Day 101 Kent to Pine Swamp Brook Shelter

Today's miles 17.  AT miles 1480.2

We left the motel just after nine, Mr Patel the owner kindly shuttled us back to the trailhead at Kent, he was a very friendly chatty guy.  We were walking for 9:30 on another lovely sunny day.  The trail had plenty of variety today.  There were lots of small ups and downs again this morning over some rocky tops and a very steep rocky step descent down from St Johns Ledges to the Housatonic River which made the trail slow going.

Once down though the trail remained nice and level for just over four miles, initially along a gravelled track but then on a lovely path alongside the river where we stopped for a lunch break.  It was uphill and then down again to Guinea Brook where we had to do our first river ford of the trip.  There used to be stepping stones but they were no longer in place so it was either walk a one mile detour or ford the river.  We decided to ford, it was good practice (and good fun) for the river fording we'll probably have to do when we reach Maine.  The water level was quite low so it was pretty easy, no more than knee deep.  We swopped our boots for our Crocs though, we didn't want soaking wet boots.  Luckily the water wasn't too icy cold either.  Our feet felt very refreshed afterwards.

We had a few more ups and downs for the last six miles.  Rocky in places but with smooth sections of trail in between.  We had to pass through a large cracked boulder with no name.  The guide book just calls it 'cracked boulder similar to the Lemon Squeezer'.  We could get through without taking our packs off this time though. Just under a mile later we reached Pine Swamp Brook Shelter around 6:30pm, there were a few other section/weekend hikers already there.  Nigel pitched our tent while I collected water, which us our usual routine.  Sometimes I think I get the short straw though as often, like today, the water is a long way from the shelter and usually downhill!

We enjoyed today but It did seem like a long seventeen miles, the small rocky ups and downs we've encountered over the last week or so are a lot harder, more tiring and slower going than the bigger mountain ascents and descents.