Sprout Day 68 (Friday, June 3rd, 2016)

We woke up today with the intentions of getting up early and getting a good start before noon ... but, we woke up and hit snooze a couple of times. Laying there half asleep I all of a sudden heard rain hitting the tent. I immediately flew out of the tent to grab our clothes hanging on a line right by the tent. We got in the river last night and rinsed all of our clothes off and swam for a bit. I was getting all of our clothes in the tent and grabbed our food bags so they didn't get soaked and looked over to see Mountain Man doing the same. I was gonna yell over to Whiskers to make sure he was awake but as soon as I looked over his tent was shaking. He was obviously awake and trying to get out of his sleeping bag.

Rainy day today

The rain put a damper on our early start and the 15 mile day we had planned, but I was happy to get the extra sleep! It took a couple of hours for the rain to stop but at least our clothes weren't getting soaked and our food bags were dry. We got up and decided ten miles would be perfect since we were getting a late start.

With all the rain from early in the day we had a slippery wet hike, it was humid too. I fell 3 times today. Walking over huge rocks when they are wet is just asking for a couple falls throughout the day. I think everyone in our group fell a couple of times today. Even though it was a slippery tough hike (the elevation change was up and down all day) it was still a great day. We hit our 600 mile mark! It ended up being at a lookout spot right on the trail, it was perfect. I'm so happy and thankful we have made it this far! It's such an accomplishment to make it 600 miles! I'm very happy with both of us for being strong and continuing on this journey together. I am lucky to have such a wonderful hiking partner.

It was a foggy day today

Bubbles on the trial

Beautiful spot to fill up our water

Boulder

Slippery rocks

Trees and fog

More fog today!

A map on the trail

Trail today

After our 600 mile point I decided to push on ahead of Bubbles to get our camp set up. I was planning on going to town with Whiskers to get a few more supplies from the store. I made it in time to set my tent up and hang a clothesline. Whiskers was in the middle of setting his camp up too. I got all of the food out of my backpack and got the tent situated. Mountain Man wanted to go too (when a town is nearby it's hard not to go and get something.)

It was a .8 mile hike to the town of Kent, Connecticut. It was a small rich town and I'm not too sure if they were hiker friendly. We went to an outfitters store, I didn't need any camping supplies but the ice cream was good! We couldn't find the store at first so we went to a gas station and basically got kicked out. The guy obviously didn't want us in his store. He yelled as soon as we walked in with our day packs. We skipped past that and asked if he sold tuna or pasta sides. He responded with a mean, “Have you ever heard of a store!?” No buddy, I haven't. I'm just walking the Appalachian Trail and have never been to a grocery store before. He did point us in the right direction and proceeded to tell us to go to a grocery store if we wanted food. I don't really get it. We would've been happy to shop in his little convenience/gas station but I guess I'd rather give my money to someone who wanted it. We found the IGA and all bought some snacks and food to get us by.

Kent is a small town. The guy at the hot dog stand told us it's a town with a lot of money. We were told that when 9/11 hit NYC a lot of the wealthier people made their way towards Kent. Money doesn't buy happiness and it definitely doesn't guarantee quality nice people. The town was still a nice town and I'm happy we went down. It was only a 1.6 mile round trip. 

Kent, CT

  We got back and hung out by the shelter to eat dinner and talk with everyone before we went to bed. I'm glad I'm not the only one who loads up on too much food from stores. Whiskers had a few too many things too. It's hard to not get too much when you haven't been in a grocery store all week and you’re getting low on food! It was a great evening being with everyone and I’m hoping to get some sleep tonight so I can get up early in the morning. Hopefully I can get up before everyone and get coffee and breakfast started so we can get out as early as possible.

Day: 68
Miles hiked: 8.4
Total Miles hiked on the trail: 605.1
Bears: 0
Bluegill: 2
Butterflies: 8
Chipmunks: 3
Cows: 24
Crawfish: 1
Deer: 20
Donkeys: 2
Horses: 12
Hummingbird: 1
Inchworm: 1
Really Big Dog: 1
Mice: 2
Nest of bugs: 2
Newts: 2
Owl: 1
Rabbit: 1
Skunk: 1
Snail: 1
Snake: 2
Squirrels: 11
Toads: 3
Trout: 2
Turkeys: 4
Turtles: 107
Vultures: 6
Woodpecker: 1