Day 15/April 15 -- heading north from the RPH shelter

Miles hiked: 17 in 6:57

Start: RPH Shelter in Hopewell Junction, NY

End: W Dover Road, Pawling, NY

Elevation gain: 3,717'

A beautiful, sunny day with the temperature rising to 63°F, although it felt hotter than that at times. 

Today's route began with a good climb up Hosner Mountain which provided a great vista to the west. 

The rest of the day was spent moving from ridge line to ridge line, with some road crossings tossed in for variety. There weren't that many human encounters, only two of interest. The first was with a man from Poughkeepsie who was training for a hike of the John Muir Trail, which is 220 miles in length. With only four resupply points, that means he will be carrying a 40-pound pack, including a bear canister. The second encounter was with two guys who just happened to be the trail maintainers for the section I had just completed and the section I was about to do. Both sections were impeccably maintained--no blow downs, plenty of fresh blazes, substantial planking where needed, etc. One guy was a thru hiker--his trail name: Elvis Trailsly. :-)

The only other landmark of note was Nuclear Lake--the site of a plutonium release in 1972, this area was eventually cleaned up and re-opened to the public. The government helped buy the lake and surrounding acres and now the AT goes along the western shore of the lake.

Today was a test of both my conditioning and my knee; I wanted to maintain 2.5 miles an hour (success!) and not have my knee hurting at the end of the hike (almost achieved!). But the real test comes tomorrow--can the knee take another longish day? We shall see. I certainly reloaded well tonight with pasta at a local restaurant and a pint of Ben & Jerry's.

Route from my Suunto.