Date: 2014-06-25
From: stealth camp 

To: kent, ct
Miles today: 19.0
Weather: light rain

I woke up to humidity. This gave me not a lot of hope for the day. I got going pretty early and got down to rt 22 to find bubba just getting ready to go. He and looper camped at the garden center last night. They both, along with others said it was not a good place to camp. On one side they had a train running all night and on the other side there is a fairly big rd that had many a tractor trailer travelling on it all night. To make matters worse, the area for campers has a huge halogen light that buzzes all night. I was glad i stayed where i did. I talked with bubba about where tjey were going. They had planned on going to kent for the night, 18 miles for them. I didnt know what i was planning on. I figured i would walk along with bubba for a while so thats what i did. Soon i was going up a 500' incline. Sweat was pouring off me the humidity was so bad. This was not going to be good. By the top i had to stop and wring out my shirt, gross but true. Thankfully for a while it was flat trail but there was no air to breathe. We dropped down a hill and @8 miles in we crossed over into CT. I was in my tenth state! I was excited but knew ten mile hill was coming. Its not really ten miles long but its another 600' climb. Again sweat just pouring down me. Down the other side i got to the ten mile river. I sat and got a huge drink watching the water go by. I wanted to swim but by this point i had decided that i would go to kent for the night. I had no desire to go any further. Honestly i didnt really want to go that far but the forecast was calling for bad weather and possibly hail tonight, so i wanted to get to kent. After a couple miles of flat walking it was the last big hill for the day. Shaghticoke mt was a 900' climb. I knew what was going to happen so i grit my teeth and plugged my way up. Its miserable to be absolutely soaked from sweating. I had not looked forward to this from the beginning but knew it was coming at some point. The next stream i got to i put my face in. I was beat. I felt like i was totally out of gas. On we went and as we passed the mt algo shelter we noticed trail magic. There were two warm pabst blue ribbons on a rock. We passed em up. The last thing i thought i wanted was a warm beer. I wanted to get to town and get some cold drinks. Buckets of em. From the shelter it was only 0.3 to the road that led to kent. Oh happy day to get there. The bad thing was that it was .8 miles to town so we stuck out our thumbs. We walked as we hitched and wouldnt you know, i got my first hitchhike ride! A nice lady with a van stopped dead in the road to pick us up. I got to sit in front of an open window for the ride. It felt so good to have air blowing past me. She dropped us at the drum and fife hotel where looper had gotten a room. We took turns getting a shower. The only dirty clothes i had was the ones i was wearing so i washed them on the shower instead of going to the laundry mat. I went to the grocery store and got a half gallon of chocolate milk, half gallon of lemonade, pint of ice cream, and a box of cookies. I drank the milk, ate the ice cream, the cookies, and a bit of the lemonade. I was trying to save the lemonade for prehike hydration in the morning. The food i ate would be my predinner until we went out to get food later. We hung in the air conditioned room for a while doing nothing. We were all beaten from the weather. Then we went out to the pizza garden for real dinner. I got chicken breast with a baked potato and salad. It was delicious. Full stomach, tired eyes we waddled back to the room. The skies looked bad so i was glad about my choice to sleep inside. Back at the room i went to bed almost immediately. I just couldnt keep my eyes open any longer. I slept great in the cool air. Happy but tired boy.