Date: 2012-06-24
From: Pawling, NY

To: Morgan Stewart shelter, NY
Miles today: 8.5
Weather: clear sky

Sunday morning found us up at 6:30, before most of the encamped thru-hikers. We quietly moved our pack and then hammock to the nearby porch and dug out our stove set and UrSack. Noting a round picnic table just around the corner, we walked over, set up our alcohol stove and boiled a pint of water. Breakfast was a bowl of pork Ramen soup, beef & cheese sticks, and hot chocolate. By 7:30 we had dried out a dew covered hammock and poncho liner, packed up, taken photos, and refilled water bottles.We left the nearby Appalachian Trail train station about 7:45 after pausing to take photos of the station and the adjacent board walk. While crossing the board walk we found a pair of ribbon snakes sunny on the wooden structure. One slithered over into the wetlands on our approach. The board walk was short and at the end we began a sharp ascent up a steep hill. Once atop the hill the trail began a gradual descent south following along the edge of farms fields.Around 9:15 we met Achey Breaky headed north. Fifteen minutes later we arrived at West Dover Road and the famed Dover Oak, the oldest oak tree on the A.T.. The Dover Oak was a bit sad as rather than being amid trail inside the nature preserve, the tree's trunk is just feet from asphalt and ringed with reflective u-posts. While taking the requisite photo of the oak tree we noted a purple house behind us. The purple house was significant as the guide books reference a purple house as a source for tap water. We wandered over to the drive way and then down the gravel drive. We were met with a snarling dog inside the fence. The owner was out in her yard enjoying a cup of coffee and told us to leave our poles near the driveway entrance. Monty the dog had been beaten as a pup by homeless people in New York City. Smelly hikers with poles trigger an deep set imprint. Holly was delightful and we learned about her husband's demise, her landscape background, and the use of the Dover Oak as a rendezvous point for local drug dealers. We topped out water bottles off with the hose and spigot at the end of the driveway. [For hikers, leave the hose alone, turn the tap, wait for the warm water to flush out, fill your bottles, turn off and leave. Don't ask first, particularly early in the morning. Don't handle the hose.] Waving goodbye to Holly and Monty we resumed out southbound walk around 9:45.Ten minutes later while ascending Cat Rock our left little toe felt uncomfortable. We treated a small blister with a band-aid wrapped in duct tape. Around 10:15 we met Lime Green, who matched his name by wearing shorts and shirt with bright lime green accents. We reached Telephone shelter at 10:35 and took a water break while reviewing and updating the shelter log.We reached the summit of West Mountain around 11:30. The trail then leveled out and became well groomed. We moved along easily and thought good thoughts about the crew that built this section. Around 11:50 we felt hot spots on our right foot and shortly after spotted a large rock we dubbed "rest stop rock". We sat down, unstrapped our pack, and removed our shoes and socks. While we didn't find any new blisters, we wrapped three toes in duct tape as preventative medicine. While we dumped heat from our feet, we ate a fudge covered granola bar and reviewed our hiking plan. We calculated arriving at much anticipated Nuclear Lake around 2:30 p.m..After donning our socks, shoes, and pack, we resumed our cruise along the trail south. We were surprised when a little after 1 p.m. we arrived at Nuclear Lake and a kiosk with a map of surrounding trails. We hiked a bit around the lake until we came to an old rock wall and several well placed rocks suitable for a lunch break. We ate some tuna in oil with extra mayonnaise and drank the last of a Mt Dew we reserved from the evening before. While we were dining, a local couple passed through on a circuit of the lake. By 2:05 we had finished our meal, hiked around the lake to the opposite end and met the LaPolla family of Poughkeepsie NY. Joe the father had noted me refilling my water bottles from the lake when he announced they had some left over iced water, that would be discarded back at their car, and would I like it. You betcha! While transferring the water I filled the family in on the concept of trail magic. Iced water was probably the best trail magic I could have received at that moment. I started walking off with the family chatting and walked past the A.T. returning to the woods. We said our goodbyes and I back tracked 20 yards and followed the white blazes south.A bit after departing Nuclear Lake we arrived at a very busy NY 55. Playing Frogger for keeps, we darted across the highway hoping a speeding car would not suddenly appear over the nearby rise. Our notes said to look down the hill for a yellow school bus which was actually a hotdog stand. No bus was in view. We continued into the woods on some nice trail, but littered with broken glass. After a mile we popped out of the woods to Old Highway 55 and saw a yellow school bus just up the hill. We walked just up the stret and discovered not a food truck, but the storage yard for local school buses. Disappearing again into the brush the trail descended rocks steps to a nice wooden bridge over a boulder strewn creek. As the end of the bridge was about chair height, we sat down and dropped our pack. Checking our hiking plan we were now about 3 miles from the next shelter to our south and on time to arrive well before dark. We set off south and crossed a set of railroad tracks which a section we noted had been nicely paved for hikers.We continued our march as the trail began to slowly rise and continued to rise for some time. Feeling fatigued we arrived at a gravel road around 5:00 and noted blue blazes on the adjacent trees. In fact, there were three blue blazes indicating both a a left and a right turn. We didn't recall any discussion of a road leading to the shelter. Presently we heard construction noises from over the hill and decided to continue on.Our fun meter was well into the red zone. We were out of our comfort zone and muttering about the faux blue blazes and where was that dang shelter. After an hour we started to hear people from off to our left and moments later spotted the front of an A.T. shelter. Already at the site where Deb & Ian from Atlanta, Stray Dog, and Mel. We slouched over to the sunken fire pit which Deb was stoking and stated; "I'm tired, hungry, and want to throw up and I don't know which to do first." Deb recommended sitting a bit, which we did while sipping on diluted Propel.After 10-15 minutes the nauseousness waned and we wandered behind the shelter to locate a pair of trees for the evening. Trees located we hung our hammock and tarp and prepped our bed. We grabbed our food bag, stove, fuel bottle and water and headed back to the pit. Where there was once smoke there was now a small fire. Stray Dog put his pot on a provided grate while we started our nightly boil. We started with our soup while some garlic mashed potatoes rehydrated in our freezer bag cozy. We managed to get all our potatoes eaten with the help of some hot chocolate. We inquired about water and were directed to the pump well down hill from the shelter. We took all three of ours and inquired if anyone else needed water. There being no takers we set off down a steep downhill and found a quaint, but large hand pump. After three full strokes water gushed forth, but not into the small opening of our plastic bottle. Someone left a cutoff water bottle at the pump which we used to collect and pour the precious well water into our assembled bottles. We carefully made our way back up hill hoping we wouldn't snap a tendon due to the steepness. Pleasantly full and with water for the morning, we headed off to our hammock for the night. Around 10:45 it began to rain and continued to rain through the night.