Date: 2003-06-30
From: Graymoor Monastery

To: Morgan Stewart Shelter
Miles today: 27.8
Weather: light rain

27.8 miles from the Graymoor Monastery to the Morgan Stewart Shelter. Got started at a quarter to 5. Everyone was moving around and I was too. I was out walking about a quarter to 6. Commander & Chief and Itchy Foot left together about 20 minutes before me. I passed them after about an hour and a half or so. I was in a big hurry because there was a deli at NY 52 where I wanted to stop at for dinner. It is 23.9 miles from the Monastery. The two of them were thinking that I was crazy because they were only going to do 19 miles. My intention was to run 24 miles hard, eat and get back on the trail to get to the next shelter. That¢s what I did. I ran hard. I was only stopping for water. I stopped for water twice and sucked up candy bars like crazy. I had taken time in the morning, because I had woken up so early, to make some grits.   That was my only meal so I was pretty well starving for something hot. For some town food. This hike had all kinds of things thrown in.   All kinds of variety. There were some road walks. There was some marsh land. There were a lot of ups and downs. Nice steep ones. Some were up gravel. Some were up stone steps. Some just plain up the side through roots. Of course if it was steep up that means it was steep down too. It was a pretty good workout. I popped out on NY 52 just before 4:00 and hooked a right and started hauling down to the Mountaintop Market Deli. That was the name of the place. It was down an incline road and there was a bunch of road work going on. All the road workers were, I guess, familiar with hikers because they waved at me and asked me questions as I walked down. By this time I was extremely hungry. My eyes were definitely bigger than my stomach but I didn¢t care. I went into the Market Deli first and ordered a Boar¢s Head roast beef sub with everything on it. I grabbed a Pepsi, a large Heineken, a bunch of candy bars and a pack of cigarettes. Then right next door to them was Tony¢s Pizza. I went in there too and ordered two slices of pizza. I got everything and they had little plastic tables and chairs on the side so I sat there ate the two pizza¢s and had the beer. I was figuring I was going to save the sandwich for dinner or whatever. My appetite was definitely in overdrive because the two pieces weren¢t even enough. I went back and ordered two more. Oh, I forgot to mention that about two hours before I got to the deli I had taken a stop at the RPH shelter which was a real nice shelter.   It was actually a concrete building. It had a nice covered porch and a couple of picnic tables. Anyway, I stopped there for an hour and re-filled with water and cooked up 2 bags of ramen noodles and two cups of hot cocoa. So, my appetite is definitely in overdrive. Anyway, I was sitting in my little plastic chair next to Tony¢s pizza and finishing up the last two slices when who should walk in but Bear Bait. I knew I had left this dude miles behind. What happened was he was flip flopping New York and New Jersey starting from the north and hiking south. He had already hiked large sections of the AT before. What¢s he¢s doing is trying to complete the little sections that he hasn¢t finished. The New York/New Jersey area was an area that he was flip flopping because he thought it would be fun to see a bunch of people that he had hiked with before. That does sound like fun. I was planning on getting up and leaving there about 5:00 but since he came in I sat around a lot longer than that. I talked gossip with him and exchanged trail news. I didn¢t get up and leave until 6:00. One of the things he told me was that Highlander was once again in front of me. That freakin guy walks without any schedule. In the middle of the night or whatever. So, I could never tell whether he was ahead or behind.   I finally told him I needed to get moving about 5 after 6. I walked the half mile back up the hill to the trail. Of course, it was straight uphill from there. Up, up, up for a good part of the way. I finally hit the next shelter which was the Morgan Stewart Shelter. I had really had my mind set on staying at a shelter tonight. So, I was more than a little pissed off when I got to the shelter only to find it completely full and packed. Not with thru hikers which would have been cool with me but with weekend warriors. Day hikers. A couple of fat guys with their fat wives and their fat kids had all hiked up a mile from their car with a 20lb bag of charcoal and beers and sodas. So, one of the fat dudes comes up to me and says¢¦¢Oh, we¢re using the shelter tonight. So, it¢s full. But if you want to it¢s ok with me if you pitch your tent close by¢. That really set me off.   I sat there for a few minutes while I was putting my entry into the register in the shelter and considered taking out my cell phone and calling the ranger and have them kick their behinds out of there. These kind of people just don¢t understand that these shelters are not there for them to go and party in. They have been built there for thru hikers because we don¢t have a car to walk back down to and drive back down to our house if it starts to rain or if after walking 13 miles in a day we really don¢t feel like setting up a tent in the dark. At any rate, I didn¢t say anything to them. I put my backpack on and kept walking north on the trail. I walked for about 15 minutes and bushwhacked into the woods. I set up my little hammock and cut my roast beef sub in half and sat there and ate half of it and drank the 1 liter bottle of Pepsi that I brought with me. It was probably about a quarter to 9 by this time. It was getting really dark. I put my headlamp on and put mosquito repellant on. I had bought another bottle because I¢ve already used up one. Suddenly, I was very, very, very tired. I don¢t know. I guess it was a long day. I¢m pretty sure that I was asleep within seconds from the time I crawled into my hammock and into my sleeping bag. Completely backtracking from the days events¢¦.One thing I keep forgetting to mention is the water in New York and New Jersey. Almost all the water that is flowing down creeks in New York and New Jersey is the color of ice tea. What I¢ve been told is that it¢s that color because it has a high tannic acid content which comes from the decay of the leaves and the plant matter.   Regardless, it¢s not something that I¢ve been keen to drink. I¢ve been trying to avoid it. I¢ve been making long runs between water sources trying to get it from either spicketts or creeks that run clear. Even puddles of rain water. But I¢ve been trying to avoid the brown water. It¢s just questionable to me and I also didn¢t know what filtering all that brown stuff out would do to my water filter. I didn¢t want that clogged up either.