Date: 2009-10-14
From: Highway 22

To: Hoyt Road
Miles today: 6.8

My alarm went off at 5 and I quickly got dressed and ate some cold pizza for breakfast. It was better hot. But there is no store or diner close so it will have to do. My driver was ready and so was I promptly at 5:45. He had to scrap lots of frost off his windows. He dropped me off at the trail head at 6. The stars and the moon were still out. I shouldered pack and turned on headlamp. At 31 degrees it was far too cold to stand around waiting for dawn. I moved slowly down a bit of trail to a pasture, climbed the style and headed up the trail through sparkling frosty grass of the meadow under the moon and starlit sky. The wood of the style was frosty too and quite slippery. I was careful though and had no problem. There was a water tower constructed in 1920 on the skyline of the pasture and something else that moved. Oh, it was a cow that trotted to the side of the pasture when I entered its domain. I tried to take a picture of the water tower and the skyline, barely seen. Perhaps I will be able to make it out on a bigger screen. I crossed three styles and as many pastures on my way up the ridge as daylight slowly emerged. There was just me and my footsteps and an occassional rustle in the grass as small birds were startled by my walking. That early morning start will be a good memory of the trail. I was actually plenty warm as I had on my regular hiking gear plus my fleece long underwear and my down jacket. I actually got too warm and took off the jacket before I reached the woods. It was light now as I entered the woods and continued trekking up the ridge through the Pawling Nature Preserve. It was a few degrees warmer in the woods, 36. After a while I was at or near the top of the ridge and I got a nice shot of the sunrise through the trees. I did not have that far to go today and I dawadled a bit, shuffling through the leaves. This ridge has the heaviest leaf drop I have found so far. I should have mentioned earlier about all the acorns and hickory nuts on the ground. Just like my hike last year they are a potential hazard to the hiker as they are similar to walking on marbles. I have not, however, had any trouble. Also, about 3 days ago I started seeing the leaves of the Tulip Poplar and the three lobes of Sassafrass leaves. It is nice to identify things seen last year. I always get the feeling I am greeting old friends when I can call some of the flora by name. The trail miles along the ridge were similar to other leaf covered trails I have walked. One item of note was that the trail had a re-route and I went down the old AT by accident, following old blazes someone had painted over with gray paint. But the blaze still showed and just looked old under the dappled light of the forest. Eventually that trail petered out and I looked more closely at the blaze and saw it was painted over. So I backtracked about .1 of a mile until I found bright white blazes and discovered where I had made my error. I heaped some small logs over the wrong trail so that, hopefully, someone else will not make my mistake. When I reached Leather Hill Road I called Tramper and told him I would be at Hoyt Road an hour earlier than I had said. I stopped at Wiley shelter to take off my long underwear as it had finally warmed up. I made a PB&J roll up and then, quickly now, went down the trail, up a hill and down again to Hoyt Road. I was there about a minute when Tramper drove up. He was a great trail angel!! Thank you, Tramper!!! Tramper drove me to the Appalachian Market where Sara had dropped me off 5 days ago. He really went out of his way to help a fellow hiker. And his help was greatly appreciated. After Tramper left I went into the store and ate two chilli dogs, 2 packs of swiss rolls, a bottle of milk and most of a bag of whoppers. I will only have one more time after hiking to splurge like that. It will soon be back to the low fat diet. But for today I happily stuffed myself with goodies. While waiting perched on a stool at the small table in the store I looked out the window and saw Jabberwalkie and her dad and dog emerge from the woods and walk toward the store. Cool! This is the third time now that I have seen Jabberwalkie and the second time I have seen her dad and dog. They seem like old friends now. I called out to them and they came over and I fed them whoppers while we talked. We probably talked for half an hour or so. They did a little shopping and we talked some more. Then Andrew came to pick me up. They paid for their purchases and I took their pictures before climbing into the car. I hope they take good care of themselves. The next couple days are supposed to be stormy. Andrew and I drove to their house where I immediately became grandma, feeding the baby and watching all the boys while Sara and Andrew went to get the Van back from being serviced. Now it is evening and we have all had dinner. I am soon headed for bed and life is good.