To take advantage of the four day weekend that Sikorsky was going to give me for Easter, one holiday and one furlough day, I decided that some outdoor activities were needed. Carly and I planned a hike to the northwestern corner of CT for trip to Sages Ravine from the Rt. 41 trailhead. We decided it would be more fun as a two day hike so we headed up to Salisbury after work on Thursday.
After meeting up we drove up to Salisbury. The trailhead just outside town is not obvious and in the little remaining light we had trouble finding it. Once parked and loaded up with our packs we walked in the .2 mile to Plateau Campsite, which wasn’t much more than a clearing just beyond the spring from the AT itself. Some kielbasa, peppers, and onions made for a great dinner washed down with a little whiskey and dark chocolate. The moon was nearly full and it was almost like a street light in the leaf bare forest. Luckily we had a few pine trees sheltering us a bit. …
The next morning we got up, cooked breakfast, and were on the trail by 8am. I tried something new by putting a detailed trip itinerary for each of the major waypoints on the hike in a spreadsheet. I created cells which will calculate time based on an assumed hiking speed and elevation gain. The spreadsheet is pretty slick right now but I’m going to work on it a little more to include a toggle for meters and kilometers as well as different assumed hiking speeds. My sheet had us going 6.8 miles and taking about 6 hours to complete it. After the first few waypoints it was clear that we were making very good time and we were ahead of schedule so we took longer breaks when we wanted to after that.
We strolled into Sages Ravine a little after noon and decided what to do. There was another camping area farther down the trail at Race Brook Falls, but it seemed like it might be a little ambitious to shoot for that. I think the mileage would have rung up to 14 miles for that. We decided that since Sages Campsite is so nice we would set up camp, then hike with little weight up to Race Mtn and then back again in the afternoon. This proved to be a great idea since the hike up to the overlook on Race Mtn, while not a difficult one, was long and steady uphill. We enjoyed basking in the warm sun (and getting a little sunburn on our faces) at the overlook. Once back to camp we were hungry enough to make dinner.
We met a pair of 50 something hikers who had joined us as Sages Ravine for the evening. They opted to use the large caretakers tent platform to roll their sleeping pads and bags out on. There was no chance of rain so they hadn’t brought a tent, though I’m sure they were wishing they did in the morning as the temps were down in the mid-twenties.
Given our speedy hike the day before we weren’t in any rush on Saturday morning. After a leisurely breakfast and camp packing we started back to the car. The weather was just the same as the previous day, sunny, warm when calm and a little cool when the wind picked up. We took our time, resting at all of the major campsites and summits. We were back to the car in the afternoon. The usual post hike ritual of good food had to be delayed a little since it wasn’t quite lunch nor dinner. To kill time we took the scenic route back down Rt. 7 and into New Milford where we had lunch at 59 Bank. I would recommend giving the place a try; good beer selection and my bacon and brie burger was tasty.