It was still unpleasant weather when we awoke this morning, and we still didn’t have much water. We collected a bit of rain water and set out. I still wasn’t even thirsty having drunk plenty before the shelter the day before. There was water in just a few miles along the trail and were were able to stock up there. The rain was continuing and Miranda’s leg wasn’t doing well. We had planned on doing 20 miles today but I could tell early on that was unlikely to actually happen. We kind of needed to do the mileage though in order to be in position to hike the last 10 miles into town before the Fort Montgomery post office closed at noon on Saturday.
About five miles into the day after more wet rocks, more steep ups and downs, and more nasty trail we found a box of trail magic just after a road. It looked like it had only water, but it was clear water instead of the brownish iron-containing water from the streams around here. Then we found another smaller box inside with business cards, “Thru-Hikers – Need a place to stay? A shower? A hot meal? A bed? Call John and Susan” and each of their cell numbers. We had a discussion about what to do – Miranda definitely didn’t want to do 20 miles with leg trouble, but Landon and I needed to get to the post office (his name was on their mail drop). Landon always wants to do as many miles as possible regardless, and I was ready for a real bed as usual. I said we should call John and Susan and eventually that’s what we decided on. Of course neither one answered, even after several tries. I left a message on Linda’s voicemail and we waited at the water cooler trail magic for about an hour and a half having lunch and hoping forma call back. Still no reply. We had to start hiking somewhere. Of course as soon as we did, my phone rang; it was Susan She was amazing from the start. She said they usually pick up hikers later in the day, but rather than wait there we could hike five miles and John would pick us up at NY 17.
We walked the five miles but it took most of the afternoon. The rain stopped but the rocks were still wet, and they were the big flat slippery kind. The last 1/2 mile was called something like “Agony of Despair” as the trail plunged downward toward the road, all on rock. We got there all in one piece though, and called for our ride. Just moments before John showed up it started to pour rain. We had seen the clouds coming for a while and when it got to us it was one of those moments where you hear rain but you’re not getting wet, you look across the street and see it raining, and then two seconds later it’s finally raining on you too. I snatched out my rain cover and pack cover, but even those don’t do too much in that kind of rain. Luckily John showed up in moments driving a pickup with an enclosed bed and extended cab. Throw the gear in back, climb in and we’re off.
Their house was amazing, two stories, tucked away down a little drive way off the main road. We kept our wet stuff in the garage, we got to do laundry, shower, sleep in real beds, all the good stuff. They even ordered Chinese for dinner for all of us and served it with their own wine, then pulled out three different kinds of ice cream for dessert. After dinner we got to take over the living room and huge flat screen TV where we watched Taken 2. The trail magic just keeps getting better. Rumor was most of the stuff like this happened in the South, but it seems like Northern Hospitality is alive and well.