Date: 2018-07-28
From: Arden Mountain Campsite

To: West Mountain View Campsite
Miles today: 14.7

In the morning the rain had stopped and my things kept dry. It felt like something was watching me in the forest. I peeked out in the distance during the night with my headlamp looking for the reflection of eyes. There were none. I got up and talked to Theresa. There was a mouse in the apartment that had been visiting the food pantry every night. It sounded like my usual nights at the shelter. I made oatmeal for breakfast but had a hard time putting it down. My body is starting to reject it. Magic and his tramily passed my site. They told me about a swimming spot in 6 miles. It also had a shower which I was looking forward to after not showering for 7 days. I packed up the rest of my stuff and headed out.It seems that every climb in New York is covered in boulders. It takes awhile to traverse them. Aladdin and Snags caught up with me. They had slept at the first shelter 2 miles past the creamery and didn't make it too far. Snags looked like he jumped into a lake. He was just sweating so much that he could wring sweat water out of his pants. He thought he might be getting sick. I offered him some energy chews with extra sodium but he already had some. In about another mile was the lemon squeezer. It was a foot wide space to wiggle through. I had to take my pack off to get through it. The harder part was after it with a small rock climb. You could either blue blaze or climb up. I decided to climb it. Again I had to take my pack off because it was only pulling me backwards. It took me a few tries but I finally pulled myself up. I hiked on to Tiorati lake for a swim. The place was packed with people since it was the weekend. Several people were grilling and it smelled so good. I tried Yogiing food my using my hungry face but no one was having it. I walked over to the beach and jumped in the lake with my underwear. It felt great! I got out then used the shower to get all the grime off from 7 days. I bought an orange creamsicle and ate lunch on a large boulder near everyone grilling. The grill smoked wafted over me as I ate a bagel with peanut butter. It was a sad comparison. I headed out and ran into Cosmic on my way back to the trail. She had also slept at the first shelter past the creamery. We were both excited about going to the zoo and being an exhibit there for all the locals to stare at. I pushed on and planned on camping on bear mountain about 11 miles away but heard it was super touristy and was hard to find stealth sites.  Back on the trail I ran into a section hiker named Fetch who I had seen before. We talked about international travel. He had also taught English abroad in Japan. The conversation moved to food as it always does. We talked about all the great food in Southeast Asia. Especially in Thailand and Vietnam. We arrived at the next shelter. Fish was there who I hadn't seen since Devil's Backbone Brewery in Virginia. He had taken off some time from the trail and was also hiking with his brother.  He gave me some good intel on where to resupply past Fort Montgomery. A woman gave me some intel on where to camp past the next shelter since I wasn't going to make it to bear mountain. I hiked on and climbed up black mountain. In the distance I could barely see the NYC skyline. It was difficult to see with all the haze in the air. I climbed down into the valley and had to cross a highway with cars flying at 70 miles an hour. It felt like I was in the video game frogger. On the other side I filtered 3 liters of water since I would be stealthing without a water source. The next climb was steep but trail maintainers had built rock steps. At the top I watched the sun set behind some clouds. I found the campsite with a view of West mountain and the Hudson river. I setup camp and cooked chili with cheese for dinner.  The moon rose in the east. Its full yellow body hid behind coulds. Theresa called and told me about the amazing cookies in my next resupply package! I'm super excited for them. The hour hit 11 pm and it was time for bed.Tonight I'm sleeping without my rain fly for the first time in a little while. No rain is forecasted for tonight!