Date: 2006-05-15
From: Bear Mtn

To: My first big lesson (Fort Montgomery)
Miles today: 3.6

I got up early this morning.It was very cold.I hiked to the summit of Bear Mountain-ostensibly one of the highlights on the NY section of the trail.It was even colder.It began to rain.I talked to a guy who was refilling the soda machines.He told me, "it's going to rain all day."The summit soon was overrun with an endless stream of HS students who were hiking up from the other way.I decided that it was time to leave, in spite of the fact that I had cover there.While I have gotten used to hiking in the rain...i reached a breaking point. I am fed up! Everything that I own is wet!I know that there is a town not too far up the trail. I decide to make it there so that I can take a break. So I cover my pack with a hefty bag, and I head out into the rain. I wish I had been in a better mood as I passed through the Bear Mountain Zoo. I merely said a brief hello to uncle Walt, and made my way to town.My first stop was a deli. I got a foot long tuna salad sandwich, a quart of milk, and a 20 oz coffee. I sat at a picnic bench with a canopy and was in heaven. I have been subsisting on granola bars and poptarts for 5 days.Coffee? I am an addict! So much so that I carry instant coffee in my backpack. But I do not carry a stove...so i am merely mixing it with cold water every morning. (yes this really does work! Taste...thumbs down. Consistency...thumbs down. Nurturing of addiction...thumbs up.)Hot coffee was truly a treat. My next stop was the laundromat. Clean and dry clothes are almost as delicious as a fresh cup of coffee.But while standing naked in the laundromat bathroom (that's a sentence that probably doesn't get typed very often,) i realized that I had 2 ticks burrowing into my body. One on my upper thigh, and one on my belly. Balls!!! I spent so much time before the trip reading about bears, and snakes, and water supplies...because I wanted to be safe and confident. how much time did I spend reading about ticks? ..............about that much!I didn't even know that I was supposed to be checking for them under my clothes. And I didn't remember the proper way to remove them. I remembered tweezers, which I have on a swiss army knife, but that's about it.It was at this point that my town visit turned into a day off. I knew that there were some hotels in town, and I had been trying to resist the temptation.I managed to negotiate a deal at the Holiday Inn Express.The first thing that I did was look up "ticks" in their internet center. I learned that I wasn't supposed to squeeze the tick at all (which I did on one of them) and that I wasn't supposed to leave any part of the tick inside of me (which I did on the other one...out of frustration, and after drawing blood trying to get the last remnants).I also learned that anywhere from 50 to 90 percent of ticks carry Lyme disease. This can be treated with antibiotics, and if it isn't it can cause more serious neurological disorders. In order to transit the disease a tick must feed on you for several hours. Symptoms will appear within 1 week, and are flu-like. Oh yeah, and if they don't carry Lyme disease, there are several other diseases that ticks also carry.So my big lesson for today is about irrational fear. Bear attacks on the trail occur once every four years, and yet that was one of my biggest fears. Ticks infect people every day, especially in May, June and July. I feel like one of those idiots that is afraid of flying and terrorists, but drives on the Jersey Turnpike w/o hesitation.Anyway, we'll see what happens. I have a strong immune system, I am never sick. Maybe I'll be alright.I took a long bath. Ordered a pizza for dinner. And I am going to get some much needed sleep.Oh...I checked the upcoming weather. I'm gonna have a couple days of sunshine before the big storms come on Friday.I also talked to B. for the first time since she dropped me off, which was good, but confusing. I didn't tell her about the ticks, I know that she's worried enough as it is.She's going to mail me a case of Clif bars to Pawling, NY, where my first mail drop is. It's about 40 miles from here, hopefully I can get there before the big storms on Friday. I will have to pick up my pace, that's for certain.I also traded text messages with Riff (one of my best friends in the world). Human interaction is almost as good as being clean with clean/dry laundry and drinking fresh coffee.