Sunday, August 29, 2010

ATC Railroad Station to New Jersey

Well I didn't make it to Telephone Pioneers Shelter like I planned. It rain most of the day on Sunday the 22nd so I slept on the porch of the railway station before heading out on Monday.

I did 11 miles on Monday and passed Nuclear Lake ( I wanted to get some water from the nuclear lake but didn't) and stayed at Morgan Steward Shelter that night.

Tuesday I did 9 miles to RPH Shelter, it was probably one of the nicest shelters I've stayed in. It's made of cinder block and was a converted cabin. It was up high along a ridge. I stopped at the Mtn Top Deli to get a sandwich and pizza today. There's a no-hitchhiking law in New York and New Jersey so it's hard to get into towns along the trail to resupply so I'm having to eat at these little stores. They are more frequent in this stretch of the trail, probably because they know they have a captive audience.

Wednesday I did 19 miles Graymoor Spiritual Life Center, it's run by Franciscan friers. It's a homeless shelter. They had a soccer field and a pavillion there so we slept in the pavillion and tried to order a pizza from Dominos over the internet from one of the hiker's phones, but they couldn't find us, so we had to order from Papa Johns who after about an hour of driving around were able to locate us. It's been cold and overcast the last few days.

On Thursday I did 15 miles from Graymoor to William Brien Shelter plus a 7 mile round tripper into Ft Montgomery, NY to get some supplies. I crossed the Hudson River on Bear Mtn bridge and finally got to see my first bear and mountain lion...... in the Bear Mtn Zoo. The trail actually passed right thru the zoo. We got some strange looks and families kept their kids close when we passed by, I think they thought we were homeless people. The New York people aren't very friendly like the northern states. I also got to cross a 4 lane highway on a dead sprint. I think I had heat exhaution that day as I fell asleep around 7 PM and slept till 6 AM.

Friday was HOT, the trail was terrible, not well maintained, rocky and hard to follow. I could have easily gotten off the trail. I did 18 miles and finally got to Fritzgerald Falls around 10PM and decided to sleep under the stars.

It's Satuday the 28th of August and I'm in New Jersey eating a quart of ice cream and a couple hot dogs. I'll probably go to Wawayanda Shelter at mile maker 826 and stay there tonight, that'll be 14 miles for the day. I've sent some more pictures to my email, hopefully Mom and Dad will get them posted soon.

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