May 6th, 2015

Day one

Today's miles = 22
Total ADK miles = 22

Well, my morning started off at around 2am when I got a call from my brother saying that his friend had contacted him because the truck we had parked at the Southern terminus of the trail was going to be towed. What?! I was asleep in Ellenburg. My bother had no idea where I was or where the truck was parked. How the hell did his friend hear anything about it? Turns out that the Fulton county sheriff had gotten a call earlier that day from the residents of Eddy Dr. stating that a truck had driven down the dead end jeep road and had never come back.  So despite that the land is public and is marked as a trailhead they were going to tow it because it was 'Suspiciously parked'. The sheriff had run the plates and had found out that it was registed in the buffalo area. My brothers friend had heard it somehow (he's a police officer) and called my brother to contact me. When I answered the phone all grogy and half asleep I thought for sure my bother had been mistaken. I could not quite grasp what was going on. By the time that I realized that the truck was in fact going to be towed I got a call from the Sheriff himself asking me what the hell it was doing there. I explained myself and the trail I was hiking and after a few more questions he finally agreed to not tow the truck and to notify the park rangers that it was going to remain there for a few weeks. Phew! What would happen if we arrived at the end of the trail miles down a jeep road far from anything and the only way out (the truck) had been towed the same day we had dropped it off. Thank the trail Gods for the fortunate sequence of events that lead my brothers friend to call him, my brother to call me, and my phone number to be given to the Sheriff so that I was able to sort it all out. Oh trail!

After I got off the phone with the Sheriff it was around 3am so I went back to sleep for a few hours before packing up my things and getting a coffee from the small store nextdoor. The trail technically started 2.7 miles from Matthews Motel but I had no other way to get there so I walked it with my coffee in hand on the pavement.  The pavement didn't end there. Practically the entire day was on paved roads. The first 5 or 6 miles of the trail were in farm country with a a good bit of houses,  all which had dogs that barked as I walked by. It was rather uneventful but the weather was perfect. I took my first break for the day 8 miles in and sat on and uptured 5 gallon bucket I found on the side of the road. Shortly after my first break I went up a hill and left the farm lands behind to enter a pine forrest which smelled like heaven. Pine is probally my favorite smell of all time and I was walking through air that reaked of it with my hands in the air, my nose upward, and a big ole' grin on my face. This is around the time of the day that it began to get really hot. The sun had been out since morning and had been beating down on my white pasty skin all day. I was starting to notice that I was begining to burn. I took lunch about 13 miles into the day but didn't rest long. Just long enough to tape my toes and stuff some almond covered crackers into my mouth. I hobbled along the second half of the day and started to feel pretty sore as I walked along Chazy lake. It was beautiful! I was very glad when I make it to my 22 mile goal for the day and threw down my gear in the brush and trees on the side of the road. I'm nesteled in away from the view of the road. It's not a populated road at all. There are two house that eyes can see while standing on it. Birds, frogs, and crickets are chirping all around me. A porccupine is climbing a tree just a few feet from my tent and I am swigging down beaver water mixed with 'lemon berry splash'. Yum! (Sarcasm) I passed over 20 water sources today so did not want at all for water, although, all but a few were beaver sources. 

My feet hurt, my toes hurt, but most of all my left hip hurts. Oh it feels wonderful! (Not scarcasm). Tomorrow morning will probably be a rough start. Bring on the hiker hobble! Goodnight.