Summary: Crossed into Connecticut and New England! Telephone Pioneers Shelter: 1445.8 Mount Algo Shelter: 1467 Total miles: 21.2 Over the night, Tyler bumped our empty fuel can. Before we could do anything, it rolled down the hill from the shelter, and we could hear it rolling and rolling for a full minute. We left a trace because, without a manhunt, we would never find that canister again. We got going in the morning around 7:30. Dean, who stopped a few miles ahead of us, said the hiking for the day was a lot better. It definitely was. The terrain was less rocky and less steep on ups and downs. After a very short while into to our hike today, maybe 10 minutes or so, we came across the famous oldest tree on the AT.
We chugged until lunch time and stopped near a river. Duck Fart was the first to hit the water then Tyler followed suit. Patch washed his shirt in the river, though we later found out it was just downstream from a decomposing
crawfish so his shirt smelled even more interesting for the entire of the day. The rest of the lunch was relaxing and lovely, though perhaps a bit long. After we passed the bridge over the river, the terrain suddenly changed from pleasant to horrible.
The only respite from the rocky up down slippery mess was when we entered into Connecticut which raised everyone's spirit. We have five states left, all the new New England states. We were pumped. Also, it cheered Patch up considerably who had been pretty low spirits lately.
We continued on through the horrible terrain to the shelter, where Dean, sweet as sweet tea, had waited for us before heading into nearby Kent for food and relaxation. We hurriedly set up our tents, took some dry bags filled with our hobo provisions, this time mostly headlamps and electronics to charge in town. The 0.3 mile trail to the road was more rock hopping and fairly steep down, the return in the dark would not be fun. In town, we briefly stopped at the ice cream/outfitters to get some fuel. We tried to go to the town tavern, but it was closed. We headed to a nearby chinese/sushi place where we were the only guests on the Monday evening. Also, there was only one worker, presumably the owner, who was hostess, chef, sushi chef, waitress and bar tender. The food ended up being great and somehow all came out quickly despite the poor woman doing everything herself. We celebrated entering New England with some sake as well.
*Exciting to see some Maine related stuff
Before heading back to our tents, we grabbed ice cream from the ice cream/outfitters. Then we made the 0.5 mile road walk and 0.3 mile trek up the rocky steep slope. It was horrible. We made it all the way to the shelter with no incident until Dean amd Emily both stepped in a stream at different points. Dean got muddy, Emily drenched a shoe and fell into a pointed stump that saved her from a scary fall but gave her a nasty bruise on her thigh. All is ok, just no more night hiking unless we have the proper headlamp:
