Date: 2014-06-08
From: Vernon, NJ

To: Wildcat Shelter
Miles today: 17.1
Weather: broken clouds

I woke up to the church organ at 5:45 this morning which is fine by me cause I'm ready to get going and back to the trail.Vernon is an OK town. Not great, not horrible, not a C- or a C+, just a C. The church is convenient to just about the whole town. Big grocery store, a Dunkin Donuts, BK, Chinese, good pizza, post office, just about everything you can ask for in a trail town. The church hostel at St. Thomas Episcopal was great. Hot showers, free laundry, even cable tv. It only has 2 cots to sleep on, and a few lazy boys but over all for $10 donation it was pretty good. What gives it a low grade is the people who work at these establishments. They just look so miserable. After a 20 minute wait at BK, the lady came to the register and just looked at me. Not a hi, or may I take your order? Nothing. Dunkin was unfortunately the same way with at least 20 minute waits. Just an unfriendly place altogether. After another 20 minute DD stop this morning I started to road walk the 2.5 miles back to the AT trailhead. About a half a mile in, a Lincoln Contenental stoped, pulled over and popped his trunk. Yay! Im getting a ride! David was his name and a great guy who picks up hikers all the time. Says he doesn't understand why guys with trucks drive right past you guys. They know where you are going for goodness sakes. I nodded and agreed, but honestly I never picked up a hiker, or anyone for that matter. But if you live in a trail town.....come on! You have a truck, we will jump in the back and never even see you. We have about $2k in gear on our back. The hikers are the ones that should be worried honestly. The temperature started to pick up and the sun was already beating down at 7:45. I knew there was climbing today so I was already mentally ready. The climb was not as bad as I figured but I was already sweating like a pig. Once I climbed to the top I reached the elevation I would be at all day, between 1100 and 1400 feet. However there were a lot of short rock climbs that needed the use of all fours at times. I reached New York by noon and I'm now 8 states down with 6 to go. It feels good to be here and sometimes kinda scares me to realize I started in Georgia. About 2pm I started to feel weak and so tired. I misjudged the water supply as well so I was running low with nothing for another 2.5 miles. I hate when I don't have water. The sun and the mosquitoes are relentless on top of my thirst and tiredness. I knew at NY 17 there is a hotdog stand and a little further a creamery. I just had to get there. When I did, sure enough the hotdog stand is not open on Sundays but I did walk another .2 to Bellvale Farms Creamery and some homemade icecream. This place was packed, and it stayed that way for the whole hour I was there. The first thing I did was fill my bottle from the faucet and drink about half a litter, then walked in and ordered a root beer float. Yummy! I stayed there for over an hour, even laying down on the picnic table for a bit. I only had 2 more miles to my destination so I psyched myself up and hit it.Arrived at Wildcat Shelter around 6 and started setting my tent up. It was one of those days that you knew you were gonna sleep well. Debated on weather or not to cook a dehydrated meal cause I wasn't too hungry, but I went ahead anyway cause I probably needed it more than anything. Song of the day, New York, New York - Frank Sinatra What else would it be?