This morning, Mike got up at 9 (instead of being at his meeting at that time) so we didn’t head out until he got ready, attended it, and got back. We took the train to the North Bronx, and Donohue picked us up at the stop. She’d already gotten tweo magnums of wine, so we headed out. We made our way pretty quickly, and even commented on how the directions must have been wrong. But after driving around Westchester (beautiful homes, anyway) lost for a while, we got back on the interstate, and found out that the same highway touches the interstate at two places. So we took it, got thrown off again when the highway sign telling us to turn was completely covered by a tree, and then made our way out to the end of the directions. At this point, we pulled into a fruit stand, and a farmer informed me to look for the big tree…can’t miss it. Indeed, we couldn’t, and finally, we had reached the Appalachian Trail.
We unloaded stuff and headed in. We walked east, and uphill, until we got to alarge tree along the path. We stopped her to relax for a bit, then walked through some cool reeds in a little low-lying area. There were boards laid out end-to-end to walk on, which was cool/natural. Then it was up, up, uphill until we got to farmland. I waved at a farmer running a tractor, and he waved back, much to my compadres’ surprise. Then we headed into a section of forest that had little underbrush, and we cut our way in. I threw up both my hammocks, and we sat there and enjoyed the scene. It was great. Eventually, we headed out, retraced our footsteps, and at the top of the big hill, I asked if they wanted to run downhill. They didn’t, but they offered to take my stuff so I could. I started running, and it cut really steep, and I just kept going, until it spread out a bit, and my legs were turning down on top of each other but still couldn’t keep up, so I jumped, and somehow managed to do a somersault by just flinging my right shoulder back, and then I just kept running, which was pretty amazing. I got all the way to the bottom, and stood in the shade for a bit. Exhilirated, I waited. Eventually, Mike and Jenna got there, I got my stuff back, and we walked back to the tree, where I stored my packs and Mike’s. During that part of the hike, we saw monarch butterflies, dragonflies, rabbits, and even a whitetail deer. Then I walked them down to the car, where a hiker was sitting. Mike and Donohue left, and I sat down next to Butters (trail name, real name Bobby). We talked for a while, then I went and got something from my pack while he made mashed potatoes. After he finished, we hiked west, all the way up about 600ft to the Telephone Pioneer Shelter. It was pretty exhausting, but we sat up there and talked some, and then got out the log that is at every stop. These logs allow hikers to communicate, and Butters had hiked ahead to write to his group. I wrote “Kids should be educated in the woods” in it. Then I hiked down to the road and the big tree again, and up to where my stuff was stowed. I meditated as I watched the sun set, and made phone calls, as I somehow had service. Then, I grabbed the hammocks and my blue bag, and hiked across the street, through a small lotus-y pond, and up to the rocks. Then I went up a little farther, just to avoid the mosquitoes (which would turn out to be a failed effort…). I tied up both hammocks, then hiked all the way back, got all the rest of the stuff, which was quite a bit of stuff, and hiked the same way again. I left only a magnum of wine and a 2.5 liter of water behind. The rest I slowly hauled downhill, across the road, through the lotus-y pond, uphill, up the rocks, and in. Then I covered up as best I could as the mosquitoes proceeded to eat me alive (but not entirely).
Ben, Jess, and Hunter showed up about 2 hours later, at 9:30. It was dark out, and I had them honk when they got to “a” big tree to ensure it was “the” big tree. It was, so they unpacked, and then hiked in…slowly, because it was dark, wet, mosquitoe-filled and uphill. While they did, I made a fire against a tree trunk between two rocks. Then I went and sat out on the rock of the path and made shrew calls to approximate their distance. At long last, they arrived, and unpacked. They started drinking and cooking, but by this time, I was pretty tired. I played some harmonica while Hunter played the drums, but eventually i had to go to my hammock. I wouldn’t sleep for long, though. After everyone else slept, I was awoken by an animal making a dreadful sound, which was answered by another animal of the same sound on the other side of our camp. Slowly, the animal was coming nearer to us, so I got my flashlight out, and heard it move downhill. At one point, I caught it’s eyes in the light, but still couldn’t see it. Whenever the light was out, it kept coming up the hill. Hunter happened to be sleeping on the ground of that hill, and at one point I swear the animal must have been standing on him. By that point, I had my leatherman out, with its blade open. I ended up getting out, walking over, finding nothing, and then eventually sleeping for maybe 2.5 hours. I woke before the dawn, and watched it from my hammock. After a while, Ben and Jess got up, but Hunter didn’t. We cleaned up a little, then hiked down to the lotus pond. It was less impressive, having been stomped through during the night. But we ventured further, back to the car. Then we walked back up, and started packing hammocks and everything else. Eventually, we made Hunter get up. That boy can sleep! After we got our camp packed up, we went back to the car, unloaded in it, and then hiked back uphill to the point where I did my somersault. I had realized, in the evening, that I was no longer wearing my glasses, so I was determined to find them on that hill, knowing that must have been where I lost them. But when we got there, it was pretty big, and Hunter said, “you’ll never find them.” Within three seconds of that statement, I had turned around and gcaught a glimpse of the sun in the grass. I had found my glasses. I picked them up; they were in perfect shape, with just a little dew on the lenses. =) We kept walking uphill though, and cut in to the same path I’d made the day before. This time, though, we looked for walking sticks and explored. We found some very crazy looking mushrooms, and after everyone had been called back to look, I noticed that we were pretty much in a snake’s den, with small entry holes all around us in the mud. We left slowly, then left the woods altogether. We walked further, all the way to the top of the ridge, where we could clearly see it was dropping off. Then we went ALL the way back (this time I didn’t run downhill!). We got in the car and headed back. We stopped in a Diner at one point, and got breakfast that hit the spot. I also emptied our trash into the hole on the side of one of those cigarette stands, as none other was in sight. Then Ben drove us to the Norrth Bronx in Jess’s car, where Hunter and I walked back to a 6, which ran local all the way to 125, where I got off and got a bus across, then walked downhill, and was home in time for dinner!
