Date: 2009-07-12
From: Graymoor Friary, NY

To: RPH Shelter, NY
Miles today: 18.9
Weather: clear sky

Cell goodOG notesMy memory isn't failing me, the terrain was decent today. We made decent time because of the good terrain.We are in a new pack of hikers now. The people we had been hiking with are a few days ahead of us. One of the great things of hiking a long distance hike is all the people you meet. We haven't met many in this pack yet, but I'm sure we'll enjoy their company.We are at the RPH Shelter tonight. This shelter is a little different than other shelters. This shelter is located along a road and it even has a house next door. I learned that when the US Forest Service purchased the land for the AT corridor it also got a summer cottage. The local hiking club converted the building into a shelter. They opened one wall so that it is opened to the outside. This was done to conform with the standards for shelters. It's a litle wierd to see a concrete building as a shelter. The area around the shelter is more like a backyard than a camping area.We're in our tent again tonight because we like the bug free environment. We are comfortable in here. We have other tents along side ours so we have to talk quietly. Other than that it's really nice here.I can't think of anything else right now, so good night. C6 notesThe terrain today had some easier parts than we've had since mid-PA, so we were finally able to hike to tonight's shelter in decent time for a change. It was refreshing.Along the way today we met a very nice section hiker whom we hadn't met before..."Ruffio." He's doing the whole AT by large sections (over 200 miles at a time), and he figures he should finish the entire AT over the next 3 summers. We enjoyed hiking with him for a while and sharing memories of the past because we are close in age. We dated ourselves by remembering mimeographed copies in schools in which we worked (me as an elementary school Principal's secretary, Ruffio as a PE teacher). Ah, the smell of mimeographed copies! When we were 2 miles from the shelter, we came across two guys who were returning to their cars after working on a trail maintenence team. We've been seeing signs of a trail maintenance work weekend this weekend, based out of this RPH Shelter, with food for any hikers who helped the team work on the trail. Today is their last day. We knew we wouldn't get here in time to help with trail maintenance, so we didn't expect food, but when we arrived they offered food and beverages...trail magic!To make it even sweeter, one of the guys (Dave) we came across at the last road (2 miles back) offered to take our packs to the shelter so we could slack pack the last two miles! We took him up on it and cruised over the last two miles. That was wonderful! And then to have food offered even though we didn't work was so nice.Dave is extremely involved in local trail development and maintenance. He shared a lot of history with us, and told us of plans for new trails (not AT though) being planned around here. Very nice guy, and very interesting. Thank you, Dave, for being so kind to us!It will be interesting to see how tonight is here, because there are a lot of folks here for the night. A bunch of tents are set up (ours included) and beer is flowing.By the way, in case you haven't figured it out, we have 760 miles left. The miles are clicking away! We'll be in Connecticut in 26 miles...wow!And for an update on our weather statistics, the sunny days are leading right now. It rained throughout the night last night, bu since we didn't hike in any rain, I'm counting yesterday and today as sunny days. As of today, we've had 65 sunny days and 58 other. I hope this trend continues!!! Right now the weather prediction calls for good weather for the next couple of days at least.Old Goat & Check Six