Date: 2004-07-12
From: Morgan Stewart Shelter

To: Mt Algo Lean-to
Miles today: 29.0

The three of us set out from Morgan Stewart Shelter together this morning. It was a bit of a gray day but that kept it cool and humid. We talked a good deal. Just across West Dover Road there was an enormous tree. We took pictures of ourselves with it. It was the Dover Oak, touted as the largest tree on the AT. It's either this or that one way back in the fields of Virginia. A couple of miles later the trail crossed some railroad track at the Appalachian Trail Station. This is an official stop on the Metro North Commuter Railroad. Too bad it only stops on the weekends.A stones throw later the trail crossed NY Route 22. It wasn't quite noon and the Handbook said Tony's Deli with sandwiches, subs and ice cream was just a half a mile down the road to the right. Tony's was a great little place with lots of real honest to goodness local color. Their eggplant sub was excellent. We dined at a rickety picnic table on the grass by the road. It started to sprinkle a bit but nothing too serious. Then it was time to head back up the road and onto the trail with a few extra snacks in hand.We were making good time as we stopped by Wiley (Webatuck) Shelter. It was just after 3pm. The stop at Tony's had been a bit leisurely but who cares. Another mile and we hit the New York/Connecticut border at Hoyt Road. The states were going by real fast now. Only 4 to go. Wow. The next road crossing was only 0.8 miles and this was where we dropped Luke off. His folks were picking him up near here. He wasn't sure how to tell his folks how to find the trail so he was going to have to walk to an intersection or something. I couldn't help feeling a bit responsible to make sure he connected with his folks but that was his business and we left him to it after a fond farewell. We were more that 20 miles into the day when we came to Ten Mile River Lean-to. It was sprinkling and threatening to rain. We were both thinking this might be far enough today. The next shelter was another 8.4 miles. That would make for a 29 mile day following a 27.9 mile day. Yeah. Rounding the corner of the shelter we were greeted by a group of 6 teenage guys well entrenched in the shelter. It was about 6pm. Now, I like teenagers about as much as anyone can and it sounded like Twister did too. Just the same they were filling the shelter and it was starting to rain. They were friendly enough. A twentyish guy showed up. He was the councilor. He explained how lucky they had been to find the shelter empty at 3pm when they arrived. We acknowledged through clenched teeth and proceeded to head out on the next 9 mile leg of the day. Sure we could have asked them to make room or tented nearby. The troubling part was that they didn't offer to make room. Besides it wasn't that late and a less crowded shelter would mean better sleep. We just hoped the rain held off. Then again who really knew what we would find at the next shelter.Five miles later the trail passed the 2/3 mark. I missed Buick. It was dark by the time we got to Algo Lean-to. We met Rocket there. He baled out of the last shelter due to the camp kids too. It did start raining before we got to the shelter. It was just the three of us. We had a good time together and a good night's sleep. I had seen Rocket's entries in journals for a while. He signed with a cool distinctive rocket logo. He was a 20 something guy. It looked like we had been hiking at about the same rate for quite a while.