Date: 2008-07-03
From: RPH Shelter

To: Telephone Pioneer Shelter
Miles today: 17.5
Weather: broken clouds

RPH Shelter to Telephone Shelter 17.5 miles I got up early and headed out. I had a long day ahead. I wanted to get to the Appalachian Trail Station that goes in to NYC which was about 20 miles away. I was hoping to make it to Kent, Connecticut by Friday for the Fourth of July festivities and I have 43 miles to go in two days but it will be tough to get there in time to get anything done, especially because everything will probably close early for the holiday. Cat and Indy came through before I got out of there. I ran into them up the trail at Morgan Stwart Shelter and her father had joined them from one of the roads there. I got some water and rolled on. There are a lot of these old school metal pumps that you can pump for water but there are these little signs on them saying that ¢from time to time, samples from this well has shown trace amounts of Total Coliform Bacteria.¢ Now there is a vote of confidence for you! I sterilized the water and took off. New York has been pretty chill since Rt 301. The first half of the state had difficult terrain that was hard to maintain a good pace on. The blazes were all in weird places or too spaced out and sometimes they were so faded you had no idea if you were on the right trail. You can¢t get up a good pace if you have to keep backtracking to make sure you didn¢t miss a turn. The ground was very difficult to walk on and then the rain made it much worse. It gets pretty dangerous on some of these sections when the rocks get all slippery and you are in a boulder field. The first half of New York was pretty horrible. There was a lot of pointless terrain that they would send you up over some ridge just to send you back again. The second half is a little easier and I can start to look up at the scenery while I hike. Water has been pretty easy to find and there are little places to get food like delis or small shops just a short distance off of the trail. I¢ve been avoiding those because it blows so much time and money. I¢m quickly running out of money and I hope I can make it to the end of the trail. It would suck to have to stop; not because of endurance issues, but because of money issues. I almost jumped in Nuclear Lake as I passed it but the mosquitoes are killer here. They must train these guys at West Point. They are some scout-sniper mosquitoes that follow you relentlessly as you hike. The second you pause, they are on you. They bite through my shirt, through pants and even through my hat. I¢ve been getting this prickly heat kind of feeling as I hike too. I¢m not sure what it is but it¢s definitely annoying, actually it hurts, every once in a while I¢ll get this prickly pain all over my skin. I was trying to push for the Appalachian Trail Station when it started to rain. I put on all the gear and of course I was sweating like crazy ¢cause the rain had stopped by the time I got all th gear on. I kept it on and the rain started again just as I got to the Telephone Pioneer Shelter. I decided to stop in there and Cat, her Dad, Indy, Site, and this school teacher from Trenton were there. The rain decide to pour like crazy and I decided to stay there for the night. During a lull in the downpour I set up my tent. I realized that I had lost my left croc so I was going to have to wear these soaking wet shoes around camp too. My feet would get no break or chance to get dry. As you can imagine I was pissed. Through the night it rained sporadically and I woke up at 2 am; my rainfly had a huge puddle in it. I had to go outside and release the puddle before it pulled my rain fly off completely. I tied my fly up too high on a tree. Now I know better, it could have been a flash-flood disaster but it was averted. Whew!David AKA ¢Mister Gentle Spirit¢ Website http://www.wbafinc.org Photos: http://www.photobucket.com/brotherproofVideos: http://www.youtube.com/WBAF1