Date: 2017-06-11
From: Wiley Shelter, NY

To: Stewart Hollow Brook Shelter, CT
Miles today: 19.7
Weather: clear sky

I had a late start today as I took the time to do my trail journal for yesterday. As a result I left at 8:31. It was already quite warm and humid. 1.2 miles later I was crossing into Connecticut. I was genuinely sorry to be leaving the relatively easy and sometimes challenging (but fun) terrain that NY had served up. Today, although there were no killer climbs, there were lots of smaller ones, and they added up to 4,300 feet of ascents. I took it easy. Most thru-hikers get faster and do more miles as they progress on the AT. I'm one of those who is slowing down. I'm happy that I will reach Katahdin by or just before July 23 if I do 18-mile days. I'd love to try for one 30-mile day, though, just for the bragging rights. Speaking of Katahdin, it's interesting how my mental compass has begun to switch from having a southern orientation to a northern one. I still think in terms of miles done, but am finding myself slowly shifting to thinking of how many miles are left to do (as of tonight, 715.5). My former spinning instructor, Adam Melvin, did three weeks on the AT from Harpers Ferry to Bear Mountain. He described the AT to me as being 'brutal'. I prefer to think of it as grueling. It has the capacity to wear you down. I am pleased when I hear experienced hikers describing the AT as being the toughest hike in the US. I'd hate to think I was doing some namby-pamby beginners' trail. The first half of today's hike I was alone. It was very pretty, running alongside a river, and with lovely easy lengths of trail. But with any upwards incline, I was sweating profusely. At one point, I took off my sunshirt and rinsed it in the river. It felt good to put it back on, cold. For part of the hike around midday, I was passing through an area destroyed by a careless hiker's fire. I met Mike, a young ATC ridge runner. In the afternoon, I ran into Butterfeet a couple of times, and persuaded him to tuck in behind me and adopt my pace. We had  about ten miles to do to reach the shelter we planned to overnight at, and being together makes the time pass more easily. We noted the profusion of frogs on the trail; saw a couple of tiny garter snakes and 1,456 chipmunks; and one of us laughed when the other, thanks to his worn, treadless boots that he is casting aside tomorrow when he picks up his shiny new Salomons, slid out of control down a large, sloped, smooth rock and vanished over the edge in a tangle of tree branches, trekking poles, and assorted shrubbery. Luckily the drop off the edge was about three feet. It happened in the middle of a very sketchy section of downhill over boulders. I was very glad when that was over and we were on a flat gravel road by another river. We met Onesimus in his AT camper. He provided trail magic of ice cream and Coca Cola. He's a retired soldier and does a lot of trail magic. He's done the AT twice. About a mile and a half further on, we reached the shelter. I set up my tent and ate my food with Butterfeet. By that time it was dark. I had a refreshing bathe and shampoo in the river and felt great crawling clean and cool into my tent for a well-deserved sleep. Tipperary