July 31

Running to Kent

So this morning, we found out what happened to Slims.  He got all of the texts we had sent him, since he now had a signal, in Kent.  Amazingly, he had made it all the way to town last night.  Samson drove into town and scooped him up so we could all hang out together today.  We spent the day just relaxing.  I read some of a book on outdoor survival skills.  We had another delicious meal for lunch, asian-style noodles, rice, fresh vegetables.  It got pretty late in the afternoon, and we still hadn't left the house yet.  By the time we got our stuff together, said our goodbyes, and loaded into the car, it was almost 6pm.  I got dropped off at the trail where I had gotten off yesterday and started hiking north toward Kent.  I really needed to fly to get to town before dark.  7 miles in a little over 2 hours.  The first obstacle was a brisk 900 foot climb up Schaghtioke Mountain.  On the way up the climb I heard an owl screeching.  I stopped to watch it in a tree for a minute, and then a second owl flew out of the brush and onto the branch to sit with the other one.  There  I had two owls bobbing there heads, squawking at me.  The were ghostly looking, all white, with beady black eyes, looking straight at me.  After I watched them for a few minutes, I continued on, trudging up the mountain.  The next stretch was a nice ridge walk for several miles, that offered an occasional view.  This section of the trail was essentially on the border between New York and Connecticut.  Just before dropping off of the ridge, I passed the official 'NY/Conn' sign, tacked on to a tree along the side of the trail.  A few more bumps up and down separated me from the road into town.  Along the last decent, the wood were dark.  There was still enough light in the sky above to make out the trail without my headlamp.  I came out of the woods at the road crossing to a full moon in the sky overhead, just at dusk.  By the time I made it the 0.8 mile walk into Kent, it was totally dark.  I made it to St. Andrew's church where everyone was waiting.  Rainbow Eyes and Apache had made it there a while ago too.  They filled me in on the info for town.  The convenience store across the street was running a special on liters of Powerade, 5 for $5, so I had to go pick some up.  They had talked to the pastor earlier, and we were allowed to tent behind the church.