Start: Fort Montgomery, NY (AT mi 1406.1) Stop: Dennytown Road Campsite (AT mi 1421.2) Today’s miles: 15.1 miles. Total AT mileage: 396.5 miles
Today was a good day! I set an alarm for 7:05 but woke up sometime after 6:30. I got ready and packed, jealous of Lizard and her chance to sleep in. I ate the free breakfast downstairs at the hotel, walked to the gas station and got a fresh water bottle and a monster, then walked the rest of the way to the motel.
The motel guy wasn’t thrilled with me coming for the ride, I didn’t realize it was an issue seeing how he definitely got $50 from me from the previous night. He still gave me a ride with Cholula, Curmudgeon, and another guy, then came back for Derby and someone else. He was a little strange about the bed of his truck, too. He could have easily taken all of us in one load, but it wasn’t my gas.
We walked over the Hudson River and the views from the bridge were beautiful. Once on the other side, the trail went straight up.. but not for long. Right as we were crossing the road to start the climb, a black truck slowed down and honked.. it was Tie-dye, TBird, and TownLegs! I couldn’t make out anyone else in the truck, but Tie-dye’s wife has been slack packing them the last few days! A slack pack is where you take just the stuff you’d need for a day hike, like water and a snack and/or lunch.. and someone picks you up at a road crossing to bring you back to your stuff. It makes for getting big miles quickly, without killing yourself.
I was afraid the terrain was going to be like it had been for the last few days. My feet ache, but that’s nothing new.. this terrain was mostly easy going, soft and gentle. I did have a, “What in the Pennsylvania is this?!” Moment at a trail slap full of soccer ball sized rocks.. but otherwise it was great! We stopped at a deli for lunch, I walked and typed up my zero day post for the blog and still was barely lagging behind the 3 ahead of me.
Lizard text me that her shoes came! She was able to get out of town and knock out 6-7 miles (I could be shorting her some, I’m not exactly sure of the mileage). I hope to see her soon. HotSauce and FarOut are camped out somewhere within a mile or two of us. This group tonight is quite large. We have the 5 of us (Derby, Cholula, Curmy, Towely, me) and then PolkaDot (we met WAY back during my first week or so), Squirtle (who I quickly met in Duncannon), and HungerStrike are here, plus the guys that Towely has been hiking with, Ben, Beaver, and ShotSki (I could have his name wrong), plus Strapon, and a couple with him, and a duo of very young section hikers just learning the backpacking ropes.
We all ate dinner, a local hiker came by and shared cokes, Gatorade, and wine with us. There’s picnic tables galore and a nice fire going to try to get rid of the bugs. My rash is still ridiculous and Im learning my new bathing/sponge routine lol I even changed my clothes afterwards to help dry out better. We’ll see if I start making some progress!
Tonight is my first night on my new pad, and I’m so stoked to go to sleep. So far so good just laying on it! I’ll update you tomorrow!
