Date: 2010-06-28
From: unionville, ny (mayors house hostel)

To: Eastern Pinnacles
Miles today: 28.1

Set my alarm for 5:45am but Bill woke me up when he started cooking breakfast. I lost my new ear plugs so I slept alone upstairs to avoid the snoring. Bill picked on me for being so groggy and unable to think. He was making omelets with Swiss cheese, sausage, English muffins with butter and hash-browns! Coffee to! Needed to re-supply so I left earlier than anyone for the grocery store.Got my first Nutella! It¢s the first time I¢ve carried it own my own. Daytripper turned me on to it. Expensive re-supply! 2 days = $25. I got coffee also.Left town with Freight Train. He¢s a slow hiker, so I followed to pace myself. Long road walk and even longer walk around a huge cesspool. Lots of Cranes and Geese and a pretty large White Swan floating on the disgustingly stagnant water. Black water covered in algae.Freight Train is a bridge design engineer. He¢s going home for a job interview. He¢s from Kansas City. His huge wide brimmed hat is always pulled tight down over his brow and he NEVER stops talking. He¢d be able to hike faster if he¢d use his breath for something besides yakking. I like him, he¢s a good distraction from how tired I feel today. I could tell that I needed to have company today by the way my feet already feel.Had the intentions of going home this week but Lish¢s appointment was postponed until the 6th. Disappointed because I was looking forward to seeing her. Hard to pick up my spirits for the push to keep going for 9 more days.Lots of wooden planks over marshy fields full of cattails and high grass. The walkway must have been a mile long! Amazing work NY! HOT out in the exposed sunlight. Stopped for a break and Rest Stop and Orbit catch us as where talking to a couple who were section hiking. They didn¢t know where they were going, but they were out for two days. Nice, I like their plan!More fields of weeds taller than me! More marshes with wooden bridges on the way to Vernon. Discovered that water and ice cream was 0.1m down the road from the highway crossing into Vernon! Had a Maine Blueberry milkshake and a lukewarm Coca-Cola. Sat with Freight Train and listened to the Beatles and U2 over the stores speaker system. Well, I tried listening to the music while Freight Train talked about his plans to go home. I hiked away alone because he¢s leaving for New York City to take a flight back home.1000ft climb to Wawayada Mtn was tough! Sweat soaked even though it was overcast. Legs felt like cement and trembling. Don¢t know how much longer I can do marathon miles with no break.Rest Stop and Orbit taking a break for lunch. I bragged about not getting my new shoes soaked since Harpers Ferry when they were brand new. It started raining after I said that, and they started teasing me. I called myself, ¢Rainman¢ and they laughed!Hiked with them for the first time. Rest Stop is an alumni thru-hiker. Orbit points out that Rest Stop¢s calves are a little bigger than mine. There¢s a lot of rocks here. Thought I was finished with those things. Rest Stop informs me that it¢s never going to stop now. Nice, great. Lots of ¢rollers¢. Exhausted.Absolutely beautiful rocky ridgeline runs today after entering New York, officially. Vistas on the right and whole time. Feet feel like wet cereal boxes again. Sweating so much that I¢m chaffing and I don¢t want to stop, so it just gets worse!Water dry at Furnace Brook, and I¢m out. Limping, hobbling and my legs are on fire! Stopped for Goldbond at Greenwood Lake Trail. Thought about setting up camp with no water right there. Struggled to NC17 where there¢s an unexpected ICE CREAM SHOP! Cookies and cream milkshake made my life here so much better! Damn sight better than 30 minutes ago when I was thirsty and my legs were burning. Not even the funny looks that the NY and NJ residents gave me outside the ice cream shop could have made me feel less thankful for the awesome ending of an extremely hard day! Instantly felt better and happy again when I drank 2L of cold tap water! Hiked out with 3L of water and carrying a bigger smile than ever before! My thighs are on fire but I don¢t care. Camping with Trog (not wearing those gaiters anymore), Rest Stop and Orbit.Worn out but tomorrow¢s another day!