Date: 2003-08-10
From: Wiley Shelter

To: Kent
Miles today: 12.7

Today, four months and four days after being dropped off in Georgia I walked back into Connecticut. The border was a mile or so from where I stayed. Happy Feet had headed out early so I was lucky to find some people at the line to take my picture. I had finally made it into New England, exciting. Five more states to go. I was on another schedule today, for I was to meet my Aunt Marilyn and Uncle Bob near the town of Kent. I walked four miles to Bulls Bridge, an old covered bridge, that had a store and phone nearby to set up the meeting. I met up with Firefeet, Footslogger, and Martin at the store, all of whom I hadn¢t seen since at least Pennsylvania. The one person that I wanted to catch up was my friend Snot Rocket who I hadn¢t seen since Rusty¢s in Northern VA, but I heard he was still several days behind. It seems that all the big mile days I did combined with the days off to null each other out. I was still around many of the same people I was around in mid Pennsylvania. Now I was trying to pull ahead again since I had a few more planned days off coming up. I was right on schedule to meet my Aunt and Uncle seven miles later when I came around a corner and was surprised to see them sitting on a log. They had taken my suggestion to hike a little way in and even went beyond the shelter a quarter mile from the road. We hiked down together taking time to stop by the shelter and show them what kind of place I would spend the night in. We took a few photos and headed on down to the car. I give much respect to them for this stretch however short was exceptionally steep and rocky and was tough even to me. I changed from my dirty hiking clothes to my dirty town clothes and we headed down into town. Kent was not your typical trail town. It was an upscale artsy town that catered to tourists that had not just come down from the hills. I found most people to be hiker friendly, but there was clearly a significant portion of locals who were not comfortable having so many unkempt mountain-folk around. We toured the area by car. A treat I¢d not often had in a trail town. I had come into town with the idea of hiking on but as the hour grew on I started to change my mind. It looked like a big thunderstorm was headed in and I¢d had enough of pushing myself along, never mind the rain. I was treated to a nice steak by Bob and Marilyn who¢d just gained a new respect for what I was doing with their jaunt up the rocky mountainside. The options to stay in town were a 100 dollar room at the inn, a playground pavillion (where I was told to be sure to be out early before anyone could see me there), and the basement hallway of the local church. I toyed with the idea of heading back up to the shelter outside town, but decided to stay in the church. I did after all want a taste of the Connecticut trail towns and this was the only one I would see. I took advantage of the outdoor shower the church had, and by outdoor shower I mean the hose behind the fence. I was dirty though and it felt good. I bid farewell to Bob and Marilyn thanking them for dinner. I wandered around town for a while managing to find a few of my kind before retiring early. We had to be out of the church by eight.