Date: 2023-06-15
From: NY Route 52

To: Tent Site at mile 1459
Miles today: 18.2

Hiking Day 91, Elevation 883 feetWe slept in today, sort of. Josh, the front desk person had brought us breakfast last night: bagels and cream cheese, bananas, yogurt for Kerry, orange juice and we made coffee in our room. All packed up, Cathleen took us back to the trail at 7:30 and by 8 AM we were walking north again towards Maine.I remembered that I had left my second pair of underwear in the room¢¦I guess it¢s a match for Kerry¢s warm layer that he left with Grandpa at the Bear Bridge Motel yesterday. Oh well, we¢d been thinking about lightening our packs, maybe our subconscious was at work!We had a very leisurely day. The walking was very relaxed and pleasant, much as it has been so far through New York. There was a wonderful scent of wild roses all morning even though we didn¢t see many of them. I attribute this to last night¢s rain¢¦the wet seems to accentuate the forest smells. A couple of days ago we walked through some burn areas after the rain and the smell of fire was quite strong even though the fire wasn¢t that recent.In the morning we walked past Nuclear Lake, I spent some time wondering why anyone would call a lovely lake ¢Nuclear.¢ At West Dover Road, we ran into Brian, Soda Bread and his friend, Dave, who maintains the trail south, where we had just walked. Dave told us that there had once been a small nuclear reactor there and that¢s how it got its name. He was so nice and I felt guilty for my comment yesterday to Kerry about the condition of the trail. Apparently, he doesn¢t like to ask for help so he has been doing the work almost single-handedly. He also pointed out, quite rightly, that one has to weed wack the grass by hand, it can¢t be mowed as we have seen on flatter terrain. He said that of late, he has spent a lot of time removing graffiti, with a chemical he called, ¢elephant snot.¢ He said it¢s a constant battle as some people seem to think graffiti-ing the wilderness is fun. Anyway, Brian (aka, ¢Soda Bread¢) plied as with drinks and food (celery sticks and hummus) and both he and Dave told us to call them if we needed help ¢¦.even a place to stay if we couldn¢t find something reasonable to get out of the rain. Dave said (really!), that we were obviously sweet people, and who wouldn¢t want to help us? I thought this was very kind, and we thanked them both. It¢s supposed to rain tomorrow and we need to re-supply, but Brian said that there isn¢t much in Kent where we plan to go.It was now after 3 PM and we hoped to get a few more miles in to possibly shorten the rain walking tomorrow. At the next road crossing, we spied the food truck, which FarOut said might be there. As we approached, the outside awning was being lowered, but when the owner saw us he put it up again. The food truck had a Malaysian menu, so Kerry and I both had a plate of Hainanese Chicken and rice, which we later agreed we could have shared one plate between us. Instead, Felix got some rice and chicken (I feed him that at home, so I¢m sure this made him happy!), with hot sauce¢¦and he ate it all up. He¢s such a funny dog, he won¢t eat just anything; he has a sensitive nose (as dogs usually do) and if the food doesn¢t meet his standards, he won¢t touch it! Kerry had a boba Thai iced tea too and the man in the truck offered to fill our water bottles and gave us water for Felix, unasked.Today was filled with many kindnesses from people. It was such a peaceful day.After dinner, we walked on ¢¦.we had lots of energy and the sun, which had been in and out all day was shining brightly and made anything seem possible. We expect to be slowed down in the upcoming rain so we thought it was good to walk while the going was good.Tonight we¢re stealth camping in a forest in western New York, I think. Tomorrow, we¢ll be moving on to Connecticut!