Date: 2004-07-21
From: Long House Road (Camping)

To: NY 17
Miles today: 20.1

Daniel Boone was once asked if he ever got lost while wandering out in the woods. His reply was ¢No, I was never lost, but I was a might confused for a couple of days.¢I packed up the tent this morning and lowered the food bags from the tree to keep the furry monsters away and was on the trail early like normal. I had slept really well last night; this tenting thing might need to be done more often.Well, I found out where I was and indeed it was where I had figured the night before. Today was maybe one of the hardest yet so far.   It was an absolute killer.   At 8: am I walked into my ninth official state ¢ New York.All of New Jersey is completed.   What a glorious morning for the occasion too. At one point on a high rocky out cropping, the pack came off and I plopped down to gaze at all the beauty, I just hung there doing nothing but looking! Because of last nights extra miles, today would be shorter; I planned to head to town for a motel stay near the trail. By eleven, I emerged from the woods to find a Hot Dog truck parked and open for business.   Its just amazing what you run into out here.   So three dogs, chips and two sodas later, lunch was done. The Hot Dog owner, Joy, let me use her cell phone to call the motel for a reservation.   The motel quickly dismissed my inquiry (Yes, I believe I was snubbed.   Later in the day I¢d find out that they don¢t want hikers.)   Without the town stop, that added another five miles to the next shelter.   Normally that wouldn¢t cause me much angst, but the terrain of New York was starting to reveal a very ugly side. Remember me describing the Roller Coaster, well that is a kiddy hike compared to what I faced for the next ten plus miles.   They call it the ¢Agony Grind¢ I¢d find out later.   First, there are no switchbacks, its straight up, and then straight down.   Deadly!   Second, it¢s totally rock, worse than Pennsylvania.   Third, it was 90 degrees with 90 percent humidity.It was miserably hard, the toughest yet¢¦ by far!!Halfway through this hell I came upon an ice chest with water at a road crossing. I had already consumed five liters of water and it was only 3 o¢clock.   With 5+ miles still to go to the next road and another 10 to the shelter, I looked at my profile maps and it showed the terrain would get even harder.Who would want to put a trail here?Anyway, while sitting on the ice chest resting, the water angels left a note saying that if any thru-hiker needed a place to stay, they could assist.   They even mentioned that a pay phone was at the road crossing which was just after the trail I was to face.   So, with their phone number written down, I moved up the trail.It was so rocky, so steep, so hot, so hard that it was asking everything I had to give.   So hostile this day was that as I neared the top of climb four hundred and thirteen, I was startled by a horrific hiss and spitting sound.   There eight feet in front of me in this tight rocky space were two six-foot rattlesnakes in full combat mode.   They were wrapped around each other and reared up some 18 inches off the ground.   It was fierce! It was that moment that they both decided that they¢d turn their attention to yours truly.   One moved down toward me another foot, boy was it angry.   I jumped back onto another rock looking for any possible route around the mayhem.   Nothing would be easy in this steep slope. I stood frozen on that rock for ten minutes more till one of them said ¢uncle¢ and moved off.   The champion rattler must have been seven feet, I¢ve never seen anything so menacing!! Eventually, it moved back under a rock and I double-timed it through the rock pathway.The final decent was practically a gravity fall.   It was so steep; my toes were all being smooshed into the toe box of my shoes¢¦ painful! At the bottom, I eyed the pay phone and dialed the water angels. I think I sounded a tad desperate ¢ spent ¢ dead, cause John and Sue said they¢d be there to pick me up in about 30 minutes.   They won¢t accept any money, they¢ve done my laundry, let me shower and clean up. We all had a wonderful dinner together in the kitchen and then sat around watching baseball while eating ice cream!What a day and what angels found me!   So instead of a tent in the woods, a bit confused, tonight I¢m clean and on clean sheets that smell wonderful!I sure hope I don¢t dream of snakes!