NY Route 52 1437.8 to Wiley Shelter 1458.3 (20.5 miles, 432.9 total miles)
I fell asleep around 10pm last night, and slept like a log until 5am. I made the mistake of dozing back off, and realized I’d slept until 6:45, which was much later than I’d planned. My body needed it, thought.
I found Tater, where Carrado’s had generously let him car camp in their employee parking area. We made a little side trip to a Dunkin Donuts a seven minute drive away to use the bathroom and get some coffee and breakfast.
I was still feeling tired as I packed up my tent, and saw Tony’s Deli was 15 miles ahead by trail, and also offered camping for $2. It had been recommended to me to stop there by a former hiker, so I definitely wanted to do that, and it would be a good place to camp if I needed a short day.
It was another late start, at 8:45 when I started hiking. I went slow at first, but the hiking was easy and up on a ridge. It was sunny and cool out, in the 60s, and the weather couldn’t have been different than the day before.
My pace picked up, and I realized I was feeling a lot stronger after all the sleep and food I’d had the day before. A little before the shelter I had planned to stay at the day prior, I walked up on a female hiker hanging out on a rock.
She’d met Baked Potato doing trail magic the day before, and had heard of me from him. Her name was Dirtbell, and she had done a month long section of the first quarter of the AT last month, and was knocking out NJ, NY, and possibly CT while she still had her trail legs.
We chatted for a few minutes, and I moved on to the shelter to use the privy real quick, and I left a note for the Cult in the logbook, since they’d be there that night. Dirtbell passed me while I was there, and I caught her taking another little break ahead.
She said she’d booked a room in Pawling, NY for the night, needing a shorter day to regroup. I gave her Baked Potato’s number so he could get her into town at one of the roads ahead.
I kept hiking, my trekking poles in my pack because the terrain was looking easy ahead, and I was making good time and still feeling strong. I thought maybe I’d push and make up the miles I’d dropped yesterday by going to Wiley Shelter and doing a 20 mile day, my original plan the day before. I’d be rolling into camp late again, but it was only another day after that to get home so I didn’t mind too much.
I found a spot where I had to cross some railroad tracks and a bike path, and saw a couple approaching from the water source just ahead.
They seemed super excited to see me, Jaye and Ed, and were doing a biking trip of the Empire State Trail, and had come from Iowa. They had biked past the AT, then backtracked to check it out and had lots of questions about my hike. They didn’t seem to know what trail names were, and were flabbergasted at first when I told them my name was Amelia Airheart.
Jaye said she was a believer in Christ, and asked if it was okay to say a prayer for me. I accepted readily, and she placed her hand on my shoulder and made up an absolutely beautiful prayer from her heart for me. I was really touched.
Dirtbell arrived and said hi as well, and walked down to the water source. Jaye and Ed gave me a Poland Spring bottle of apple juice, which I chugged, and then handed me $15. It was a super sweet gesture, and although I told them it wasn’t necessary, they insisted.
I hiked .3 with Dirtbell, who told me she was a self employed writer and podcaster. I thought it was interesting to find that out right after I was handed some money, because I really want to work for myself through my writing, and it almost felt like the universe was giving me an encouraging sign to continue pursuing that.
After I said bye to Dirtbell, there was a few miles of very flat walking around Nuclear Lake. I couldn’t believe I’d done 7 miles already, it felt like only 2, it was such a difference from the day before. Nuclear Lake was beautiful, but there was a lot of overgrown trail in New York I was finding, because NY doesn’t have ridge runners to monitor and maintain that.
From there, I had an easy ascent up to the top of the ridge, then a pretty steep, but short, descent to Telephone Pioneers Shelter. My knees started to hurt a little and my fingers were super swollen from hiking 12 miles without poles, so after my break I decided I’d hike with my trekking poles again.
I met Beer Girl at the shelter, who I’d seen in the trail logs, a flip flopper who started in Virginia about 600 miles ago. I also met two section hikers from PA, one of which was planning on hiking all the way to Katahdin.
I hung with them for a while and let my socks dry out in the sun. I ate a light lunch, still planning on stopping at Tony’s Deli for dinner before pushing on the final miles.
I hiked the rest of the descent from the shelter, and a little up and down to Wingdale, NY, where I passed the train station into town. The hiking before that had been on another beautiful boardwalk like the one in NJ, and I saw two monarch butterflies as I hiked along.
Tater had my phone charging cord and was meeting me at Hurd’s Corner Rd to bring me that and drive me the half mile to Tony’s Deli. He’d spent all day shuttling hikers back and forth from the trailhead to Corrado’s, the Italian spot also a half mile off trail that we’d been to the day before.
He had left a note at the trailhead telling hikers to go there and he would give them a ride if they called him. He’d brought about 20 hikers through and Antonio and Mike were super happy to have more hiker business in a day than they’d gotten before.
A half mile off the trail doesn’t seem like a lot on the outside, looking at hikers that go 15-20 miles per day. But half a mile there and back is an extra mile for tired bodies, and takes an additional 20-30 minutes out of the day, so it’s huge to have someone to help out hikers like that. Most side trails that are longer than .2 get skipped in the interest of efficiency.
Tater and I hit Tony’s Deli, where I ate an amazing corned beef rueben that was very generous with the meat and was the exact type of greasy, protein rich food I needed. I used the $15 the kind bikers had given me to buy the sandwich and a Coke Zero, and gave the rest to Tater for gas money.
Furps showed up while we were there as well, and hooked me up with a bunch of electrolyte packets, an orange, some cupcakes, and a Gatorade.
He offered even more food, but I knew if I ate more I’d be in for a rough hike. I told him where the other hikers were, and he headed out to Corrado’s to trail magic them up as well. When he’s not helping hikers, Furps runs an animal rescue. He has a big heart and I could tell Tater loved talking with him and seeing how he operates his trail magic.
I felt good and strong, and had 5.4 to go to get to Wiley Shelter. I had a steep climb out of town through grassy, sunny fields, past cows and over farm wire. At the top of the ridge, I’d learned my lesson about electrolytes, and downed the whole strawberry watermelon Gatorade that Furps had given me.
It seemed to really help, and I zoomed on, doing the first 3.2 miles in an hour. The trail was overgrown in spots, but there were some nice open forests with grassy areas and ferns as well. I put on Eminem’s Recovery album and listened to that as I went along.
The hiking was quite easy from the ridge to the shelter, but I still managed to get myself in a little jam. I was hiking over some two plank boardwalks, when I saw a little tiny downed tree across the trail.
There are a lot of tree blowdowns across the trail in NY, again due to the lack of ridge runners and trail maintainers I believe. Nothing against NY, it’s just a different vibe than the last few states I’d been through.
It’s more difficult for me to climb over downed trees than some other hikers, because my legs are kind of short. But as I was stepping over this one, I saw a mosquito perched near my shoulder.
I don’t remember if I tried to swat it off or not, but it all happened so fast. The next thing I knew, I stepped right in between the boards, where one side had eroded in the middle.
My right foot got completely stuck, and before I could tell what happened, I had fallen straight forward, with my right knee hitting the board, my poles dropped at my sides.
I had landed on all fours, and just froze for a moment, trying to get unstuck, but it was a futile effort. I had to untie my right shoe and pull my foot out so that I could stand up, with my shoe still stuck in the boardwalk.
I dropped my pack, and sat on the little downed tree, which sunk low beneath my weight. I kept my right shoe off, assessing how my knee felt, massaging it and checking it out. I could see it was a little swollen near but under my kneecap.
I wrenched my shoe out of the crack with my hands, and took a few minutes to make sure I was okay. It could have been way worse, but I didn’t want to further irritate my knee by continuing on a 3mph pace.
So I took it easy the last 2.5 miles to the shelter, dropping down to 2mph. It took me until 7:45 to reach the shelter, an extra half hour longer than intended. However, I was especially grateful for the easy terrain, though there were a couple very small steep ups and downs that I had to be careful on.
At the shelter, I found the two section hikers eating dinner, and saw a nice tent platform to set up at. Tater arrived five minutes after me, from the other direction, with some much needed ice for my knee. I’d told him what happened a few miles back, and he was in the area and wanted to help.
There was a parking spot about half a mile from the shelter, so it worked great for him to park his car and stay near the shelter as well. The ice seemed to help my knee, and I figured I would check it out in the morning and make sure it looked good. I didn’t land on my kneecap, so I hoped it would be alright.
I have 18.7 miles to do tomorrow before I get picked up to go home for my zero day. I am incredibly excited to spend a little time at home and see people I love. When I get back on trail on Friday, I’ll reunite with the Cult, which I am also excited for.
I’ve put in some good days of hiking, and I hope tomorrow goes well and I finally get an early start on trail this week. All the good things I have to look forward to should hopefully help me crush some miles and have a great few days ahead.