Miles: 1455.7 | Walking solo through the heat brings clarity—no podcasts, no scrolling, just steady miles and uninterrupted thought. Water caches keep us moving through Pawling’s fields and boardwalks as the Connecticut border draws close. Productivity and perspective arrive together, and an early stop at Wiley Shelter offers rest, reunion, and the simple luxury of cooking with clean, cache-supplied water.
As we walked toward and finally passed through Pawling, NY (the town my parents drove us into when they came down), Miles and I eventually decided to walk separately for a bit. There weren't many water sources through this hot stretch but some locals left amazing water caches for us. Trail lead us through some fields, past two gigantic oak trees, and across a few roads.
A lot of times when I walk alone I tend to put on a podcast to listen to but this day I finally just walked with my thoughts. No noise. I didn't look at my social media. I solved a lot of little puzzles in my head. Things I wanted to do when I got home. Things I wanted to change about myself. Ways to word things I'd been wanting to say but wasn't sure how. Walking literally gets your creative juices going. My problem solving improved by leaps and bounds when I walked and thought. Sometimes some nice jazz or a concerto can help stimulate the process as well. It felt good to just walk in the sun and think.
I kept walking, closer and closer to the Connecticut border! I was getting so close to New England, my home!
I stopped on a board walk over a swamp for lunch, hoping Miles would eventually catch up to me. It was beautiful but extremely hot and buggy. I had service so I looked up the weather just to see if it was truly hot or if it was just humid.
I was not surprised to see that it was both hot and humid: 91 degrees with 85% humidity. My body was covered in its usual slick coating of sweat. I had to keep a bug net over my head all day to keep the gnats out of my eyes. While I ate my bagels from Big Dave's Bagels out on the boardwalk I got two blog posts done.
I had a lot of energy, probably because I'd been drinking caffeine all day. I was so productive. It felt good.
I banged out my last few miles quickly. I only did 13 miles this day, but in the heat it felt like enough. I stopped hiking around 4pm and set up camp at a shelter. Miles met me there at the end of the day and we shared dinner. He had resolved his issues during the day. Sometimes, we realized, being around each other 24/7 can be a lot. Along time is really important. I made my dinner with pre-purified water from a water cache with brand new unopened spring water. Not having to spend 30 minutes filtering water was such a luxury.