Date: 2012-06-30
From: Vernon, NJ

To: NY 17A
Miles today: 15.0

Long day! Started by being picked up for the pancake breakfast at the hostel by Aaron and his wife, Cathy. Then driving to Greenlake for the breakfast... which we had been told was free for hikers, but we were charged any way... later the people running it realized their mistake and wanted to give us out money back but we all said to keep it as a donation to the trail conference. Thankfully Gene, who was coordinating a 2 night hostel at the 17A road crossing was willing to take my backpack giving me the opportunity to slack pack once again. Looking at the profile of the day's hike I'm not sure I would have made it any other way. Although there wasn't much elevation gain or loss that day, there were a lot of little ups and downs... and it turned out to be really rocky. Cathy too Milkman, Download and I back to the 94 road crossing but by the time we started to hike it was already 10 am. Pretty late start for me... good thing I was slacking! I wasn't expecting the miles to go that slow... I didn't finish until 645... but I think part of that was due to the heat. And I chose to walk .4 miles round trip to get water at a state park so I would know the water would be flowing. Good thing too I did... there was only one water source between 94 and 17A... and it was the color of tea... which is great if you are drinking tea... but not so ideal if you aren't!One of the big milestones of the day was crossing over another state line. Meaning I am now done with 8 states! Only 6 to go... It was super hot today... but thankfully the clouds came in some by late afternoon, cooling it off some... or at least making it feel not quite as intense. Ran into Milkman as he was headed back to the trail... 15 miles is not enough for him to make it goal... he started on April 21 and needs to complete by Aug 11 so he can make it back to work for the new school year. Which means he has to average 20 miles a day everyday just to make the deadline. I turned and headed for the hostel... which might have been a mistake, but since they had all my gear I didn't have much of a choice. I was beginning to think I might have been lost, but eventually after following the pink flags in the trees, I made it to Max's house... the temporary hostel for the night. This really not my kind of scene, with lots of drinking and partying, but everyone was really friendly and it was nice to finally meet Falling Turtle since she and I have so many friends in common.I went to bed kind of early, set up my tent in the grass, and thankfully put in my earplugs and was able to drown out most of the noise. Since I made more miles due to the slack and due to the really high heat I was thinking I would head into town at NY17 Southfields NY for a hotel, shower, and to clean up my gear before heading into the city earlier than expected. What a day of hiking...so many rocky sections, PUDs (pointless ups and downs) and "Serious" blazes... but I did see what I think was a turkey vulture ( I told him I wasn't actually dead even if I looked like I was!), I also saw a deer, a little bunny, I heard at least one bear but never saw it, and a toad who had what looked like a open sore on it's rear left leg, but other than that seemed to be doing okay.I crossed paths with CP and Little Miss again, they were are a stream resting, as CP seemed to have caught a light summer cold and couldn't stop sneezing all morning. I ended my day in my tent at the hostel and doing a quick tick check revealed a wood tick firmly head deep in my ankle. Thankfully I know it hadn't been there longer than 2 hours and I was able to pull it out easily. Still creepy little suckers though.Should have hiked on.