Date: 2008-06-08
From: Mombasha Road area

To: William Brien shelter
Miles today: 14.0
Weather: broken clouds

First, thanks to the tuxedo trail angels and captain v from air america... your kindness kept us going today. These trail angels left water for us at the east mombasa road crossing, and at NY17. It was much appreciated. The heat index today was in the high nineties, and the humidity was wicked high. We were sweating buckets. I drank over 250 ounces of water today. And i am still dehydrated.Today we got started at 6am hiking, but that didn't help too much, since it still took us 7 hours to hike 10 miles. Perhaps it was because we had to go hand over hand to climb up the "steep jumble of rocks", or to go back down the other side. Are you new yorkers insane?? What are you thinking? Fun for dayhikes, not for backpacking!! Anyway, the hiking/rock climbing was slow going. We kept stopping at all the water caches for a while to rest up. Gobbles, who sweats more than i do (i didn't think that was possible until i saw it...), was having a rough time. We pushed to tiorati circle here in harriman for a long rest and to wait out the heat.Harriman state park is beautiful, and i love hiking here. It's a little hard coming thru weighted down, but i like hiking here. Oh yeah, but the shelters suck. This shelter has got to be one of the dingiest i've stayed in. All the others i have seen in the park are yucky too. I think NY needs to pony up some money and fix this. The water source is sketchy too. Thank goodness i have a filter.So back to tiorati circle... wheee!It's a place where people can swim in the lake, have cookouts, and enjoy the day. And there were lots of people enjoying the day. It also has toilet facilities and water. Water was the key factor in going there. Toilets were important too, but secondary. We managed to snag a table and waited out the hottest part of the day there while we watched lots of families enjoying their cookouts and listening to the people wage car-stereo battles. We had dance club music in the car next to us battle the salsa music from across the parking lot. Who knew a mitsubishi eclipse could crank it that loud and make the picnic table vibrate from the base...We left about 4pm when the thunder storms blew through and cooled everything down to the high 80's. We got here a little after 6, and i talked to my wife, and did my chores. Now we are hunkered down for the night, since we want to be out on the trail by 6am again.Gobbles is feeling better, and i am starting to feel normal again. knuckles never complains, so it's hard to tell how she is doing. But she barely sweated or drank water all day... so maybe she is fine...My heel blister mole skin bandages fell off today. eeeeewwwwwww.I have blisters under blisters, etc. It looks like someone took several sheets of rice paper and rippped them up, and then glued them to my heels. Fun battle wounds. Did i mention that i hate these boots? I need to find a better way to check them out in the store... or talk to a hiker that makes shoes or sells shoes and knows what they are talking about. The balls of my feet are starting to ache again... i think it's because we've gone 118 miles or something without a break. Well, i will get to Pawling in two days and have a zero day to let them rest. Then i need to refigure my miles to work in easy days also...things to think about. Time for sleep.