Date: 2004-07-08
From: Wawayanda Shelter

To: Past Fingerboard Shelter
Miles today: 26.3
Weather: scattered clouds

It's a partly cloudy day. The trail was nice. It traversed lots of ridges with views from exposed rock out crops and ledges. This was fun hiking in and out of the trees. Around 10am the trail crossed the New York state line and along with it, this hiker. That was exciting. Only 5 more states to go. Yahoo!There were big lakes in the valley on the right. Further along the ridge there was an antenna, maybe a repeater. Beyond here the trail seemed to vanish into the tall grass of a meadow on the ridge. That was perplexing. The only thing to do was to turn back and find the trail again. Just about then Buick came along and together we searched for the trail. We found an old grassy roadway that cut diagonally down the right slope of the ridge and then switched back and crossed under some power lines. We still didn't think this was the trail. At the next switchback we came back onto the trail and crossed once more under the power lines. That was a relief. These must be the power lines noted in the Handbook. Wow, we lost the trail after over 1,350 miles. Something must be wrong back there. Both of us lost it, independently too.Now, the Handbook doesn't mention this next place and maybe it was someplace else. At the next road crossing, NY Route 17a, we stopped in at a tavern just a couple of hundred feet to the left. There was a short menu of things like chili dogs and fries. The place didn't do much for me, too much stale smoke even though the place was empty and it was still morning. The menu didn't do much for me either. Buick got something hot but it was just a bag of chips and a juice or root beer for me. It was still early and we crossed the road and headed on.The afternoon got pretty hot and for some reason creeks were either dry or stagnant. There was no water to be had along the trail. None, that is, except for the jugs of water left at road crossings by trail angels. It's hard to imagine getting through this section with out the help of this water supply. Thanks so much to all of you.It was pretty late in the day when Buick and I caught up to each other again. That's always fun because we'd have different experiences that we could talk about. It was almost 7pm when we crossed the New York State Thruway on an old bridge with grass and weeds growing through the cracks in the concrete. It was here we entered Harriman State Park and found a big surprise.About 50 feet to the right on the side of a little park road there were 3 guys standing by a red pickup. They saw us and waved us over. Two were obviously thru-hikers, the other was presumably the truck owner. This felt a little strange till we got a little closer and saw the contents of the truck bed. There was a huge cooler full of snacks and drinks. This was an incredible array of trail magic. This trail angel kept piling the food in our hands. He had thru-hiked some years ago and just liked doing this. We signed his register and ate way too much considering the 650' in 0.9 mile climb that lay ahead at this late hour but who cared. The other thru-hiker left shortly after we arrived but we hung out for a good long time. This wasn't just your garden variety of snack. He had some exotic juice that we just couldn't get enough of and he just couldn't stop offering. He told us stories of where he gets the food and of the many other hikers he's met. It was a really good time. What ever his name was he deserves a giant gold star. This really made our day. That's not to say it had been a bad day till now. It hadn't, but this was just amazing.We headed on up over Green Pond Mountain. This was a beautiful section of trail. I had spent many a night at a campground in this park over the years. It's only an hour drive from Times Square in New York City so I would camp there with kids from NH on trips to see Broadway shows. I had no idea the park had such beautiful back country. It was a very open hardwood forest with grassy ground cover. There were nice big rocks and hunks of ledge sticking through all over the place. The trail just rambled over and around them.There were rock falls that needed to be negotiated including the Lemon Squeezer. This was a long deep narrow slot in the rock that challenged a hikers girth. There were overhangs to be crawled under and boulders to climb over. It was all good fun and a great opportunity for photos.It was getting on toward 8pm when we came upon a couple of young women making camp in a grassy clearing off the right of the trail a bit. We stopped in to say hi. They were trying unsuccessfully to start a small fire. Buick couldn't do enough for them. I did my best not to smile too broadly. Of course they were way too young for me. It was perfect. They were new to this whole hiking camping thing and here we were the weathered veterans. Quite honestly we shared lots of good info with them and they shared some tasty snacks and good company with us. For a while I thought Buick might not leave but eventually the call of the trail was louder than that of the sirens on the shoal. Oh, right, that's a different story. Honestly, it was nice to ¢do a good turn¢.It was another mile or two to Fingerboard Shelter. It was down a side trail 300 feet and there was some concern that we might miss the sign in the fading light but finally there it was. It was a stone affair and a guy was already asleep in it. This was a clear starry night so we decided to sleep out under the stars on some rock slabs a bit further up the trail. Water was a half mile below the shelter so we just conserved. We had our late dinner as the deer wandered about up on the ridge. It was a mighty fine night following a nice 26.3 mile day. Oh yeah.