Date: 2017-05-01
From: Mount Algo Shelter

To: Pine Swamp Shelter
Miles today: 17.3
Weather: broken clouds

I got up this morning with the first sign of light, around 5 o'clock. That was about 20 minutes earlier than the birds for a change. I went through my normal unhurried early morning routine and was on the trail by 6:45. Edward woke about 6:30 and we chatted about the weather and he gave me information about what I should expect on today's hike. As I headed off northward towards Caleb's Peak, I recall things Edward had said about life in New York City and Brooklyn. He had confirmed what the two high school kids had told me the previous day, about availability of a $35 round trip train ticket from New York City to Pawling, NY. A good deal. Evidently popular too. Edward had also complained that the city of New York had become overrun with homeless people. Particularly noticeable is the terrible smell in public places like the subway system. He said the homeless people had nowhere else to do things like try to find a place to bathe. And that they even defecated on the Platforms in the train stations. It was unclear to me if he counted himself among these people. He had a nice backpack, a nice jacket and while he explained that he did not have a job and was on disability, I assumed that also meant he had a sort of regular source of disability income and that he was in fact not homeless. But at one point he did share with me that he had been surprised that out here in the woods you didn't get it as smelly as quickly has in the city. He said he'd been hiking for 4 days and that he knew he needed a shower, but in the city it would only take him one day to get really smelly. After this conversation, I checked myself and came to the conclusion that I was overdue a shower, but not egregiously so.  My plan remains to try to take care of that tomorrow evening when I get off the trail in Salisbury.This morning the weather had been cold and overcast, but the forecast was for partly sunny skies with a high of 70, so I stashed my jacket inside the trash compactor bag with which I line the interior of my backpack and I headed out. I would soon be too hot to hike with my jacket, but it was too cold to stand around without it.I reached the summit of Caleb's Peak shortly after 9 a.m. and I took a picture, but there was not much of a view today with sky completely overcast, low hanging clouds, and a light drizzle going on.Fortunately the rain didn't last very long and the cloud cover kept it cooler has the day warmed up. Somewhere mid-morning I spent some time negotiating descending St. John's ledges. This was a pretty long, steep section with down steps that required me to extend to the limit of my range of motion. In several places I had to pause to decide whether to face toward or away from the mountain in order to get the next foot landing. It seems to me that this took a while, but I also keep in mind that it's really only a warm-up for what's going to come further north in New England. After completing that descent, I was rewarded with a 4 mile stretch of relatively flat ground along the West Bank of the Housatonic RiverWell, maybe it was more like 6 miles. And then to make the afternoon interesting, the trail would go up and down 5 relatively significant hills. I guess instead of one 3500 foot climb, five 700 foot climbs and descents, get you the same work out if not the same views. Looking at the terrain profile in my guidebook I could see there were actually 6 bumps, but one deemed too small to count. After climbing the first of these, I came to a sign warning that an upcoming stream could be dry in the event of hot weather. The sign mentioned a bypass that I couldn't locate, so I want ahead to look at the stream and I found it to be not much bigger than the Little Chazy River that runs behind the upstate NY house I grew up in. I decided to just go right across it. I figured that it wasn't deep enough to be dangerous. Even if I did fall in, it was only shin deep at the deepest spots. I did not fall in. While navigating the second hill of the day, I decided on a mind game of naming the five terrain features I had to overcome today after days of the week making this one "Tuesday" and the biggest one "Wednesday". After finishing "Tuesday," I hiked the little hill I had previously deemed too small to count, and I decided that it was worthy of attention somehow, so I called it "Tuesday evening." Wednesday was challenging enough for me to think of it as the actual hump day of this afternoon. There was a pretty good view to the southwest from the top of Wednesday, so I took a picture. I also drank some water, but I figured it was not sufficient to offset the amount of sweating I've been doing from the climbs I was going to have to do this afternoon, so I made a mental note to guzzle and pick up some more water at the next opportunity.So at the bottom of "Wednesday" I did in fact pick up some more water. The climbs up "Thursday" and "Friday" were strenuous but manageable. Halfway up "Friday" I came to feature known as Split Boulder. It reminded me of the lemon squeezer in New York, only this one was easier because there was plenty of room to wear your pack going through the narrow crevice.I arrived at the Pine Swamp shelter shortly after 5 p.m. and I had it all to myself. I was hot and sweaty, so my immediate priorities were first to get out of my hiking boots and into my Crocs and then to find the nearby water source. About 200 yards downhill beyond the shelter, I came to a beautiful stream where I was able to fill three liters of water for my evening and morning requirements. I also was able to stand in the middle of the stream a little more than ankle deep and wash my sweaty clothing and my sweaty self. I figured turnabout is fair play for the beavers downstream haha. I say that because there was a local map of the site which indicated that the water source feeds into a beaver pond which is the reverse of the situation I had the other day where I was concerned about the water coming out of a Beaver Pond being potable. After hiking back up the hill with my water to the shelter, I dried off and reapplied insect repellent and became a different kind of smelly again.I made tomato soup and a peanut butter tortilla for dinner. That wasn't sufficient to satisfy my hunger, so I made another peanut butter tortilla but this time added my last tuna packet. The tuna peanut butter tortilla was fantastic especially when chased with swigs of the tomato soup.I then reviewed my hiking plan for the next several days and annotated the the pages extracted from the hiking guide with my plan so that I can carry it in my cargo pocket. I also explored the site and nearby and found the privy, camping sites, an actual wash site for cleaning dishes and a bear box. I saw that in the shelter there was a sign that began, "NOTICE NOTICE NOTICE." Black bears have been seen in the area of the Pine Swamp shelter and campsites. Use the bear box for storage of food and other strong smelling items (ie toothpaste, soap and deodorant) and someone had written in, thru-hikers. And the final warning on the notice was a fed bear becomes a dangerous bear. Signed Connecticut Chapter Appalachian Mountain Club. So I complied and put all my aromatic stuff in an airtight food bag and stored that and the bear box. Hopefully no such visitors tonight.