Date: 2004-06-25
From: CR 20 near Pawling, NY

To: Day 85: CT 55 north of Hoyt Rd
Miles today: 9.2

Even though on AT Day 85 I only had about 9.2-miles to reach my designated pick-up spot on CT 55, I still got up at 4:00 a.m. and hit the trail by 6:00 a.m. It seems I particularly anxious to see Hot Chocolate again ¢¦ After I reached the bottom of the mountain, I followed the AT through some overgrown farm fields, where the wet grasses and briars made me wish I was wearing something other than my running shorts and short-sleeved shirt. Pushing ahead I soon came to the famous AT Railroad Station (with weekend service to an from NY City) at NY 22 where the AT crosses the highway and then enters some additional farm fields. The trail then went through some swampy regions where the mosquitoes were once again out and feeding and, like an idiot I elected to tough it out without putting on any DEET. Sitting here a day later typing this journal entry and still scratching the bites has taught me that this was clearly not the best decision.Overall the hike was quite easy and I reached Hoyt Road and NY-CT border before 10:00 a.m. and pick-up spot on CT 55 by 10:30 a.m. Unfortunately, my wife was nowhere in sight. I wasn¢t worried since I was between 30-90 minutes early, but since I forgot to pack my cellular phone for this segment I had no way to contact Hot Chocolate. Thus, there was little I could do but sit down and wait. After a couple of hours, I was clearly starting to get worried that she had run into trouble during her tour of NY City two days earlier or during the move of our trailer to a new campsite, but I continued to wait and pace up and down the highway.A Jehovah Witness follower, who wanted to save my soul with one of her pamphlets, was the first person to interrupt my solitude. Since I was by now quite bored, I was grateful to have something to read ¢¦ Shortly thereafter I met a couple of young British NOBO AT through hikers and then a SOBO section hiker who told me that just across the street in the woods there was a stash of cold soft drinks left by a trail angel. I thanked him and scampered across the busy highway to retrieve a cold Coke and then resume my wait.After another two hours of this I was blessed by a meeting with two NOBO AT section hikers who asked me what I was doing. I told them I was waiting for my wife, whereupon they asked me what she looked like. I thought this was a curious request, but I complied and then they proceeded to tell me that a women matching Hot Chocolate¢s description was putting on her hiking boots next to a BIG truck in the AT parking lot less than a hundred yards down the road! Obviously I was shocked and when they offered to watch my pack I immediately left and ran full speed to the parking lot where I found our truck, but once again my wife was no where to be seen. Thinking that she may have started to hike south on the AT, I started to shout and run up the trail and was quickly rewarded by her return shouts. In the end I learned that she had been waiting for me since 11:00 a.m. ¢ so much for the power of interpersonal telepathy after nearly 40-years of marriage. After a quick hug and kiss we drove the hundred yards back to my pack and thanked the couple that had given me the good news.I wish this was the end of this misadventure, but as my wife¢s trail journal will detail, when we attempted to drive from CT 55 to our new campground in Austerlitz, NY we went the wrong way on Route 22 and didn¢t discover our mistake and make it to our trailer until 6:30 p.m. So much for my plans for a quick turn around at the end of this segment ¢¦ The new plan is now to take two days off to recover, fill out my tail journal, restock my pack and best of all, take plenty of time to fully review the maps so our next exchange goes off without a hitch ¢ let¢s hope ¢¦