Date: 2008-06-02
From: Schaghticoke Mtn Campsite CT 

To: Silver Hill Campsite CT
Miles today: 13.4
Weather: scattered clouds

Day 106 ¢ Monday June 2 ¢ Silver Hill Campsite CT ¢ Miles Today: 13.4 Total Miles: 1463.9This morning we had a 3-mile walk to the road that led us to Kent and boy were those 3 miles not so much fun!   The trail was a bit rocky and it was getting in the way of the donuts and us. Never, never stand in the way of a thru-hiker and donuts! Finally a little before 8:00, we arrived to the road and began our .8 mile walk into town. There wasn't a lot of traffic so unfortunately we were not able to score a hitch, which means we ended up walking on pavement the whole time - not quite what we wanted to do.On our walk into Kent we passed a beautiful school with old buildings and soccer and football fields. The sign told us that it was Kent School, a prep school. I can just imagine that the tuition there is quite steep. Apparently the crewing team there is quite good ¢ they have an annual trip to England for a tournament and apparently place quite well.We had a successful grocery store trip, which means we found donuts! After shopping, we sat outside alongside the store wall for 45 minutes eating our donuts while we repackaged the oatmeal, gorp and made the cheese burrito sandwiches. That whole process is very time consuming, but we were in no rush, as the library did not open until 10:00. We had the food repackaged, stowed in our food bag and were sitting outside the library on a bench by 9:50 waiting for it to open and enjoying the sites along the quaint little main street of Kent. It's really quite a gorgeous town.We got caught up on our emails, charged the cell phone and chuckled over the note in the restroom, that read, ¢Dear Hikers: If you are in need of a more thorough washing, there are public restrooms nearby in the Village Barns Complex......they are opened 24 hours a day, year round." Well drats...guess we'll limit our sink showers this time to just our hands and face. Life is still good if not a bit smelly!After the library we walked to Bridge Street, the street that takes us back to the trail, and stuck out our thumb. Three cars later and we scored a hitch with a lady who lives just past the trail! She said she frequently picks up hikers. She saw that we were wearing shorts and made sure we were aware of tick issues. We said we were and were actually trying to be careful of them but to no avail.   She has had Lyme disease 5 times! She said that 50% of the ticks now are apparently carrying diseases. I don't know if 50% of the ticks are carrying Lyme disease or if 50% are carrying a tick borne disease. Regardless, the odds are not good. She explained how thoroughly we have to check ourselves and how to remove them with tweezers. Grasshopper mentioned that the tweezers on our utility knife don't have a pointy enough edge and asked if she had any tweezers that would work better. ¢Sure¢, she said. So she drove us to her house, which is literally just past the trail, and after offering us lemonade, went inside to get her tweezers. Since we already yogi¢ed the tweezers, we figured we should bypass on the drink offer. Grasshopper is never a shy one to yogi, but she does try to limit them to a reasonable number. Our tick count unfortunately continues to rise. Earlier this morning Grasshopper had one on the back of her knee and this evening at camp we found one on Brakeman's ankle. We are really looking forward to getting out of this tick-infested area. After our resupply in Kent, we had a 10-mile hike to our campsite. We had a mixture of some good trail and some really steep, rocky trail. One of the areas that we descended was very steep, very rocky, and involved some boulder climbing. It was quite slow going. Just past that area were sheer boulder rock walls where 15-20 guides from an outdoor school were rappelling.   We stopped and chatted for a bit. Half of them had rappelled before and half of them were in training.   Given that they were rappelling down the cliff alongside where we just hiked down, gives you an idea as to how steep of a descent we had! We also had some very smooth trail for a couple of miles along the Housatonic River, but despite the good trail, we still averaged just less than 2 mph due to the steep descents and rocks.   The Housatonic River is contaminated with PCBs. The fishermen we talked to said they can¢t even eat the fish they catch due to the contamination. Perhaps they could eat the trout because it's stocked, but when we ask them what time we should stop by for dinner, they didn't encourage us at all. Tonight we¢re camped at Silver Hill - a really cool campsite. We have a pavilion, a bench sitting area, a rocking chair, an old pump that pumps rusty, stinky, horrible tasting water, and an outhouse. There used to be an old cabin here overlooking the valley, but it no longer remains. Three other hikers are with us tonight. It was about 56 this morning and in the mid 70s this afternoon with a little cloud cover and breeze. This afternoon we hiked in our long pants to increase our defense against the ticks. Tomorrow there's a possibility of thunderstorms in the afternoon. We've got a long day planned - 20 miles. Officially it's 19+ miles, but we have a half-mile off the trail, unfortunately, to our shelter. We're going to have to get an early start and hope that the trail is good and nice to our feet. The hardened packed path we were on for a couple miles, as well as the mile in town on the pavement, gave our feet a beating today. We're hoping that 20 miles tomorrow is doable and not so bad.Goodnight from a neat little campsite with limited valley views (due to overgrown trees).