Date: 2007-07-21
From: NY 17A

To: Arden Valley Road
Miles today: 17.8
Weather: broken clouds

Today was another tough day of repeated up and down over rocky trail and exposed ridges. The best part of the day was going thru and over the 'Lemon Squeezer', a narrow rock crevice followed by a steep rock chute with stepped ledges.I ate breakfast with the last water I had carried in yesterday then refilled at the spigot on the side of the Creamery. Today would be another dry section with only 1 known water source all day. A total of 11 of us had camped together last night and all were on the trail before 8.00 AM. The 2 miles to Wildcat Shelter was again over exposed ledges along the crest of the ridges and required balance in some places to keep from falling off the ridgetop. In one section the fall would have exceeded 70 feet.When I arrived at Wildcat Shelter I immediately began filling all of my water containers. Unfortunately the one-way seal in the bottom of my pump failed and I was unable to fix it. It is inside the sealed base of the pump and does not appear to be replaceable so I will try to get the filter replaced at the next outfitter, likely in Kent, CT next week.Fitzgerald Falls tuened out to be just a trickle of water that was not very appealing for drinking so we all bypassed it, a hard decision on a humid day. It turned out that most of the road crossings (8 in all) had gallon jugs of drinking water stashed near the trailheads and we were able to resupply several times thru out the day. It would have been a very dry hike without these water sources. Thanks Trail Angels!The rest of the day was spent climbing up and down over ridges and walking the tips of long exposed rock ledges. One particularly steep climb had its own name, 'Agony Grind'. The rocks had occasional views of the nearby valleys and lakes. All the rock ledges were rounded and heavily striated by glaciers. These rock ledges made for much different walking than in PA or NJ where the rocks were mostly sharp and angular and had not been glaciated.At one point I had to leap from one large boulder across a wide deep gap to the top of another large boulder. As I leaped I saw a large bird scramble into a hole under the far boulder. It hissed loudly at me as I walked around the base of the boulder looking underneath it. This left no doubt that I had found a Turkey Vulture chick and it was hiding in its cave under the boulder. The chick's body was mostly black feathers but there was still a lot of white down on its neck and upper wing coverts so it was still not very close to fledging. I left it hiding in its cave hissing at me like a cobra! The 'Lemon Squeezer' was a lot of fun. I went thru first to be able to get photos of the line of 6 other hikers coming thru. It was a roofed rock passage that you had to duck down to creep thru with your pack. This was followed immediately by a squeeze up and thru an inclined narrow passage between two rock walls that got progressively narrower as you got higher up in it. I made it thru fine and took photos of the rest coming thru. This was followed by a steep climb up a narrow chute that ended in having to hand-over-hand up over a 7 foot high ledge. Again I took pictures of others climbing over and was the last to attempt it but had no trouble. The whole thing was actually a lot of fun, especially doing it in a group where help was handy if needed.We all decided to bypass Fingerboard Shelter and go to the state park a mile beyond near the Arden Valley road crossing. The park had water and vending machines, including ice cream! We all filled our water containers and returned up the road to a flat area near the trail crossing where we camped for the evening. The group was me, Big Brother, Tennessee Jed, JB and The Director. BlueDog waited back at the Park for Sylvan to come pick him up for an overnight visit. Tenacious T headed on to the next shelter (likely some night hiking) to be able to leave the trail tomorrow to attend a wedding.This was another tough day in NY and I was still a bit tired from my fast paced afternoon hike yesterday. Most of the crew said they were also feeling worn down from the terrain and rock hopping of yesterday, so no one had much energy for today's rocky terrain.