Date: 2018-08-04
From: Mt Algo Shelter

To: Stewart Hollow Brook Shelter
Miles today: 7.3
Weather: overcast clouds

You read that right, only 7.3 miles hiked today. Here's how the day went down to arrive at such a low total.As you have read, I've been getting hit with rain for quite a few days now. And today the rain started as I was informed the night before, at about 5:00 AM. I was in no rush to leave a dry tent. With all the tenting I've been doing lately I've gotten better at staying dry. While in the tent I contemplated my options since I'd already hiked nine days straight. I could rest in camp, my legs were crying for it, or suck it up and hike in the rain again. I snoozed off and on until about 10:30 when I noticed the rain seemed to stop. I had cell service so I checked the weather forecast and it was clearing up for the rest of the day. Compass was up and moving so I exited my tent to check on her plans.She and her two friends were going to hike into the town of Kent, Connecticut. It was only a third of a mile hiking downhill then a mile walk into town on route 341. Kermit had to resupply and there was a laundromat in town as well. This got me to thinking. Why not get to town and do laundry and a small resupply to last until Great Barrington, Massachusetts? From there I could decide what to do and that became my plan and I started moving to put the plan in motion.Once in town, which was crowded with a car show and a sidewalk tag sale events, I found Compass at the Kent visitor center. She was going to hang there for awhile and recharge her phone. From there I hit the ATM next door and started walking to the laundromat. Low and behold I ran into hiker Boogerbear whom I haven't seen in almost two weeks. He was going to have lunch so I joined him. I had a french dip sandwich and he an overpriced $12 salad. We were both shocked to see a salad arrive that was no bigger than a large bagel. To be fair, they nailed it on the presentation aspect as it was walled-up by length wise cucumber slices. Food prices have been rising the farther north I get. Talking over lunch Boogerbear said he was hiking out of town afterwards.I moved on to do my laundry and updated my online journal while waiting. Then I bought some resupply at an IGA and went back to the visitor center to charge my phone while packing up the food. I decided to get back on the trail and tent to be on the trail for the following morning. Oh, I got ice cream on the way out of town, yum! I hiked longer than planned since I couldn't find a valid tenting spot. It started getting dark and I realized I was closing in on the first shelter away from town. There'd surely be tenting sites around the shelter. The last 45 minutes I was hiking along a river which was as easy as is gets. I did have to put on my headlamp for the last 30 minutes, my first experience with night hiking. Although not scary to me, night hiking stinks! It was tough to follow the white blaze markers on the trees. Eventually I made the shelter and tripped on a tree root and fell about 30 yards from where I camped. I setup in the dark using my headlamp and was in the tent at 9:18 PM.That's how I had a short day of hiking but a very productive day which left me feeling great. When I awoke the following morning I found I'd setup right next to hiker Moon Pie, and Compass and Kermit were in camp as well. For book followers, mile 1,475.4 page 148.