Date: 2016-07-29
From: Ten mile river shelter

To: Stewart Hollow Brook Shelter
Miles today: 15.7
Weather: light rain

Today was another great day on the trail. The day started off to rain though my terrible stomachache had improved as I drank lots of water through the night. Dragon Head and I shared the shelter together with another woman. It was a hot night of sleeping at first and buggy till the rain started and cooled off. The woman at the shelter was a character and was the oddest non hiker I have met on the trail. She was nice but very curt to us when we arrived. She was from New York City with very little food, 6 glass bottles of iced tea and a small backpack. She had no sleeping pad or bag and used a gossamer covering when she slept. I don't think she liked the way our clothes smelled and asked us to lay them on the grass. I said I can but when it rains I don't want them covered in mud. I felt bad but there is not much we can do out here mid hike. She lightened up when 10 more Thru hikers showed. She definitely was a character and talked a lot of split personality disorders. DH and I (Dragon Head for short from here on out) headed out about 8:30 as the rain had stopped. It's nice when you get a spot in the shelter as it makes it so much easier to pack up. This is the third day DH and I have walked together and I really like him and get along with him. After the initial two days of talking about the basics like family, jobs, trail life we have moved into more philosophical conversations. We both come from very different backgrounds yet have very similar beliefs and attitudes towards life. What I have enjoyed about DH has been the company. 90% of my time on the trail has been hiking alone. Luigi and I hiked several days together but mostly at our own paces and met up for snacks, lunch and camped together for a few weeks. Ompi and I hiked together for two days fully and the rest of the time set our own pace and would have lunch together and usually camp together as did the royal couple. Otter and I hiked together for a total of 5 days. I spent lots of time with him off trail such as trail days, Waynesboro etc. Dragon Head I can see myself staying with all the way to Maine. We hike the same pace, seem to pick when to do town stops the same and are very similar. I'm not sure how long we will be together but I'm enjoying it. The solo time on the trail has been wonderful and reflective and I've had lots of time to think. Hiking with someone after not for awhile has been really enjoyable, especially the conversation. We spent most of the morning deep in conversation covering a variety of topics. One thing I love about the AT is people are generally open to listen to one another and hear people's stories and thoughts. Not everyone is always going to agree but people out here are open and respect the difference in thought. We all have had different ideas about where we are headed as a society as we look at that society from the perspective of being cut off from it in small way. It's so interesting to hear people's thoughts on this. Anyway of tangent here. Deep in coversation we went up and down several climbs without noticing really. We caught up to Hazel who walked with us. I enjoyed her company as I believe DH did as well. We exchanged stories of some of the eccentric people out here on the trail. Many funny stories were exchanged and we had some good laughs. Now with three of us talking the time just zoomed on by. We had 9 miles to get to the town of Kent and we were there by 12:30. We walked the .80 miles into town hopping for a ride. No such luck and the town of Kent was not that far off the trail but it's nice to not have to walk extra. We arrived in Kent and DH went to the outfitter/ice cream place. I mean come on this is a hiker paradise. Soda, doughnuts, fudge, ice cream and resupply!!!! DH needed a new spork thing as his broke like mine did back in the Smokeys. They did not have titanium so he had to settle for a new same spork. I bought a soda and a doughnut as I could not resist. We the walked down main street looking for a bank for Hazel. Then headed to the laundry and Chinese food. The three of us put all of our clothes together and did one load. A dollar a person for to wash and a dollar to dry. Wohoo. We walked over to the Chinese place and a sign said closed for vacation till August 4th. Argh!!! So we walked Main Street looking for a place to eat. We found a pizza/pub and headed there. DH got the sin city burger and this thing was the height of a steak knife. It had 4 patties on it, it was huge. I went with the chicken bacon and ranch sandwich with extra ranch! Hazel had an apple walnut salad. Great food and good company. Hazel and I heard back to the laundry while DH went to the library to apply for jobs for his unemployment. We all ended up at IGA for resupply. We then brought everything to the laundromat and repacked our packs got our clothes and were off. The day got hot even though it was not supposed to be. Some guy on a bicycle asked us where he could buy Pot (marijuana). We we're like uhm yes we are thru hikers but no we have no idea. Try the ice cream shop I said. I dunno!?! I guess two guys in their 30's and a woman in her 40's look like the pot smoking type. We laughed pretty hard. I asked Hazel if she thought that this morning when she woke up that someone would be asking her where to buy pot. We left the town and I'm typical town leaving fashion we had the big climb. My shoes were bothering me at this point. I had swapped out my boots when I went home for a pair of trail runners that Doug had that were brand new. Well after almost three days they were causing my heels to get blisters so I need to swap them back to boots. Trooper is coming down and Jeff is picking her up tonight in Springfield MA. I get to see her tomorrow. Jeff will also bring my new old boots with him. This is the pair of hiking boots I've had at home that are two years old but only have 100 miles on them at the max. They are well broken in. We made it to the top of the ridge and after a few more ups and downs we had the steepest decent of the whole trail. I was in the lead and had to stop a few times to think ok how am I going to get past this. After some careful maneuvering we made it to a parking area. The trail followed a gravel road for about 2 miles. The black gnats suddenly were horrendous by this dirt road. I'm not sure if it was from the soaking rain we got last night but they were swarming. We arrived at the shelter and DH and I immediately stripped down and went in the Housatonic River to cool off and then set up camp. The three of us cooked and ate together and all crashed at about 9:30. I very much enjoyed my day with these two. Both DH and Hazel are very intelligent, funny and nice people. I don't know how long my time with them will be but when I think back on my AT hike Kent, CT will always be the day I spent with these 2.