Date: 2016-07-28
From: Morgan Stewart Shelter

To: Ten mile river shelter
Miles today: 20.6
Weather: clear sky

Woke up at 5:30am at Morgan Stewart shelter. Gosh way to early to get up so I rolled over and went back to sleep. I did finally get up at 6 and packed up and had breakfast. Dragon head had gotten up a bit earlier and was ready before me. The mosquitos were so bad he needed to push off before me as they were swarming him. I couldn't even finish my coffee as they were relentless. I pushed off from Morgan Stewart at about 6:45. The trail this morning was mostly downhill we a few tiny climbs. I crossed over depot hill, a set of railroad tracks and across route 55. The trail then went 1/2 way around nuclear lake. I guess the lake had been contaminated many years ago and it was a superfund site and has since been cleaned up. I stopped at Tekephone Pioneer Shelter for a snack and to sign in at the log book. The trail descended down to county road 20 where the Dover Oak is. This is the largest oak on the trail at 20 feet around and estimated to be 300 years old. In another mile or so the trail crossed NY 22 where there was a nursery on the left. The nursery lets hikers rest in their gazebo. They sell cold drinks, some resupply and they let you refill on water out back of the building where they also have a outside shower. I met up with Dragon Head here and about 14 other hikers. I bought two cold drinks and sat on the gazebo. It was getting really hot so I also took my shoes and shirt off and rinsed off in the cold shower to cool off. We learned there was a food truck on the other side of the building and a bunch of us went over and bought lunch. I got a hot dog and a soda. After about 45 minutes DH and I continued on. The trail wound through a field for about a mile and it was hot. We had a steep climb after the field and up to a ridge. We followed for three miles. IClunked my head on a dead branch overhanging the trail as my pack caught it and pulled it down on my head. I gave myself a god size bump and a scratch but nothing major. It was really the first blood I drew on the trail so not bad for 1450 miles. We stopped at Wiley Mt shelter and canmeled up on water and refilled our bottles. From the shelter we only had 4 miles to go. We met up with Eagle who ended up walking with us to Ten Mile River Shelter. After two miles we reached the sign welcome to Connecticut the gateway to New England. The shelter has the river next to the shelter snd we were able to jump in and cool off. It was nice but the water actually wasn't too cold. It goes to show how warm it really has been. We made dinner and settled in for the night. I had been dealing with a stomachache most of the day. I figured it out it's probably due to being dehydrated from the heat yesterday do it was most likely constipation. Which made sleeping uncomfortable adding in the mosquitos. DH and I decided to crash in the shelter as with the impending soaking rain we didn't want to deal with wet tents. Our plan is Kent tomorrow and Trooper is supposed to be coming to New York and Jeff is going to bring her to see me tomorrow. It's been since April 15 the day she left the trail that I have seen her.