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...