Date: 2006-07-18
From: Mt. Algo Lean-To

To: Stewart Hollow Brook Lean-to
Miles today: 7.3

I got up early this morning since we were so close to town in an attempt to make the half-mile road walk before it got too hot. Donkey and I left out and in 30 minutes we were in the town of Kent, CT looking for something to eat. We ended up getting a breakfast bagel and some coffee at Panini a coffee house while waiting for the local outfitter to open. This area of town was built in a traditional New England stile shopping center and is really nice. Some of the shops are still under construction but when finished will add a great touch to the town of Kent. After visiting the outfitter we started walking up toward the library when H-Bomb sticks her head out of the door of a deli and yells "no way dude!" She was inside along with Shasta, H-Bomb, Jane, and Baro. We thought they were miles ahead of us due to our trip into NYC. It turns out while they were in town yesterday a local lady from Kent put them up for the night. She had then brought them back into town for breakfast this morning. The strangest part of the whole thing was Baro had gotten a haircut and had shaved his beard off clean. He decided after 1400 miles he was a little tired of it I guess and wanted to go for the clean city look once again. The best part of breakfast though was when Chardonnay showed up and brought Leon for us all to meet. She is always talking about him, so it was nice to finally put a face with a name. After breakfast I went down to the grocery store to resupply. The grocery store isn¢t the best that I have come to while on the trail but did have enough to resupply for a few days. After shopping I stopped at the post office to forward my bounce box on to Dalton, MA. Since Donkey had plans to meet and stay with some friends for the night, Hot Springs and I hung out with him until he had to leave. Hot Springs still had a few things to do around town so I made a few phone calls. The first one was to Kershaw Knives because the lock on my pocketknife broke and they have a lifetime warranty on their products. They told me all I have to do is send it to them and they will fix or replace it at no charge. The other call was to The North Face because the shoes that I bought at Dunkelberger¢s Outfitter in Delaware Water Gap are already starting to come apart. Their gear rep sent me to the local outfitter here in town since they carried The North Face brand. When I got to the outfitter they didn't have my size so The North Face let me pick out any shoe on the wall that fit and replaced them free of charge. Thanks TNF! With everything done in town it was time to return to the trail. Since it has been 100 + degrees here today Hot springs and I took it easy all afternoon and made it to Stewart Hollow Brook Lean-To just before dark. We were going to push on a little further but decided to stop for the night because of an approaching thunderstorm. We got set up and the storm rolled in just after dark. It should be a good night for sleeping and hopefully the front will push some of the hot weather out and bring some cooler temperatures in with it.Tonight: Hot Springs, Mr. Parkay, Chocolate Bandito, several section hikers and myself.