Kent is a hosh posh town, to say the least
Mother nature is causing massive amounts of havoc in the northeast with this heat wave, including right here on the good 'ol AT. It makes short days like today feel like death marches through the fiery depths of hell.
Cookie and I meandered along this morning knowing we had town coming, so we were not marching until 6:30AM. What was the trail like this morning? Well it was a whole lot of uphill of course. These were climbs with no view or merit. It spent a lot of time cutting up and down the side of the same ridge for what felt like an eternity.
I rolled into the road crossing for Kent at 8:00AM knowing full well I was going to be walking the .8 into town.
Kent is a hosh posh town, to say the least. It sits in a part of the state that is home to a whole lot of wealthy people. Hikers naturally stand out like soar apples here, and we received a lot of perplexing looks when we finally arrived.
After picking up some maps at the post office and calling my dad, Cookie and I walked to the grocery store for resupply. I only needed a box of oatmeal and some nutri-grain bars to get me to my next stop for resupply. As I was walking out of the store, having already made my purchase, I had the following interaction with an employee.
Employee:"You need to leave your pack at the front of the store."
Me:"Well I've already made my purchase and was preparing to leave."
Employee:"Well you need to use the other door as an exit."
Before saying anything else I glanced up at the sign that said "exit" above the door I was about to walk out, then glanced back at her.
Employee:"Well you can use that door, but we'd prefer you to use the other door."
Good morning to you too.
After consolidating our food outside, Cookie and I walked to a coffee shop and bought some ice coffee. I also purchased a New York Times to catch up on the news.
We were back on trail around 12:00PM. The climb out of the road was difficult due to the 90 degree heat we were marching uphill in. After traversing a ridge with a couple of views, the trail sent us down "St. John's Ledge", which is a series of 91 stone steps leading to the Housatonic river. At the river Cookie and I had lunch and went for a refreshing swim in the river.
We rolled into Stewart Hollow Lean to and determined it was to early to stop, so we decided to push on for three more miles.
The trail follows the river for a few miles, which made for easy walking, which is nice on a day like today. We swam one final time before starting the one mile ascent to the campsite, where I am tonight.
This is a nice spot to camp, it has a pavilion with two picnic tables.
Tomorrow I shall try 23-24 miles, a very full day in comparison to today. Hopefully the heat won't be as bad.
And that's the way it was.
Kirby
Ga>ME 2008.
