Date: 2005-06-22
From: Campsite near Nuclear Lake

To: Campsite past Bulls Bridge Road
Miles today: 18.2

I woke up, packed, and ate breakfast all while fighting off the mosquitos. Needless to say, I lost. Stick left a while before me. Come to find out, we tented within a couple of tenths of the lake. It sure was pretty. As I passed the lake, it started to rain. Not too hard at first, just a light drizzle, but it was short lived. It soon turned into a steady shower. I had to stop and put away my music. The climb up West Mountain wasn't too terribly steep, but seeing I had no energy and it was raining, it was miserable. The rain luckily only lasted about 45 minutes. I stopped at Telephone Pioneers Shelter where I met back up with Stick and saw the PA Pods again. We didn't stop for long, we were ready to get down to the road to get some food, as another store was only half a mile off the trail. That is one great thing about New York; you are never really more than a day or a day and a half away from a road that has a store less than a mile off the trail. For almost a week, I have been carrying at most 2 days off food, and the last couple, only one day of food. The three miles to town were all downhill and we were there in no time. We came up to the Appalachian Trail Train Station, which really isn't more than a platform, bench and a sign next to the tracks.   It goes into Grand Central Station, but only runs on weekends. We walked down to the store to resupply for the day, seeing we'll be in Kent tomorrow. We ate some subs out on the picnic tables in front of the store under the trees. Some guys on their lunch break talked with us, they weren't very bright but were very nice. Back on the trail around one, and it was HOT. At one of the roads, there was a cooler, but it was an empty cooler. NY maintainers aren't doing a very good job. A lot of sections I am walking thru grass up to my waist. It is practically a breeding ground for ticks. I have been pulling probably 10 of the suckers (no pun intended!) off of me a day. I've had 3 deer ticks so far, have to watch out for those, they could be a hike breaker if I catch Lyme disease. At Wiley Shelter, we met Bamboo Bob from 2002. He has also hiked the Florida Trail. He told us of his adventures with that; mosquitos, snakes, alligators, swamps, no thank you! I live in Florida, but I'll come up north for my hiking thank you very much!Not too much longer after that, we made it to Hoyt Road, the NY/CT border. We were greeted with a climb up 10 mile hill. (Didn't go on that long, thank goodness) and then a steep decent to the shelter. We decided after a short break fighting the mosquitos that we'd push a little further to Bulls Bridge Road that had, guess what, another store, for dinner. It was expensive, but good. The owners were very kind. I called home at the payphone. Some guy was jiggling his quaters right next to me because he was getting impatient, but patience is a good virtue to have. I made him wait. You learn patience real well out here. If you are in the middle of the woods and it's a four day walk to your next hot meal and shower, you learn to be patient. We are camped about half a mile past the road in a semi-flat area. There is a big climb first thing in the morning, but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.