Date: 2008-05-27
From: wiley shelter

To: stewart hollow shelter
Miles today: 19.7
Weather: few clouds

Just after I finished my entry last night around 8 another hiker showed up. He said he was a day hiker, but he also said he was spending the night. That was the first sign that got us a little confused. He proceeded to get a fire going and knocking down trees in the woods as we were trying to go to bed. Made a ton of noise and started to creep us out. We were a little afraid of him, and were glad we weren't solo. When he finally went to bed under a blanket {he only had a daypack} we thought we were in the clear. We were dead wrong. He snored. Loud. With more volume than I have ever heard. Tumbleweed and SlowandLow heard it loudly 100 yards away. It was horrible. TB and I kept hitting the floor to wake him up, but it started within a couple seconds.Hardly slept. He had his alarm set for really early. The worst part was he hit the snooze. This really annoys me. If you wake me up with your alarm in a shelter, that is alright, but don't keep hitting the freaking snooze button. That is extremely rude. Luckily he eventually got up and bolted out. Hopefully we don't see him again. Never gave us his name, but in typical TDM fashion, we came up with one for him.Up and out still tired. It was hot and extremely muggy from the get go. We were really dragging for the thirteen miles into Kent.We crossed into Connecticut fairly early. Five more to go. After that we had some climbing. I was the most miserable few miles on the entire trail. It was 80 and you could drink the air. I wanted to give up. I wanted to get to Kent and hop on a bus and go home. Seriously.Fell once and banged my knee pretty good. Wanted to throw my hiking poles. Just sat there for a couple minutes and considered my current status: feet are more numb and swollen than usual, still have poison ivy in two places, hurting from the fall, out of water, haven't had a shower since PA over 200 miles ago, haven't done laundry in longer, and was downright miserable.To sum it up, I wasn't having a good day, and was seriously considering going home.We collapsed at a campsite next to a stream and took a break. Less than ten miles into the day and we were destroyed. We got some water and that helped out a bit, and we pushed on.Was making small talk with a group, and I realized we had completely missed the 2/3 completion mark. It was at that campsite we took a break at. We were that out of it. Currently we have 1460 down and 715 to go.Made it into Kent for resupply. Went to a Chinese restaurant for lunch. My water was full of floaties and we were chasing ants off our table. The day gets better.Then it starts pouring rain.The rain stopped and we resupplied and had two large blueberry muffins and 2 liters.Bought deli sandwiches for dinner and I got some triathlon socks to try out since my shoes don't have Gore-Tex.Decided to retro blaze out of town to the AT. It was more scenic. Hit the trial and had a river walk along the Housatonic River which we travel along for much of the state.Hit the shelter and hung up the stuff to dry. Finishing off the last of Hummus's present tonight because I don't want to carry it anymore and today sucked.Currently watching hellgrammites dong laps in front of the shelter. Keep wandering back and forth.