Date: 2018-06-09
From: Arden Valley Rd / Elk Park

To: Palisades Interstate NY
Miles today: 11.4
Weather: broken clouds

I woke up at 5:30 this morning and sleep walked to get our laundry out of the dryer. I had set a timer but likely shut it off and went back to sleep. As the elevator door opened, I was cheerfully greeted by the desk clerk, who was sitting in the breakfast area. He invited me to have breakfast. I wasn¢t in a mood to speak, only wanting to retrieve clothes and go back to bed. I thanked him, got the clothes, and slept in until 730. I had to go to the post office this morning to pick up two packages, since my hike yesterday took too long to get to the post office before closing. I had a resupply box I had mailed from Jodi¢s, and repair tape for my tent to pick up. I discovered at Jodi¢s house there were some small holes in some of the mesh in the end of my tent. I sorted through my belongings and selected several small items to send home that I haven¢t used. I showered, ate breakfast, filled my hydration bag with ice, and headed to the Bear Mountain Bridge Motel where Puddles was staying, and where I would be staying tonight. She was taking a zero day, so I left my backpack in her room, took the small bag to ship home and headed to the post office. I got my packages and opened the resupply box, took a few item out, and added it to what I had already selected from my pack, and put them in a box to ship home. I headed back to the motel, prepped my pack for a slack pack day by taking out everything I didn¢t need, and summoned an Uber. As I loaded my pack in the back car, I noticed a military style ball cap. I asked the driver if he served in the military and he said he did. I thanked him for his service. The driver was David and we instantly hit it off. Unlike my driver from yesterday who I couldn¢t even explain what a tent was, let alone backpacking, David was very outdoorsy. He talked about backpacking in Europe while he was in the military, and some other endeavors, then told me some stories about people he had dropped off for hikes who were not prepared with basics such as water.I explained the situation Puddles had yesterday with not being able to get an Uber because of the lack of a phone signal. David gave me his personal number in case we got into a simIlar jam. We passed a doe and a couple fawns along the way. He dropped me off at the park and I headed out. It started out as a sunny day and became overcast. There were a few climbs and a couple special challenges today. The first one was the famous ¢lemon squeezer¢ a narrow path, between two large boulders, barely wide enough to fit a body through, let alone a body and a backpack. The narrow opening also leans precariously to the left, which throws your balance off, forcing you to lean into the boulder to the left. In addition to walking at an odd angle to the left, you have to use your hand or hands to keep pushing yourself off the boulder. Since I was slack packing today, my pack wasn¢t as full as it normally is and I was able to keep it on. Many backpackers are forced to take their pack off to get through. I squeezed through, then was faced with a straight climb up a rock face approximately 10-12 feet up, with the rocks jutting out. The rocks were at an angle out, that if I fell, I would likely fall onto my back. This was the ¢white blaze¢ route. There was also a blue blaze route as an alternative with a sign and arrow pointing to the left that said ¢Easy Way¢ which went around the rock wall. I decided to investigate to see if I could climb it. The left side had a tree growing in and around the rocks. with a small open area under the trunk that I could probably crawl through. The challenge was to get upon the rock sticking out underneath it. There were no good grips or footholds that would work for me, and a further fall down than if I attempted from the right. The rocks on the right also had more options for gripping, but getting up and over the rock jutting out would be difficult with my pack on. I climbed up on a rock to get as high as I could, and blindly tossed my trekking poles up. Then I held my pack over my head and put it up on the rock as best as I could, with the short reach I had. Because I couldn¢t push my pack back further, it took up some of the space I would have available for climbing up on the rock. I found a couple of handholds and a foothold, and tried a couple of practice push offs to test my hand and foot placement. Then I pushed off and pulled myself up and over the rock ledge. I was ecstatic! It was fun and reminded me of things like this I would have done in my youth. I put my pack on, and with renewed energy, headed down the trail. The trail was much more forgiving today, with not nearly as many steep climbs as yesterday. The weather was nice and there were a lot of day hikers out. Everyone was friendly and several people inquired about my hike, asking if I was a thru hiker. Five miles from the end of my hike, I had a really good pace going, but was met with a couple of steep climbs and descents that would slow me down a bit, but I was rewarded with some nice views, including a distant view of the New York City skyline. I reached my destination of Palisades Parkway, an interstate commuter route with cars speeding by. There were two lanes of traffic going each direction, with a median divider. It was a Saturday evening, so it wasn¢t as busy as a weekday, which causes crossing it like a real life ¢frogger¢ game. It¢s hard to believe there is no bridge here for pedestrians.  I walked about a quarter mile to the visitor center/bookstore to call an Uber. Two young ladies, I would guess in their early 20¢s, also came from the trail. They had been given bad directions to Bear Mountain, and were a long way from their car. It was late in the day and they did not have adequate water or headlamps to get them back. I offered to let them hop into my Uber ride and see if I could get the driver to drop them off in the way back to my motel. The Uber driver was awesome and dropped them at their car on the way back. I had a great blackened salmon salad and Yuengling for dinner before turning in. Puddles and I were now at the same starting point beginning tomorrow.