Date: 2018-07-30
From: Graymoor Spiritual Life Center

To: Clarence Fahnestock State Park
Miles today: 13.8

I woke up in the baseball field with my hiking buddies. Everyone lazily got up and no one was in a hurry to leave early. I wrote in my journal and stared l started packing at 8 am. I got out of my tent and ate cherry poptarts for breakfast. Easy Win was serenading everyone with Bob Dylan songs from F Word's guitar.  The short goal today was a state park that had swimming and a concession stand. It was only 14 miles away.  The beginning of until hike was pretty easy. There were not many steep long climbs. We all took a break by the river and talked about the prospect of swimming. I snacked on a complete cookie. I rolled out following Bear Box with Stealth behind me. All of a sudden I felt a sting then 2 at once. I knew that I disturbed a bee hive. I started flaying my arms in the air and running down the trail. Bees were on my pack, shorts, socks, and shirt. They really wanted to take me out. I left my trekking pole on the trail. I noticed about 5 bees on my crotch and shoved them off me. Luckily they didn't sting through that area but they tried. As I ran past Bear Box she started getting stung by bees and she ran up the trail. When I stopped running I was stung at least 6 times. Bear box was stung twice. Stealth was behind me and saw the whole thing happen. He grabbed my trekking pole and walked around the bee hive. There were 20 bees angerly flying around. At the top of the trail we waited to warn people about them. French toast tried to get past them but was stung in the ankle and butt. Another hiker named Butters came up the trail who couldn't really hear us. He didn't seem to get stung but when he passed us he casually mentioned that he was stung. From his composure you wouldn't think it. French Toast gave me some sting aid to clean up my wounds. They were burning on my back and legs. I recovered for a bit then headed out. Right up the trail was the remains of a farmhouse that was commissioned by George Washington for small pox inoculations. There were cobble stone walls everywhere in the area. After a few miles I found Stealth sitting on a large rock eating lunch. I decided to stop there too and eat. Soon everyone was stopping there for lunch. Snags showed up too. He had taken a break from the trail the other day when he was sweating buckets. His legs were cramping up from such a large loss and had to take it easy. He looked a lot better today. I finished eating lunch and headed out. I put on the best hits of Creedence Clearwater Revival and cruzed down the trail. The beat of CCR helped set a good pace. I arrived at a road and saw a couple of hikers hanging out by a car. I knew it was trail magic. They had donuts and chips for us. I gladly ate the extra calories and pushed onto Canopus lake. There were signs saying that there was camping on the beach. When I got to the beach it looked more like a swamp. It wasn't that inviting. Snags, Aladdin, and Pappa Bear were hanging out on a picnic table. They had made it to the concession stand before the grill closed. They were still open selling ice cream and snacks. Stealth and I went up there to buy ice cream and drinks. We ran into HAM who had built a fire at the park's campsite. I was excited about the fire since I hadn't had one since Maryland. Snags, Aladdin, and Cosmic pushed onto the RPH shelter about 5 miles away. You could apparently order Chinese food there. Stealth and I were content with camping at the park tonight. The campsite was a huge field with a fire pit and a large pile of wood for burning. There was a pretty good fire going. HAM had been carrying a hatchet with him and was chopping wood. That was the heaviest luxury item I had seen on the trail. They had taken a trip to NYC with it and had to hide it while on the train. I setup camp and ate mashed potatoes with spam for dinner. Stealth was working on a new prayer flag. Pappa Bear showed us the laughing train video on YouTube and we were all soon laughing. I walked about .3 miles back to the concession stand to use the shower. It was a cold one but it felt nice to be clean before going to bed. When I came back everyone was huddled around the fire. Tree Beard busted out The Hobbit and read the next chapter in the story. I could imagine the adventure in the book and how it related to being on the AT. Instead of goblins, evil forests, and monsters to battle we had bears, ticks, giardia, and 4 lane highways to fight. Everyone listened intently as we gazed into the fire watching cowboy TV. Tree Beard finished the chapter and I was finished for the night.Tonight the fire is crackling and I'm off to Middle Earth.