Date: 2006-08-08
To: New York in a Nut Shell
Miles today: 88.5

by RightyIt is 9 am Friday morning and I have just had a nice continental breakfast at the Holiday Inn Express in Fort Montgomery, NY where Skywalker, Jerico and myself stayed the night in the comfort of an air-conditioned suite. Now that I am rested and fed and hydrated, this journal entry will probably be fairly tame. Even though we still have more miles to go in NY, I wanted to share with you my feelings to date. First, we thought that New York would be easier than PA and/or NJ. You'd think we'd learn!! It was not easier, in fact the last 3 days have been the hardest I've experienced so far. I talked about rocks alot in PA and NJ. Well, they have rocks here too. They don't really have mountains ...they're just big hills...but I'll call them mountains anyway. These mountains are made of bedrock and the higher up you go the more rock and boulder there is. You do a lot of hiking on the tops of the ridges. I use the word "hiking" loosely because you are really rock climbing. I can remember when I used to like to climb rocks and jump from boulder to boulder. I can also remember when I used to race cars and skydive; but I don't do any of those things now. I really don't want to be risking life and limb ledge leaping, boulder bounding and hanging onto the side of a mountain with my fingernails when I'm supposed to be "hiking" the AT. I think they've gone off the deep end with the way they've routed some of these trails. Second, the heat has been a real factor here in NY. The temps have been in the high 90's with the humidity in the 90's also. A last couple of days the heat index, while we were hiking across exposed rocks in the blistering sun, was up to 118 degrees. You talk about HOT. The state police and park rangers have posted warnings about over-exerting and heat stroke everywhere. Of course, when it's that hot, you have to hydrate and the water sources here in NY have been unreliable or non existant. The shelters are spaced too far apart and most of them don't have a water source; which makes absolutely no sense to me. Many of the springs and creeks are dried up so where you think you'll be able to get water, there isn't any. If it hadn't been for trail angels leaving water where the trail crosses a road I don't think we would have made it. I had my first (and only, I hope) exposure to heat exhaustion on Tuesday evening. It put a good scare into me. We had hiked about 8 miles over tops of about three ridges. It took us almost an hour a mile because we had to stop and rest frequently. Around 5pm, I told Skywalker if I had to go over another ridge I was just going to sit down and cry. I was just so tird I could hardly move. Some of the things we had to climb up were too steep for me; so Skywalker would grab my hand and pull while Jerico would push from behind. Quite a picture, I'm sure! On our way down the back side of the mountain, we saw a guy running up. We both thought "What? is this guy crazy??" He asked if we were thru hikers and we said "Yes". He told us he had soda, gatorade and snacks in his truck down at the bottom. I swear, I think that's the only thing that got me down that mountain. Thank you Paddy, for saving our lives that day. I drank a whole liter of gatorade and we snacked and rested while we waited for Jerico and Possum to get down. Paddy told us about a great campsite about a mile up the mountain looking down on a lake. I thought I was refreshed; but when I started hiking up the mountain the muscles in my legs starting cramping and then I just couldn't put one foot in front of the other and I felt like I was going to pass out. Fortunately there was a rock in the middle of the trail that I was going to have to go around, so I sat down. I still felt like I was going to pass out, so I took my pack off so if I did pass out, it wouldn't pull me over the side of the mountain. A few minutes later Jerico came up the trail and saw me and poured water over my head to try to cool me down. It took a while but I was finally able to get my pack back on and move forward. Jerico followed close behind me so if I got dizzy again, he was right there. I did make it to the campsite but I felt like I had climbed Mt. Everest. I put my tent up and climbed in and just lay there. I did try to drink as mych water as I could but I felt so sick it was hard to keep anything down. The next morning I was still tired but felt a little better until we started hiking uphill and then I had no energy and my legs felt like rubber. We only went 4 miles (took 4 hours) to a state park where we had been told we could swim in the lake. We did, and that finally cooled us down. All of us experienced some form of heat exhaustion, mine just a little more extreme than the others. That's when we decided we'd try to get into Fort Montgomery and get into an air conditioned room and get some rest and get rehydrated. I feel much better today; but I really won't know what condition I'm in until we start hiking again. We've all learned to listen to our bodies more and to STOP before we get into trouble. So, please don't worry. We'll hike smart and stop as soon as anyone feels the need to. So, even though some of this sounds negative, it's not all like that. We have been blessed with "trail angels" along the trail leaving gallon jugs of water. And, Paddy was just god sent. I can't even express how thankful I am to be hiking with two such great guys. It really is all about taking care of each other.