Date: 2005-07-17
From: Wildcat Shelter

To: William Brien Memorial Shelter
Miles today: 19.6
Weather: broken clouds

8:43pm - MemoriesMan, has it been a long day. Right after I took down my tent this morning, a light drizzle settled in. It only lasted an hour or two, but it made everything wet - rocks, trees, grasses. You were assured of getting soaked and required to watch your step on the now-slick rocks. And today, there were rocks aplenty. The rocks didn't disappear after Pennsylvania; they grew. New York likes routing its trail over long, flat rocks with a slight incline. Those rocks are quite treacherous, of course, when wet. I had a slight fall and many stumbles over the course of today.New York also doesn't believe in trail maintenance or blazing for that matter. It felt like a lot of today was spent searching for the next blaze. I distinctly recall walking down a trail when a white blazed trail crossed my path - I hadn't even realized I'd lost the trail. Other times blazes would be misleading or altogether absent. After one section of trail deadended in a blueberry patch I bushwhacked the final hundred yards to a road I knew we had to cross. And to top it all off, this was occurring on a genuinely hard stretch of trail. Welcome back, climbs. I missed you.Of course, today wasn't all bad. After crossing the New York Thru-way I ran into a guy named Paddio who was doing some trail magic. And what sweet magic it was - sodas, moonpies, all sorts of cookies, calzones, and some fresh, high quality chocolate milk. I had eaten lunch not too long before but still managed to dig deep and find lots of room. After it quit raining, a persistent humidity settled in for the remainder of the day. A treat like this really lifts spirits.While traversing Harriman State Park this afternoon, I was reminded that this section of New York is really quite beautiful. There's a lot of open, grassy forests on top of the peaks and no shortage of views. There's lakes aplenty and even a pretty cool lemon squeeze rock formation. Once again, the trail landscape shifted.I arrived at Fingerboard Shelter in late afternoon and found Gozar, Ramblin' Man and Corporal to be present. The latter two weren't a surprise since I'd been seeing them all day (also, Happy 20th Birthday, Corporal), but catching up to Gozar was a nice surprise. After a long break, Gozar and I pushed five more miles to William Brien Shelter and found we had the place to ourselves. I'm trying to make it to Graymoor Friary tomorrow. The monks feed you if you're there by 4:30pm, hence my desire to put in a lot of miles today.When I reached Fingerboard shelter, I was flooded with memories. Two years ago, I did an adventure race in these parts with Rob and Victor. We had come across Fingerboard Shelter back then and followed the AT north for a mile; it was fun to see the section again with more time to spare. Rob and I had also come across the William Brien Shelter. It's odd to now spend the night in it and compare it to my first fleeing impression. The verdict: it's nicer from a distance. A rustic stone shelter nestled deep in a hollow is a better memory than a dark, musty shelter that is in need of some TLC.