Date: 2017-04-30
From: Telephone Pioneer's Shelter

To: Mount Algo Shelter
Miles today: 21.2
Weather: overcast clouds

About 8:15 a.m. on the 30th of April. It looks like today is going to be another beautiful day - at least the beginning of it. I got up about 5:45 ,had a usual breakfast of homemade fortified oatmeal with ground nuts and a variety of raisin and dried berries. Eventually, I got under way back on the trail after treating some more water at the nearby stream at about 7 a.m. The early morning part of the trail was relatively easy. It was simply a descent down the Northeast end of West Mountain between the municipalities of Pawling NY and Wingdale NY. At the bottom of the hill the trail crossed a beautiful Wetlands on a very nicely constructed raised boardwalk.Around the middle of the boardwalk through the wetland I met a gray-haired man wearing an old BDU (Battle Dress Uniform) style Army hat and jeans who was walking his dog. We chatted about thru-hiking and he said that he had completed the thru-hike in 1976. Evidently for most hikers he meets he explains that this was before they were born. Not so in my case. From there the trail went through a couple deep green grassy fields. I took a picture of an old wooden water tower standing in the middle of one of these fields and also one of a cow chip because it reminded me of home (upstate NY). Our neighbor kept cows in a field immediately adjacent to the property I lived on with my family before I went off to college. I also mentally noted that the stiles erected to enable hikers to cross over the farmers fences we're in fact in this case necessary. In Maryland and Pennsylvania similar stiles were probably once necessary, but by the time I hiked there, the fences next to them in some cases had been removed, so you didn't actually have to clean them. Today the stiles straddled the farmers' electric fence, so trying to negotiate that without the use of the stiles might have been uncomfortable!Via text from Gandalf I learned that he and Flicker had finished up New Jersey and the first couple of days of New York which were the most difficult parts of the hike in New York State as I experienced it.Sometime after 9 o'clock in the morning, while climbing the hill north of the pastures, I met southbound thru hiker Chris (no Trail name yet). She appeared to be college-aged and athletic, with healthy bright eyes and all smiles. She had gotten on the trail around the Massachusetts border and was just headed south. She said her plan was to see where life took her. We exchanged information about the sections of Trail we had just hiked and then we wished each other good luck and happy trails and then we continued on our way.At about 11 o'clock, while I was taking a short water break, Snickers caught up to me northbound. Although she had left the shelter about an hour before I did this morning she had evidently gotten off the trail to eat breakfast at a deli. We hiked together and chatted for about a half an hour and then when we arrived at the Wiley shelter I stopped for lunch and she continued on. While I was eating lunch at the shelter, it started to rain and a couple of northbound day hikers (Larry and Marcy from just north of New York City) stopped in and joined me. We chatted for awhile and then they continued north while I stopped at the nearby stream to fill another liter of water. Then I noticed the sign saying that this water supply contains coliform bacteria, so filter or disinfect prior to consumption. I have treated it in order to disinfect it, but will reserve it for an emergency.  Now that I read that sign, I will filter it too before I consume it. More likely I'll end up dumping it out as soon as I find a better water supply. At about 12:30 I came to Fight Road and the New York/Connecticut border. I took a picture of the welcome sign. A couple hundred yards later, I found a cache of Trail magic! I ate a candy bar and drank a Coke-Cola.  I also replaced my treated but previously contaminated water with pure bottled spring water.Sometime between 1:30 and 2 pm I got up to Larry and Marcy just before we reached the Ten Mile River shelter. I stopped there for a snack and signed the logbook. Just north of there I came to the Net Anderson Memorial Bridge dedicated to the memory of the Sherman farmer and self-taught naturalist who, with the Sherman Boy Scouts and the enthusiastic help of many others, blazed and maintaind the Appalachian Trail in Connecticut between 1929 and 1948. I took a picture from the span of this bridge of the Confluence of the Ten Mile River and the Housatonic River.Later in the afternoon I also took a picture from the ridgeline I have been hiking on. This is looking out over the area of Bulls Bridge and Litchfield Connecticut. I could see down across the Housatonic River and make out some vehicles driving on Kent Road which is US Route 7. I caught up with Snickers eventually and passed her near the top of what must be the south end of Schaghticoke Mountain. Later when I stopped to get water at about my mile 18 point, she was pulling off the trail then to set up camp for the night. I continued on to the Mount Algo shelter.I arrived at the Mount Algo shelter at about 6:30 p.m. It had been a long day and about 21.2 miles. My feet were sore. The shelter is in a nice location above a stream and on relatively flat ground surrounded by widely spaced trees which make it a convenient location for camping as well. At the shelter I met 3 short-section hikers who had set up a tent and two hammock tarps. I also met a guy named Edward from Brooklyn. He's on disability and had some difficulty communicating, but he seemed like a nice guy and we talked about everything from politics to food. Speaking of food, for dinner I cooked the dehydrated chili ala her sister, Dorothy that Teresa had given me when we were in West Point. It was excellent. I also had a peanut butter tortilla and ramen.  It feels like it's going to be colder tonight. It is 8:10 p.m. almost bedtime.