Date: 2006-07-12
From: Vernon, NJ

To: Warwick, NY - In NY again
Miles today: 15.2

Last night at St. Thomas¢ was pleasant. After the last church meeting for the evening, the hostel caretaker, Dave, dropped by to chat with the hikers ¢ very nice guy. Of course everyone unloaded about the mosquitoes and he said, ¢Yeah, they¢re New Jersey¢s State Bird.¢After breakfast, Shamrock was there as promised at 7:30 to give lifts out to the trail, about 2.5 miles from town. Bama called from the Wawayanda Shelter where most had taken a break. It had started raining ¢ yuck ¢ and the mosquitoes were back ¢ of course ¢ and so were the *#@^ rocks and boulders! Shades of Pennsylvania! And here they were sitting on a rock, which they named the Wet Rock Caf©. Bama called back around lunchtime as they were nearing the NY State border and it was pouring rain. Doppler radar showed intense thunderstorms and downpours. Bama, Little Wing, Drum and Windtalker & Mom had taken refuge under a rock shelf. They were hoping to make it to Hwy 17 to get some ice cream. The plan was to hike on from there to the Wildcat shelter, about two miles away. They stayed under the ledge for about an hour and a half. By the time the rain let up, they could hardly walk.If the trail had been hard to this point, they couldn¢t have guessed how hard it was going to get. The rocks got bigger, the hills higher and now that the rocks and boulders and the moss were wet, and were treacherous to walk on. Bama thought New York would be easier. There were times when apart from slips and slides and falls, everyone had to crawl on their knees and bellies, sometimes passing their hiking poles and packs to one another to pull up while the other negotiated the boulder. It was really great to have Windtalker & Mom there to help because it took all of five of them taking turns passing equipment and pulling and pushing to finish what was only five miles to the highway from the ledge. Thanks, guys! Bama said this stretch was like hiking up Lehigh Gap and down again about three times! Because they were soaking wet and tired, it was a lot worse. Bama said this was possibly the worse day - and the most dangerous - she had had on the trail since she started.When they reached Hwy 17, they got their ice cream, realizing after they got in the store that they were soaked and dripping water on the floor. Windtalker heard on the news that a tornado had torn up a nearby town only about 48 miles away, just NW of New York City. He and Mom decided to skip the shelter. Bama, Little Wing and Drum agreed to skip the shelter, too, so they were going to head into one of the nearby towns.Outside the ice cream store, they saw a man standing on the road looking like maybe he was hiking or hitching a ride. Bama went to talk to him and discovered he was catching a bus into Warwick, NY. Remembering Wingfoot¢s book mentioned a motel in Warwick, they ran out to get the bus that was just pulling up. The man told the bus driver what the they were doing and he dropped them off in front of the motel. That was nice. The motel however, left a lot of room for improvement and cost more than what Wingfoot¢s book said. Also, the Coke machine is $2.00 a drink. The North ain¢t cheap. Oh well, tonight is hot baths for Bama and Little Wing and a vain attempt to dry out their things before morning. At least the motel has no mosquitoes.Bill