It was a rainy day on the AT (Appalachian Trail.) It was where the AT comes closest to New York City. Not far from this shelter there was a train stop right on the trail that would take you in to NYC.
I stopped at the shelter to get out of the rain and take a break. There was a thin middle aged women in the shelter and she screamed and jumped out of her thin blanket- bag and ran around the shelter in her underwear, grabbing at her clothes she had hung up to dry. I said, “No need to dress on my account�. So she got back into her bag. She was cold and had this thin blanket bag that she assured me was what all the “campers� were using, now. She had a metal bowl full of flaming wax in her lap that she was using to try and warm herself up with. I offered to make her a hot cup of coffee but the only thing she had for a cup was a really big plastic Big Gulp cup that was apparently holding her entire water supply.
She told me that the people in Kent, Connecticut don’t like campers and that if I tried to resupply there “I wouldn’t be servedâ€?; she was English. I told her that I was going to resupply there anyway but she kept saying, “you won’t be served. So, now where will you resupply?â€? Then she told me that there was a place on the trail where the air would sometimes turn bad and you could suffocate. And that emergency service will not respond to cell phone calls. She also told me that right up ahead there was a hot dog stand. “Well, that’s a good one,” I thought; Wingfoot, in his Thru Hikers Handbook, lists every possible source of calories on the trail from pop machines to fine dining; I don’t think he would leave out a hot dog stand that was right on the trail.
My break finished I walked on and in a few miles, right off the trail, there it was: the hot dog stand.
