Date: 2011-07-01
From: Unionville, NY/Vernon, NJ

To: Greenwood Lake, NY/Garrison House
Miles today: 25.7

We were planning on getting up at 5:00am. We actually got up at 5:45am and had a bit of a scramble sorting out our gear to get to the trail at a reasonable time. we opted for the dunkin donuts option for breakfast which was a superb choice. this slack packing operation is really spoiling me. having a car at our disposal is such a dirty pleasure that we don't normally get to experience. the kids and Tom (Dad) dropped the three lads (Glide, Flowers and I) off at the Unionville gap that we ended at yesterday. we are to hike 26 miles north to where kids and Tom will park the car and hike south to where we started today. the day was already a humid and wet start. we had fully wet boots from the tall dew soaked grass within about 10 minutes. we had some long and flat swamp walking to do with plenty of hungry mosquitos to keep us company. these swamp trails gradually got to the point of planks and boards being stretched across the worst sections of the bog. there was even about 1.5 miles of professional boardwalk constructed and elevated rather nicely. the humidity level dropped as the sun shifted into high gear. the sky was the bluest blue i've ever bothered to notice, without a single cloud in the sky. the ferocious heat made it a perfect slackpacking day. there happened to be a nice little farm with a shop just off the trail in Vernon. we investigated the goods and had some lovely ice cream in the shade of the building. i grabbed an extra gatorade to drink atop the next big climb. this climb had been nicknamed the "stairway to heaven". i would have to disagree with the name. this climb had sadistically few switchbacks. it went straight up, athough it was not a great elevation gain. the last few miles of the day were spent boulder hopping. it was a really neat change of pace. this constant up and down climbing became a bit of a stuggle towards the end of 26 day, slack pack or not. we crossed the New Jersey/New York border! another one down. the views from the boulders were rather impressive due to the massive Greenwood Lake just north of us. we don't typically get to see a nice body of water in the landscape. i'm beginning to like the look of New York already. we had all decided that it would be safer to leave the keys somewhere hidden on the car, rather then risk missing each other on the trail. we could miss each other if one group veered off for water or lunch etc. upon our arrival to the car park, we found no car. crap, the guidos must have found the keys and stolen it. i remembered Goldylocks mentioning that there was a hotdog stand in the lot that they parked in and this didn't have a logical place for a hotdog cart. we walked a few hundred feet more and the lads (Flowers and Glide) and i picked up the car with heaps of time to spare. the three of us were in charge of finding a place to stay. unfortunately the place we ad been planning on staying in was full since it was July 4th weekend. the holiday weekend turned out to be a huge hassle for us since everywhere near this lake was booked solid. i got Serena involved. Serena located a sweet deal for us at the house of Garrison. this was an old house, built in the 1700s that was well known for being haunted. ace. i rang them up and asked for the most haunted rooms. when we picked up Goldilocks and Havoc, i had to embellish the haunted stories to wind them up a bit. lol. poor young Havoc wasn't having any of that. he thought i was fabricating the entire thing, as i usually do. when we got in to the bed and breakfast the nice lady gave Tom and i a quick tour of the rooms. Havoc tagged along. when the lady started talking aout ghosts and how the paranormal investigators found various energies etc., little Havoc went pale. she unknowingly validated everything i had been trying to sell to the kids. he was not impressed with the fact that he had to sleep in the most paranormally active room. poor young lad. i also managed to barter a pretty sweet deal for the suite for the lads since the smaller room we thought we were getting was unavailale. the whole house was very nice. we also had a full kitchen, washer, dryer, showers etc. we ran off to dinner at west point, which happened to be just around the corner. unfortunately this turned into a later night than we wanted. i think i was the only one who showered when we got back because it was so late. tomorrow should be a shorter day.