Date: 2009-07-28
From: RPH Shelter

To: Campsite near stream
Miles today: 20.3

It has been quite a day out here. After the rain last night we were so thankful to have had a spot in such a great shelter. We woke up early and packed up our things while most of the other hikers kept on sleeping.Navigator was awake and making coffee so we chatted a little about the hiking conditions up North (he is a south-bounder). Bark and I hit the trail around 7:30am after saying good morning to Otter, Stewball and Superglue. Our two biggest climbs of the day were back to back and first thing of the morning. We had a cool breeze and we actually saw sunshine this morning instead of dark gray all around. About halfway up our second climb- Stormville Mt., we saw the local trail maintainer and a few other folks. Turns out as we started talking with them, it was Superglue's mom and aunt coming to surprise him with his food resupply box. What a fun surprise! We let them know that he was probably not too far behind us, but then hiked on. The terrain was pretty nice today. Smooth trail and just a few ups and downs that felt more like intense stair climbing workouts. The rain has really taken its toll on the trail. There are pools of standing water everywhere and mud that is simply unavoidable. Today was nice because the sun and heat dried out the rocks we were climbing across, no rain in sight, or so we thought. About 2:00 or so we started hearing thunder and not too long after got a view of a pretty terriffic group of dark blue thunderheads moving our direction. Sure enough, the rain moved right overhead and we were soaked! With only about a mile and a half left to the shelter we trodded along and eventually made it to a dry refuge. Upon arriving at the Telephone Pioneers Shelter there was a thru hiker already there and taking a nap. We tried to be quiet, but managed to wake up Old Hobo anyway. We talked about how our hikes had been going and what our plans were for the rest of the day. Bark and I decided to press on just a couple more miles- we wanted to see the Dover Oak, the largest Oak tree on the whole AT, next to the Keffer Oak in Virginia. It was pretty impressive, but a picture just couldn't do it justice. We had hoped there would be a few camping spots close by (they're usually are close to roads), but not tonight. There was only one other option...hike on. The trail took us through a couple of fields and marsh land and over a long stretch of bog logs until we arrived at the Appalachian Trail Railways. The railway is a working passenger train that runs commuters and whoever else right into Grand Central Station in NYC. At this point we were at NY22, a road crossing where we could go about a half mile to a local deli. We did what any hungry hiker would do- started walking. By this time it was 7pm and we were not only hungry, but still a little damp from the rain and ready to pitch the tent. With no tenting in sight, we decided to eat first and worry about tenting later. The deli was great and we were full after the NY style sandwiches. Unfortunately as we were sitting at the picnic tables outside, the thunder started again. Bark was convinced that it would just blow right over, but we did not want to take any chances with more rain. As it started to sprinkle, we had just enough time to grab our gear and duck into a little room right off the deli. Thankfully we were able to wait it out. After about 30 minutes it had let up and blown by. Bark and I headed back to the trail which proceeded to take us back through some farm land on our way to the ridge line. We passed an old wooden water tower and were followed very closely by a small herd of cows occasionally running toward us. At one point we turned to see them right behind us, single file on the trail- pretty funny. It had started to get dark and more thunder and lightning loomed in the distance so we stopped right off the trail and pitched our tent. It is miserably hummid! Our tent is pitched in a over saturated pasture field, much like marsh land. We don't want to move an inch, the air is heavy and sweat pours at even the notion of movement. Unfortunately our tent is being completely swarmed by mosquitos. If my arm touches the netting I can look over and see them grouped together trying to get a taste- yikes! Bark and I are praying for some dryer weather to come soon, the last thing we need are "dampened" spirits.