Date: 2005-08-20
From: Canopus Lake, NY

To: Seven Lakes Drive, Harriman State Park, NY
Miles today: 22.3

22.3 miles todaySleeping in a real bedThe Moosie'sNew Milford, Ct I'm sleeping at Moosie's home in New Milford, Ct, but I'm at Seven Lakes Drive in Harriman State Park, NY on the trail. That's about 4 miles south of Bear Mountain, NY. I'm also taking a zero on sunday before heading south again on monday. I woke up at 5:30 this morning after a very good nights sleep. I brewed my coffee and ate half a cheese danish for breakfast. While I was having my coffee, I could hear Moosie over in his tarp moaning. I couldn't see him from my tent, but it really sounded like he was in pain. It turns out that he was just yawning and it's his way to greet the day. I packed up my tent and we started hiking at 7am. It was still very wet out. We were already wet from the rain yesterday and nothing dried overnight with the high humidity. We hiked up to the lookout point over Canopus Lake and then hiked on back into the woods. We walked to Shenandoah Tenting area. I was hoping to find some ripe apples on the trees there, but we were too early in the season. I signed the register while Moosie washed most of his clothes in the water from the hand pump. We walked on to RPH Shelter and stopped briefly to see who was there. I met a nobo by the name of Mr Pink. We climbed Hosner Mountain, then went down to a small road and climbed Stormville Mountain before reaching Rt 52 where we knew there was a pizza reataurant about half a mile away. We got there just as the open sign got turned on. :-))) We ordered a large pizza and a couple hot sandwiches and sat there and ate. There were about 4 nobos there, but I didn't catch their names. We also saw Nemo again, a sobo just leaving there when we arrived. We hiked on and didn't stop again until we got to Morgan Stewart Shelter. We saw a few hikers there that we had seen earlier and it turns out the one named Finn knew a friend of mine that hiked last year by the name of Caveman. He was one of the Slobos I hiked around in Maine last year. Finn said she worked with him and would be seeing him in 2 days, so she would say hello for me. We met Plus One there too...another nobo. We hiked on and saw a sobo coming towards us. His name was High Mountain. Him and Moosie already had met in the Whites earlier this year and Moosie remembered the encounter well...something about a grey haired section hiker I think. ;-))) It was about an 8 mile walk to the next shelter. We crossed Rt 55, then walked by Nuclear Lake. It was a pleasant walk and we were at Telephone Pioneers Shelter before long. The miles go by pretty fast when you're hiking with someone and talking the whole way. The pizza I had for lunch had made me thirsty and I was looking forward to the stream near the shelter, but it was dry. We went over to the shelter and there was 6 nobos. Uncle Philly, Fric, Frac and I don't know the other's names. I couldn't believe that I could be in the midst of so many misguided individuals all in one place...including Moosie. ;-))) It really seems strange that they were all going the WRONG way. ;-))) We headed down the last .7 miles to the Pawling trailhead and I went to a nearby house that lets hikers get water from a spigot and drank a litre of water. We were one hour early, so we waited there until Mrs Moosie showed up in the car. While we were waiting, a sobo came walking by. His name was Mechanical Man. He stayed and talked about 10 minutes before hiking on. Mrs Moosie came driving up right on time. It's always great seeing her. She brought us some sodas on ice and had made some banana nut bread this morning and even brought butter to put on the bread and brought some grapes. Thanks Mrs Moosie!!! That was very nice. :-))) She seemed surprised that Moosie made it the 46.7 miles since she dropped us off yesterday. She asked me if he yellow blazed and I told her that he really did walk the whole way. :-))) In fact, a few times I had a hard time keeping up with him. He had walked with his son, Goldilocks all year and he developed a naturally faster pace to keep up with his son. I had a great time walking with Moosie. We hadn't hiked together in a couple years. I think we talked the whole 2 days we were walking. Thanks Moosie for doing this section with me. It was alot of fun, even if you did make me walk the WRONG way!!! We got back to their home in New Milford, Ct and Mrs Moosie finished making dinner while we got cleaned up. It felt really good to get clean and dry. We had walked wet both days. Mrs Moosie had made stuffed zuccinni, sausage, brushetta and a really good tomato dish. We had some wine with dinner on a candle lit table. Just some of the hardships a hiker has to endure along the his journey. ;-))) Moosie went to bed early. He said he wanted to make notes about the last 2 days so he could update his journal about our hike together. He's such a good guy...I'll bet he really says some nice things about me in his journal. :-))) I can't wait to see his version. Thanks again Moosie...you're a really good friend.