Summer 2019 - Day 20- Hosner Mountain Rd to Telephone Pioneers Shelter

Date: July 5
Total Miles Today: 13.2

Total Miles this Summer: 227.5
Total Trail Miles: 1027.9

Well fed, clean and rested, we reluctantly left the party at 9am after breakfast. Most hikers were lingering a bit longer to enjoy the hospitality.

3 miles later, we were ready for second breakfast. This is known as the 'Deli section" of the trail, so we had the option to walk 1/2 a mile off trail to get 2nd Breakfast. We also grabbed hoagies to eat for lunch. 

Big Oak tree...bigger than the one we have at home.

Sometimes the AT makes you road walk. Years ago, this are had lots of road walks, but they worked hard to string together sections of woods and minimize it. In this picture we are crossing an Interstate.

Right at the end of the roadwalk.... Trail Magic! I enjoyed a cold Orange Fanta, and Advocado also grabbed a soda.

Never one to pass up a good rock, Sage found a nice place to rest. 

Not as many views in this part of NY, but we still get an occasional nice overlook.

Hoagies for lunch. This works. We like the Hoagie section of trail.

Mercifully, much of the trail was pretty easy today. I hear that Connecticut has lots of fairly easy trail, so we are looking forward to that. However, the heat and humidity made it harder than it should have been. I spend the day with my shirt soaked in sweat, sweat dripping in my eyes, and a swarm of little bugs around my head. Sometimes fun takes an unexpected form like this. 

Then we passed Nuclear Lake, named because in the early 70s, there was a Plutonium research facility on its shore that had a bad incident, and they shut it down. Tests assure everyone it is safe, in fact you can swim in it.

But do you drink from it? It's a hot day, and my Sawyer filter will remove just about anything. Radioactive isotopes? Darn...I tossed the instructions..not sure if they are covered. So, we followed standard trail practice...we got our water miles before the lake.

On an additional note, that disposable Smart Water bottle now has 3x as many trail miles as my average pair of Altra shoes. I predict it will out live my new Loan Peak 4.0s.

The trail continued to be fairly easy, even the climbs were smooth. You can see one of countless rock walls we crossed.,.marking some boundary from another time. 

When it's hot, an opening in the canopy means your get to bake in the sun. And perhaps see a view.

Today was an easy 13.2 mile section of Trail. By terrain difficulty, we should have done a 20. But the heat and humidity made it another hard day.  Exhausted...we stumbled into the shelter and set up camp.