Lost and Found

Today is the 14th, and I’m in a room at the Lost and Found Hostel in Greenwood Lake, New York. Today turned out to be a pretty short day, mileage wise, but effort wise, it was big. This morning, I woke up at the Wawayanda shelter.

And I said in my previous post that I expected to be the only one there overnight, but then at about 8:30 p.m., two guys rolled into camp. And I think they were definitely in some sort of competition for the most grunts and loudest camp setup on the AT this year. It was definitely the noisiest setup I've witnessed so far. But at least once they’d finished, they were silent. They were still sleeping when I left this morning. I wonder if they might have been section hikers. They didn't seem to be thru-hikers.

I was up and on the trail by a little bit after 7:00, and shortly after I began hiking, I got a call from S. saying that my dad wasn't feeling well and might need to go to the hospital. So I was on the phone a decent amount throughout my hike today, talking to S., talking to my sister, talking to my dad, talking to the pet boarding place to see whether they could take his dog in for a while, etc. As of now, he's at the hospital and seems to be doing okay — he might have a lung infection, but we’re not sure yet. Hoping for the best there, of course.

So that extra activity, coupled with the fact that end of the trail in New Jersey going north and the beginning of the trail in New York happens to be a very challenging section. It’s not necessarily challenging in terms of super long, steep inclines, but there are a lot of very big rocks and a lot of climbs and there's definitely a fair share of quote-unquote hiking where I had to use my hands as well as my feet.

So the miles went very, very slowly. It was also quite toasty. That tended to slow me down quite a bit, too. Yesterday, I’d managed to do just over 11 miles before noon, but by noon today, I think I’d only gone about 6.5 miles. Definitely a much different hike today.

I booked myself a spot in the Lost and Found Hostel, and someone from the hostel was going to come pick me up at a road crossing at 3 o'clock. I made it to the road a little early, though, maybe 1:30. I’d been able to pick up the pace quite a bit toward the end as the trail flattened out.

There's a creamery about a quarter-mile down the road from the trailhead, and just about every thru-hiker stops there. Today, it seemed like everyone in the southern portion of New York was there, too. I got myself a mint chip milkshake and headed back to the trailhead to wait for my ride.

The shuttle arrived right on time at 3:00 and brought me here to the Lost and Found Hostel. Originally, I’d been planning on going to the next shelter for the night, which was only a few miles up the trail from the road crossing, but given that my dad's condition was still fairly unknown, I wanted to be closer to civilization, in case I needed to do anything else. I guess I still might. I don't think so, but we'll see. Spending the night here instead only tacks on about 2 miles to my plan for tomorrow, so it’s not a big deal. It's supposed to be just as hot tomorrow as it was today, so what’s the difference, really?

The Lost and Found Hostel is in someone's house. And it's a delightful little place, very comfortable, and they do your laundry for you and serve breakfast in the morning. All good things. When I got here, I showered up, handed over my clothes, and talked to my dad.

[Wife note: 😍]

For dinner, I headed up to the Greenwood Farm Market, which happens to have a little taproom inside. So, imagine a sort of hobbyist garden store with a little bakery attached to it, and in one corner, there are a bunch of taps.

They happen to be kind of a music venue, too. There was a band playing in their side yard, and they were piping the music into the taproom area. The band was sort of this freeform jazz ensemble. Those of you who have seen Spinal Tap might remember the point when Derrick Smalls gets to play some of his “Jazz Odyssey,” and at one point, the bass player at the taproom sounded like he was trying to recreate that. It was pretty funny.

While I was there, I had a couple beers and a pulled pork and cheddar flatbread, which was massive. Then I rolled my way back to the hostel. It’s nice  to have a little escape from the sun and the heat, and I’m pretty excited about sleeping in an air-conditioned room tonight and waking up to a real breakfast. Tomorrow is going to be a long day, I think, and it’s also supposed to be quite hot. The terrain looks like it’ll be pretty challenging as well. But for now, I’ve got a private room, so that ups my chances of getting some good rest tonight.