Day 27 - Pawling NY

​Day 27 - Pawling NY

Starting location: Morgan Stewart Shelter

Ending location: Pawling NY

Mileage today: 8.4 miles

Total Mileage: 302.1 miles

Today’s Photo

The story behind this photo ... 

Today we slept in to about 6:40 am! PTL! Got on the trail at 7:30 am. Had an easy 8.4 miles today to Amee at a road crossing outside of Pawling NY. We hiked with 2 AM today. The boys loved him because not only did he have cool stories, but he shared his peanuts and his rolls with the boys! lol. He way overpacked his food and was happy to have the boys lighten his load! 

Hiked past Nuclear Lake today. It was very pretty lake and even had a kayaker on it. 

The trail was very easy today and we didn’t have to worry too much about tripping over roots and rocks. We finished at the Dover Oak tree. See photo above. It’s over 300 years old, which was before our nation was even born! 

Just down the road from the Dover tree is where they shot some of the scenes from the movie “The Quiet Place”. Amee met a farmer which the trail borders his property and got to chatting with him yesterday. We ate lunch at his place today before going to the hotel. He told us they blocked his whole road when they were making the movie. lol. Pretty cool. 

Hotel stay #2! The boys were so excited. We are going to take a train to NYC tomorrow to be a tourist for a day! Stay tuned! 

Good night 

Gandalf, Legolas & Bombadil 

Day 26 - Morgan Stewart Shelter

​Day 26 - Morgan Stewart Shelter

Starting location: Long Hill Road 

Ending location: Morgan Stewart Shelter

Mileage today: 11.4 miles

Total Mileage: 293.7 miles 

Today’s Photo

The story behind this photo ... 

Well we woke up at 5:30 am and got things packed and left the Graymoor Pavilion for the third and final time. We really enjoyed that place. We got to the Long Hill Road at 7:45 am. We got to hiking at 8 am. I want in a hurry since we were only hiking 11.4 miles today. 

The trail was actually very nice and free of rocks and roots for most of the day. We didn’t really see any wildlife to speak of unfortunately. 

NY is also called “Deli Blazing” since we pass many NY delis in the short span of the trail. So since we were only hiking a short day, we hiked 0.4 miles down the road to eat some NY style pizza for lunch. Legolas had a pineapple pizza and Bombadil had a plain (aka cheese) pizza. We also got an order of garlic knots that were to die for. In three days we hope to hit Tony’s deli and get some Philly Cheesesteak. lol. 

This is the MPH shelter. It is a weird shelter. Use to be a cabin apparently. You can get Chinese or pizza delivered here. It’s a favorite stopping point for many thru hikers. We just passed through. Here are some more pictures of it. 

We finished the day at Morgan Stewart Shelter. There is a guy here who we met at the MPH shelter when we stopped in. Apparently he didn’t get into the shelter until 2 am, so we named him 2 am. He’s just on a 6 day hike to get in shape for the Army. 

Apparently we are 1444.7 miles from Springer and now only 753.7 to Katadin. Mount Washington is only 420 miles away! I can’t wait to get to the whites. 

Well off to bed and another day of hiking. 

Good night. 

Gandalf, Legolas & Bombadil 

Day 25 - Long Hill Road

​Day 25 - Long Hill Road

Starting location: Graymoor Pavilion

Ending location: Long Hill Road

Mileage today: 16.6 miles

Total Mileage: 282.3 miles

Today’s Photo

The story behind this photo ... 

Today we woke up crazy early since we had a 30 min drive to be able to hike south today. We are doing 16.6 miles and it’s been challenging for Bombadil to stay motivated on these long days when it’s just trees and rocks and nothing super fun. Legolas just listens to his book and powers through the boredom. lol. 

We did get to see this cool graffiti up on top of the mountain when we started though, and this was the view from the top. 

The boys got to actually play with on old rotary phone. They were mesmerized! lol. I can’t believe the stuff we find in the trail. 

This was an old mining road we walked over. Nothing super exciting happened to be honest. 

The excitement came when we finished. We treated them to some delicious sandwiches from the Appalachian market. Amee and I had a Reuben. Simply amazing. 

There are 12 hikers here tonight. So we are getting a lot of NOBOs who started late Feb or early March. Salty and light are here. She is trying for her triple crown (AT, PCT & CDT). Salty has tripled crowned twice. He has over 30,000 trail miles! Unreal. 

Now off to bed. Less than 12 miles tomorrow. 

Night

Gandalf, Legolas & Bombadil 

Day 24 - Graymoor Pavilion

​Day 24 - Graymoor Pavilion #2

Starting location: 1777 parking lot 

Ending location: Graymoor Pavilion 

Mileage today: 11.2 miles 

Total Mileage: 165.7 miles

Today’s Photo

The story behind this photo ... 

Today we got up and going at around 5:45 am. Left for the trail around 7 and started hiking around 7:30 am. Beautiful morning. Cool and sunny. We started the day with a climb up Bear Mountain. We unfortunately didn’t see any bears but did see a deer. 

Bear mountain going up was pretty nice. Here was a stretch of 201 steps. Glad I had planed on it being leg day today! lol. 

Once we got on top of Bear Mountain, this is what all the trail should aspire to look like. This was prime Triple A graded trail. We were in heaven. We could look all around and not worry about tripping one bit! Heaven. It was like this all the way from the top to the bottom of the mountain. I couldn’t believe it. 

This was at the top of Bear Mountain. We got to go up and get 360 degree views. We could see NYC from here again. The boys were soWe then had to walk around this lake as a detour due to construction going on. It was a paved shaded road so I wasn’t complaining. Was able to snap this beautiful reflection of Bear Mountain in the lake. 

Also some turtles were out sunning themselves. 

Then I forgot that the AT actually hikes through a small free zoo! So we got to see beavers, owls, a falcon and some hawks. Unfortunately, the bear died last year so even in a zoo we haven’t gotten to see a bear yet. Unreal! lol. 

Then we got to hike across the mighty Hudson River.  It was pretty amazing too. Not as impressive bridge as the Brooklyn Bridge or the Golden Gate Bridge though. 

That all happened in the first 6 miles of our hike. The last 6 miles were tough green tunne hiking over a couple mountains. Plus it got hot by then, so it was hard to stay motivated. I did bribe them with a drink at the Appalachian market at the end of our hike. The trail literally went through their parking lot. Talk about being customers to your doorstep! 

Again, we are staying at the pavilion. There are 9 of us hikers here tonight. Obviously  us three, plus 3 thru hikers (Tonto, BlueJay & Prophet). One section hiker and then 2 more rolled in after dark that we didn’t get to talk to. 

Well time for bed. 16.5 miler tomorrow with slack packs. So should be a fun day. 

Good night. 

Gandalf, Legolas & Bombadil.