Date: 2008-07-14
From: Mombasha High Point, NY

To: William Brien Memorial Shelter, NY
Miles today: 15.8
Weather: overcast clouds

It rained a lot last night. I remember it coming down hard about 3:30am. I woke up at 5:30am and it was still raining, so I fell asleep again till 6:30am. It was still raining then, but I was getting hungry, so I got my food bag open and ate a Poptart and an apple pie for breakfast. I stayed in my sleeping bag and read a couple more chapters of Cold Mountain. I had looked at my animated radar on my cell phone and saw that there was still some rain left, but it looked like the last band was working its way through this area and should be by here in a little while. I love these times we live in! I can lie in my tent and decide to read for two hours because by looking at the animated radar, I know the rain will be over soon. :-) The rain had stopped by 9am, so I packed up and was walking north on the Appalachian Trail by 9:15am. It was very wet out and this area of NY has some really steep ups and downs. The Trail runs across the flow of the mountains here, so you walk up to one ridge, then down and then up to the ridge of the next mountain....and they are mostly steep climbs which aren't normally too hard, but with all the wet rocks and roots, the going was slow. I came to the first road crossing and there was a cooler with water in it, I filled my water bottles and drank about a liter before starting the next climb. I was walking along a cliff on Buchanan Mountain that dropped off about 100 feet straight down. I made sure of my footing in that area! :-) Steep and rocky on Buchanan Mountain I could hear artillery guns going off way in the distance at West Point. I remember the first time I walked through this area and heard those guns going off. I thought we were being invaded or something. :-) I got to Little Dam Lake and walked around that, then up another steep little hill before crossing another road. Little Dam Lake I had to stop and spray some Deet on because the mosquitoes were out and biting me. There was also some yellow flies trying to bite me and I was squishing them each time one would succeed. Those little buggers hurt! I was climbing Arden Mountain and was running low on energy, so I sat down on some rocks and ate lunch. I couldn't believe it was that late already! I had some sardines and Fritos, nuts and cinnamon animal cookies and drank another liter of water. I finished climbing Arden Mountain, then started the very steep downhill called Agony Grind to NY 17 and the NY State Thruway. I could see down a long way and I kept hearing loud clicking noises. I finally saw where the clicking noises were coming from....a guy was out for a dayhike and I think he was clanging his hiking poles against anything he could find kind of as a bear deterrent, instead of wearing bear bells. I got down to where he saw me a while later and he stopped clicking. :-) I really took a long time to walk those last six miles, but I didn't fall and ruin my "no fall" record of '08. It's been almost 1,400 miles of Trail walking without a fall this year! :-) I knew I'd have data service in this area, so I checked my email. I did not have data service walking over the NY State Thruway! I've had it out in the middle of nowhere, but I don't have it in this busy area. I checked again just to make sure. I got to where the Trail enters Harriman State Park and entered the woods. I smiled because I saw Paddy O had left jugs of water for the hikers again. He always keeps water there behind a concrete post...Thanks Paddy O! :-) I drank another liter and refilled my water bottles and started climbing the next hill. The hills on this side of the thruway got back to the more normal climbing instead of some of the steep scrambles of the last six miles. I summited Green Pond Mtn, then went downhill again before climbing up towards The Lemon Squeezer. That's an angled slit in some huge rocks that goes on for about 100 feet. It's just big enough to get your body and pack through, but like I said....it's at an angle, so you have to walk it leaning over about 15 degrees. I didn't have any extra room between my water bottles sticking out on each side of my pack and my hipbelt was scraping along the rock wall, when the rocks pressed something on my cell phone in the hipbelt and a recording came on. I was too busy to see what I did, so I kept "squeezing" through. :-) It's a fun little area to play in the rocks, but I didn't hang around long because there were lots of mosquitoes there. I climbed the difficult little rock scramble to get out of there and finished climbing to the Island Pond Mtn summit. I walked down again, then back up to Surebridge Mountain and on another couple miles to Fingerboard Shelter. I was going to sit down and look through the register there, but there wasn't one, so I kept walking to Arden Valley Road where I turned and followed the road .3 miles to Tiorati Circle. There's a picnic area and a beach area there and they have soda machines! :-) Those soda machines are never working when I usually come walking through this area in the fall, but they grabbed up my dollar today and gave me a nice cold Coke in return! :-) I sat there on a rock wall and dried out my tent while I ate dinner and drank Cokes. I had tuna that I scooped up with my Frito Scoops, nuts, diced peaches, Oreo cookies , six dark chocolate Dove pieces and three Cokes while me and my tent dried out. :-) I refilled three water bottles for tonight and tomorrow and took a bandana bath in the shower room. I must have drank twelve liters of water today, but I sweated it out too. I still had over four miles to walk and it was 5pm, so I headed on. I had been seeing lots of deer since I crossed NY 17. I came up on the 9th deer I had seen today and he didn't see me. He was busy eating in a huge huckleberry patch and had his rear end towards me. I got to within 20 yards and stopped and watched him eating for about 3 minutes. I guess this was the first time I've ever actually seen a deer poop in the woods. :-) He arched his back just like a dog does and did his thing....and he never stopped eating all the while! :-) Deer in Harriman State Park I finally walked on to see how close I could get and he spotted me. He had about 3 inch antlers. He watched me from off in the bushes and was ready to run, but never did. I was walking up Goshen Mtn when I spotted #12 and #13 deer of the day. I hope #12's picture comes out....he was an eight point buck with a beautiful wide rack in full velvet. I ended up seeing 14 deer today. My buddy John Galt from my '03 sobo hike always loved hearing about all the deer I would see each day. ;-) I got to William Brien Memorial Shelter and saw a few people spread out through the woods tenting. I walked on a little ways and found a spot away from everyone and set up my tent. My plan is to walk into Ft Montgomery tomorrow and get a motel for a short 9 mile walk, then stay till checkout time the next day and give the ol' body a full 24 hours rest, but still walk each day. I didn't see any other thru hikers all day. I heard a tree fall today. I was crossing a low area and heard the crack and looked over about 200 feet just in time to see it crashing to the ground through a bunch of other trees. That always amazes me when I see a tree fall over just as I'm walking by. It never rained anymore today after 9am. I stayed wet all day though because of the high humidity. Another great day on the Appalachian Trail. :-)