June 3 Morgan Stewart Shelter, NY to Wiley Shelter, NY 16.3 Miles

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After I finished doing my journal last night we had a hiker "Unplugged" walk into the shelter. He left Springer, GA on 15 March. He is from CT and is getting off the trail for a few days in Kent, CT and going home. He said the rest is much needed as he did an entire month of 23 mile days. He had to so he could make his graduation from Penn State. We slept well and there was no rain. We were up by 6:15AM and doing those morning tasks. We hit the trail just before 8AM. We beat Unplugged out of the shelter which was not normal for us to be first out.

The trail was kind to us today. Lots of contouring around the sides of the mountains not up and over the tops. It was just 60 degrees when we started with broken overcast so walking was pleasant. We have kicked up a number of deer the past few days and they mostly have stood up and then watched us walk by not 20' away. We even got within 30' of a Wild Turkey yesterday, then it walked away slowly. We are not sure why we are getting so close to the wildlife. Maybe we are more quiet or maybe we smell "Gamey" or a combination of both. We walked over a swampy area on a boardwalk today, the area looked like a bayou down south. There were a number of nice flowers to get pictures of there. CC slipped off of one of the boardwalks in that area. She was lucky it was a short one and mostly dry underneath. On one of the larger boardwalks a slip like that would have ended real messy and muddy. Near Nuclear Lake we encountered a turtle laying her eggs along the trail.

After lunch at the Telephone Pioneers Shelter we stopped at the Appalachian Trail Station. It is the only train stop on the AT. The train only stops there on weekends, but it is an official stop. During the week you have to ride an additional three miles into Pawling, NY. Just before the train stop was the Dover Oak. It is the largest oak tree on the AT, it was even larger than the Kiefer Oak in VA. We liked the Kiefer Oak better as the limbs were larger and some even touched the ground then went skyward.

It took Unplugged three hours to catch up to us the first time. Then we leapfrogged until after lunch when he took the lead. We didn't see him after that until we reached the shelter. He keeps a faster pace than us up hill, but only made the shelter 10 minutes before we did.

The rain started after lunch and has continued through the early evening. We put our pack covers on but dispensed with our jackets. The air was warm and we both kept warm enough to sweat. We made the shelter by 3:40PM some 20 minutes quicker than expected. Like I said earlier, the trail was kind to us today. We feel better now than yesterday after less miles.

While cooking supper "Panama Red" came into the shelter. He had taken five days off trail to visit a friend in New York City. It was his first visit there and is still all wound up. CC spotted a huge spider on the front of the shelter. We have never seen one quite like it. I got a picture, but it is fuzzy and the size is hard to see. End to end it was about three inches! One more reason to sleep in a tent. Speaking of tents, there is a real nice platform here for our tent. It sits under four huge oaks and after hours of light rain, the planks are still dry. We are sure the water will eventually reach us, but so far we are dry. Tomorrow only 12.4 miles to the shelter. A nice short day. Within two miles of leaving this shelter we will depart New York and enter Connecticut! Nine states down, five to go. My guidebook is down to the last 17 pages, we must be getting close to the finish.

Patrick, Deborah Mooney aka OD & CC
All Who Wander Are Not Lost

For Photos and Video: http://odandccslongwalk.shutterfly.com/

OD and CC have been marking their path with a GPS using SPOT Satellite Messenger and can be tracked at the following link. It keeps track of their last 7 days: http://tinyurl.com/o2g53z

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