Date: 2013-07-04
From: Pochuck Mountain Shelter

To: Warwick Turnpike
Miles today: 12.0
Weather: moderate rain

I'm laying here scratching all my bites, most of them to the point of bleeding. I have got to trim my nails! I look out of my tent and see mosquitoes everywhere. I dread getting up, but I do and as soon as I leave the safe haven of my tent they start feeding on me. So I put my rain coat on and my bug net but my hands are exposed; I'm having to wipe them off constantly - when will the madness end? I drop my pack at the shelter and retrieve my food bag from the bear box, grab some breakfast bars and talk to ¢Freebird¢ and ¢Jingles¢. The two of them are on a spiritual hike. She's an eighteen year old that just decided to go hiking for a couple of weeks and get closer to God. She got her name from all the stuff hanging on her pack. She makes a lot of noise when she hikes - you can hear her for miles. Firebird slowed his hike just to help her on her hike. They leave and I soon follow. We will pass each other three or four times today. I reach a road way and take a break and this car stops and the driver asked me if I needed anything. Why can't I be so lucky when I need to go into town? I say no thank you and start a half mile board walk over a marsh area. About halfway, there's a bench in the shade, so I take advantage of it and the fact that there are no bugs due to the wind blowing. I take my boots and socks off and let my feet dry out. Some locals stop and we talk awhile. I decide to eat brunch and ¢Slim Jim¢, ¢BMW¢, ¢Freebird¢, ¢Jingles¢ and a couple more hikers past me by. Once I'm done eating, I finish my board walk and cross a suspension bridge and I'm back in the woods again. Then I go over more planks laid over some wet spots, cross over train tracks, a field and then over Hwy 94 and into a parking lot where Freebird is sitting. He says, ¢Drop your pack and go to the deli down the road, brother.¢ So I do, and with my luck, the deli was closed, but the store/garden center was open. I bought some grapes, plums, soda and a gallon of water and head back. I share the water and grapes with Jingles and Freebird and we start our climb up what this area calls ¢The Stairway to Heaven¢ and trust me, when I reached the top I thought I was in heaven. The view was unreal. I could see the trail and the store down below. Freebird was already there taking a smoke break. He asked where Jingles was and I said about twelve smokes back - she's struggling so he goes down to help her. After awhile I leave and two hours later I find the Warwick Turnpike where I start my walk into town, walking on the white line, cars zipping by and my right foot is starting to really hurt. I come up to a house where a father and daughter are outside so I walk up and ask if he'd like to make a little money driving me into town. He asked, ¢What do you think it¢s worth?¢ I say, ¢How about ten bucks?¢ He says, ¢Okay¢ and the daughter goes inside and comes back with a cold bottle of water and off we go. It was worth the ten bucks and no one got a ticket! My plan for the fourth for the past week has been for me to make it here to Warwick and go to the drive-in movie, but it was too far away from my hotel. So on this Fourth of July I'm just sitting in my room when my room phone rings. It¢s the motel owner. All he said was, ¢Fireworks channel 4.¢ So here I sit on this holiday watching the fireworks on TV.