Day 2 - Tuesday, January 12, 2021

It’s a little cooler this am . Temperature was 18° at 7 am and partly cloudy. Expected to get into the mid 30s this afternoon which originally was forecast to be in the low 40’s. I’m a little stiff but not totally surprised. I’m sure I’ll loosen up once we get moving. Feet are fine so I’m happy about that. We are hiking from the Dover Oak to Route 52 today which is 12.4 miles. I altered my pack a little today; took out extra vest and a face mask that I carried yesterday. I also took out extra toilet paper. I drank less than a liter of water yesterday so I’m only bringing 2 L today. All hikers say minimizing weight is key so I should really try and keep that in mind even though the majority of our hikes will only be day hikes as we will only be camping overnight on the trail about 20-25% of the time. 

 We started at 8:54 am, a little earlier today.

 

     Saying Day 2 not peace 😂 

 

Just a “Walk in the Woods”. 

 

Beer Snob making his first rock scramble of the day.

 

Funny thing happened... we stopped for our first break and my hydration bag was empty. This should make it interesting since I didn’t bring my water filter. Luckily Beer Snob has an extra bottle of water. 

 


 
 
Lunch time: 12:20 at the 6.0 mi point. Right on schedule. 
 


Footbridge by the Rt 52 crossing. Stream outlets out of Whaley Lake.

 

Pawling, New York in the background.  


My car parked at the Dover Oak, 2.6 miles away. Finished hiking at 3:14 pm.

So when I got back to house I refilled my hydration bag to figure out what happened to all the water? Seems when I put my backpack in the trunk of the car, I laid the backpack face down not realizing the hydration bags release valve was underneath it; the weight of the backpack opened the release valve and the head pressure in the bag along with suction, emptied my hydration bag. Turns out the water release valve has an on/off position designed to avoid this problem thank you YouTube ... that was a very valuable lesson. 

Also I am now buying a steri-pen so I can purify water on the trail as needed. It’s very small and compact-worth the investment. We did not bring our water filters as we should have had sufficient water. Not to mention that you have to be careful when using a cartridge water filtering system in cold weather as it can freeze damaging the micron filter.

Till next time... Happy Hiking 🥾

😋


 

 

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