Date: 2007-09-22
From: NYC!

To: Virginia Beach
Miles today: 0.0

I just started to laugh, thinking about all the fun things that I get to write about this time...where to start? I think that I'll stick with the chronological arrangment, as usual. To quickly summarize, however, I am in Princeton NJ, right now, headed back into the city for two more days and then on to home and the beach. I have officially walked 1/3 of the trail, today is my 2 month anniversary of being on the trail, and I am still loving life (even more now that I have my iPod and can listen to music!!!!) I can't really sum up how happy I am to be able to listen to music, and to be able to visit tons of people. Plus, I'm going to be able to go for a few days without reliably smelling I was mid-visit in Kent, CT during the last post, and ended up spending quite a bit more of the day's time in town. We sat by some big fiberglass bulls and drank beer that we got for free from the town's package store. We asked the lady there what the street drinking laws were, and she said that as long we didn't wave it around and act like fools, we would be fine, so we set up shop at the corner with the only park and stoplight (same spot, incidently) in town, and drank. Nothing beats drinking free beer in a public park. I was able to talk to Dustin in an attempt to identify the species of rattlesnake that I ran into, and he believes that it was a Timber Rattlesnake. He also said that the number of rattle segments, at 15 (yes, I got that close to it), was very unusual, in that they usually only get to about 8 before they start to break up and fall off. Anyways, Uly, Woodward and I sat around in town in the little park, and after not having seen Tartar Sauce or Squigglywhampus, we decided to go to the shelter (only .3 off of the road into town). Uly had a 5 Liter bag of wine, that Woodward carried up, and they attempted to power through. Tartar Sauce and S.Whampus showed up a bit later; apparently they got a ride into town and saw us sitting in the park, but got dropped off on the other side of town at the grocery store right before we split. Woodward found a really nice fleece jacket on the bridge over the Housatonic while we were walking back to the trail, which solved his problem of being really cold at night. Unfortunately, I still get pretty cold at night.Woke up on the 18th determined to make it into New York, and make it out of New York we did. Beginning to be down to the wire regarding my miles, I left the shelter at 10 (pretty late, but I had slept in because I felt like it), but still before everyone else. I made it into New York without a problem, although there was no sign to mark the border, which was kind of a let down, just a sign with Connecticut's ridiculous rules on one side and New York's ridiculous rules on the other. The scenery wasn't too terribly good...there weren't really any cool things to look at, so I just trudged along. I do know, however, that it's very hard to do 20 miles (what I was planning on) when you don't start until 10 in the morning. I made it 18 miles, though, and found a place to set up camp. I slept within sight of the commuter railroad and highway, but across a bog and creek, so figured I'd be safe. The water was less than spectacular, however; it tasted like wasp spray that blows back into your face...not good, but it was all I had, so I cooked dinner with it to make sure that I enjoyed the chemicals' full nutritional benefits.I had expected to be awakened by commuter trains around 4:30, but actually slept through until 7. I was packing up when I heard voices; everyone else hadn't made it out of the Kent shelter until nearly noon, but they decided to get up at 4:30 and start hiking in the dark. I caught up with them at the next shelter, after walking past the Dover Oak, the biggest tree that the trail passes by. It was absolutely massive--I think that you could have made a whole house out of the single tree. We hung out at the shelter for a bit and then pushed on. New York and New Jersey are famous for their lack of water even in good years, but Sasquatch, who lives on the road below the shelter had carried well water up to the shelter, which was nice, because I was able to throw out my last little bit of tincture of wasp spray. Uly's sister came up from Rhode Island, so he went into town with her at lunch time, and the rest of us pushed on. At the next shelter we stopped at, there was an old guy there who had gone SOBO in 2001. He was really cool, and we had a good time talking smack about Northbounders who give Southbounders a hard time, Warren Doyle (dude claims to have hiked the trail 14 times, but it's all while sleeping out of a van and slackpacking...not my idea of noble, but he acts like king of the AT), and some other people. We laughed a lot, and he said that he had overslept way into the morning, and so wasn't going to hike at all and was disappointed about that until we showed up. He said that we made him wish that he was young again. We told him to go crazy and have a good time anyways, which he agreed to do. He lives in Boston and was sitting around his house and decided to hike to NYC, so he got on the AT in Mass, and was going to go to Bear Mtn, NY and then hop on the Long Path, which goes south from there and ends at the George Washington Memorial Bridge. The day only got more interesting. We were headed to a shelter that was on a road, so we wanted to have pizza delivered to it.   Woodward and I were walking together, and got to a road 5 trail miles before the shelter that had a pizza joint only .3 off of the trail. We decided to walk there, pay for the pizza and ask them to have it at the shelter in 2 1/2 hours, which would give us some time to get there and settle in before dinner arrived. I walked into the place, and asked if they delivered. The guy looked at me like I was retarded and said "yeah." I asked if they had a map, because I was going to point out the shelter, figuring they might not know where it was. He said that they didn't have any maps at their pizza place (this sounds like setting yourself up for failure, especially when you're as dumb as this cat was). He confirmed, however, that he did know where the shelter was, but that he didn't "deliver from coast to coast." Well, I thought, it's time to push some buttons, so I let out a sarcastic laugh, and as we walked out I told him to "enjoy the lost business." We went into the deli next door and were buying junk food when pizza sauce spreader from next door came into the store, and challenged Woodward to repeat what he had said as he left. Woodward said he hadn't said anything, but I gladly offered up what I had said. He asked me if I wanted to ruin it for all of the other through hikers that might come through, and I said no, and then he said that he didn't appreciate my "insolent comments." I didn't particularly appreciate him being an ass, either, but I decided to let it go. I was going to give him a thumbs up as we walked across the parking lot, but he was a pretty big dude, and he probably wouldn't have hesitated to continue to assert his "manliness" to the other pizza-faced kids working there by punching me in the face in the parking lot. We were able to order pizza from the shelter, from a rival pizza place, and I made sure to leave some choice words in the registry for next year's hikers, who will hopefully avoid Danny's Pizzeria in Stormville, NY. The shelter was the best on the trail so far, and we had a very nice evening sitting around stuffing our faces.The 20th had me walking mostly through Clarence Fahnestock State Park, which was nice. I left before everyone else, because I had to get to where I was going to catch the train into NYC. I met some people who were doing section hikes with hiking clubs. There was a really nice lady from Virginia Beach, who took all of my trash, which was great, because I was walking along with a pizza box strapped to the bottom of my pack. Some old dude, who acted like the leader of another group, told me that I was running short of time to finish...who is he to tell me I'm running short of time? Springer never closes, I'm going to do this in my own time, and some sweaty old man ain't gonna be able to convince me otherwise. I met another person, who had just moved to the area from the city, and offered me chocolate. I accepted, and was very pleased to find that it was dark, and had espresso bean parts in it...yum! We both agreed that the only real chocolate is dark, and that the other stuff is mere candy. He kept talking about how beautiful the area was, and I agreed, but told him that he should check out Sage's Ravine and the Laurel Ridge up by the Mass/CT border. The rest of the day was also interesting. I came across a shrine to Mary, done up by a bunch of Latino immigrants. There was a registry full of spanish, and I was able to decipher a fair bit of it...lots of requests for prosperity, health and the like, and stories of coming to NY from Guatemala and Mexico. There was a picture there that showed a column of people four wide walking up to the place, and when I got back on the AT and walked towards the next road, it was obvious that it was the AT in the picture...the trail was worn down like a road, and was a good 6 feet wide. I spent the night at a Franciscan Monastery's baseball field shelter, which had lights, picnic tables, a sink, cold water shower and great view of the stars. Woodward, Tartar Sauce and S.Whampus showed up later in the night, and we stayed up 'til 11 talking, reading and enjoying the fact that there was electricity.The 21st brought me into NYC. I caught a taxi to Cold Springs, NY, where I was able to leave my pack at an outfitter. The lady was really nice, so I bought a pair of shoes from her as payment. I decided to skip the whole switching shoes thing, because my feet will just have to build up new caluses and everything. This way, they'll never see any change, and hopefully continue to not have any excuses to start acting up. There was a paramedic, Oppie, at the place I ate breakfast. He runs a response truck, in an arrangement similar to what I did for Caroline Fire Rescue for a while, and both agreed that it's the sweetest job ever!   His radio was pretty busy, and it made me want to run calls again! He ended up getting a call while we were sitting there, and made some noise for me as he drove off. The train into the city went well, but I was somewhat overwhelmed by the sheer number of people when I got to Grand Central. Strange side story: When I was on the train into the city, we were stopped at a station next to an outbound train, and Barbarossa called me as I was sitting there. He was sitting on the outbound train, literally 2 feet away from me! We hadn't seen each other in a week! It was weird. I hit up the first Starbuck's that I came across, got a Rice Krispy treat (amaaaaaazing), and a raspberry mocha, in a throw back to before the trail. I sat there and watched thousands of people stream in front of me as I sat at the window, and it continued to feel strange; just so many people! I'm pretty sure that while sitting there, I saw more people in 15 minutes than I had seen the whole time so far on the trail. I walked around Manhattan for the rest of the afternoon. I had a package of clothing sent to my friend's house, and the post office where it was being held was at 21st and Broadway. I went to 21st and Broadway in Manhattan, but was supposed to be at 21st and Broadway in Queens. Luckily, this didn't end up being too big of a problem, as the N train actually goes from 23rd and Broadway in in Manhattan to 31st and Broadway in Queens. It was total culture shock when I got to Queens...rather rough. I went to a little Mexican Restaurant, and ordered in Spanish, but then the lady started to talk more than I expected, and I had trouble understanding a few of the things that she was saying, notably that "servieta" means napkin. I met up with Michelle at the PO, and was able to get my stuff. The PO was like a fortress...the whole interaction with the dude behind the counter was through bulletproof glass, and he passed the package through a sallyport. There were lots of angry people swearing at the people behind the counters; something told me that bulletproof might be warranted. I caught a train to Princeton, NJ, where I met up with my friend Rachel from high school, "back in Iowa." We got Mexican for dinner...pretty tasty. I also got to go to my first Seminary party. It was quite an adventure! A lot of people said that they liked my hair and beard, and I tried to talk as many people as I could into taking time off of school to do the trail We're headed back into the city today, should be lots of fun.