Oh yeah. Whoops!Originally Posted by L. Wolf
That was the town hall.
Dancin' Queen
It's St Andrews Episcopal Church - don't know if they're doing this for 2007, check the Handbook or Companion. I know it was unavailable the day I passed thru in 2006 (forget if caretaker was out or if there was a function that night), so you can't count 100% on it and do need to get permission first.
Ron/LW/HGL
any were i hang my hammock
neo
I called the Outfitter for the Church's number. Then called the church and asked if I could sleep in the lawn. Had a pretty good night there, and ended up forgetting a tent stake in their lawn. Definitely recommended.
where to stay in Kent, CT?
Unless money is no object or you got some good friends who live there don't plan to stay in Kent. Get in, resupply at grocery store, and hike out. The town is only 0.5 miles off the trail.
DavidNH
Kent. CT is a crappy trail town. Everyone was extremely rude to me. If you can, plan your resupply so you don't stop in Kent, or stay at the shelter just out of town and do an "in and out" operation.
Kirby
Well, if you weren't moving so darn fast, I would have done ya a kindness in Kent.
Gee, that's surprising to hear, Kirby. I admit it's no Duncannon or Port Clinton (it's Connecticut, after all) but I had a nice stay there. No rudeness that I can recall. No laundromat either, for that matter.
there is a laundromat across from the post office...kent was okay, but the trail is so close there is no need to stay...LW's stealth site behind the town hall was used a few times when i was there...
Kent Pizza Garden let me and buds stay in the grass.
Also, have stayed twice in a decent stealth spot across the street from the outfitter. If you are at the recently moved (and might I add poorly stocked and outageously expensive outfitter) just cross back over the main drag and walk down the road about 50 yds. There will be a big field on your right (across the street from where the old outfitter's was) where a large industrial looking business is. Walk the path towards the building. As you make it near the building you can see a playground with tennis courts straight ahead. The area beyond those courts is a great place. There is a pavilion, plenty of grass and for the most part you are hedged in. I imagine the local LEO makes a few trips up there for partiers or to check things out, so I'd keep it clean, but this is now where I stay when in Kent.
Yahtzee
Sounds like a hostel is needed.
I disliked the outfitter when I was there. No canisters at all (in fact, one of the salegirls didn't even know what it was). Just some yuppy clothes and shoes (but we did find trail runners for my hubby).
We stayed with friends near Kent for the 4th, so we were happy. Esp since it rained all day long.
Good place for a mail drop.
In and Out...
Panzer
towns are towns. they cater to the folks that go there daily. hikers amount to noyhing really. hikers need to fend for themselves
More bikers than hikers visit Kent. Sunday is hog heaven.
If memory serves me correctly, the laundramat over by the post office is now closed.
Things change with time but my memory of Kent is good. A bunch of us went in together on a room at a B & B. Had a good dinner and the outfitter was very hospitable. I had lost a tip off of one my trekking poles. It was a brand he didn't carry but he took the time and got it put back together.
'Slogger
The more I learn ...the more I realize I don't know.
the laundromat was open just a couple of weeks ago...no more hiker 'showers' in the restroom, apparently some of the early nobo's screwed that up.
...as always
I read Alpine Strider's last trail journal entry http://www.trailjournals.com/entry.cfm?id=243649 this morning and it speaks directly to this issue:
Kent, Connecticut.
Some unforeseen gear-changes brought me into Kent, CT, two days ago. Actually, I wanted to hike by since this town doesn't have the best reputation among hikers. Since I needed to see the outfitter in town, though, I had to hike in. And I am glad I did. Because it helped me see the things from both sides.
Yes, all the rumors about this place are true - this town is not at all very hikerfriendly, but I think that there is a very good reason, why.
Kent is a very striking and sad example for what can happen if previous hiker-conduct in town was so apalling to townpeople that they simply don't want to put up with such behaviour any more. And frankly, one really can not blame these people.
I talked to the owners the laundromat, for instance, and learned how they kept cleaning up behing hikers who used their laudry-washroon as a shower replacement, leaving all kinds of hairs in the sink, waterpuddles on the floor and pineneedles, dirt, cluttered debris from their packs on the tables where clients wanted to fold freshly washed laundry. It is no wonder that these people are already tense when they just spot a hiker entering their business with a pack on the back. They are genuinely fed up with having to clean up after everybody and put a sign in the washroom which very clearly expresses how they feel about the situation.
The Church of Saint Andrews used to allow hikers to camp out on the churchlawn. Not so anymore - not today, not tomorrow , nevermore anymore - which a framed little note next to the doorbell at the refectorium's entrance informs the AT hiker. I just can guess what they must have found on that lawn after overnight campers left town. And I can understand them. Even though this put me in a very tough situation, since even the Fife'n'Drum inn had had it's restday, I could not check in there either, nobody was there - in short: I spent some horrible night stealthcamping somewhere behind the parkinglot of the townhall, close to some mosquitoinfested underbrush which was sluginfested in the morning, leaving several of them squished on my sleepingbag and elsewhere...
But I still can fully understand these people. Having done an entire thruhike last year, and now doing another one, I really can say that I have seen it all. Hanover, NH. Until last year, the Dartmouth Outing Club allowed hikers to camp out next to the soccerfield, at the AT trailhead north. This spot is conveniently close to the COOP grocerstore, nobody tampered with your stuff while you were out doing your town-chores - it was heaven to pitch your tent and stay in that pretty Collegetown for free. Already last year I collected trash from previous hikers to clean that place up. This year, camping out there is no longer permitted. I still camped out there, though, because I only read it way into Vermont, that this was not any longer allowed. But again, I picked up hiker-typical trash like trailmixbar-wrappers, Gatorade bottles, Ramennoodle-wrappers, CrystalClear-wrappers. What can I say - you know your folks. We all eat the same stuff, and we know where trash like that comes from.
Hikerhostels. The bathrooms in particular. Do I have to describe the yucky amount of filth, of bodyhairs in showertubs, bathtubs, and the dirt on and in toiletbowls - only because some people never ever seem to clean up after themselves? These places could all look way cleaner if everybody just would look a little bit to it. Who is supposed to clean up after such people?
Frankly, it is a wonder to me that not way more townpeople react this rigidly towards hikers as what comes like a cold shower right into your face in Kent, CT.
And another sad thing is this: it only needs some badbehaving hikers to spoil it for everybody else who comes after them. In that sense: Think about Kent, when you thruhike on the A.T. - Kent could be everywhere...
Trillium
ahhh Kent - I frequently think if I won the lottery I would start a hostel up there. just to buy the property would cost a pretty penny!! And I am CT native so i know my property values.
As a hiker, I would get in and then get out - unless you are fortunate enough to meet a local (hint every spring me and my DH hike SOBO south of CT to meet thrus) who will take you in!
~Christy
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