Date: 2008-06-06
From: Stealth site .5 miles past NJ-94, NJ

To: NY 17A, Greenwood Lake, NY
Miles today: 14.4

A semi-restful nite, some foot pain waking me but a crazy crazy dream about 2baby bear cubs that had dred locks! They kept trying to snuggle with me and Iwas freaked out because I was afraid their mother was going to come and eat me. Weird huh? I think only a dead person could have slept through the symphony Iwoke up to this morning @ 5:30 a.m. A family of Crows (?), 50 different birdscalling, and one loud ass deer squawking away. Made me laugh, which is apleasant thing to do first thing in the morning you know. It was 62 warm andlovely degrees.I was hiking by 7:00 a.m. which started with a pretty tough 1.5 mile climb upWawayanda Mt. I was totally covered and dripping with sweat by 7:42 by thetime I got up. On the way there was a tiny trickle that people were talkingabout yesterday, but it would have been too far to climb to then climb backdown, so I was so glad the water thing worked itself out.I was into talking to myself a lot (outloud) this morning for some reason. Imean, I'm in NJ...supposedly the black bear capitol of universe and I've onlyseen 2 on my first day and none since. I'll be in NY today, so I'm sayingoutloud, "Ok, all I want is to be able to observe one, it doesn't have to knowI'm there, I just want a chance to commune and enjoy the beauty of theseanimals." (and next I started asking to win the lottery, but we all know howthat goes).After summiting, I took a short break because there's a mailbox with a registerand a blue blaze to a vista, but honestly, I just want to get into town andtake a freakin shower. I kept smelling pee last nite at my camp site, and I'mstill not sure if it was my clothes/me or just the very wet leaves around me.Gosh you get so disgusting out here..but those showers..oh man..a little bit ofheaven.Now I'm on my way down Wawayanda Mt., and it's pretty nice trail and suddenly..I stop in my tracks. THERE'S A HUGE BLACK BEAR ON THE TRAIL LESS THAN 100 FEET AWAY FROM ME!!!! I'm a cool cucumber in stressful situations, so I stood for a moment and it looked at me, and I looked at it. I could see it was relaxed and completely unthreatened by me..which is good and bad. So, I slowly unzipped my pack pocket and got my camera out to take pics. Today was overcast and my dumb camera thinks it's "smart" and automatically tries to adjust the shutter speed for lighting, which results in blury pictures. I did, however, get 1 really good and 2 good shots of this bear. I took a few steps closer, then the bear took a few steps closer. I'm like, "Ok, we're not playing mother may I here, so BACK OFF!" I yelled a few times to warn it, but it just stood there on the trail looking around. It obviously wanted to continue walking up the nice dirt path instead of bushwacking, I mean who wouldn't. Then it started walking towards me again, so I decided it was time to be scary-screaming-hiking pole tapping-I'm gonna get you- human being. So I start yelling, tapping my poles, and making at least 200 of my library of 762 different sound effects (I was bored as a child), and the bear hardly reacted. I mean, this thing did not care that I was there. FINALLY, I started walking towards it (but up the hill a bit) and it turned and walked off the trail. I think it trotted like once then walked again. WOW!!! This made my whole freakin day people. I got to commune (for a really long time) with a wild black bear (a big one) and we shared the same 100 feet of the AT together for about 4 minutes. It was absolutely amazing.I start hiking again and turn around to see if it's following me due to smelling the Jolly Ranchers in my pocket or something, and now I realize I'm shaking! LOL This was not out of fear though, I think my brain dumped about 4 month's worth of adrenalin into my body and man did I feel gooooooood. I got down into a small gap with a beautiful stream and ran into 2 newthru-hikers, Garlic and ? (dont' remember). I asked if they'd seen the bearand they were like, "No." I've got such a child's excitement about stuff,because I was offering to show them my pictures, but they weren't interested.These 2 guys almost seemed totally numb to being out here and had that veryserious thru-hiker'ish attitude of miles miles miles. Please shoot me if Iever become numb to this natural world out here. It's so much better than theone we've fabricated in our cities.There were a few more boggy boardwalks today as well, and it looked like it hadrained, but I wasn't in it. I also saw a few deer and the normal tiny orangesalamanders. Just before reaching NY though, the terrain changed and there wasa verticle rock climb and I noticed the color of the rocks changed too...theynow have a purplish hue to them. So at 12:28 p.m. I was officially in NewYork! 8 States down!!!!I sat down on the stateline and ate a snack and checked my distance yet to go.The companion said only 2.5 miles to Village Vista trail, which leads down intoGreenwood Lake, NY. Man, if all of NY is the way this next section was, it'sgoing to be tough. I finally gave up and just stored my hiking poles on mypack. Almost constant rock scrambling/climbing/walking over HUGE slab of rock(but not like PA, it's a different style here). I had to scoot down rock faces(they were still slick), hang onto small rock ledges and pull myself up whilepushing with my legs. It was fun....for awhile.I knew I should be at the Village Vista trail by 2:15 p.m., and 2:15 came andwent, then 2:30, and finally I was at a stream and it was 2:45 and I feared Ieither missed it or I was moving way to slowly. I got water, which by the waylooked like iced tea in color, but tasted fine. Anyone out there know whattree/plant is adding the tannins in the water around here?I decided to compare my topos with my guidebook, and guess what, the guidebookmileage was wrong! ARGH!!!! But wait, basically, it was another 1.5 milesfurther. So I did some math. I could either hike to this trail, go .9 downit, then .9 back up it and hike to NY17A tomorrow. Or, I could do 2 more milestoday to NY 17A (past Village Vista) and just hitch or (hopefully) call a cabfor the 2 miles into Greenwood Lake, NY. Well no brainer there, the mileagewas the same, but continuing to NY 17A..it counted on the AT! So that wasthat. This way, I can do a nero tomorrow and hike out late in the afternoonand maybe go to the first shelter just 2 miles away. So that was my decision.Also, because I knew I was going down to the road, I gambled that the terrainwould not continue being this crazy rock climbing stuff, and I was right. The2 miles between the Village Vista trail (which takes you right into GreenwoodLake by the way) and NY 17A is awesome trail, but I still managed to bust mybutt on a slick rock again. I think my shoes have had it and these semi-wetrocks are killing me out here.I actually got to NY 17A by 4:00 p.m., 15 minutes faster than I thought I would. The guidebook said there's a payphone, but not true. There USED to be apayphone, but it's been removed with just the post and sign still there. So Iwalked to the guardrail of this busy 2-lane road and decided to try to thumb itand see what happens. It's illegal to hitch here, but I figured a cop couldcite me then perhaps give me a ride to town right? LOL I was cracking myselfup, I stuck out my thumb to a motorcyclist who grinned and shook his head, thenI tried with a school bus driver that I had actually just waved at when she wascoming the other direction. She just smiled too. Nobody would stop, so I gotout my phone and LUCKILY had service. Just as I was about to call the taxi, avan pulls over. It was actually the Greenwood Lake Taxi service on the wayback into town to drop someone off. She yelled out, "I can give you a ride fora fee." I said OK!!! She said it would be $7.00, which is sort of ridiculousfor 2.4 miles, but guess what..I DIDN'T CARE!!!I hopped in and asked her about the best place to stay. She recommended TheBreezy, but they weren't central in town and charged $85.00 nite. I asked herabout The Linden Motel and she said that was in town, so I told her to justtake me to the PO first. On the way, she showed me the motel and folks, thisis the place to stay for sure. Everything within walking distance/very close.I got to the PO, got my new shoes and walked over to The Linden Motel where Imet Vera. Actually I scared her first because she came around the corner anddidn't see me. I asked about a room and she charges $75.00 but then saw myback and goes, "Oh, you're a hiker, it's only $60.00 for you." Cool huh? Shesaid don't have the AC turned on till tomorrow though, which I didn't care.She is a hoot, took me to my room (which looks onto part of the lake or inletor something..it's freakin awesome!) and when she opened the door I couldn'tbelieve it. A fridge, stove, kitchen sink, table, love seat, recliner, bed, TVand small bathroom. They rent these monthly too, so I was SO hooked up. Theyonly take cash and I needed to go to the ATM but Vera said, "Oh, get cleaned upfirst I'm always here, you can pay me later." She also gave me a travel sizedbottle of shampoo.Ah....that shower was amazing. I got out all squeaky clean and had my "townmoment." (where I get out of the shower, dry off, and lye all naked-like on thebed and enjoy the feeling of clean and energy-less living.   I called Karen totell her I was in town and how much this place rocked. There is no laundry inthe whole town though, so I decided to hand wash everything.Finally, I got up, washing my stinking clothes (my wet socks smelled like alandfill people..and that smell permeated all of my clothes...YUCK!). I letthe stuff soak in the sink while I went next door to Napoli's and had anawesome salad, Spaghetti and meatballs and cheesy garlic bread. Oh gosh I ateso fast I was embarassed, but it was a huge portion so I took half back.Then I went across the street to the CVS (right next to the PO too) andresupplied there. They had plenty of stuff and it was perfect. On the wayout, there's an ice cream shop called Enza's that I stopped at and sat outsideenjoying the evening with my 2 scoops of ice cream. What a perfectmoment...really. This little kid, Christian, wanted me to take his picture, soI did. He sort of ran his household at the age of 6 I think.I saw Vera again and gave her my $. Then she goes, "Oh, don't worry aboutleaving anytime in particular tomorrow. You can hang out all day, I won't berenting out your room." Can you believe that? How AWESOME!!!I went back to my room, repacked my food, strung my rope across it and hung mynow WAY cleaner clothes to dry, and then called Karen again, who is coming upfor another visit next week!!! I CAN'T WAIT!!!I am, however, stuffed, clean, and so tired. I'm sleeping in tomorrow, willship my old shoes home, go to the hardware store for denatured alcohol andmaybe some silicone to fix my canteen till Karen brings me a new one next week,and give me feet a bit of a rest. It's supposed to be 94 degrees tomorrow andall week...a heat wave up here. I'll probably hitch out of town (or call Kimwith the taxi) and hike 2-4 miles tomorrow afternoon.It was an awesome day indeed where things worked out better than I could havehoped. One of those days that will always stick out in my mind forsure..especially with that bear. Now sleep, I'm half way there right now.