Day 92: A Successful Gluten Free Deli Blaze

Day 92, 7/29/23

Canopus Beach Shelter to Stealth Tentsite

18.1 miles, mile 1,448.8

I did not sleep much last night with a highway nearby the shelter. Everyone was awoken by a large tree branch snapping around 3:45am which we found out was a hiker taking their bear hang down and leaving the shelter to start hiking. Meanwhile Kevin and I didn’t start hiking until around 9:15 this morning because we went back to the beach to charge our phones for a bit and get out of the rain that started about 15 minutes before we were going to pack up our tents. I got absolutely demolished by mosquitoes in the 5 minutes it took me to pack up my tent and backpack. I plugged my phone in and sat down on a bench for about 30 minutes before going to check the percentage on my phone to see that it had stopped charging. So I wasted 30 minutes sitting there doing nothing thinking my phone was charging when it wasn’t. I plugged it back in and made sure it was charging every couple minutes until we realized we should get moving.

There was a deli 0.2 miles off trail about 10 miles into the day. NY is infamous for “deli blazing” because there are delis you come across almost every day. We decided to go check it out because I needed to charge my phone some more. I was fully expecting not to be able to eat anything but they had gluten free pasta! The first three sauces I asked about all had flour as a thickener but the penne vodka sauce was safe! It was delicious and I was so happy to be able to eat something at one of these delis. They did bring a salad out with a dressing on the side and I always feel silly asking when odd things like a salad dressing are gluten free but when you have celiac you don’t really have a choice. And thank goodness I asked because the salad dressing was not gluten free. They were so nice and brought me some vinegar and olive oil with herbs in it. The restaurant is called Corrados Pizzeria. They let hikers camp for free out back if they want to. We were there for way too long and didn’t start hiking again until 3pm. I had planned to go 21.5 miles today, but with a late start this morning, our deli excursion, and a severe thunderstorm warning for 6pm, we called it early when the thunder started rumbling. Luckily there was a flat spot near a stream by the trail and we got set up quick just as it started to sprinkle. I’m happy we stopped when we did because that sprinkle turned into a torrential downpour. Tomorrow we enter New England!