Day 1 (94), 09/23, Telephone Pioneers Shelter, 0.6
The day has finally arrived that I’ve been planning for: my college friend, David is joining me on the trail for 2 weeks. We’ve been friends for 42 years, which is absolutely mind boggling considering we’re both only 35.
I made the mile walk back to downtown Pawling to have breakfast and kill some time until he arrives. Once he landed, I asked him to tell his driver he was going to pick me up in town and drive us directly to the trail. Pawling is nice enough, but there aren’t any reasonably priced hotels for us to spend the night. Plus, I don’t think 2 bald guys hitchhiking really have a better chance than one.
They let me know as they were getting close so I could go order a pizza to carry out. The plan is to get dropped off at the Dover Oak Tree (the oldest oak directly on the trail—over 300 years old). There’s a shelter less than a mile from the road where we’ll spend the night and do a shakedown. With any luck, we’ll have the shelter to ourselves.
I, generally, don’t have fires when I’m on a thru-hike. After a full day of hiking, I just don’t have the energy. We were in camp with a pizza before 1. Dave wanted to build a fire and we had plenty of time. I had my second campfire this year.
The hope of a solo shelter soon diminished. Another SOBO thru-hiker (whom I hadn’t met) and a NOBO section hiker joined us. It was a great introduction to “trail characters” for Dave. The SOBO hiker was a bit eccentric and never heard a conspiracy theory that he didn’t believe in.
Day 2 (95), 09/24, Morgan Stewart Shelter 7.8
My plan is to break Dave gradually. Perhaps I should say “break in,” but this is the AT. I figured NY and NJ are two of the flattest states to start someone on. Dave is in pretty good shape (considering he’s even older than me, by almost 6 months—ancient!).
David has done a lot of camping (his family used to come down to my place in Southern Illinois every year) and he’s done a lot of day hiking, but this is his first foray into backpacking. I want this to be as enjoyable as possible for him.
From personal experience, I’ve found day 4 on a trip tends to be when your body rebels the most. By day 5, your body begins to accept that this is the way things are and it starts to adjust. I’m planning on moderate days for the first couple days gradually adding a couple miles each day and then easing off a bit to allow his body to adjust.
Today is a relatively flat, short day. I let David lead. He does really well leading. He’s even able to continue talking while we’re going uphill. He doesn’t have any problems at all.
It did rain a bit, on and off, but nothing bad. We made it to the shelter in the early afternoon. Dave wanted another fire so we collected wood, but it was too wet for us to get it going.
Peter, a NOBO section hiker eventually joined us. He’s from CT and is “hiking home” on this trip. He was interesting to talk to. He’s a young guy working for the former Senator Lieberman’s foundation. The foundation tries to encourage/help establish businesses in war areas. Peter is only 23, but he’s been in and out of Ukraine several times already for work. He’ll be returning again later this month. He described his view of things in Ukraine from his time in Kiev. It’s his belief that if US support is withdrawn from Ukraine, they will be that much closer to using nuclear weapons in their defense. The Russian invasion is an existential threat to them.
Day 3 (96), 09/25, RPH Shelter 9.0
It rained most of the night and all morning. I had texted Clean Break to let him know our plans. He’s less than a day behind us. I’d like Dave to get exposed to less eccentric hikers so he isn’t completely tainted. Clean Break will have to do. He’s a retired Marine Colonel who has “rebelled” against his former clean cut life. He has grown his hair into a pony tail and become very health conscious. I’ve been hiking on/off with him (and his son before he got off trail) for the last 500 miles.
We have a few options about where to stay tonight—there’s a couple of hotels in about 5 miles if the rain becomes too much. It’s not an ideal introduction to trail life (the rain). We’ll adjust accordingly. In the mean time, we decided to try to wait out the rain.
As the rain was starting to let up, a new face popped into the shelter. Clean Break had braved the morning rain to try to catch up with us. We quickly packed up and hit the trail with him.
It was less than 4 miles to our first deli. It was still raining, but not of biblical proportions. We stopped in for some pizza and to pick up a few more food items to hold us for a couple days. While we were eating, the rain intensified. Clean Break and I were willing to get a hotel. David protested and said he came out to hike. This became CB’s rallying cry for Dave—“I want to mother fucking hike!” There might be a trail name in there.
We tried unsuccessfully to get a hotel. We had no option other than to “mother fucking hike on.” Dave was happy. It’s a little over 5 miles to the next shelter. Dave is naive to the ways of rain on the AT. It’s completely doable, but not entirely pleasant.
Because of our late start and pizza break, it turned dark well over a mile before we arrived at the shelter. CB and I had our headlamps accessible, but Dave’s was buried in his pack. He ended up walking between us to have light.
RPH shelter has a well. Or, rather, had a well. The NPS and ATC don’t like wells because they require water testing and maintenance. The latest decision is to remove the handles on all pumps and tell hikers to carry in water instead. The last water source was about 1/2 mile before the shelter.
We stopped and filled up water. Dave discovered that his rain coat is not really waterproof. He didn’t complain, but he was completely soaked long before we made it to the shelter.
There were already 2 hikers spread out in the shelter when we arrived. Since it was after dark, they had spread out all their gear to dry expecting no one else would arrive. Surprise!
After a lot of shuffling, unpacking, and eating, we finally made it to bed. It was extremely late—almost 9. Dave can scratch another item off his bucket list; backpack at night in the rain. He admitted to be overly enthusiastic this afternoon when we were looking for hotels.
Day 4 (97), 09/26, Dennytown Road Camp 10.7
3 of us went to the shelter last night. 4 of us walked out this morning. Mr Conspiracy was one of the 2 hikers already in the shelter. We walked together as a group for 7 miles. It was entertaining to walk with a group of people for a while, but I was going into sensory overload. I’ve been out here for 3 months, mostly by myself, and I’ve grown to enjoy the silence.
Mr Conspiracy has some whacky views. Generally, when anyone starts talking about conspiracies, I quit listening. I think conspiracy theories are a means of trying to find patterns where patterns don’t exist. Overall, I did soften my view towards Mr Conspiracy because he’s had a tough time recently. He’s coming off a divorce and loss of his job. He has lost everything—wife, kids, house, job. He doesn’t even have a credit card since his divorce. I don’t know how much he truly believes or if this is all an act. I do know when someone defends the Unabomber, I take notice and back away.
David and I stopped to get water and have some food while the other two kept going. We had agreed on a camping spot tonight with Clean Break. Dave took the opportunity to soak his feet in some cold water. He’s developed a few blisters on his toes from walking in wet socks in yesterday’s rain.
David and I are pretty much aligned politically. We’re disgusted by the handful of Republicans that don’t want government to function and are in the process of trying to shut the government down. It’s the Republican Party’s own fault that these radicals have such outsized influence in their party. Right wing radio has been preaching “compromise is bad” for the last 20+ years. When you go in with an “all or nothing” attitude, you will come out with nothing which continues to breed contempt among the members. McCarthy has a shit show of his own creation to deal with. I don’t see how he can survive without Democrat support which he’s too stubborn and stupid to ask for. I just hope the Senate will present their bipartisan package to prevent another shutdown. The fuckers are playing with the value of my retirement money. As long as Republicans act this irresponsibly, I cannot vote for the party any longer.
This is Dave’s real 3rd day of hiking. He hasn’t quite bottomed out physically yet. He’s actually holding up really well. I’m sure he’s aching a bit, but he’s taking his Vitamin I regularly and not complaining. Other than a few blisters and some minor aches, he’s ahead of where I expected him to be. We’ll back off a little tomorrow since it should be his worst day and then try to get in a light recovery day after that.
We made it to camp pretty early. Clean Break was already set up and Mr Conspiracy had continued on. Dave and I set up camp and made our supper. Afterwards, we all headed out to collect some wood to have another campfire. CB got a nice one going. At twilight, we could see the bats overhead feasting on all the newly hatched insects from the recent rains.
Day 5 (98), 09/27, Graymoor Spiritual Ctr 8.1
We took our time getting ready. I use a single wall tent which is not ideal for using in an open field—lots of condensation. We had our breakfast and dried everything out before packing up and starting.
Overall, a pretty uneventful walk today except for one minor scare. We noticed a tent slightly off the trail with hiking poles in front of it. CB and I approached the tent to make sure there wasn’t someone hurt or in trouble. Dave gallantly held a position far enough away that if someone started shooting, at least one of us would survive to tell the story of events that transpired.
I kept yelling towards the tent asking if everything was ok. We were actually pretty concerned that there might be someone hurt or dead inside. It was worse than that. The former occupant had taken a shit in the tent and then abandoned it. “Brown down, all clear!” At least we didn’t have to deal with police and a dead body.
We also walked by a small pox inoculation station from the Revolutionary War. Funny how using live virus was fine but when we have a new vaccine everyone rebels against its use. I wonder how much trouble GW had getting his troops inoculated.
Just prior to our camping spot, we ditched our packs in the woods so we could hike on up to a deli/convenience store about 1/2 mile ahead. We ate our supper there so we wouldn’t have to cook tonight. We also bought some liquid refreshments for later.
The Franciscan Order of monks has a large seminary and retreat center that they allow hikers to camp on. They bring in port-a-potties and have a cold shower for hiker use. There’s also a large pavilion and a fire pit.
As we were setting up our space and collecting firewood, 2 more SOBOs showed up: Pack Man and NOC (the hiker I had seen in CT that wouldn’t talk to me). NOC stands for No one Of Consequence. He’s actually a very funny outgoing guy but he’s having a lot of foot problems when he’s hiking so he tends to distract himself through music and podcasts.
We had our 3rd fire in 5 days. Clean Break and I are both starting to get used to this, but we know it can’t last. Our short days will soon be over if we intend to make Springer by Christmas.
Day 6 (99), 09/28, Bear Mntn Bridge Motel 6.6
We all got up and headed to the Deli for breakfast. On the way, we ran into Mr Conspiracy. He doesn’t have FarOut on his phone so he couldn’t find the camping spot by the monks.
All 6 of us were at the deli having breakfast. This is the largest group of SOBOs I’ve been a part of this year outside of Shaw’s in Monson. CB, David, and I have reservations at Bear Mountain Bridge Motel for this evening. I think a short day will do Dave a lot in the way of recovery and I can use some rest myself.
After we bought enough food to get us to Greenwood Lake, we all headed out. We all agreed to let David lead since he’s a short timer. We’ve all been out here a while and generally walk by ourselves, we have time to see what’s in front of us. When you’re in a group, it’s not as much fun to be behind someone because your view is obstructed. Everyone knows Dave is testing the trail waters to see if he might want to do a larger section, or even the whole trail, someday.
There’s one drawback to putting Dave our front. Dave is a bit worried about holding everyone up because he’s overthinking things. He’s afraid he is going too slow for us. Instead, he’s going too fast to make up for it. We did discover one thing today—the person in front should have a map.
Dave had his head down trying to make good time. He missed a slightly obscured turn. We were all talking and missed it as well. About a half mile along, Pack Man and I checked our maps because we thought we should be climbing. We may have been off, but we made great time getting there!
Dave was a bit gun shy taking the lead again after the diversion. Everyone was very understanding and only reminded him about missing the turn about 10 times per minute. It was a short day for us. Even with the extra distance, this will still be our shortest day by far.
Pack Man is making the most of his trail experience. He pointed out a short side trail to “Anthony’s Nose”—a rock outcropping above the Hudson which is just a bit over 1/2 mile off the trail. Since Dave had already proven we’re capable of doing an extra half mile side trip, we were all in.
Pack Man picked a good nose. There were great views of the Hudson down to the ocean and of Bear Mountain Bridge below us. This is a popular day hike, so there were plenty of people to admire us thru-hiking the AT.
We only had about a mile left to get across the bridge and get to a hotel. Other than rain, we hadn’t had showers in a week. Dave has discovered the number one requirement for succeeding on a thru-hike is a certain amount of hygiene flexibility.
Day 7 (100), (09/29) Holiday Inn, Fort Montgomery ZERO
We thought we could deal with a moderate rain. When we ran down to Dunkin Donuts for breakfast, we discovered this was much more than a moderate rain. I’d be fine with skipping today.
We tried to stay at Bear Mountain Bridge Motel again, but, with only 4 rooms, there’s no space tonight. Clean Break and I started calling around to check on options. We ended up settling on the Holiday Inn across the street. It made it convenient for Grandpa to take us back to the trail in the morning.
It was the right call. NYC was flooding. The state declared NYC and the Hudson River Valley (where we are) disaster areas. David and I took the opportunity to get a ride to a local gear store to get some items of need.
EFG