Date: 2005-08-06
From: Graymoor Friary, NY

To: Kent, CT
Miles today: 57.0

3 AugI¢m tired; real tired. The sinful thought of going home and sleeping endless nights in a bed has permeated my mind. I feel like I¢m trying to keep some kind of image here, on the trail, which is true and untrue at once. I¢m tired of trying too hard, of trying to keep up with other folks that have their eyes set on Katahdin this fall, I¢m tired of myself. I think I¢m ready for a silent retreat; I¢ll keep hiking, I just won¢t speak.NJ and NY trail is way easier than PA, but the trail seems to run up and down the same mountain several times before moving on to the next one ¢ do they not have enough mountains in NY that the trail has us climb each one twice? All I can think of is sleeping in a bed. I hitched to Conoupus Lake for an afternoon dip, a late lunch, and a hot shower. I¢m amazed at how many opportunities there have been for showers and resupply; I¢ve even had to turn some of them down, just to keep a somewhat wilderness experience going. The lake was very relaxing, but I must move on, if I want to avoid hiking in the dark. Hitched back to the trailhead (~1mi) and then almost ran over little PUDs to an overlook of that same lake (~2.5mi) ¢ turns out there¢s a 0.2mi blue-blaze up the mountain side right from where we were on the beach!! The mosquitoes are really bad, and they chased us all the way to the Shenandoah campsite, where I gorge myself on Nutella & cookie-crumb covered marshmallows before lullabies and turning in the for the night. Camping with CH and Netman.4 AugI don¢t want to wake up. I won¢t want to get up. I¢m up. There are mini-peach and apple trees, and lots of blackberries on this campsite property, so i breakfasted on fruit, and e.coli contaminated pump water ¢ mmmmm, good. It¢s very hot, again, and all of us are fatigued and more interested in taking breaks than hiking; did 2.6 mi in 2 hours. At Rte NY22 we walked to a deli for a pizza lunch. We nearly passed out after the food, but forced ourselves to mop on 4 more miles to the next shelter, where we finally allow ourselves to pass out, and only woke up for dinner. Starchy¢s knee is acting up ¢ he might get off the trail. Oh, and today is my best friend¢s bday (Dr. Jones, from earlier on this journey), so we called him and sang him a little birthday song ¢ cell phones are magic.5 AugHitched into Pawling, near the 350yo Dover Oak, in the early afternoon for re-supply. Took too long in town to find out there¢s no grocery store! Hitched a ride several miles out to a grocery store right when a dark storm cloud rolled in. Lunched on rotisserie chicken, avocado, sour cream, and whole grain and nut bread at the AT train station, before taking off through the fields on to the Wiley Shelter (CH¢s real name is Wylie, so we¢ll be sleeping in his kingdom tonight).I've been seeing a ~2ft garter snake every day for a week now! Is it the same snake following me? Saw a huge garden spider sucking on a Japanese beetle in a stile. I thought I¢d be meeting a friend that¢s coming up from Baltimore today, so after dinner I sat by the road, in total darkness, playing guitar for about 1.5 hrs. No show.6 AugI was up early and ready to search for my visiting friend, she should be somewhere between this shelter and CT55; found her by the water pump, fresh fruit in hand! 2nd breakfast of blueberry shortcake with home-made mint syrup ¢ this girl is amazing! Hiked to her car for warm beer, then on to an overlook for a gouda and veggie lunch with a view, music, and Bible readings. Then, a dad and two sons showed up and fed us rib-eye steak! On to Mt. Algo down a severe downhill, where Snotrag and Umble Taogh have been zeroing and drinking. Starchy ran off into town (Kent) for beer and liquor, and my friend, whose trail name is now Just Amazing, and I ran off in the wrong direction, making it about a half a mile up that severe downhill before realizing there¢s no road there, and then backtracking our way in to town. Went in to find beer (not for me, I don't drink that stuff, but the guys on the trail are obsessed with getting beer in just about every town), found ice cream instead, and returned with our own stories of ¢no beer in CT after 8pm¢ and ¢no beer in gas stations, must go to NY¢. Starchy miraculously scrounged a large bottle of Pinot Grigio and showed up right in time for linguini with creamy mushroom sauce and salmon dinner a-la Just Amazing.