Date: 2014-07-03
From: unmarked campsite between Dennyville Road and the State Park

To: Hosner Mountain Rd (mile 1428.4)
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: light rain

It rained for a good portion of the night, lots of mosquitoes again this morning. Fortunately, I was in MOPP 4 as I was packing up and taking care of my morning business. Walked some hours to Fahnestock State Park (http://nysparks.com/parks/133/), where I could not resist the urge to at least get the illusion of being clean, with a nice shower. Also washed my clothing in the sink. Charged my devices, got a cheeseburger and some Gatorade, and charged my water. Was back out on the trail relatively expeditiously (total time off:< 2 hours). Although rain is in the forecast, it is currently sunny and a little humid here in the forest. I did not bother to dry off, and I put my hiking clothes on wet. Unfortunately, they dried off fairly quickly. Anticipating that Al will catch up with me sometime this afternoon/evening. I'm currently listening to James Fenimore Cooper's "Last of the Mohicans". A few of you have asked about electronics on the trail. Today is a good day to explain that. I now carry only two devices, and iPhone and an iPod. (Well, if you consider a portable charger a "device", I guess three). The iPod is an indispensable piece of gear, not only because it goes for days without needing to be recharged, but it holds tons of media, books, podcasts, and naturally, music. While my iPhone could also hold these things and I could use that (with the added benefit of not requiring headphones), it would quickly run the battery down, even if I have it in airplane mode. Additionally, the iPod weighs a mere 1 ounce. The headphones I've used for the iPod are called yerbuds. They fit the ear canal naturally, so you don't have the soreness that you have with some other "plug-in" types of earphones. The portable charger is good for two full charges on the iPhone, and the nice thing is, that in airplane mode (or turned off), the iPhone charges relatively quickly. And the iPod charges in no time at all. The only other thing I'll mention is the iPhone itself. Email, web browsing, and of course, using it to document this journey. I do virtually no typing with my fingers on the screen. I just make sure that I am somewhere that has service, and then use Siri to transcribe these thoughts using voice recognition software. It is a convenience because I can actually dictate while I am hiking. I also use hands-free earphones with a built-in microphone. One annoying issue that Apple should consider is the fact that you cannot transfer media from the iPhone to the iPod. You need to have an actual computer (Apple) to transfer Audiobooks, etc. onto this device. I do not understand why that is, since they both have Bluetooth, but that appears to be the case. I came to a very nice shelter around 5 PM (RPH). It was a little early to stop hiking, so I pressed on. This, despite the fact that rain was in the forecast (100% chance of rain). I hiked through the rain for another few miles, camping for the night next to a footbridge and stream off of hose or Mountain Road. The stream was polluted, so I did not draw water from there (there was a sign warning hikers). It was raining heavily shortly after I got my tent pitched, so I sat in the vestibule of my tent and prepared some powdered mashed potatoes and spam. Also made a cup of tea. Sticky, lots of mosquitoes, was careful to keep the bagnet zipped on my tent.