Date: 2004-07-25
From: Wildcat Shelter

To: NY 17 - John and Sue's house
Miles today: 9.9

Coyote and Big Stick are planning to do 19.6 miles to William Brien Memorial Shelter. Blue is planning on hitting Fingerboard Shelter at 14.3 miles. I would like to do the 19.6, but have just taken a nero (meaning Nearly zERO, usually anything under 5 miles) and 2 zeros after hiking for 3 days. Not sure I can make it. As we cross West Mombasha road, there is water in a cooler left by John and Sue, trail angels who left their phone # for hikers to call if they need a place to stay or a ride somewhere. I copied the # because I need to call Cliff today to see if my old drivers license arrived from my mom. Big Stick and Blue got water and moved on. Coyote is way ahead. The hiking is a bit tough today. As the day goes on I am doubting more each mile that I will make the 19 miles. Then I got to route 17 and the pay phone at the road. This is the beginning of Harriman State Park. So I called Cliff, and YES! My old drivers license is there. I need to head back to get a new copy of my new license. So I called John. He was there not long after I called. He got me loaded in his truck and took me to his home. Before I could explain my situation, he was showing me where I would stay tonight, where I would shower and where the laundry room was. This was not a typical hostel stay! After I had cleaned up, I went downstairs and chatted with them as Sue was doing some major gardening after the local deer had mangled much of her garden. Good thing these were plants that deer don't eat!!! John is a local police office and Sue is a veterinarian. She doesn't like spiders at all! This fact was evident to me after a few minutes when she had a "run in" with a "daddy long legs". After gardening was done we went inside. John was figuring out what to make for dinner. Then the phone rings. 4 more hikers on the way. John would go to pick them up. But they were out of ice cream, so he sent Sue to get some. 5 minute worth of scrounging in the freezer made dinner complete. He had enough food, just needed the ice cream! So I got to stay home and watch the dogs (Katie and ?). Not long after they left, John returned with Ketone (I had met at Brown Gap on 4/20-4/25), Momma's Boy, Ursa Minor, and Swan. They were assigned rooms and beds, taken on the tour and then John came down to start dinner. Chips and salsa were a great appetizer, and didn't last long with 5 hungry hikers around. John only had 4 beers left. I don't drink beer at all, so only one person was left out when John had his. But 2 bottles of Chardonnay were in the refridgerator ... Fair Game! And they went well with dinner. I happened to know both brands. The Clos Du Bois was very nice and the other (I cannot remember at this time) was not bad either. Dinner was fantastic. There were spicy and sweet sausages, and other food which I cannot remember at this time. But we all enjoyed it and ate until we could not eat more. Then came ice cream to overstuff our already full stomachs. Then after dinner we finally discussed plans for leaving in the morning AFTER breakfast of course. I have met a lot of trail angels in my many adventures. John and Sue were the most amazing angels on this adventure! That's not an easy statement to make considering the people I have met on this trip!!! The "trail devils" at brown gap were tough to beat!