Caesar brook to Falls Village

Murphy and I planned on doing some big miles today... but then we got stuck in a time warp. The terrain was not terribly difficult, but even though we felt like we had a pretty good pace going, we just didn't seem to be making good progress. It was really hot and humid. We did get to meet this adorable family who is hiking the entire trail. This is Robin Hood (9 years) and Cartwheel (8 years) 

We were pretty much out of water with a few miles to go before another stream and we were really thirsty. We came down to a road crossing and saw a bunch of parked cars. We decided it was worth a little side trek and we nearly cried when we came across the most wonderful soda machine in all the world.

We had planned to hike another 9 miles but we were just beat. As we were walking, a local woman stopped us and warned us that there was a big storm coming in. It started getting dark and thundering. We are both pretty competitive and were not happy about not meeting our goal, but we just had to let it go today. We did come upon some mulberry trees so we stopped and had a little snack. Haven't had mulberries for years!! We hiked another three to the falls at Falls Village and while we were waiting for a pick up from the Bearded Woods hostel, up walked 50/50 and Mambo. We got to this wonderful hostel, where they do our laundry, feed us great food, and have a big screened porch, perfect for sitting on during a thunderstorm. We just had a huge Italian dinner and are tucked in out of the storm for the night. Ahhhh!