Date: 2004-08-10
To: View Entry
Miles today: 13.6

August 10th. 13.6 miles.Last night in Kent was great fun. Laundry and then went to Paisons resteraunt and bar. It was 10 cent wing night. Can you beat that price? Sat and talked to the locals and The original sweet leaf and Fancy Free. They are a hoot.....I hope I see more of them.   After that we had to get ice cream. I don't even want to count how much ice cream I had yesterday. Finally to bed. Everything was so wet this morning. No rain.....just lots of dew.My pack felt way too heavy this morning and it took me a good hour before my body was feeling good. You walk along the Housitanic river for a while on a road called river road. Right before you go back on the trail there were two men and a cooler.   They asked if I was thru-hiking and I said yes. They told me that the young one was a photographer and the older one was a reporter with the local paper and could I spare 10 minutes. I told them I could spare a lot longer than that since trail magic was involved. Cokes! Mmmmmmmmm.   They had more stuff but I had a huge breakfast not much earlier. I told them my story and took pictures of them. They were nice guys and the one guy was part of that group of reporters 9 years ago who split the trail up into 5 sections with 5 different newspapers and reporters and hiked the A.T.   It was made into a book and I believe it is called "The Appalachian Way". He took down my name and address and said he would send me a copy of the paper.! Then the photographer followed me onto the trail and took pictures of me. I hope just one turns out good cause he took a ton of them. Then I was on my way again.The path was nice and flat and followed the river for about 4 miles. It was beautiful and oh so easy. I stopped alot today. It was warm so I cooled off a lot and drank lots and ate alot too because I was trying to lighten up my food bag. I came to a stream crossing and took off my shoes and let my feet soak till they were numb.   That felt so good. My backpack goes on again and I start my climb. About five minutes later I come to a gravel road crossing. As I look to the other side of the road I see a garbage bag hanging from a tree. Something is written on it in red marker. As I approach it I realize it says Sparepocket on it. What an awesome suprise!   I take the garbage bag down and there was a bos of Krispy Kream donuts. Apples, pears, a bag of cookies, gatorade and focassia bread. I started with the donuts....than the fruit and then the cookies. The focassia bread I put into my pack along with two gatorades and an apple.   Then I wrote a note and left it on the tree. !Hmmmmm.....I am thinking all of this trail magic is from Yogi. If it is.....thank you so much....that was one of the best suprises I have ever received. If it's not from you Yogi....it's still one of the nicest suprises I have ever received!Now I am stuffed and happy and my pack feels like it weighs fifty pounds! It was a wonderful 50 pounds though. Finally to my campsite and one of the best dinners ever! And now I am sleepy!I think Baloo will hold the record for the most times another hiker has passed me. I'll probably see him again tomorow too!It dawned on me today that I am living my dream. How cool is that?SparepocketIt's 3:00 a.m. and a storm is coming. A pretty big storm from the sounds of it. I hopped out and peed and buttoned down the hatches and I am just waiting. It sounds like it is coming from two different directions. I was very selective about my tent site....i.e. great drainage.   I am a tad scared but excited too. That's my story anyhow and I'm sticking to it!