Date: 2016-06-15
From: SFO

To: Wildcat
Miles today: 4.1
Weather: light rain

Day 1 - Well we made it back to the AT, only not as expeditiously as planned. Things started falling apart when our plane was delayed an hour because of a mechanical problem. They made up about half an hour flying cross country from SFO to Newark. Now sleeping on a red-eye in economy is no fun especially for 6 foot 3 inch Spider!! As you might expect we primarily dozed intermittently.Once we landed we got our packs at baggage claim. It took us a little while to figure out where the shuttle bus was that would take us to the Port Authority building in downtown New York City. From there we will catch a New Jersey Transit bus to Greenwood Lake, NY...a town near the AT. We were trying to catch the 11:30am bus to Greenwood Lake. So when we got on the 9:40 shuttle, we figured the 30 minute ride advertised on their website would still give us plenty of time. 2 hours later we arrived at the Port Authority!! The traffic backup at the Lincoln Tunnel was horrendous.So now we wait for the 1:30pm bus to Greenwood Lake, We better make this one because the next one isn't until 7:30pm!! However before we can get on the bus to Greenwood Lake we need to get fuel for our backpacking stove. Airlines won't let you carry it on the plane. Spider had done his research and found that a couple short subway rides away was an REI in Lower Manhattan. So ET guarded our packs at a Starbucks in the Port Authority (with a big cup of coffee in hand!!) while Spider made the trip to REI. An hour later we had 4 fuel canisters.The bus ride to Greenwood Lake was uneventful and we arrived at 3:30pm. We bought a couple things at a local market, then headed to the beginning of the Vista Trail...a side trail that runs from Greenwood Lake to the AT. It is 0.9 miles long and climbs 700 feet. There is a baseball field near the beginning where we took advantage of the benches to change our packs from airplane mode to trail mode. We finally started up the Vista Trail at 4:18pm. 40 minutes later we were back on the AT...Wahoo!! ???The AT was in pretty good shape so we made good time to the crossing of NY 17A highway. Here we left the trail to walk to a local ice cream place 0.3 miles up the road. We passed by a hot dog stand where we had originally planned an early dinner but it closed at 3pm..not sure we could have made it even if we had caught the earlier bus.After a dinner of a double scoop of freshly made ice cream each, we hiked back to the AT. After about a mile on a mildly rock trail we came to our first rock scramble of the day, Eastern Pinnacles. The attached picture shows Spider on his way up. A \'rock scramble\'? is where the trail goes almost vertical and we are scrambling up trying to find toe and finger holds. Often our trekking poles are useless because we need to use our hands...so they just dangle by their straps. After about 100 yards of scrambling we were back on a regular trail?...for a while!! Soon we had another rock scramble over Cat Rocks...sure is tough scrambling when we are \'city soft\', end of the day and on very little sleep!!We finally reach our destination for the day, Wildcat Shelter, at 8:05pm. The shelter looked full and there appeared to be 8-10 tents already set up. We said our hellos then quickly set up our tent...it was getting dark!We moved into our tent as the last of the sunlight disappeared. Sure feels good to get horizontal!! I am typing this well passed Hiker\'s Midnight (9pm) as ET sleeps soundly.Animal sighting: turtle and chipmunk?