Dates ........ WED SEPT 22, 1999
Miles ........ 0 miles
From ........ (Fishkill) town and dry out day
To .............
Weather ... still raining heavily through mid morning.

WED SEPT 22, 1999

(Fishkill) town and dry out day

I decided not to hike today as it was still raining heavily through mid morning. The RPH (for Ralph's Peak Hikers) shelter was pretty nice and if I were to hike I would have had to put my wet clothes on (YUK). That seemed like no fun. I had a dry change of clothes and intended to keep them that way. I hung all my wet stuff to dry, applied medication to my chaffed legs (caused by walking in wet underwear), wrote some postcards, caught up on my journal.

The RPH shelter had a caretaker plus semi-resident trail angel for hire - big John. Big John generously operated a taxi and errand service for modest "donations" and provided decent drinking water for the shelter. The water from the shelter's nearby pump came out orange and tasted like iron. The more you heated it, the more orange it got. Not wanting to foul up my compass, I drank the bottled stuff Big John brought.

Slip Knot and Rolling tide, who had jumped off the trail earlier for a family visit, came in real early and dropped their packs off. They were going to slackpack 27 miles from the CT/NY border.

Big John drove Soot, Dodger and Sasquatch into Fort Montgomery - a 28 mile ride - and dropped them off, then came back for me and took me to Fishkill where I got a great corned beef and cabbage dinner, some fried chicken for later, and some baked goods for tomorrow's breakfast. At least I'll eat well. I mailed some stuff and postcards home.

When I got back there were several more guys at the shelter - including Shaggy, Moon Roof, That Guy, and one [unknown] other. We decided to prevail upon Big John one more time and order PIZZA AT THE SHELTER - an unheard of but often dreamed of happening. Everyone but the quiet guy ordered pizza and a good time was had by all. I figured the quiet character was out of money and out of food - he had not eaten - and he was traveling way too light to make it to Maine. I insisted he eat the half of my pizza and he did - my crusts and all. He was not one to engage in conversation, did not have a trail name and really had no history - at least that he wanted to talk about. He insisted he was northbound to Maine. OK.