Date: 2017-10-02
From: Morgan Stewart Shelter

To: The Insight
Miles today: 18.3
Weather: clear sky

Well, no snoring (no one showed up), no bugs, no rodents.  Wow.  Plenty of moonlight, though, so I had a restless night.  Even so I was up early snickering at my shenanigans last night.  The sun was gone when I finally set out for my last trip to the privy.  No problem getting there, but even with my headlamp I misplaced the shelter on the return trip.  Now where did I put that shelter?  Is it here?  Over there?  Is this the way?  It was amazing to me that I couldn't find it.  I started to imagine the Hiker Headlines: "Hiker spends cold night in woods, 20 feet from her toasty down bag and soft pad."  Eventually I made it back to the privy, and much more carefully headed out on what I thought was the path to the shelter, this time reconnecting with my bed and giggling my way into my nice warm bag.  Oboy. Next time I should leave my headlamp at the shelter, lit up, so I can make it back without the drama.  Live and learn.  I hate oatmeal first thing in the morning.  It makes me gag.  But I washed some down with a nice sweet tea laced with electrolytes, packed up and headed out.  The trail was somewhat downhill but had its share of the ubiquitous rocks and roots.  I made good time and got to the Telephone Pioneers shelter at noon.  It was pretty unremarkable, set into a hillside, with no tentsites and little water; just too early to spend hours in this shelter.  I ate lunch - mashed potatoes and veggie cup-a-soup - and camelled up before heading out again.Just about a quarter mile from the shelter I met several section hikers going SOBO and one SOBO thru from Katahdin.  That guy was certainly a character.  He appeared to be sweating heavily and wearing a flanner shirt tied around his waist and a tee under that.  And. No. Pants.  Hmmm...just to confirm, I turned back to check him out and noted that while he had no pants on, at least he was wearing a set of black briefs.  Whew!  One hike naked experience was fun, two and I would begin to think there was something funny in trail water.  A nice overlook gave a fine view of the valley below and the ridge beyond.  I did some calculations and figured I'd be heading across that valley and up onto the ridge as I hiked north.  It was full sun and heating up.  Water was scarce so by the time I landed in a section of trail along a large swamp I gave filtering swamp water some very serious thought.  Instead, I ended up trusting to fate and hiked the long elevated boardwalk that traversed the swamp.  Sure enough, at the Appalachian Trail Rail stop on the other side of the swamp, a trail angel had left a gallon container of good clean water.  Yippeee!  No need to scrape off the layer of weeds on top!  I filled up, sat down for a quick rest, before packing up and heading out.  But wait!  The trail headed along a highway past a nursery.  Hikers welcome! Oh joy!.  I pulled, chugged a cool iced tea, and headed out again.  But wait again!  There's a food truck!  And it's OPEN!  My wildest dreams didn't include this oasis, but I hiked over, sat down, and ordered up the saltiest food I could imagine.  The proprietors made lovely conversation while my burger and fries were cooking.  They had encountered the pants-less hiker as well and commented on how clean and fully dressed I was.  OK.  I packed up my grub and headed out.  It was maybe 4 p.m. by then and I figured I'd walk until 6 at the latest.  The NY/CT line was 7 miles ahead, which surprised me.  Maybe I'll make it to CT?  From the food truck the trail wound up some fields, across several styles, past a wooden water tower and a herd of Herefords.  It finally disappeared into the woods - but not before I could look back and see the cliff look-out's I'd been visiting a few hours earlier.  I love that feeling of progress.  The woods turned wet and full of vines and briars and was not very stealth-friendly if I decided to stop and camp for the night.  Having that burger in my pack freed up a good half hour that I wouldn't have to spend finding water and setting up a meal, so I figured I might be able to get to the next shelter - Wiley Shelter - by the time I wanted to quit.  That would give me a big day, but it seemed do-able. In fact, I got to Wiley at 6:00 pm.  There were two young men from Tennessee (what's with all the TN hikers?) who seemed like they would be good company, and a young man from MA who wore dress pants and seemed withdrawn and sort of odd.  No tent sites on the ground but two platforms and after resting my tired feet for a few minutes I decided to just plow onward and grit it out for another few miles.  Then I'd get to my car.  Then I'd be on my way home to a hot bath.  OK!And so I was.  I took the last few miles slowly and got to my car just as dusk was gathering.  Two days on the trail?  One night?  One of the shortest sections in hiking history.  But I finally finished NY!  Now I've completed about 65 miles in PA, all of the trail from the NY/NJ line to Zealand Falls Hut in NH, and around 85 miles in Maine.  Gettin' there!