Date: 2016-06-01
From: Clarence Fahnestock State Park

To: NY 22
Miles today: 24.9
Weather: scattered clouds

Hiked 24.9 miles today from Fahnestock State Park to NY 22, home of the Appalachian Trail RR station and Tony's Deli. Back to that in a minute. With the exception of the views from Bear Mountain and West Mountain, today was the best hiking day in my time in New York with just about 8 miles left. The temperature was in the mid 70s and while the sun was out all day, the trail was heavily shaded. The water sources were plentiful and the changes in elevation ongoing but quite manageable. The scenery included everything from ponds and streams to beautiful swamps, densely forested woods to open farmland, several railroad crosses as well as major highway crossings (Tacomic Parkway and I-84). While I griped about graffiti a week,or so ago, there was a memorable painting of the US flag memorializimg 9-11 atop Shenandoah Mountain, just north of the State Park I started in.The two major highlights were seeing a "Dover Oak" tree on the trail that is estimated to be over 300 years old and has a girth of 20' 6" and passing by a beautiful lake whose history and name I learned at the end of the day and will share below from info found on the web. Another highlight of sorts is staying in my first $2/night tenting area outside of Tony's deli in what I believe is Pawling NY. On one side of me is Highway 22 and on the other are traintracks which are part of the MTA Metro North Railroad. But in the middle is Tony's which is great and open 20 hours a day, if for some reason, I can't sleep later.Here's some info on Nuclear Lake I hope you find interesting - "In 1958, an experimental nuclear fuel research lab was set up on the shores of a lake in Pawling, NY, by Nuclear Development Associates. According to this 1955 NY Times article, the remote site was chosen because ¢it was the largest convenient and available tract that was not crossed by public roads and could be adequately guarded for secret experiments,¢ which would involve ¢uranium and other radioactive materials.¢ All was apparently fissioning along just fine until the early 1970s, when two serious accidents occurred at the site. First, in 1971, a rubber stopper came off of a plutonium powder container, contaminating a lab room with radioactive material. Then, in 1972, a chemical explosion occurred in the building adjacent to the lake,,causing an unknown amount of plutonium powder to spew out into the air and presumably onto the surrounding grounds. Nuclear Lake had earned its name.Little seems to be known about the accident, though local legend has it that at least one person died, and that there was a cover-up. In the comments left to this Nuclear Lake post, one local recalls his mother, a nurse, saying that one of the victims came into the hospital with his watch melted down to his bone; another rumor has it that the ambulance he was transported in is buried on the site (you can read about a horrifying accident at a similar facility here).A clean-up commenced at a cost of $3,000,000, and the land was deemed safe for ¢unrestricted use.¢ The company closed down the plant shortly after, and the land was sold to the National Park Service for inclusion into the Appalachian Trail. Though documents were found that suggested the company may have also been dumping radioactive waste water into the lake, a Nuclear Regulatory Commission study gave it a clean bill of health in 1994."All I can say is that it was one of the prettier water bodies I have seen on the entire AT!