Hiking Trail Journals

Appalachian Trail 2003 - Chelsea's Journals

Entry #105 - July 31, 2003

8:25 PM - Had a long day, even though we didn't get many miles in. Had our coffee & cereal & left camp before 9 & headed to Kent. Was only a few miles & we were there. Got the usual town run-around right away. The outfitter was supposed to have a solar shower, but it was @ their old place across town. Went there & they said it was broken. Tried @ the church where people had said there was a hostel. The Pastor said it was broken. We desperately needed showers!! You'd think a snooty town like Kent would have a shower available somewhere for stinky thru-hikers, so that they didn't cloud up every uppity place they went into around town! Finally went back to the outfitter & they said it was ok for us to use the solar shower @ the other place. But, since the "solar" part was broken, we'd just have the hose to use, with cold water. OK, that's fine - went back to the place & the shower was on the side of the building - a little platform with a curtain around it, in plain view of the Chinese restaurant next door. How funny! Well, it did the job & was refreshing. To say the least!

After that, we did the rest of our town chores - mail drop, laundry. Grocery shopping. Went to the library & when we came out someone had left 2 still warm pieces of pizza in a to-go container on my pack. Asked the other hikers around if they were theirs - nope. How ODD...We ate them, anyway. After we got those down, went & found a place to eat again.

It was 6:30 before we left town. The forecast says rain, but we figured we better leave before we starting spending too much money. Camped in the woods just a bit up the trail. At least we made it up the first mountain.

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