconds I saw my life flash before my eyes. It was a feeling I hope to never have again.
What doesn't kill you only makes you stronger.
Kirby
Ga>ME 2008.
