Date: 2017-07-02
From: Bulls Bridge Rd

To: Stewart Hollow Brook Shelter
Miles today: 14.7
Weather: clear sky

We got moving pretty late, which was perfectly fine by me, and stopped by Walmart so that I could pick up some wet wipes, a new pocket knife (I had apparently left mine at the last shelter yesterday. Ironically, I now have the same type of pocket knife I started the trip with), and a knee brace (to see if it would help prevent/mitigate my knee pain before it gets worse). I used the car ride to combine the individually wrapped wet wipes into a single ziplock, to reduce trash as we drove up to Kent, CT, despite the weird looks from my mom and brother. In Kent I needed to grab my maildrop box which my support friend, Slipper, had sent to the outfitter's in town. At the outfitter (which is combined with an ice cream store... Genius) I saw and exchanged greetings with Jaws, who had walked into town this morning, and then grabbed my package. I got new tips for my poles (since one of mine had completely worn away and would now slip on rocks), a new sit pad (since mine had blown off the fire tower in NJ, never to be seen again), some powered milk (to supplement my diet), and a couple of treats (a blueberry sour beer, some astronaut ice cream, and a bunch of candy).We got lunch at a restaurant and wandered around the cute, stereotypical small town New England main street for a while (Kent seems to be pretty hiker friendly... They just installed a public restroom and shower in the middle of town) before jumping back in the car and heading south. Picking up my package with the car saved me from having to come into town when I passed Kent on the trail today. It was only a short drive back and after a couple minutes of repacking all the new gear into my bag (and dropping the beer on the pavement and cracking it open, necessitating that I chug it... tragedy...) I was back onto the trail and my mom and bro were headed to Maine to meet up with my sister for the long weekend. I was heading there too, but probably not in time for the long weekend...As soon as I started walking the trail took a turn uphill, one steep enough that it immediately had me sweating and legs burning (which the hills had been doing more often as we continued north). It took me about an hour to top out, and it took me a while to shake the thought that my family had gone ~70mi in that time on the road, a much more efficient use of time. But then, it depends on how you define efficiency... or if efficiency is even the goal... and with those thoughts I was back into hiking mentality and cruising along. I passed to the trail's 2/3 mark, 1460mi from Springer Mt, GA, and accidentally chased a doe and fawn off the trail as I came through. Coming around onto the NY side of this hill I enjoyed the wonderful breeze which worked wonders towards cooling me down. As I started the descent I ran into Shaggy (who I'd been seeing on and off for the past couple days) and his family taking a break on the trail. I took them up on their offer of TRAIL MAGIC and scarfed down a brownie while chatting with them. Shaggy was headed home with them tonight and was going to zero there and get back on trail on the 4th, which would put him a little ways behind me. Moving on, I passed through a burned section of forest which had yet to fully recover, with only handfuls of plants dotting the slope. As the downhill started in earnest I donned my knee brace to try it out and found it quite restrictive to motion. Maybe that's the point, but it's not terribly comfortable, so it had better help enough to be worth it.While filling up on water I passed a group of girls from a local summer camp out for a 3 night adventure, and then ran into Maneater and Ravioli and hung out with them at the road into Kent while I tried to decide if the 0.8mi walk was worth it to get another ice cream. I eventually decided it wasn't worth it (plus, in the time it took me to decide 5pm had come and gone, which meant there was a good chance that things were closed) and so bade farewell to ManEater and Ravioli, who were also planning on zeroing tomorrow, and so would be behind me.I climbed up onto another hill and followed it for a while before the trail headed almost straight down the side over a huge rocky face. The knee brace, whether through it's restriction of motion, some other alignment effect, or placebo, did seem to be helping a bit as I climbed down the steep slope, which is good because I'd really like to avoid my knees becoming as bad as they were on the long trail. The trail bottomed out at the river and followed along it for the next section, which except for the bugs, was a very pleasant walk through the heart of the deep canyon it had cut into the rocky terrain.I reached the shelter at about 7pm and found no one using it, though almost every tent space around it was occupied. I managed to find a spot next to Molly and Laura and Sarah who were all section hikers doing portions of CT over the long weekend.While cooking dinner I ran out of stove fuel (which I knew would happen sometime soon, since I had been using this 4oz fuel can for the past 700mi since Perisburg, VA) and so settled for a lukewarm and extra al-dente pesto pasta side.We all watched the show the fireflies were putting on, much more numerous tonight than I had seen them before, as their flickering lights danced among the trees. Though not in any forecast I had seen, it started to rain, which sent us all scurrying back to our tents for the night. Through my tent walls I could see a light show going on in Sarah and Laura's tent, with something illuminating the tent in a rainbow of changing colors, as I drifted off to sleep among the sound of rain.