Date: 2022-06-12
From: Telephone Pioneers Shelter 

To: Stealth camp by river down from Duell Rd
Miles today: 9.5
Weather: scattered clouds

Stayed at Telephone Pioneers shelter last night on a very slopey site. It was the least slopiest. I spent a good part of the night leaning towards Coffeebean and falling off my sleeping pad. About 9pm we heard this huge boom (i jumped in my sleeping bag!) and then continual explosions for the next 40 minutes. After a bit we decided it was fireworks.We didn¢t get up till a little after 6am. Coffeebean¢s stomach is starting to feel a little better. We really think the SPAM, that I vacuum packed into separate bags, was the culprit. For two days he has felt miserable, between nausea and gastrointestinal problems. You know how bad that makes you feel. Now put yourself out on the trail carrying 30+ pounds and walking all day up and down mountains. Yeah, now that¢s sick. But today he feels better and we think the worst is past. We ate breakfast and got on our way about 8:35am.We got down to the road crossing at Leather Hill Road and there was trail magic!  Fully stocked drinks and snacks! From Chris, the Trail Angel. It¢s the same Chris that is touted in Guthook. We had Gatorade and some crackers. Met another hiker named Crunch, from Switzerland. He does 30-35 miles a day!! He showed us his picture of the NYC skyline at night! The sky was black and the buildings were alight with different colors. It was gorgeous! We were so jealous. We never thought of taking a picture at night. We would have had to hike back a bit but it would have been worth it. We ended up at Wiley Shelter, the last NY shelter NOBO on the AT, and ate lunch. Connecticut is calling us!! We saw a bird¢s nest over the entrance to the shelter (and lots of bird droppings on the ground) and saw 4 baby birds sticking their heads out. Coffeebean watched one climb out of the nest so he could poop. Nice kid. I called Chris, the local Trail Angel, and asked if she was available to take us in for resupply. She answered within minutes and said she could meet us at the road in 10 minutes. We packed up and hurried down. It was only .2 to the road. It gave us time to put on our camp shirts so we didn¢t  gag people in the grocery store. (Haven¢t showered in 9 days so we are a little rank.)Chris is super nice and said that a better resupply would be the Hannaford in Pawling. So she drove us there and told us to take our time. I grabbed a couple of my Walmart bags, that I use to cover my boots at night when it calls for rain, because NY does not use plastic. You have to bring your own bags or they will give you paper. We did our resupply and then took everything out of the boxes and gave the boxes to Chris to recycle. She brought us back to the trail and off we went. (Chris has been hiking the trail sections at a time. She said she was hiking from Daleville, VA for a month in mid-Sept. We told her that is where we live and we would love to host her when she comes through.)Once on trail we walked to the river. There was once a foot bridge but it had deteriorated and was no longer passable. There was a 1.5 road walk detour but the comments on Guthook said it was easy to hop across the rocks to cross the river. So we did that and kept following the blazes. I pulled my app out to check how far we had gone and it showed that we were way off trail! I was pissed and cussing like a sailor! I hiked back the way we had come and was still not showing on trail. We finally called it quits and set up a stealth camp by the river. It¢s due to rain around 9 or 10 tonight and finish by 4am. Then sunny for the next 4 days. After we got in the tent, Coffeebean was looking through his AWOL book, think printed Guthook, and found a note that the bridge was out and there was a 1.5 mile road walk detour until further notice. We think Guthook put the detour in the app and that¢s why it appeared like we were off trail. I calmed down after that. Hiked 9.5 miles today not counting the mile that we walked twice! °¤