Today we saw lots of variety on the AT: boardwalks over swamps, train stations, garden centers, rocks, level ground, record trees, you name it, we had it. It all made for an interesting day on the AT!

We had planned to take a break at the Telephone Pioneers Shelter, but the lure of the deli tour proved too strong. Tony’s Deli in Wingdale takes a backseat to nobody. Although 6/10 mile off the trail (and having to compete with a mobile pizza maker truck parked just off the trail), it proved more than worth the walk. Also, as we got to leave our packs on the porch of the Native Landscapes center, our load was non-existent there and back. That made three straight great deli lunches.

After lunch, we crossed through the Pawling Nature Reserve, managed by the Nature Conservancy. Much of it was very pleasant hiking, but there were several very recent blow-downs completely blocking the trail and they were difficult to navigate. At one spot, tree trunks were piled three tall across the trail. The evening forecast showed 0% chance of rain, but this afternoon we still had to deal with a pesky 30%. About two miles from the end, the weather caught up with us, as we didn’t quite dodge a small, fast moving, but intense thunder cell. The temperature quickly cooled and the sky turned very dark. We had just enough time to pull out our hats and pack covers and get the electronics under wraps before it hit. The tops of the trees were whipping in the wind and the rain quickly re-soaked our shoes, which had finally dried from the day before. We had gusts of wind so strong they instantly blew away the clouds directly over head, like someone had thrown a light switch! Then just that quick we were engulfed in a complete cloud.

We kept moving, as this area had many trees weakened from earlier storms. On two occasions, we looked back to see large falling limbs, and then a whole tree coming down. It was quite exciting! [note to everyone except our two sons and the Base Camp Manager: You may have noticed we have gotten in the habit of using “exciting” as a code word for “dangerous.” This is done so as not to upset our children. The falling tree happened so fast we had no time to be scared, but in hindsight it was a very close call…]

The storm passed as quickly as it arrived, and we walked on to the next shelter for the night. The pump here has an out of order sign on it, but in an amazing piece of trail magic luck, someone had left a large cooler of ice water at the last road crossing just 4/10 mile from the shelter and lack of water will not be a problem tonight. We set up camp on a nice wooden platform and hope things will be drier in the morning. We saw at least 20 fewer hikers today than yesterday, and only Lucky 10 is here with us tonight.