Date: 2008-01-10
From: Stateline Trail

To: Wildcat Shelter
Miles today: 156.1
Weather: overcast clouds

Ok well he is the plan. I am out with the group from White Blaze and after tons of posts and a month or more of planning We are off on a hike from the NJ Stateline to the NY thruway. It was shortly after the hike down in MD in the start of December that talk began of this outing. The December trip if you recall included several inches of snow on the ground low temps in the single digits and then a bail out the next day after a winter weather advisory set in.When all met up at the Elk Pen parking area on the west side of Harriman State Park. There were a total of 6 humans and 2 canines on this March O¢Fools. From the last trip Wrongway and Doggiebag were back. This time we added Tinker from RI Chris from VA and River from right here in NY. We all met up and hit a dinner for a big breakfast before shuttling to the south end of the section and start the hike. The trail up from the parking area for the Stateline Trail gets going uphill right from the start. The climb tops out at the ridge above Greenwood Lake and follows this ridge for the majority of our first day. The views were great and the weather over the days before the trip had melted the snow so it was a great day to be on the trail. I could tell as I began to sweat and gasp for air that not only was my pack too heavy again but I had not been out hiking as much as I should have been.We planned to stay at the Wildcat Shelter. This is the only shelter in this area and as they were calling for rain to set in it was a good idea to have a place to be able to cook meals in out of the rain. I had gone to Campmor the day before the hike to get a lighter sleeping bag shaving almost 2 lbs from my pack weight. I also got a 10 x 12 tarp to use as I only have the small standard tarp for my Clark hammock and that does not give you much room other than to cover the hammock. As I was setting it up at home to get all the guy lines attached I found that it was a defective tarp and only had grommets on one side. Figures I would get the one that was screwed up. So here I am expecting a full day of rain and only the basic tarp.The end of the day had us climbing up the Cat Rocks these are a great outcrop of stone that stick up above the forest floor and give some great views but at the end of the day they are a bit of a pain in the butt and I was ready to be at the shelter and get some dinner cooking. We were with in a half-mile of the shelter when we had to climb the rocks. It was great to see the dogs just run up these. It is amazing what they can get up. As we were heading out after the rocks Doggiebag took a good spill and slammed his knee on a rock. It looked like it really hurt but he said he was ok and so we pushed on to the shelter.We got all set up and had our little tent and hammock city set up near the shelter and River and Chris slept in the shelter. We were able to get wood for a campfire that night and the rain held off until about 9:30. That was my clue to call it a night and head into the hammock for the night. The rain really began to come down and it was windy enough to get me swaying in the hammock a few times. I stayed up for a bit reading AWOL on the Trail. Written by a White Blaze and TJ member.The TJ miles for Today are to bring over the AT miles from 2007.Daily miles 9.2 Grand total 277.2