| August 13, 2005 |
|
Gene picked us at 7:15am at Wiley Shelter,
where we stayed last night because they wouldn't take Simon at the
park. So he took us over to Wiley Shelter. He brought us
back to county road 20 so that we could hike north today. Not
sure of my destination yet. Time now is 8:40am. |
|
I'm in a large open field with a lot of dew
from the heavy rains last night. It rained a couple of hours.
Just camp through the swamps on board walks. A lot of weed in
this area. I'll probably have soaked bots and clothes by the
time I get to where I'm going tonight. |
|
Swarms of gnats, I'm kicking them up from
the grass. Now into a clear woods, hard woods, some pines
mixed in with a lot of fern. Boulders around in the area but
nothing to large in the trail. This is easy hiking.
There goes the NY bound trail and whistle. I should be coming
up on Rt. 22 soon. It looks like I have a lot boardwalk hiking
to do before I ever et to the road. I'm glad they just cut
these weeds out of here recently. It would have been terrible
trying to hike trough it after it rained. It's pretty along
the boardwalk. It's lined with pink flowers. They are
basically native flowers of the north. I have some in my yare,
but I can't think of the name of them. |
I am the AT Metro North commuter RR station
where they stop to pick up hikers or anyone who wants to go into NY
city. Crossed the stile into a used open pasture field.
Crossed into another pasture field.
 As
we crossed the bridge and there was a cow standing there.
Simon didn't know what to think about the cows and they didn't know
what to think about him. I went on across the bridge and
pushed them out of the way, turned around and looked and Simon
wasn't there. I had to call him, then he came on across the
bridge and the cows wanted to chase him. I had to chase them
back the other way. They are leaving him alone now. |
|
There is an old cemetery ahead of that
hikers have been talking about because they lose the trail. I
guess the trail goes off to the right and everybody winds up in the
cemetery. Last night Atrain didn't get into the shelter until
real late. He said when the thunder and lightening started he
ran into a headstone and about scared him to death. He thought
he'd been had. |
|
Going up the hill on long switch backs.
I'm on top of the ridge line. I'm on solid rock, also hiking
through laurel that is wet as the wet reeds, but they are higher so
I get wet from the shoulders down. I'm on a board walk that's
pretty dry underneath it. They have cut the weed and stuff
from around it. It is pretty low in here. |
|
This is one of the poorest maintained
sections that I have been in since I left Mt. Royal. Lot of
weeds briars that stick out, and a lot of general undergrowth in the
woods. Well I've come to the grave yard, now I have to figure
where the trail goes to, I think it's right here! Yes a
little sign too! I think I'll take a look in the grave yard.
The cemetery is called The Gate of Heaven. Back on the AT
getting ready to cross Leather Hill Road into the woods again. |
|
Just after I crossed the road there was
Trail Magic waiting on us. They had 3 chairs and a couple of
coolers with orange pop, lime pop, other drinks in there.
Water, beagles with cream cheese. The other coolers had apples
and oranges, bug spray and a little peanut butter. Simon and I
enjoyed beagle and cream cheese, a can of pop and he drank some
fresh water. I can't get him to drink out of his bottles,
So at the stream before the road we crossed over. I poured his
water out. I figured there was no sense in him carrying it if
he wasn't going to drink it. He did drink a little of this
water. |
|
I'm almost into the Wiley shelter where I
stayed last night. I will repack my pack and go on for a
longer day. Wiley Shelter -
1,438.9 miles from Springer Mountain. |
|
12:50pm leaving Wiley Shelter heading
north. At least I'm not fighting the weeds through here.
The woods looks a little bit clearer. Going down through some
good smelling native pines. I'm getting ready to cross a
bridge that has a bunch of water in it. It must be near 90
degrees in the shade, very hot and humid, nothing dries. Just
came out into an open field that got to be higher that 90 here. |
|
I am now in
Connecticut. I just crossed Hoyt Road. Looks like
they have had some drought problems too. The south bounders
told me that the problems with water would be less. The trail
is real good so far and has been flat. I'm going up the valley
now. A pretty little area. |
|
I must be climbing a 10 Mile Hill. A
1000feet straight up! This area has some large boulder in it
too. I haven't had to hike over or had any huge big steps yet.
there a lot of stone fences in Conn. also. I'm at the peak of
10 mile hill the elevation is 1,000, and 732.3 miles to Katahdin.
I can understand why they call this hill the 10 mile hill.
When you're hiking p it with a full pack, it feel like you've hiked
10 miles from the bottom of the hill to the top. |
|
I'm leaving the hardwood trees going down
hill into the native pine trees. They are really thick.
It's been so hot today! Just came by Caper Spring, completely
dried up. Coming off the hill I noticed that I'm getting into
a lot more boulders in the trail. |
|
I'm at 10 mile river and I'm throwing some
sticks into the water so Simon can go into the water and cooled off
a little bit. Get a drink. He's really tired, but I
think this will help him to relax a little bit. |
|
I think I'm only going to go a few
more miles and camp, then go into the next shelter right before Kent
tomorrow. The big boulders along the 10 mile river are cover
with a lot of green moss and fern. under the pines. Going into
the Ten Mile River Shelter. |
|
I'm in the 10 mile shelter built in 1995.
It's log construction. It's really nice and clean. So I
came in and spread out my thinks and swept off the deck of the
shelter a little bit. I sat on the picnic table and looked
back in and saw a black snake skin hanging on the wall. I have
no idea where the black snake is, but I sure do have his skin.
Simon is enjoying his rest time this evening. We did about 13
miles today, Tomorrow will be an eight mile because I have a
mail drop in Kent. I think I'll probably stay at Mt. Algo
Shelter and go into Kent Monday morning. Maybe I can get in
and get back out. I was hoping I could get my clothes washed,
but it doesn't look like that's going to happen. Talk to you
tomorrow. |
|
Swing'n Jane and
Simon |
|
Back To Top |
Next Page |
