Date: 2011-07-07
From: (90) Home

To: (91) Somewhere in New York
Miles today: 14.8

I slept on and off as the bus traveled through the night. When I awoke fully it was 6am and the sun was up; shining through a colossal wall of sky scrapers. I got off the bus in China Town, walked until I hit Broadway, then set off across the city to Grand Central Terminal for what would hopefully be the last time. At the terminal I bought a train ticket to Peekskill NY, the closest I could get to the trail from where I had gotten off while slack packing with Bud Heavy and Cactus Jack (now an entire state ahead of me thanks to my additional two weeks off with Lyme Disease). I caught my train and road it out of the city without any problems. Once in Peekskill I was at a loss as where to go, so I asked a police officer for directions back to the closest AT crossing, and then started walking. I could not remember all of the officer¢s instructions on how to get back, but I did know the general direction of the trail and what road I needed to intersect it, and with a little help from a map on my phone (and occasionally asking people if I was going the right way) was able to walk 6 miles down New York roads until I found the Appalachian Trail Market, and running beside it the Appalachian Trail and a white blaze on a tree. After zeroing for three weeks, I was finally back on trail! (A toilet sitting in the middle of the woods greeted my return.)I had already hiked this section of trail before, and so I had to re-hike it several miles (maybe 8?) until I reached Dennytown Road, the farthest I had ever been on the AT, and then hiked on.I can only marvel at how normal it felt to be where I was. I was in the middle of the woods, when only a few hours ago I had been walking through a roaring city, and before that had been back home in Maryland. I felt no shock from the change, as I had returned almost effortlessly; the world just doesn¢t seem that big anymore.While hiking I ran into many friendly faces from the past. Having not hiked for so long thanks to stopping at Bud Heavy¢s house, NYC, home and class reunion, and then Lyme Disease, the people I was now seeing on the trail had not hiked with me since North Carolina or early Virginia. These included Stretch, who had been at Woods Hole with Helm and I, Lost and Found (and his dog Ellie) who I had not seen since Atkins Virginia, and Mothership, who claimed that we met in NC when Helm and I had entered her shelter out of the freezing rain one morning while she was still in her sleeping bag, eaten a quick snack, and then to her surprise, fearlessly struck back out into the storm like it was nothing. She said she remembered Helm and I because she thought we were crazy.From Stretch I learned that many more faces from the past were now ahead of me, including Mofo, Green Hat (Wakarusa), and countless others. I am very excited to catch up and see them all again! Turns out that getting off trail for awhile may not have been such a bad thing after all!That night Mothership, Stretch, Lost and Found, and I all tented together beside a dirty looking stream (Lucky for me I had carried some extra water). I set up my tarp in some meadow grass and was eaten alive by mosquitoes, as I did not have any bug netting. While I do miss some things from the civilized world, I still find that trail life is an easy niche to fall into. Stretch told me earlier today that the AT is the hardest thing he has ever done, and that he can¢t wait to be finished. I do not understand why.