Date: 2003-06-13
From: NJ94, Vernon, NJ 

To: NY17A, Bear Mtn Inn 
Miles today: 15.2

Aloha! What a mixed UP Friday the 13th! It's been a combination of what you would expect from a Friday the 13th and then again, just the opposite. Sit back and I'll tell you about it. Know in advance that it may take a few extra lines to tell though.   Since I never made it to the grocery store last night I was up and out at 545a. Lovely time to shop; there's not a soul to be found. Think I'll do that when I get back home. Sure beats the Sunday crowd. Anyway, I was in and out in my fastest time yet. With Retread packed and ready to go also we tried the hitching thing. Didn't do to badly. We got a ride in 8 minutes with a former southbound 2000 thru-hiker. Not too shabby; gotta love thru hikers. Maybe I'm getting the hang of this hitching thing after all.   Or maybe they just liked Retread's legs. They're not as bug bitten as mine. Such a lovely day it's been too. We hiked UP the mountain from hell through thick clouds and into two downpours. Between the downpours the fog was intense. If it wasn't raining it was humidity and more fog. With weather like this you spend an inordinate amount of time putting on and taking off rain gear.   To hard not to wear it and too muggy to wear it. Couldn't win for losing on this one today. This is where some of you may want to turn your heads. Kind of like football scores. We're going to briefly discuss... peeing in the woods. For those sensitive types, look away now.   Okay, guys just don't know how good/easy they have it. When they must pee they walk a short distance away, turn their backs and do their thing. Simple. No fuss, no muss. Women now... that's a whole different story. They have to walk a decent distance from the trail, look for an available spot somewhere in the trees, normally remove their packs (I'll save the peeing with your pack on story for another night), halfway strip, do their thing, and then reverse the process before they can get going again.   Such a pain! Again, guys are blessed in this category. (For those not reading, you can start again.)   Okay, why am I telling you this you wonder. Well I'll tell you. It's because of this long drawn out process that I am now blind. Well, not blind exactly but not seeing clearly. Effective today I have lost my glasses just by peeing in the woods.   Grrr...    Without boring you with all the little nuances, suffice it to say that my glasses were on my shirt going into the woods but did not make it out of the woods. An hour search, with Retread coming up and helping for 20 minutes of it, convinced me that they were gone.   Upset? You betcha. I can see without them enough to follow white blazes but there is no reading, no telling the difference at dusk between a stick and a black snake unless it moves, and no typed journal chats with you. No glasses suck! And no, I don't have a spare with me because "I always carry my glasses so nothing will happen to them."   Duh!   After a short but good cry (I do that when really upset at myself), I remembered the cell phone and took a chance on coverage.   Lucky for me I got through and Char was home. Thanks to her my prescribed sunglasses are on their way via overnight delivery.   Once again I owe her bunches. Mahalo Char. You're the best! Once I got back on the trail and had time to vent to myself, I realized all would work out as it always does and began to hike again. After a lunch with Retread, I found myself crossing the NJ/NY state line! Wuhuu! Another state completed.   I truly enjoyed NJ and am looking forward to NY. But still, that's eight states down and six to go. Wuhuu! (And everyone said I would see tons of bear in NJ. Ha! There are no bear on the AT!)   It seems though that NY also has a love affair with rocks. Different rocks but rocks nonetheless. These are huge, flat and slippery. Go find a large piece of marble and lay it on its edge and then cant it slightly. The optimum word being slightly. Now walk on it. Yep, that's the NY rocks except they're not marble and they have wet moss growing on them! Yuck!   They were so slippery it took major concentrated effort to walk on them. Slipping all the way. I didn't fall but that's only because I actually sat down on a couple of the bigger rocks slid and scooted. Such fun... NOT! Along the way I got the opportunity to get even closer to a vulture. As I crawled over a ledge this one came hauling out of a cave to stand not 15 feet away and stare at me. Kind of weird. She actually stayed there staring at me long enough to take a couple of pictures.   Some even with the flash. Upon Retread's decision to walk by her she did fly a few feet away but that was all. Retread's theory is that she was waiting for one of us to fall and she'd have dinner for the family for a month. My theory is that there were babies in the cave and mama vulture wasn't going far.   Or she really had a NY attitude. Now which do you think is correct? Pretty cool whichever.   During the slipping and sliding I took the opportunity to check my phone for the latest and greatest on my glasses. What I found is that they had been mailed and Lady Hawk, the 2001-hiking partner, was sitting at a particular road waiting for me to cross.   How wonderful! Pushing myself a wee bit harder I made it to the road to find Lady Hawk feeding and soda'ing hungry hikers. Chaos was enjoying a feast upon my arrival. What an awesome surprise! It only took asking once for me to agree to stop hiking at that point and head to the hotel.   She had even convinced Chaos to join us. Is that not great or what!   Upon arriving at the hotel Lady Hawk gave the third member of our "3 generations" a call. Within minutes Monya was on her way to join us. What a wonderful reunion. We spent the evening telling trail tales and eating really good Mexican food.   Monya even remembered my love of wine and brought a bottle. I cannot believe that they are here to see and support me. To wild; but oh so great. Chaos? She just smiled a lot.   So that was pretty much my day. The only other thing worth mentioning is the most recent trail tale. It seems that after my departure this morning, ChuckLuck made the decision to take a "trailcation". That would be a vacation from the trail.   Per Chaos, he's headed back to Chicago. It saddens me but I certainly wish him well and hope he'll be back on the trail again soon. He was a pleasure to hike with over the last many days.   That's really about it. It's been a Mixed UP day but overall, I still love it. Maybe even a little more so. I mean, can't really see me doing anything other can you? I sure can't.BSandTs: quite a few tears in a short period of time but only for a moment.AandPs: none to speak ofMandGs: lost glasses, hurt pride and wet and slippery NY rocks... waah!Critter count: 1x vulture up close and who can remember anything after that!