Date: 2013-07-12
From: Telephone Pioneers Shelter

To: Ten Mile River Shelter
Miles today: 12.8
Weather: overcast clouds

Once again I did not want to get up. One of the hikers, I think it was ¢B Line¢, when he wakes up the first thing he does is let the air out of his mattress, so he has to get up or he lays on hard ground. So this morning I reached underneath and pulled the plug and within seconds I too was on hard ground. The night hiker came down to the shelter to eat breakfast and the first thing he said was, ¢Hey man, you got any weed?¢ I replied, ¢No, I'm fresh out.¢ (Just to clarify for those who only know me here on Trail Journals, I¢m not a smoker ¢ of anything).I finished packing up and started going down the hill. I came across the largest oak tree on the AT, estimated to be three hundred years old and the girth is 20' 4". After that, the trail went along the edge of farm land and then down and over swamp creek and onto a board walk and then-bam, you¢re on the railroad tracks. This is the Appalachian Trail Railroad Station where you can take the train into The Big Apple. I laid a penny on the tracks and headed to the Native Landscapes and Garden Center. I asked the lady if I could charge my phone and she said I could, then I walked across the road to a food trailer. It¢s called BonaVenia Pizza King, Inc. It's ten thirty in the morning and I jokingly ask, ¢Is it ok to eat pizza for breakfast?¢ And his reply was (I'll clean this part up a little), ¢There's no fudging law that's says you can't!¢ You gotta love New Yorkers! Turns out this pizza is probably the best I've ever had. The oven is wood fired and everything is made from scratch. He's even got this commercial dough mixer - it has everything a restaurant has but it¢s portable. The owner, Anthony, is a great guy and he told me, ¢Just the other day a hiker orders a pie (they call them pies up here) and all he has is a credit card and I just give him the pie. I'm not set up to take credit cards and it¢s six thirty at night - I just can't let him go away hungry.¢ He told me his motto is ¢No one leaves hungry¢. This world needs more people like Anthony. So hikers, look for his trailer just west of the trail on NY 22. I then went back to the garden center and bought an apple and an orange, Gatorade and two Mountain Dews. This place is set up for hikers with chairs, table, restrooms, showers and you can even pitch your tent here. I'm doing better at not staying so long, only an hour and a half this go-round. I finally hike on and it wasn't long and I was crossing a fence into a cow pasture with about twenty cows and they¢re all watching me, watching them. Then the trail goes out of the pasture and into a hay field. Luckily, the farmer has mowed a six foot path were the trail goes. Later I enter the Pawling Nature Reserve. Today's hike turned out to be the easiest hike of all including PA, NJ and NY. Today I've entered Connecticut, but tomorrow I'll be back in NY. But not for long, then it¢s goodbye NY and hello CT!I'm here in the shelter, in my tent again and no one else is here, so why not? I headed down to the river to take a swim but chickened out. It was seven o'clock and the water was cold, so instead I used the hand pump and washed off all the salt and Deet, rinsed out my clothes and I'm ready for bed. Mark from Woodstock has asked in my guest book how my boots are holding up. Actually they are holding up pretty good for the mileage on them. Some of the stitching has started to come undone but other than that they¢re great. But I will be looking for a new pair because my toes are still numb and the ball of my feet still hurt and the shooting pains are there but not as bad as they have been. I bought boots that were a size bigger but I think my feet have filled them up as well. Thanks for the question Mark. Also I¢d liked to thank "Lord of the Flame" for those kind words - thank you! And thanks to all that write something in my guest book!