NY

31 May 2015: 23.6 miles to Wildcat Shelter

• Placed cousin Valerie's bracelet. My cousin passed away suddenly in February and she really wanted to visit New York so her mom asked me to place a bracelet  when I passed through New York.
• RAIN... actually a huge thunderstorm
• Annoying rocks gave way to climbing rocks
• Met K2, Bearfish, and Not Yet. A lovely bunch of people

At the highest point on the A.T. in New York happened to have a flag on top... guess the best place I found to leave Valerie's bracelet. Call me unpatriotic, I really could care less about that,  I found the perfect spot. 

Another view of the flag

Nothing like climbing a metal latter right before a giant thunderstorm

Watching the giant said thunderstorm blow in... in my rain skirt that I made

1 June 2015: 14.3 miles to Fingerboard Shelter

• Oh dear... rain and rocks... 6 hours for 10 miles in the driving rain. Not making very good time.
• About 5 miles into our day Poppins and I happened upon a swollen river. We looked for the trail or a bridge or anything finally Poppins spied a blaze... on a rock... two feet underwater. That was also the shallowest point of the fast moving river. We checked our guide book and it said "cross the creek on the stepping stones" well the creek was a roaring river that was 30 feet across and the water was muddy and we couldnt see the the bottom. up stream was a flooded swamp, unsafe to cross, down stream was sheer cliffs. No alternatives. A slack packer came along and we wanted him cross the river, in one part he almost fell and the water was up past his knees ON the stepping stone, meaning the water would probably be over his head if he stepped off. He ended up jumping to another rock and scrambling out. He turned around and yelled "I would not recommend that!" meaning he had trouble and we had full 25+ packs. We couldn't cross and more rain was coming. We ended up looking up a road route on our phones and walking 3 miles around the swollen river. Diss me as not being a purist but a few shwaths of white paint are not worth my life, we walked more than we would have if we had crossed so we more than made up for our detour. 

The swollen river, if you look closely you can see the blaze underneath the water

Filling up water from a freaken waterfall

4 salamanders!!!

2 June 2015: 21.9 miles to Graymoor Spiritual Life Center

• Fort Montgomery
• Rain
• The post office woman came over and nicely asked us if she could prop open the door because some of the customers were complaining 
• Pizza
• Camped with Sweet Blood, and Mammoth 

Bear mountain new york

The AT passes through a really depressing zoo. Poor bear, if he had a little tin cup he would probably be raking it across the bars.

I thought about jumping in and mercy killing the poor creature, it is odd living out in the woods and seeing animals free and then walking through a zoo and seeing animals in cages

An oasis in the desert 

3 June 2015: 23.9 miles Mountain top Market

• Camped with Sweet Blood behind a gas station!
• Super friendly to hikers, amazing deli sandwiches 
• Had coffee the next morning and discovered the secret of bagels up north!!!

Sweet Blood and Poppins

This was another night where I just felt like tis is what the trail is suppose to be like... oh and we enjoyed 35 cent ice cream sandwiches 

4 June 2015: walked out of New York... the last two days were the best

Tallest oak tree on the AT. A Stoat for scale. 

Super high grass

Randomly came across this in the middle of the swamp

Train station on the AT

Waiting for the train, a lot of hikers take the train into New York

Had lunch at a lovely garden center right behind the train tracks

Probably the best picture from New York, an old water tower about 5 miles from the CT boarder