Crocs in Conneticut

 July 17 Graymoor Spiritual Life Center, NY   1409 Miles
Today was a long day, a thirteen miler, after having such a nice short hike yesterday to West Mountain Shelter.

I woke up early, having had a nice view of the NY skyline the night before. But this morning the view from the shelter was shrouded in a mist of car exhaust; the sky itself was clear and spoke of a warm day to come.

My goal today was to go into Fort Montgomery and pick up a food care package that my had wife sent to the Post Office. I had deliberately eaten up my food stores so I could put in the new food.
My wife was concerned that honey buns, peanut butter and tuna packets were not the healthiest food to live on.

Yet it is wonderful traveling without food, keeping the pack weight down around 20-25 pounds. So much less stress on shoulders, hips, and feet. With my average food resupply, it can go up to 30-35 pounds. But I would say many hikers carry around 35-40 pounds after a resupply.

After a couple of miles of descent, I climbed a thousand feet to Bear Mountain and where there were several day hikers taking pictures of the Hudson River. The usual two foot wide trail expanded to accommodate wheel chair access and I enjoyed that easy walk around the summit and the views.

The two mile descent to the Bear Mountain resort area was notable because it was two miles of wooden steps built into the AT. Most hikers hate steps because they are more tiring than just hard trail. 
This hill was quite steep and I passed about 20 tourist types huffing and puffing their way up it. I was glad I wasn't one of them.

Arrived at the Bear Mountain Inn about 10AM and had some coffee and a cup of Pistachio ice cream down in the café. I chatted with a few hikers and then learned where a computer was located, received the Inn's password from the Spa ladies, and typed some.  

It was a two mile walk into Fort Montgomery and I hitched a mile of it to the Post Office. My wife had sent me a wonderful package full of things I enjoy: canned oysters and sardines, juicy dried fruit, and Trader Joe's snacks among them. Very nice. I took what I needed and left the rest in the PO's hiker box.

I lazily took an 8 dollar Uber the two miles back to the trail. I had added about nine pounds to my pack and was in no mood to carry it off the trail as well. 

I crossed the car-laded Hudson River and went by a zoo with bears and foxes and birds locked up in cages. The bear cage that I passed was the lowest point on the AT, at an elevation of 177 feet.

From the highway I ascended five hundred feet to Anthony's Nose and then left the views of the Hudson behind me.

By 5PM I arrived at the Graymoor Spiritual Life Center I was tuckered out. This was a monastery with a number of acres. The baseball/soccer field was used by hikers to tent and a small pavilion provided rain protection.

I passed by the monk's cemetery and then arrived at the field where there a number of port potties lined up on one side of the field and some umbrella spaces on the other. Apparently there had been an event on the field recently.

I set up a tent under a large umbrella and then took a very cold outdoor shower, it had no heat, to wipe off the sweat. It was shocking but refreshing too. I washed my shirt, shorts and socks with some soap lying about hoping they would dry some by morning.

Lil Cub and a number of hikers came rolling in about 6AM just before it started to rain. It was good seeing Cub again, an easy-going guy older guy with a good sense of humor.
But he was without his partner, gentle and matter-of-fact Dundee. He told me Dundee had hurried on because he was to meet up with his daughter soon and wanted to cover as much trail mileage as he could. I texted Dundee and found that he was a day ahead of us.

I ate very well that night, eating sardines rolled in a tortilla flat that made the German hiker Illegal wide-eyed and envious.  

July 18   Clarence Fahnestock State Park  1423 Miles

I left camp late but earlier than Lil Cub. We both knew that my pace was faster than his. But we though we would rendezvous at the State Park.

As I left Graymoor, I noted the life-sized white statue of Jesus on the cross in the cemetery and all the marble stones of monks and Father's that had died since around the 1920's.

Sometimes you get lost in your thoughts. This day was one of them.
The statue got me to thinking about how Jesus is seen in so many different ways depending on the culture; how the Germans seemed to depict Jesus on the Cross with terrible bloody suffering and in Italy how Jesus is portrayed as beautiful and masculine even in death.
This Jesus, though emaciated, was just asleep it seemed: no anguish, no pain, no spike in the hands or feet, and pure white, angel white. Not really human really, drained of blood, except in form only. A sanitized American Jesus.
And then I thought of the Buddha, the emaciated one who through suffering found Nirvana, and the fat happy golden Buddha who found pure joy by transcending base Desire.
Then I thought about the Jews and the Moslems. They don't depict a savior or a messiah. They don't really have one except for prophets such as Abraham and Mohammed. What do they worship? God in prayer. But you can't identify with God can you? So what do you celebrate? The Tribe? The history and tradition of the Tribe? So you've got Social religions. Members of a Holy Club as it were.

And then I tripped on a root and stumbled down the path a few yards and realized that I had walked a few miles and seen nothing. It happens that way when you are hiking.

It was a hot humid day and the trail terrain had some nice low rolling hills and pine-needled trail. Along the way I picked some sweet and tart raspberries that were in full flower.

I came onto a parking lot where a busload of middle-schoolers were walking a mile or so to a camp. I talked with a few other hikers sitting in the shade, ate some dried fruit and nuts and went on.

I came across a flowered memorial on a rock, the mother had died and a note on the rock said she would have wanted us to smile and be happy knowing she had lived.
 Interesting, that I'd be thinking about death earlier today. I got to thinking about it again off and on for the next few hours. 

Then I came to a highway where there was supposed to be a lake and concession stand. I was hungry and tired and took the road to the State Park campsite. There were a few sites set up for the hikers near a loud expressway behind a hill of trees.

I set up my tent, took a hot shower and went to the concession stand and the lake for a Gatorade and a burger, returning to my tent to eat some more food and read about Jack Reacher until nightfall when a fellow hiker came in and said there were no more sites.
I told him to set up next to me.

I don't know what happened to Lil Cub, he's a slower hiker than I am. I guess he hit a shelter.

July 19 NY RTE 52  Deli and Pizzeria  1434 miles

I took another shower before I left camp just because I could. I refilled my water bottles and went back to the trailhead.

After about three miles I met a woman named Redo climbing up a hill. I recognized her from a few months ago, struggling up a hill then too, looking mighty unhappy.
Her pace was similar to mine and so we walked together.

Thirty-nine years old and a plain looking woman, Redo said that she rarely walks with anyone because people don't like hiking with her. She said that it may have something to do with the fact that she is so plain and unrecognizable. That people don't remember her, that she is totally forgettable. If she died, nobody would remember her, she said.

Sometimes, she said, I get so depressed, I see a moving car and feel like jumping in front of it.  

Yeah. I've been very depressed before, I said, I know it can be bad.

Not like mine, she replied. Mine is Clincal Depression, not just your everyday depression, what yer talking about. I've had it since I was fourteen and I have to live with it for the rest of my life.

A few weeks ago, I said, I found a book in a bunkroom called Optimism. It was written by a psychologist who says that Optimism leans to happiness. I took the survey in the book and apparently I am a very Pessimistic person.

It is NOT about pessimism. I have a ClINICAL disorder, she emphasized. I also have ADHD and severe problems with my stomach.  Every day I wake up it hurts. Lately I have even more pain because of this jerky guy Duane. He is the one who gave me the name Redo because I am so indecisive.

What do you do for a living I asked.
I'm a counselor but I got tired of hearing about other people's problems. It really drains you.

We walked through a lot of swampy areas on footbridges and some nice fields and after about ten miles of hiking we hit Stormville, NY and we were both craving a Coke and a Pizza that was mentioned in the AWOL guidebook.

We got a nice New York slice at the pizza place and a few beers and was told we could tent behind the deli after the pizza guy was gone. He didn't like hikers tenting behind his store.
So we sat with another hiker couple and ate and drank until nightfall.

Redo began talking again how jerky Duane used her, took advantage of her and then left her behind. She had another boyfriend that did the same to her.
The couple listened to her politely.

I left at that point and went off to set up my tent and get some sleep.

July 20 Edward R Morrow Park   Pawling NY  1446 Miles

I left with Redo about 7:30 AM after eating sweet rolls and drinking coffee at the deli.  There are some advantages to tenting behind a deli.
We got back on the AT and walked ten miles and decided to camp at this pavilion in Pawling, NY because we were both tired. and Redo was to pickup a package at the PO.
She tried to hitch for a half an hour but no luck so we ended up Ubering for 5 apiece and was taken into town where we ate sandwiches and drank beer at a bar. 

While there, a patron ordered me a couple of shots and I started talking with the locals a bit. Redo started talking about Jerkface again and I mentioned to her that perhaps the reason nobody wanted to walk with her was that she was so negative.

When I came back from the restroom she was gone. I had another beer and then went outside and grabbed my pack and started walking.
Along the way a lady came out of a convenience store and asked if I were hungry. I must have looked homeless. Yes, I was I said. So she put $10 of credit for me in the store and I bought a sandwich and a drink.
But it was dark and I couldn't find the pavilion. But I found the park and a ballfield and tented near the home-plate stands.


July 21 Ten Mile River shelter CT
I couldn't find Redo in the morning or the pavilion. So I took an Uber back to the trail head and walked 12 miles of mostly easy terrain. It was nice walking alone again and enjoying the warm weather in the cool of the forest.
Apparently the nats and the mosquitoes were enjoying it too and were quite bothersome, swarming along the way around my eyes and ears. I noted a lot of people wearing net masks. I had a bottle of Off but that didn't do much good. It just came off with my sweat. 

I got to the shelter about 4pm and it was near the Ten Mile River where I went swimming and took all my sweaty clothes and washed them out and hung them out on a tree near the shelter.

I got to sleep about 7 in the shelter. I had it all to myself I thought until  9PM when Redo came in in the darkness with her headlight on and set up in the shelter too.
She did a lot of thrashing about on her crinkly air mattress and some loud snoring that night that was a little disquieting. 
In the morning she told me that she had Restless Leg Syndrome.
Ah, I said, that accounts for it.

July 22 Stewart Hollow Brook Shelter  CT  1473 Miles

This morning Redo and I walked eight miles into Kent, Connecticut passing out of New York. There were a hell of a lot of PUDs and both of us were glad when we picked up a hitch and landed in the middle of this touristy town for food (and a milkshake on my part.)

Redo called some relatives, her mothers' boyfriends' brother and wife to be specific.. She was worried beforehand: What should I say? What can I tell them? They want to know how they can help me.
Tell them you would love to take a shower and do some laundry?
Do I smell? she asked.
You stink, I said, just like I do. Don't worry. I'm sure they'll understand that you haven't bathed in five days of hiking.

They came and picked her up and I introduced myself as the person that had been hiking with her. Only for a few days Redo mumbled.

I caught that limited friendship innuendo. Or the "this guy is not staying with us" message.

I asked them for a ride up to the trailhead and the "brother" dropped me off and shook my hand. Good luck on your journey he said.

I walked another seven miles to the next shelter alongside another river where I met three weekend hikers who peppered me with through hike questions and stayed with me at the shelter that night.