Date: 2023-07-20
From: Graymoor Friary

To: Sages Ravine Campsite
Miles today: 97.8

Google Photos Photo AlbumDay 36Graymoor Friary to Canopus LakeAT Miles 13.6Miles hiked 14.3Today was a planned easy hike. It was slightly over 14 miles to Canopus Lake where they have a section for thru hikers to camp. The park leaves the beach, restrooms and showers open for hikers after hours. If you arrive early enough there's also a concession stand. I figured I could make the concession stand before closing. I slept in and took my time packing up letting everything lay out in the sun to dry from the dew. Jose and I spent some time looking for my missing sock. It seems socks getting lost in the laundry even extends to washing them in the shower. The floor of the shower was a pallet and it had fallen in the space between the boards.  While eating breakfast, Lynn and I tried to figure the best place to send my new pole tips and sleeping pad. Not as easy as it sounds. We finally decided on a post office about 50 miles up the trail in Kent, Connecticut. I left a little before 10 expecting to be at the lake around 5. On the way out I visited the Friars Cemetery and 9/11 Memorial then soon was on the AT heading north. Or not. Reoriented, I was now on my way to the lake.This did not turn out to be the easy hike I had envisioned. This ended up being a hard day of hiking with only a few short stretches where I could just go. There were plenty of rocky sections and steep climbs. There were also sections where the vegetation was so thick I wasn't entirely sure if I was still on trail. Oh, and plenty of muddy sections.I stopped around 1 for a lunch break at what would be a really nice campsite and filtered some water from a nearby creek. Back on the trail, I came to a low spot that appeared to be a small, baby poop green pond which looked and smelled disgusting. Sorry leave no trace purists, there's just absolutely no way I was going to walk through, let alone any nearer to that cesspool. Apparently, I wasn't alone in my reasoning as I soon found a "trail" leading in a big circle around to the AT.You gotta love the trail designers in New York. I was hiking along and came to a very steep climb requiring the use of my hands to make the ascent. The trail then went almost straight back down the other side. The thing is, the trail could have easily just went around this hill instead of going over it.About two miles before the lake the trail turned super smooth. I believe it was once a mining road. About 1.5 miles from the lake was an interesting kiosk. Mounted to the kiosk was an old dial phone called the Telephone to the Wind. The purpose is to call relatives and friends who have passed to share your feelings with them. The mosquitoes were so bad that I'm sure the phone, for the time being, doesn't get much use. Pressing on to the lake it seems like the trail designers took the longest, hardest route possible to reach the thru hiker area. Once there it was really a nice place to camp. Sans mosquitoes.It's kind of weird, after camping alone or with only a couple of other hikers to suddenly be at a camp with about 20 hikers. It's amazing how friendly everyone is. Although strangers, in just a few moments it's like you're old friends.Jose¢s insect net had a hole in it so I gave him some duct tape to patch it. The little vampires need to be kept at by all means possible.  Another soft, grassy area to pitch my tent. I went up to the beach area to take a shower and eat dinner. The mosquitoes were less annoying there but still around.Once back at my tent I was thankful for my second day of sleeping on soft grass.  Day 37Canopus Lake to Corrado¢s Pizza/Deli, Stormville, NYAT Miles 9.9Miles hiked 10.7Yesterday's easy hike wasn't. So I made today my easy day. The morning started off with a rain shower that, thankfully ended quickly. I packed up my wet tent and other belongings and headed up to the shower/restroom area of the lake to eat breakfast with the other hikers. I had an insect bite that was itching like crazy and my anti-itch cream had absolutely no effect on it. Another hiker, Silver Back gave me a stronger cream that did the trick. Interestingly enough he had the same heavy duty yet inexpensive food bag from Wal-Mart that I have. We chatted a bit while enjoying our oatmeal. He had the genius idea of sleeping in the shower room last night. Air conditioning and no mosquitoes.  After breakfast I took off for the first stop on the deli trail: Stormville, NY. The blue trail back to the AT seemed a lot nicer than yesterday and before long I was following the white blazes to the pizza.The first half of the hike was fairly easy, sort of like a trail maintainer's apology for the day before. The second half was a workout but since it was a short day and pizza was on the menu, it was okay. The mosquitoes and gnats are impervious to insect repellant. I've taken baths in mosquito repellent which seems to attract rather than repel mosquitoes. That and all the vegetation hanging over the path made me decide on a different wardrobe. I was contemplating the merits of long pants and long sleeves when a SOBO passed me dressed in long pants, long sleeves, gloves, and a head net. He almost looked like a beekeeper. Perfect for this current state of affairs.  We talked for a while about what lies ahead for each of us. I asked about his pants and shirt and he said it was the only way he could tolerate the bugs which will get worse farther up north. He gave me the website and said they were currently on sale. I took note and planned to order the shirt and pants as soon as I had Internet on my phone.The hike ended at a hiker friendly pizzeria/deli (Corrados in Stormville, NY) that has a tenting area out back. The staff running these restaurants and their customers are very hiker friendly making all of us feel very welcome to be there. I had 2 huge slices of supreme pizza and 2 root beers then set up my tent and layed my clothes out to dry.  The bottoms of my feet feel bruised and as I was examining my shoes I think they are the culprit.  I would relate the sensitivity of my feet to the Princess and the Pea. While walking I feel nearly every imperfection in the ground and some of them are quite painful. To experience this for yourself, get some jacks and Lego blocks, scatter them on the floor, then walk across the floor bare footed. Yeah.After attending to my hunger and camp chores I spent most of the afternoon laying around resting and ordering long pants and a long sleeve shirt for hiking.    Dinner was at the deli and the sandwich was huge. The guy making the sandwich seemed to take a lot of pride in creating the "American Combo": roast beef, ham, turkey, Swiss cheese, lettuce, tomato, mustard, and mayo on rye. I could only eat half. I had the other half wrapped up to eat tomorrow. While eating, one of the other hikers, Traveller, from Ireland, joined me and we talked about the hike and what brought each of us to the trail. I felt much better about my recent fatigue and slowed pace after talking to him. He said New York has been hard for him too with its many steep, often rocky ascents and descents. Before long all the hikers who were there were singing the same song. I'm coming to believe that despite what some may say, there is no easy state. They are all, to some degree, hard in their own ways.After dinner I retired to my tent to update my journal and not surprisingly fell asleep. Something woke me up so I decided to hit the privy before the pizza place closed. When I crawled out of my tent there was my buddy Jose. We made plans for breakfast, I did what I needed to do then was back in the tent.At 3:40 AM there was suddenly all this noise coming from the factory across the street that continued all night. Turns out it's the place where they make Quikrete.Day 38Corrado¢s, Stormville, NY to Tony¢s Deli, Pawling, NYAT Miles 14.6Miles hiked 15.6Plan for the day was to hike to Tony's Deli in Pawling, NY for dinner and depending on how late I arrived I would either camp there or continue down the trail for a few more miles.All the hikers along with locals around Stormville heading to work were keeping the deli busy with breakfast orders. This town and business are really hiker friendly as they all stopped to talk to us and wish us safe travels. Jose and I ate breakfast together then I finished packing up and hit the trail. Surprisingly, it was mostly a nice dirt trail. There were the usual rocks, mud, climbs, and bugs. But nice hiking all the same.  At some point I heard a bunch of screaming and yelling up ahead so I stopped to listen. Apparently, the family from New Hampshire had run into a yellow jacket nest. Forewarned, I proceeded with caution and moved slowly and carefully up the trail. There was indeed a huge swarm of yellow jackets. I did my best version of the yellow jacket whisperer and moved through them unscathed.  I arrived at a shelter about the time my stomach was letting me know it was feeding time. I made some grape kool-aid and pulled out the other half of my sandwich from yesterday. Delicious! While eating I was also swatting at mosquitoes. It was nearly impossible to eat. Just as I was moving out a couple of SOBOs came by and I warned them about the yellow jackets. They were most appreciative of the tip. We said our happy trails and moved on. Soon after I passed another hiker eating lunch. Turns out her name is Lunch Break. How apropos.As I was leaving, a couple of guys out for a weekend hike passed by. I joined them and they started asking about my hike. Soon it was like we were lifelong friends joking and telling stories. We hiked around Nuclear Lake, now a popular destination for day hikers and picnickers. In the 1950s the Rockefellers bought around 1000 acres of woods including the lake to build a secret nuclear research facility. In 1972 the facility literally blew up spewing Plutonium dust all over the place. The government stepped in and made them clean the place up. Supposedly it¢s safe to swim in the lake but personally, I don¢t see that being a great idea. My hiking companions for the day concurred with my thoughts. About 6 miles later they were at their stopping point and said I was welcome to camp with them. I thanked them but wanted to continue on. We wished each other well then I headed up the trail.The trail went through some pasture land that offered some great views as well as a marsh and a board walk through a wetland.  Pretty soon I was at the Appalachian Trail rail stop in Pawling, NY. As I was heading up the road to the deli a guy from Boston was in the area to go hiking and saw the sign for the AT.  He was asking about my hike and telling me of his plans to hike the trail.I finally made it to the deli. So far in New York, the people I have met have been incredibly friendly. I expected more brusqueness. I finally found that stereotypical NY/NJ attitude in the woman running the deli. At least the food was good and reasonably priced. I took my burger and fries to the campsite to eat and set up.  Somehow, Lunch Break, Greyhound and Kibbles beat me there as well as a guy I'd not seen before. He introduced himself as Paddy O, a former thru hiker, friend of Lunch Break, now turned trail angel/shuttle driver. He was fixing LB's tent then taking them to the store for resupply. I went into the deli to pay for my camping spot ($2.00) and order dinner.After setting up and eating I went over to the deli to charge my phone and try to update my journal when Paddy O came over to talk. He reminded me a lot of one of my best friends growing up and soon we were reminiscing about being kids growing up in the 70s, music, my army career, teaching, and of course, hiking. A couple hours later, as he was leaving, he told me he was going to come up with a trail name for me.It was way past hiker midnight so I was off to my tent for, as it turned out, a not great night of sleep. First, there was a train that went by about every hour that announced its presence with several long blasts of its horn. Then there was the noise from the nearby highway. To top it off, down the road somewhere, a car alarm kept going off. At least it wasn't raining and breakfast was close by.Day 39Tony¢s Deli, Pawling, NY to Schaghticoke CampsiteAT miles 15.8Miles hiked 16.2After packing up I went to the deli to order breakfast and a sandwich for lunch. As I was leaving Toni's, my trail friends Cheesecake and Hooty Hoo and Saucy showed up in a car. They jumped out and we had a quick reunion. The driver offered to take me and Greyhound back to the trail. Better than walking back up that highway.The trail started out through a wet field overgrown with weeds. Might as well get my feet wet early rather than suffer the indignity of dry feet. This was also prime mosquito habitat so we got off to a grand start.  I soon left Greyhound behind as I climbed, stumbled, swatted, and walked up the trail. This actually would have been a nice section of hiking were it not for the briars, mosquitoes and gnats. I can't wait for my new hiking clothes.  I stopped at Ten Mile River Shelter for lunch and a break. The mosquitoes took the joy out of the stop so I got back to hiking. About a mile after the shelter I crossed the Housatonic River. The trail started getting tougher. I don¢t know if it was the rockiness of the trail, the constant ups and downs, or the heat but I was feeling pretty tired well before when I planned to stop for the day.About an hour before my planned stop for the day I caught up with Saucy who was planning to camp at the same site as I. On the final steep climb we caught up with a couple of scout leaders out on their annual boy scout campout minus the boy scouts. One of them had a bloody knee, the other a bloody bald head. We asked if they were OK and they laughed and said they were just creating another hiking story. One had received a slight wound to the head from contact with the trekking pole of his companion who had slipped and fallen on one of the many rocks decorating the landscape. About a quarter mile later we came to an overlook with another guy there eating lunch. He asked if we¢d seen his two friends and we relayed what we saw. He just shook his head. Pretty soon his companions arrived and joined us for snacks. Welcome to The Three Stooges Go Backpacking.  It wasn't long before we made our arrival at the Schaghticoke Campsite. The mosquitoes were so bad it was almost impossible to set up our tents. But we succeeded. Saucy said someone had built a fire at the last place she camped to keep the mosquitoes away and wanted to know if I knew how to make a fire. There were signs everywhere in Connecticut forbidding campfires. But this was a good idea so I told her to start grabbing very small, getting progressively larger dry sticks. I quickly made a small, smoky fire providing enough relief from the little bloodsuckers to allow us to eat. When I went to my tent to get my cook pot I noticed a huge swarm of bees around my tent. Wonder where they came from? I soon discovered I had driven one of my tent stakes into their nest and they were attacking the offending tent stake. I very carefully added the last tent pole to make my tent freestanding, and slowly removed the tent stake and moved my tent to another spot. Catastrophe averted. When I got ready to cook dinner I noticed I was missing my spoon. I tried for the life of me to remember where I saw it last and the best I could do was Canopus Lake. Saucy finished her dinner and cleaned her spoon then let me borrow it. Pizza Handz arrived just as I started eating and was more than happy to sit in the smoke so he could eat. A bit later Kibbles, Greyhound, and Lunch Break arrived and asked if they could camp with us and share our smoke. Of course.I went up the trail to use the privy and as I passed one of the scout masters (Curly or Moe), said with a funny grin, "Off to the gentleman¢s room I presume."That was odd. Not understanding his joke I just said sure and continued on. Then the humor became obvious as there, in the middle of the forest, all by its porcelain self, set a commode. Later, when Raina saw the picture of that privy she said you needed to be pretty bold to use that toilet. Or in a bad way.On the way back to the campsite a hiking couple were trying to set up camp while battling the mosquitoes and having a pretty rough go of it. When I arrived at our little area I checked for a signal and went off to call Robin while swatting mosquitoes. When I got back to camp everyone was already in their tents and the fire had gone out. I was soon behind the protective insect barrier of my tent trying to find the smoothest part of the ground to sleep on. My new sleeping pad couldn¢t come quickly enough.Day 40Schaghticoke Campsite to Silver Hill CampsiteAT miles 13.6Miles hike 16Today was a town day with a stop in Kent, CT for a shower, new spoon, shoes, pole tips, sleeping pad, laundry, and food.I woke earlier than usual and, spurred on by the mosquitoes, was on the trail quicker than usual. Saucy was already gone, Pizza Handz was still in his tent, and the others were just getting up.  The hike to the road went by quickly. As I was coming off the trail I was getting my phone out to figure out how to get to town. Before I could turn on my phone a car stopped in the road and I heard someone call my name. Huh?! It was Christine, the shuttle driver from the day before. She had just dropped off some hikers and saw me come off the trail. She offered a ride and of course I accepted. About halfway to town she saw Saucy so stopped and gave her a ride too. She dropped us at the town center then gave us an orientation so we would know where everything was. I walked up the street to get coffee and donuts and ran into Cheesecake and Hooty Hoo. They told me the shoe store was closed but maybe the outfitters would have shoes. Hopefully. Got my coffee and a roll and headed back to the visitor center so I could start running my errands.This was a very nice, hiker friendly town where everything was within easy walking distance. I stopped at the laundry so I could start washing clothes while I was doing my other chores. I entered the laundromat and started looking for the restroom so I could change clothes. A voice not very pleasantly asked what I was looking for. I explained and she told me that¢s what the visitor center is for. Ahhh. I had just met the famous grouchy laundromat lady. I politely apologized and headed to the visitor center for a shower. Showers are not free. For $2.00 you get a four minute hot shower. You can get clean in four minutes but there's no standing around enjoying the feeling of a hot shower. Oh well. Cleaner than I was 4 minutes ago, I was off to the PO to pick up my pole tips and sleeping pad. Then back to the laundry for the obvious. When I returned there was a different laundry lady working there who was very helpful. While my clothes were washing I dashed over to the IGA to buy some food for the trail and then dashed back over to the laundry just in time to throw my stuff in the dryer. While my clothes were drying I repackaged my food. I finished that just as my clothes dried. I went back over to the visitor center to change clothes. After changing, I finished packing my pack and walked over to the outfitters to borrow a pair of pliers so I could change my pole tips. As I was tending to that, the wind picked up and it started to rain. Oh joy. So much for clean, dry clothes.With new pole tips and a freshly packed pack I headed off to find lunch. I stopped at the Cafe where I'd eaten breakfast and Pizza Handz was just finishing his lunch. Pizza headed out while I was just starting to eat.The rain finally let up so I headed back out. The first part of the trip was a long road walk out of town to the trail. Steam was rising up off the road after the rain making for a very humid walk. The road walk at first was nice and easy until it started going steeply uphill. Eventually the road came to the trail where the steep uphill continued. As soon as I got on trail the mosquitoes attacked me. After a bit of hiking I came to the first campsite out of town where Pizza and Saucy were camped. I stopped by to say, "hey" then continued on. The trail suddenly became wide and super smooth following the river. I called Robin until I lost service while I flew up the trail. I came to a spring and filtered some water then made the final climb up to Silver Hill Campsite which was a very nice camping spot. Kibbles, Greyhound, and Lunch Break were camped there as well. I set up my tent and fixed a second dinner then was off to sleep on my nice, new air mattress.Day 41Silver Hill Campsite to Toymaker¢s Cafe, Falls Village, CTAT miles 15.1Miles hiked 17.1Today the plan was to make Falls Village to pick up my mosquito proof clothes at the post office. The others had already packed up and gone by the time I woke up. I took my time fixing breakfast and enjoying the morning hoping the trail coming up was as nice and cruisy as the last five miles of trail from yesterday. Nope. Today was a kind of hard hike with lots of ups and downs mixed with a little rain. Throughout the day there was the rumble of thunder off in the distance.At the top of one climb was a grandmother out hiking with her two granddaughters. She had lots of questions about my hike and asked me to tell her granddaughters about the AT. One looked at me like I was crazy but the other looked like she was read to go right now.About lunch time I passed Lunch Beak sitting on a rock by a stream. She said that Paddy O had come up with a trail name for me: Taps. I like it. I told her to thank him for me then moved on.At some point I heard what sounded like somebody on a motorcycle racing up and down a road. When I got to the hanglider overlook I could see a racetrack. I was hearing race cars. I took out my camera and used the zoom lens so I could see better and watched the race cars for a while. Then I heard much closer thunder. Time to get going.  Maybe 10 minutes later I was getting soaked. The hard rain only lasted about an hour but it rained enough to soak me through. There was still an annoying misty rain that lingered on.I finally arrived at Falls Village and was joined by another hiker who was also just coming into town.  This is a sleepy little town where they roll up the sidewalks at 5:00. We, of course, came rolling in much later than that. I met another hiker also just coming into town. There was a cafe called the Toymakers Cafe which went out of business. However, the owner still allows hikers to camp behind the cafe.There was another hiker, Mountain Goat, camped here who was having a phone struggle with Apple. I felt really bad for him but there was nothing I could do. He decided to remove his passcode from his phone so he could go straight to the Far Out app. After doing that he realized that some of his financial and personal data weren¢t protected so he did something to protect that data which ended up locking him out of his phone. He called Apple and they said to do a factory reset. He did the reset but couldn¢t restore his phone because he couldn¢t remember his Apple ID and password. To compound matters he was Canadian and had switched out his SIM card so he could use his phone in the US. He needed his Canadian SIM card and couldn¢t find it. What an ordeal. The hiker I just met loaned Mountain Goat his phone so he could sort the mess out.The only food options were cooking my dinner and eating with the mosquitoes or the Falls Village Inn. The rain had finally completely stopped so I set up my tent then went over to the Inn to see about dinner. The food was excellent but expensive. After dinner the hiker I came into town with and I sat on the Village Inn front porch charging our phones and talking.  Mountain Goat was still trying to fix his phone problems when we passed him on our way to our tents.Later that night I periodically heard Mountain Goat reinflating his air mattress. I felt for him. Dude was having a rough go of it.Day 42Toymaker¢s Cafe, Falls Village, CT to Sages Ravine CampsiteAT miles 15.3Miles hiked 17.3No need to be in a rush this morning since I had to wait for the post office to open. The mosquitoes were pretty annoying at the little campsite so I went to the cafe and sat on the steps waiting for them to open. Outward appearances of the place was that of expensive coffee and stale, designer pastries. I was surprised when I saw they fixed real food. I ordered pancakes, eggs, and bacon and was further surprised at how generous the portions were. And the coffee was good. This was more like a small town diner than a Yuppie coffee shop. By the time I finished, Mountain Goat and the guy I hiked into town with showed up. Mountain Goat had finally straightened out his phone debacle from the day before and was in a much better mood.  As feared, my package had not made it to the post office. Such is the peril of mail drops. The postal employee said they could forward my package so I left my info to have it forwarded to Great Barrington. Here's hoping.  I walked back to the cafe to get my pack and hit the trail.  The plan was to pass through Salisbury for lunch then hike to a shelter that was about 5 more miles up the trail. A planned 20 or so mile day. The weather was beautiful, the mosquitoes were somewhat less annoying and the trail wasn't real taxing.  The hike out of town was very nice and I went down to the river to take pics of the water falls for which the town was named. The rest of the hike wasn¢t bad but it was hot out and part of the hike was through a field.I made it to Salisbury and ended up at a bakery eating a couple of cookies and drinking iced tea. Not exactly what I envisioned but the cookies were good and the tea was cold. Calories. While I was eating, a couple of guys started chatting me up about the trail and telling me about their hiking experiences. As I was leaving I asked if there was a place close by where I could get a soda.  There was. A grocery store was less than 100 feet away that I hadn't noticed. I thanked them and headed to the store. Sitting outside the store was Pizza Handz, the guy from Falls Village, and an older hiker, No Rush, who was my age doing the same thing as me. He retired from the Air Force and Civil Service and started hiking the trail with his son, 911. He's been out here for 10 months. He had to get off the trail twice for medical issues and once for a funeral and expects to complete his flip flop next month. They said that Saucy had come into town but they didn¢t know where she was.I went in for my soda and got some ham and cheese from the deli and a roll to make a sandwich along with a Mountain Dew. I joined the other hikers and listened to No Rush's hiking stories.Pizza Hanz asked where I was hiking to and after I shared my plans of hiking to the campsite just past Race Mountain. He said I was free to do what I wanted but that he had heard that that was a very hard hike and he didn¢t think it was a good idea to try it at night. I¢ve had challenging night hikes so far so thought, ¢How bad can it be?¢ Still, I hadn't considered that but didn't abandon my plans. We left town together and overall, the hiking was nice. There was a cooler of trail magic at the bottom of the climb so we each grabbed a root beer and headed up. He stopped for a break at Riga Shelter and I continued up Bear Mountain. The views from the mountain were spectacular. I celebrated my summit with my root beer and some pretzels while enjoying the view. Pizza Handz soon joined me and again tried to discourage me from my night hike plans. As the sun was starting to set we headed down to Sages Ravine. The hike down turned out to be a long rock scramble. Once at the campsite I decided to stop for the night instead of continuing on. It was dark by the time I cooked dinner. While eating I could swear I heard kids voices but couldn't make sense of that out here in the dark and not close to any civilization. Anyway, I put my food bag in the bear box and went to sleep. About 10:30 I heard some noise down by the bear box and looked out of my tent to see some headlamps so figured it might have been some late arriving hikers.About 3:30 in the morning I heard a commotion down by the bear box again and saw three headlamps at the box. I flashed my light at them and they left. Having heard of people stealing food bags I went down to the box to check and my and Pizza Handz' food bags were still there. Farther off in the woods was a concentration of light so I sat outside my tent keeping an eye on the situation. A little after 4:00 here comes the 7 dwarfs up the trail. No, it was a youth group on a night hike. Talking to Mountain Goat the next day it was a YMCA youth group going up Bear Mountain to watch the sunrise. There is Karma because it was so foggy and overcast the next morning that all they would be able to see was white.I finally got back to sleep hoping there would be no more nocturnal drama.Hiking the Dream!Please email comments to:bobshike2023@gmail.com