Appalachian Trail (day 62) - Pawling to Silver Hill Campsite / mile 1483

Long, hot, demanding day.

I've woke up at 4 AM with a plan to arrive at Toni's Deli one mile down the road very early, get a coffee, eat a small breakfast (as I still had pizza from yesterday) and be back on trail asap. Everything was going well until I've mistaken the gas station for the restaurant (it was too early and my brain couldn't comprehend that they can be two separate buildings) and stood outside for half an hour waiting for it to open. Finally I've realized my mistake and managed to order a coffee and an egg and bacon bagel which with two slices of cold pizza was a perfect amount of nutrition for breakfast.

I was back on trail at 6 AM and spotted three ticks crawling on my legs within first half an hour, absolute madness. Mosquitoes were also relentless for the whole day which somewhat made me going faster because I had no interest in stopping for longer periods of time as that meant getting swarmed immediately.

After 8 miles I've said goodbye to New York and entered state number ten since starting in Georgia: Connecticut. Rest of the states along the AT now were in the region of US called New England, which was a bit wealthier than southern states but also more expensive. Things got even more familiar when I went past the town called Kent! The abbreviation of Connecticut was CT, which happened to be my local postcode as well.

Trail was fairly demanding the entire day especially considering the hot weather. I've went past a Ridge Runner, person responsible for making sure the trail was in good condition and the shelters were clean - they basically hiked for a job, I've seen one of the Ridge Runners in Virginia already. This person got dehydrated, stumbled and fell on the trail bruising himself in the process, I've made sure he was alright, he had no visible cuts, was conscious, responsive and not far from the road so I decided to move on.

Soon after I've met Vancouver, a flip flopper from Canada, she was well shielded from the mosquitoes but complained about the recent tick bite and a potential "bulls eye" from it, she showed it to me to get a second opinion and it definitely looked like one to me. This time I could help and I gave her one of the antibiotic cream sachets to spread on the injury. Vancouver said that she will go to Kent to see a doctor and get an antibiotic treatment.

Other than that the path was empty, I've seen three male wild turkeys at one point completely unbothered that I'm nearby which was quite surprising, they looked really cool and made me realize that I've only seen female wild turkeys so far. Later on by the stream I've seen a bear paw imprint next to a humans shoe which made for an interesting photo.

At the campsite I've met Indy, another thru hiker of Polish descent! His surname was Nalewajka and he was living in Charlotte few hours drive from AT. Indy was doing good progress and was planning to finish his adventure in early August just like me.

I've ate few tortillas with tuna and mayonnaise for dinner, stashed the food in a bear box, performed a fairly thorough tick check and went to sleep. The plan for tomorrow was to get to town called Salisbury 23 miles ahead, where I've booked an accomodation for the night.