Date: 2003-07-03
From: Kent, CT

To: Pine Swamp Brook Lean -To
Miles today: 17.0

17 miles. From Kent, CT. to the Pine Swamp Brook Lean-To.   I woke up around 5:30 but I was taking my time this morning because I knew the breakfast place, Caralee¢s, was not going to be open until 7:00. I messed around and did some sewing on my backpack. I think I mentioned that I was sleeping downstairs in the furnace room because the church upstairs was really, really hot. The previous night I had gotten bitten up by mosquitoes because I was sleeping outside the sleeping bag. So, I was sleeping in the furnace room. Plus, I got to sleep away from everybody else. The problem was in the furnace room ( I had noticed when I set up in there ) was everything was covered with a thin film of dirty, dirty dust. I got up this morning and everything was filthy. The therma rest, my sleeping bag, the shorts that I had just bought yesterday were all completely dirty. I brushed off as best I could and decided that was not the best place to pack up my backpack. So, I grabbed everything and went upstairs with it out the door. CeeBee, a very, thin, small lady, who I had walked in with the day before, who I had met at a shelter earlier as well, was already packing up. Then two guys, one guy Red and the other Blue¢¦¢¦.Red was called Red obviously because he had red hair and freckles¢¦Blue I think was called Blue because he was wearing a lot of blue I guess. He¢s a relatively young guy. Probably in college. College age. Anyway, I got packed up and CeeBee and I walked over to Main Street a little too early. Caralee¢s wasn¢t open yet so we went down to the deli and got a coffee. She got a danish. I decided that I was going to wait until Caralee¢s was open. After drinking coffee I went back and got a western omelet at Caralee¢s. I kind of just hung out. I got the lady there to fill up my water bag with ice which is a real treat because now today I am hiking with cold water. I usually get luke warm or just plain hot. I don¢t think I mentioned yesterday that a few miles out of Kent we dropped down to a river and the river was the Housatonoic River in a very beautiful spot. It was really flat and had wide expanses with really widely spaced trees. The kind of place you just want to pitch a tent and hang out for days and swim in the river. When I got to the river crossing, the bridge, there was Team Bob/Mike/Bob. One of the sons was in the middle of the river sitting there soaking up the water. The Housatonoic river was a really wide river. I¢d say it was a couple of hundred yards wide. The water goes from some places where it¢s just flowing calmly, maybe about 5 miles an hour, to some places where it has rapids and boulders sticking out and little waterfalls. Really very beautiful and scenic. Walking out of Kent this morning I couldn¢t find the freaking trail. I¢d walked up and down the road a couple of times and wasted about 12 hour. I didn¢t start walking on the trail until 8:30. You walk up a really steep mountain and then down stone staircases which is really, really steep as well. Then you have a really flat, almost a road walk ( I¢m in the middle of it now ) for I¢d say at least 5 miles along the Housatonic River. I am so happy to not be walking on rock anymore. Anyway, that¢s up to date as of 12:30. I¢m gonna stop here in a few minutes and cut up my bagel and stick the pastrami on it and munch out for lunch. I¢ve got 10 miles in so far. It¢s a little on the slow side for me for noontime but I¢ve pretty well decided that by this point and I even talked about this last night to Spiderman over beers¢¦.that it¢s time to start slowing down the next couple days or so. There will not be anymore 25 and 30 mile days. I¢m going to try and stick to under 20. Today I¢m trying to do 24. Mainly to catch up to Spiderman again so I can hike with him also because at 24 miles there is, of course, another deli which I want to go down and get some food at. I will record again tonight and give total mileage¢s for Thursday, July 3rd¢¦¢¦. Final mileage is exactly 17 miles¢¦.from the Kent, CT. to the Pine Swamp Brook Lean-To. I pulled into the lean to here right around 5:00 and I¢m still seriously considering running the other 5.6 miles to run into US 7 and the restaurant that was there. I was calculating that I wouldn¢t be there until a little after 8:00 and the book said that the restaurant closed at 9:00. It just didn¢t seem to make sense to go down there just to eat and then try and get out of there to find a place to sleep in the dark. I just went ahead and took my time here and got some food and then sat around. CeeBee showed up about an hour after I got here. Then Blue showed up and then Red showed up another 45 minutes after him. So, there¢s four of us here at this shelter. I think Red and Blue are actually pitching a tent and CeeBee and I are going to do the shelter. Forget about the easy road.   It was okay this morning and then it just turned deadly. A very rough day. The second half of the day was all steep stuff on a very rough trail. A lot of rock stairways. Some so steep that you had to put the trekking poles away and go hand over foot to get up or down them. There¢s all kinds of notes and warnings in the register that this shelter is full of bugs. I DEETed myself to death once I got here. I haven¢t really been bothered by them yet but we shall see.   I also called home and I¢m having my winter gear shipped to Hanover, NH in preparation for hitting the Whites. I¢m passing a lot of day hikers. Passed a bunch of them today just out on a weekend warrior thing. Tomorrow is the 4th of July. I¢m going to go down to town first thing for breakfast and then possibly try and walk as far as Salisbury. I don¢t know. It depends on the terrain. I¢m definitely slowing down. I only did 17 today. I figure I¢ll probably start taking it easy.