Date: 2018-07-09
From: NY 52

To: Wiley Shelter
Miles today: 20.5
Weather: scattered clouds

DAY 125We had the alarm set for 5, so we got up packed and were all ready when they opened at 5:30 . The owner seemed very friendly. Right around 5:30 he looked out back, waved his arm, and hollered ¢coffee is on.¢  We went in and had a big cup of tea, breakfast sandwich, and a muffin, then we headed out for the day. It was fairly cool again today, but it warmed up quickly. So our first planned stop will hopefully be Nuclear Lake for a swim. After doing a short series of road walks to cross underneath 84 we came to a little bridge over a little stream. On the bridge was a sign that said bees, be careful please stay to the... and then it was scratched out. We'd also read warnings on guthooks about this bridge. We figured it was cool enough this morning, and also we would go over nice and slow not to rile anything up. We made it about three-quarters of the way across when I was just telling Mary to go a little faster, suddenly whack, I got one sting on the left shin. And then whack, I got another one on my upper right thigh. We put it in high gear and moved out of there. I never did see what it was that stung me, but I know they hurt. We made it to Morgan Stewart Shelter where we took a break. There we saw a bunch of southbounders packing up, and we warned them about the bees. When we made it to Nuclear Lake it wasn't quite as clear as I remember it.  I think it is warmer then when I was here In 2011, so the water was a little more murky. We both soaked our feet and I ended up jumping in because I was so hot and sweaty. As we were getting dried off we met at trail maintainer who was coming in to pick up some trash. She said they were doing a work party in the area, so there were a lot of people out working. Just as we were about to leave a young guy and girl from New Zealand arrived. He had hiked the trail in 2015 and was back for a visit. He said his trail name when he hiked was Bourne, I think because he looks like Jason Bourne. He was excited to talk about the trail again, so we chatted with him for quite a while before we moved on. It heated up quite a bit today, so by the time we got to New York 22, after crossing another swampy boardwalk, we were quite warm. There's a garden center at the crossing that offers a shaded gazebo, drinks, and either an outdoor cold shower or in indoor heated shower. We stopped to cool off with some ice tea in the gazebo, Mary took a hot shower, and I rinsed my head in the outdoor shower. Before we moved on there was also a food truck at the road crossing where we decided to grab a quick dinner.  Mary had a pineapple chicken sandwich and I had a cheesesteak. We finished our 20-plus mile day at the Wiley Shelter, we opted for there because it had a hand pump with good water. When we arrived there were no other thru-hikers, but there was a large group of co-ed kids on some outdoor club type outing. We set up our tent and filled up our water for tomorrow from the pump. As we were getting ready for bed I heard a couple of barred owls begin to call. Shortly after I heard squeaking which I wasn't sure what it was. Turned out it was coming from a barred owl right up above our tent on a branch. I probably shouldn't have but I couldn't help myself, I turned my Merlin app on the phone and made some barred owl sounds. This got him quite flustered and he flew off, but he  continued calling with the other owl for quite some time. We climbed into bed, but the group didn't quiet down for quite some time, even after being asked by their counselors to do so. The worst part was they were all running around with their headlamps on, quite often shining them into our tent as we were trying to sleep. Purple Haze wasn't too happy!