Date: 2008-07-12
From: The Mayor's House, Unionville, NY

To: Wawayanda Shelter, NJ
Miles today: 17.1
Weather: clear sky

+++++++++++++++++++It's been 7 years ago today that my wife passed away. I miss you Pamela and your smiling face. I woke up at 5am and just laid in my bunk with my thoughts till 6am...that's when Dick said coffee would be ready. I walked upstairs at 6 and coffee was ready! :-) Dick and Bill were both up and in the kitchen getting some breakfast items ready. We started talking and pretty soon it was 7am and I realized they had stopped preparing breakfast, so I asked if they were waiting on Mike. They said yes, so I opened the door to the basement and yelled to Mike to wake up and get his sorry butt upstairs....breakfast was waiting. It worked....he was upstairs in about 2 minutes and I might add...he looked really bad. Ha! :-) Dick is keeping a scrapbook of pictures of all the hikers that stay with them...and he picked that moment to take both our pictures. I was #259 for this year. That's a lot of hikers that have stayed there! Trillium signed my guestbook today, so because of what she said, I won't say anything about my picture. :-) BUT I will say Mike look terrible with his bed hair all squished to on side and linen creases indented on the side of his face. It was a great time for the pictures for the scrapbook! :-) I had lots of coffee and some scrambled eggs, potatoes and toast along with a glass of orange juice for breakfast. We sat around talking and I realized it was almost 9am, so I gathered up my stuff and got ready to walk back up to the Trail. I thanked Dick, the Mayor of Unionville, Bill, a retired maitre d¢, and Butch, who works for the village for what they are doing for the hikers coming through their area. Butch said he'd give Mike and me a ride back up to the trailhead, so we threw our packs in the back of his truck and we were off. I started walking north on the Appalachian Trail at 9am. It was already getting warm out, so I just walked along slowly and enjoyed the morning birds singing. I wanted to answer some of the email I have last night, but I felt I needed to stay and talk to everyone, then I was too tired when I went to bed....so if I owe you an email, please be patient. I am hoping to answer all my email on my next town stop nearer to the middle of next week. :-) The Trail went through about two miles off woods, then it followed a road to the Wallkill Wildlife Refuge and followed around some wetlands for a couple miles.I have had to almost jog through that area in the past because of the hoards of mosquitoes, but today there was none and I really enjoyed the walk. I even sat down on a bench near the end of the refuge and sat down and ate a snack and drank about a liter of water. There was a nice breeze blowing through the area and it dried me off some before I started walking again. Walkill National Wildlife Preserve I entered a swampy area and walked over some planks for the next mile, then started climbing Pochuck Mtn. I stopped at a vacant house that leaves the water turned on for the hikers and drank another liter of water and filled up two water bottles. I was drinking a lot today because of the higher humidity. I continued climbed the fairly steep hill till I got to the side trail to Pochuck Mtn Shelter. I stood there for a minute trying to decide whether or not to stop, then walked over to the shelter and took my pack off and sat it down in the sun to dry the sweat off it. I signed the register and used a smiley face sticker. I see Gator has slipped ahead of me again...he slept at the shelter last night. I walked on and finished climbing Pochuck Mtn. I was on my way down the other side when I met up with a guy out for a two month walk going south. His name was Rainbow 6 and he said he hiked the AT in '98-'99, then did the PCT a couple years later, then the Florida Trail. We talked about 20 minutes before I walked on. I have walked north in this area since '02 and I was having a hard time remembering what was coming next. I knew I had a nice one mile footbridge walk coming, but it turned out to be a few miles farther than I thought. I did eventually get there. I always enjoy the easy walking for that mile. It meanders through a marshy area that's full of cattails. Mile long boardwalk over the Pochuck swamp Bridge over Pochuck Creek The Trail entered some woods again for a while after that, then into some open fields. One of the fields was overgrown to the point that the weeds were taller than me and I pushed my way through the trail that was closing in from both sides with those weeds. I came to a ridgerunner a little later and asked him about that overgrown area. His reply to me was that it's always like that. Hummm. I got to NJ 94 and walked .1 miles to Heavenly Hill Farm. That's a farm store that has sodas, fruit and pastries. I was looking around to see what I wanted and the pies caught my eye....all freshly baked. I thought about the blueberry, then the bumbleberry, then the cherry, then I spotted two apple pies. I picked them both up and decided that the heavier one looked better. :-) I bought that and a half gallon of milk, then went out on the front porch and sat down in the shade where a nice breeze was blowing. I started eating and Mike showed up, the Liberty showed up. We all sat around...me eating my pie and they were eating fruit and ice cream. I was having a blast! Just think what it's like to sit with a whole pie on your lap and you have a spoon and it's ALL yours! Like I said....I was having a blast! :-) I got done and I hurt. :-( I thought about catching a ride with Liberty and going into Vernon and staying at the church hostel, but then I thought about climbing that steep mountain in front of me. I knew the mountain was going to hurt because of all I ate, but I also knew that I would feel better after I walked some of the pie off, so I climbed the mountain. IT HURT! :-) It was a steep 800 foot climb. I was soaked when I got to the top, but there was a nice breeze up there, I looked around for a flat spot to set up my tent, but didn't find any I liked, so I walked on another 4 miles and ended up tented near the Wawayanda Shelter. Sidecar had left water jugs at a road crossing before I got to the shelter, so I filled my water bottles for tomorrow. I got to the shelter and met Seeker...a girl who did part of the Trail last year and made it this far this year. She's going home tomorrow because her knees hurt. I'm only 4 miles from the NJ/NY border, so I'll be in a new state tomorrow. :-) I got in my tent and all I wanted to do was go to sleep, so I did. :-) Another great day on the Appalachian Trail. :-)