Date: 2005-08-09
From: The woods north of the New York State Line

To: The woods ÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂ½ mile north of East Mombasa Road.
Miles today: 15.0
Weather: light rain

A great day of hiking! New York is fun. There are a lot of boulders and rock formations to climb, yet in between the Trail offers long sections of soft, wide, walking spaces which was well-marked. We left the campsite separately this morning and met up around 10 am at an ice cream stand 5 miles away at the intersection with Rt. 7A. I savored a "Cookies 'N Cream" milk shake with a Diet Root Beer chaser. ¢The Dude¢ and I then walked together towards the Wildcat Shelter talking as we went. Our now loosely formed confederation of four was soon re-assembled. Although it was getting close to lunchtime we were all still pretty full from the mid-morning lactose injections, so our group consensus was to press on. ¢Spartan¢ (Dan) took off first, and then his brother ¢Caboose¢ (Bret). ¢The Dude¢ (Tim) and I continued walking and talking together most of the way to Mombasha Vista, where on a clear day it has been said you can see the New York City skyline, but certainly today was not one of those days with all the humidity hanging in the air. It was around 3:00 pm when we got to the shelter and I was ravenous. Following the late lunch I took what is now becoming a daily tradition - a quick nap in the sunshine. When I woke up I found I wasn¢t the only one catching some zzz's. I stayed for a few minutes at the shelter to file my journal report while I had a phone signal, but caught up with them an hour later at a road crossing where they were filling up with water left by ¢Trail Angels.¢ (God bless those ¢Trail Angels!¢ Without the water caches we'd be hiking/hitching for miles trying to find a place get resupplied and rehydrated). It is now so dry up here that the waterfall we was supposed to be the "don't miss" spectacle for the afternoon was found completely dried up. Not one drop of running water ran over it, which was quite a disappointment ¢ kinda like going to an amusement park only to find out that the rollercoaster isn't operating! The four of us hiked together for the last two hours of the day over quite varied terrain which included a very steep climb through boulders. At East Mombasha road, we found more ¢Trail Angel¢ left water and shortly after that we spotted what proved to be one of the most idyllic campsites imaginable. My tent and the one shared by ¢Spartan¢ and ¢Caboose¢ are pitched in a rock-free, flat hollow under incredibly tall trees. The earth is so soft here that you could almost insert your tent pegs by hand. Between two of the trees ¢The Dude¢ has strung his hammock. On a rise just beyond our tent site "Caboose" discovered a fire pit that the Michiganders quickly had living up to its purpose. The four of us prepared and ate dinner there and then sat sharing stories, offering glimpses of ourselves and watching ¢Ranger TV¢ until only the embers were left. The night is cool, the air is wonderfully soft and fresh, and stars can be seen through the high canopy of leaves overhead. This is the way all the nights on the Appalachian Trail should be ¢ quite perfect. Now wouldn¢t that be nice.