We had something rustling around last night near the tarp. I was in a bit of a coma, so I didn’t react much, but Trippy heard it. It went away though, so nothing really came of it. However, as we hiked away from the lake in the morning, we saw the biggest bear we’ve seen to date (#12) lumber across the trail. He just kind of sauntered along at his pace and didn’t care about us. For fear of mauling, I didn’t get any good pictures. We wondered if he was our nighttime neighbor, though. Yikes.
Anyway, here is the lake.
Nuclear Lake
The weather was really hot and sweaty today. We passed by the Appalachian Trail stop on the metro North NYC train. You can ride it all the way to Grand Central. I don’t think we were dressed appropriately for Manhattan.
Appalachian Trail train station
One cool thing we hiked by today was the Dover Oak, considered the largest and probably oldest tree on the AT at over 300 years. It’s right off a road, so it’s not in the nicest setting (like the Keffer oak back in Virginia), but it was awesome nonetheless.
Dover Oak
Throughout the day, we hiked into Connecticut, then briefly back into New York, then back into CT for good. The trail does this, we were not being indecisive about what direction to go in. We hiked past the Ten Mile River and hung out there for a while because it was a nice spot that wasn’t too buggy.
Ten Mile River
We camped a tenth of a mile or so from the (final) NY – CT border near a little stream. If it weren’t for the insane droves of bugs, it would be a really ideal spot.
Vital stats for Tuesday, July 22nd :
Milestone – finished NY, now in CT (9 down, 5 to go)
Miles hiked today – 20
Mood – morale was a bit low today with the sweltering heat and tons of bugs. We think we’re fighting off our “Virginia blues” late, since we had PA to look forward to through VA. However, it feels great to check another state off the list.
Physical state – tired from the heat, but fine otherwise
Smell – giant vat of sauerkraut mixed with ammonia
Song stuck in my head – Cardiac Arrest by Bad Suns
beautiful photographs in this post! <3
That river looked pretty, but way too shallow at that spot to tube on :). I know you thought of us at that point…hehe. MIss you guys! Hope you get through the blues and glad you didn’t have a run in with that bear! Take care of yourselves!
What is making the wake on the left side of the picture of Nuclear lake?
Good eye, Elias! It was a beaver. It ducked under the water before I could photograph it.