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Saturday, April 12th, 2008
The Leatherman

In 1862 there lived a man who wandered the countryside of Connecticut and New York State. He was known as The Leatherman, but was born Joules Bourglay in Lyon France sometime in the 1820's. Legend says he came to Connecticut from France after an unrequited romance. The Leatherman made a 350 mile walking circle fromt CT to NY averaging 10 miles per day. He would arrive at the same location every 34 days. The Leatherman lodged in a series of caves along the way. Although he was a ghastly site, dressed head to toe in leather and quite unkempt, many people along his route would provide him with food and water. He never spoke, rather he made grunting noises. The folks in the towns he passed through knew exactly when he would arrive. For three decades he made the same journey despite heat, drought, rain or snow. In 1889 his dead body was found in Saw Mill Woods Cave in NY.

To see a picture of the handsome man :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leatherman_(vagabond)

The reason I am sharing this story is because I live 10 minutes away from the start of a trail that leads to one of the seven caves that The Leatherman stayed in on his route. Today I hiked up to the cave to take some pictures to share on my blog. The trail is very steep and gave a me quite an appreciation for what it must have been like to climb up in the winter.



The rocky climb up to the cave







While seaching for some telltale sign of The Leatherman, I can across this relic that he must have left behind. Wow the guy had bad taste in beer!