Date: 2010-08-07
From: Schaghticoke Road

To: Kent, CT
Miles today: 7.1

CT 341/Kent, 7.1   We ended up stealth camping last night. We went to eat dinner and Bismarck and Bluesky had a few drinks and that was it. We walked down the road near the AT and hopped over a rock wall and set up camp. I hung my hammock and was set up in less then 10 minutes. I slept like a baby last night. It did get in the lower 60's last night and I got chilly in my hammock. I need to see how tonight goes and think about getting my winter hammock back.   I got out of camp at 07:15 this morning. That is the earliest to date that I have ever got out on the trail.   It was great hiking that early because the temperatures were low and cool.   While hiking on the trail today I got eaten up by something. I don't know what it was because I never saw anything bite me. I think it was chiggers.   This morning I ran into Slightly Inapropriate (I need to ask him how he got that name) while he was taking down his tent. He had also stealth camped on the trail. Later on in the day we ran into Dan the ridgerunner who found out we had stealth camped and gave us the speach that we were not suppose to do that. We had know better but I had rolled my ankle and it got late and we had no other choice. It would have been unsafe for us to hike over the mountain that late in the evening. He was nice about it and knew there were exceptions sometimes.   The ridgerunners name was Dan. Dan told me that shortly after I passed him today that he ran accross a coiled up rattle snake in the trail. I was glad it was not there when I went through.   I arrived at CT 341 and went into Kent today around one this afternoon. I ran into Slightly Inapropriate and we went to the IGA together to get restocked on food. On the way to the IGA we ran into Freeman. There are two Freeman's on the trail, this one and one with a dog named Damascus. I thought this Freeman was a month a head of me because the last time I saw him was a month int the hike after I started. He stayed at Blue Mountain Shelter with a bunch of us. He was doing big miles and was really lightweight with his gear. He said he had to get off the trail for stress fracutes in his feet and now he has been here in Kent for seven days waiting for some more foot issues to heal. It does not pay to go fast and try to do big miles.   The outfitters help me out with my broken Leki hiking polls today. The shocks in one stopped working a few weeks ago and the other one stopped a couple of days ago. They repace the broken sections at no charge. I looked around while I was there and their prices were outragous. Some of the things were double the normal prices.   Slightly Inapropriate and I ate luch with Ziggy Startdust and his wife Thin Mint who are also thru hikers at a street restaurant.   Bismarck and Bluesky rolled into town while we were ordering our meal and went to eat somewhere else. I told them when I was done that I would go to where they were going. When I went there they had already had a few drinks and were giddy.   We went and did laundry after that. Just as we got done with laundry Chili and Pepper walked by the laundry mat. We all made arrangements to go to the last shelter south for the night. Everyone except me stopped at the liquor store on the way out of town. Then on to the outfitters to arrange for a slack pack for tomorrow. We made the arrangements and then went back to the trail. We hiked 0.3 miles southbound to the last shelter. We had to hike south becapuse the next shelter north was about seven miles and it was already getting dark.   After we arrived at the shelter Bluesky went to call to make reservations for the motel for tomorrow night for two rooms. At that time she realized she lost her wallet someplace and her phone had no signal. I let her us mine to call the outfitters. They could not find her wallet. She thinks it got left in the suv that she got a ride back to the trail head in. Then she realised that we told the shuttle providor the wrong location to where we wanted our packs dropped off at. I tried calling the shuttler providor and the motel but only got an answering machine. I left a message and now all I can do is hope they check there answering machine. Dave our shuttle provider called just as I was getting ready to shut my phone off and said he had been in the area for over 20 years and had never heard of the motel that we wanted our packs dropped off at. That has me a little concerned now. He said she would do some research on it and we could talk in the morning.