Date: 2015-06-17
From: Wawayanda Shelter

To: Little Dam Lake
Miles today: 19.1

Today's hike included a little bit of everything which made it interesting and more challenging than expected. We set off with a plan to stop at Prospect Rock, just after we passed the NJ -NY border. The terrain was soggy and muddy in places. We climbed and traversed some rocks where we saw the NJ-NY border painted in white on a rock, not quite as colorful as the PA-NJ border. We took a break at Prospect Rock which has a U.S. flag on a pole, a view of Greenwood Lake and is the highest point on the AT in NY. It was breezy and less buggy. Click Clack came by. He's a new hiker to us who started March 28th. We moved on and got our first precarious descent of the day on steep slick rocks. My pole rolled off the rock when I set it down so I tossed my water bottle down as well because I needed two hands. I still slid as I navigated across the rock but we made it down with just a small scrape. Little did we know that was nothing compared to what lay ahead. Soon we hit another climb which included climbing up an aluminum ladder which had been leaned against the rocks to climb up more rocks and was slippery from being wet. The view was nice. Some of the descent was wet as the AT flowed over rocks just like a spring. We had to walk on the side of the trail to avoid getting too wet. Another rock climb someone had left a note yesterday about rattlesnakes ahead. We proceeded cautiously but did not hear or see anything.Down by a creek, we ran into Airbourne whom I had not seen since after Hot Springs. He used to carry an 80 lb pack but said it was down to 50-60 lbs. he was drying out all of his gear from the rain yesterday. He's a talker and Andreas and I chatted for awhile. Crafty escaped and took her break further down the trail. After awhile, we bid him farewell and he was still talking to us as we hiked on. We finally made it to the road where there was a hot dog stand to the left. Click Clack was already there. Six Strings whom we had not seen since the Mother's Day Hiker Feed also arrived and he had cut his hair. I waited until everyone ate their hot dogs (unfortunately no veggie dogs!) and then we walked 0.1 miles to the Bellvale Creamery for ice cream. It was a beautiful view and we sat and enjoyed our cones. Some day hikers chatted with us for awhile. We refilled our water bottles at the spigot and picked up our packs at the hot dog stand and headed back to the trail.We had a nice trail and then hit Cat Rocks, another boulder climb. There was a blue blaze trail that went around it but we followed the white blazes up and over the boulders. It wasn't that bad and we were a little disappointed it wasn't more. We had a couple more Boulder climbs before we descended. We passed a trail volunteer who thru hiked in 2007 and told us where there is a good camping spot since there weren't any designated in the guide and the Rocky terrain made it difficult to know how far to go to camp. The shelters were too far apart. We hiked on to Fitzgerald Falls where we stopped for a break and quick foot soak. Five miles to go to the camp spot. Three miles later, we came upon a cooler we had been told about at the creamery. It had jugs of water in it which was nice. The last two miles were eventful. I saw a big fat raccoon in a tree which ran to another tree and scurried up, as well as another snake which I seem to see one allay daiy. We had two really big Boulder climbs, the second was super steep and required me to throw my pole ahead of me and pull myself straight up. I was glad to be climbing up vs descending. Some of the rocks and roots were a little wet but I was also glad it wasn't raining. This is really good practice for the White Mountains in NH. The descent was pretty steep which I definitely felt in my knees. Finally I made it to camp just before 8 pm. Crafty arrived 20 minutes later. We had only hiked 19.1 miles but it felt like more and we were all exhausted. I really enjoyed the trail and it was a good preview of the trail ahead of us when our daily mileage and pace will drop even more. Fortunately the temperature was cooler so another pleasant night to camp.