Date: 2015-07-17
From: Delaware Water Gap

To: Bear Mountain, NY
Miles today: 141.0

A Normal Day.6:00 a.m. I woke to gray skies and the sound of rain plinging against the tent. No surprise, I knew that we were on the edge of storms. Was hoping for an early start because today is special. 12 miles from my site, we pass a road with a hot dog stand. This is my mission.7:03 a.m. I awake again. The sound of rain has stopped, it's time to move. I hate packing a wet tent, but it's better not doing it in the rain. Wish today could have been like a few days ago in Unionville. A quaint village that allows hikers to resupply and camp in their little park. The temps in the low 80s, almost no humidity and a wonderful breeze. They can't all be like that, and right now I need to be happy that the rain has paused. There are a number of tents around me. Funny how things go. Haven't seen a hiker in a few days and now in with a pack of 8. In the mornings until loosening up, hikers stumble and fall like drunken sailors. It's really funny to see, falling out of tents, falling over while trying to tie their shoes, trying to lean against a tree and missing it completely, etc. It's that way this morning. I haven't been able to feel my toes in weeks, another common occurrence out here. Stash seems the most stable and ironically, he was the only one who packed out a 32 oz water bottle filled with wine. I manage the morning without falling. I'm so proud.8:08 a.m. Backpack packed. A cliff bar and pack of dry oatmeal should fuel me until hot dogs. Only 12 miles, all is good as long as I'm there by 3:30. I take a quick look at my map book and there is a warning about the terrain. Unusual, this is the first time I've seen a warning. "Despite the unimposing profile, rocks abrupt ups and downs make this section challenging". I chose to believe the profile, not the warning.9:45 a.m. I'm so sore. Yesterday's climb up the " stairway to heaven " has left me feeling like hell. I check the map and discover that I've only covered 1.5 miles. There is a stream here and the water is tinted orange. Filtering doesn't remove the tint and mentally I struggle drinking it. So I load 2 liters in my spare water bladder and vow to only use it in an emergency. 11:00 The section is tough and I'm not even at the warning marker yet. Starting to get worried. Energy has flagged, so decide to go to old faithful peanut butter on a tortilla. Dry and not as good as yesterday when we crossed a mountain side of wild blackberries and blueberries. We picked over a quart of them and mixed then in everything that we ate, including the pb. Really helped the taste. These berry patches are becoming more frequent and we descend on them like bears. They are so good, but no matter how many you eat, you never seen to fill up on them. I nurse the last bit of water out of my bottle while warily eying the untouched orange liquid in my water bladder.11:30 a.m. Oh no. Unnamed hiker getting busted by a ranger. Only 2nd ranger that I've seen, both in NJ. I hold up for a second to see if I can help and am quickly told to move on. What? You gonna talk to me that way hardass? Good thing Hot Dogs Plus is waiting or else... 12:15 p.m. We hit the NJ/NY border at the state line trail and stop to celebrate with a couple handfuls of trail mix. Come on, no way to carry champagne out here. A few backpackers that we've been running across, Song Bird, Hulk (despite the name is a little 20 year old girl), Tunes and crew all pull up to join in. There we are, feeling all good about ourselves, snapping pics and slapping each other on the back when a southbound couple shows up and informs us that the actual state line is 50 yards up, we're only at the state line trail, not the actual border. Dangit! No time to celebrate again, hot dogs await. I pause to silently pay homage to New Jersey, one of my favorite states. Goodbye my friend, you've been good to me.1:05 p.m. New York slams you with beauty and beast. Seriously, is like you step onto a different trail at the state line. Here, monster slabs of rock try to break you down, but the area is breathtaking. I'm halfheartedly snapping pictures on the fly, partly because I'm in a hurry, but also because I've come to realize that none of my pics can actually capture the depth that the eye beholds. This stuff just can't be flattened into a digital image and keep its spectacular magic. We cross the highest point on the NY part of the trail. There is an American flag flying on a homemade pole there. Very patriotic, although not as wonderful as NJ's highest point which has a veterans monument and a swim beach below it. Back there we'd taken the side trail to that beach and I just pulled my boots off and went straight in. It was great until the megaphone toting lifeguard grumped at me for swimming in the "no swim" zone. Fine, I'll take my fully dressed self and go swim with the kiddies, which I did. They also had showers there and I took a hikers shower. That is when you take one in your clothes first in lieu of laundry. After we laid on picnic tables with our shirts and undies drying in the sun. I'd never felt so trailer park, but you truly get desperate out here. No beach at NY's high point, but i saluted the lonesome flag. Time is getting short, hot dogs still 4 miles away. I'm getting concerned.1:20 p.m. A ladder. A freaking aluminum ladder chained to the mountain side. You want up this sheer rock wall? Use the ladder. Hard to avg 2 mph going up ladders with backpacks.1:45 p.m. The orange tinted water is now filtered and in my bottle and body. I don't know if it really taste bad, but my mind tells me that it does and it's hard to get down. Mixing in some MIO helps, but not much. While I'm drinking, Honey Britches comes flying by. She's a good friend whom I haven't seen in a couple days and I'm always envious of her speed. After a quick hello, she's off and out of site. 2:15 p.m. Palomino and I catch up with each other. It's hot and we're sweaty but her sweat is a little different. It has the smell of ammonia which scares the hell out of me. The odor is caused when there is no fat left for your body to burn, so it starts consuming muscle for energy. This has already ended many a hike out here. We still have 1.5 miles to hot dogs but I know that she won't eat one. A couple weeks ago when she had gotten so sick, a hot dog was the last thing that she had eaten and although completely unrelated to getting sick, she has sworn them off. Time to cancel the hot dog chase and slow her down, but she won't hear of it. "You're going to get that dog" was all she said as she disappeared over the rock wall.2:35 p.m. Trickery! The trail had flattened and I thought the warning section was over, but here is more walls of rock. In these sections, we throw our hiking poles up to a flat spot so we can use hands and feet to pull ourselves up. Reach your poles, throw again and repeat until you can walk upright again. Fellow backpacker Gray Goat is slumped against the wall and mutters, "this isn't even scrambling, this is rock climbing". So we climb. Tick tock.2:50 p.m. My friend Woodchuck shows up. Haven't seen her in probably 10 days. I swear, it's like reunion day out here. We quickly try to update each other on hiker whereabouts. Paperclip went to NY City to meet up with his girl for a couple days. Chill tagged along. Cinderella is stuck in Vernon with bronchitis. No clue on others.3:11 p.m. I hit the hot dog highway NY 17a. I look around expectantly, but no stand. I consult my map again looking for an answer, it's suppose to be right here. It isn't. I read the map again, panicking now. I can see a little empty parking lot just west. That's where it was suppose to be. Downhearted, I start walking the highway. 3:16 p.m. I see a sign nailed to a tree next to the highway. " slow down - hot dogs ". He had moved to a little bigger spot. While I attacked the business at hand, Palomino headed 3/10 of a mile down the road for her reward, a monster milkshake from Bellvale Farms.5:01 p.m. back on the trail, we're still 2+ miles from the shelter and stopping for the night. I briefly question if 4 chili dogs, 2 bags of chips, 4 cokes, and a cherry vanilla milkshake was excessive. Don't be silly, of course it wasn't. 9:00 p.m. Done for the day and in my nest. They call this hiker's midnight. I search the map in hopes of a surprise food destination tomorrow. None. sigh.Present: OK, some of the times were estimated, but fairly close to accurate. Thought it'd be fun to journal my pursuit of a hot dog, so i tried to pay attention to times during the day. Also, since I get many questions about life out here, thought I'd show how exciting it really is. HA! OK, maybe not that exciting.Today we're taking a zero day in Bear Mountain, NY. No hiking, and trying to eat and rest. We've been pushing hard while trying to make up for lost time, but everything hurts right now. I think it'll require a team of surgeons when this is done. Much love friends.Rougarou!