Date: 2005-06-17
From: Wildcat Shelter

To: Fingerboard Shelter
Miles today: 14.5
Weather: scattered clouds

Miles hiked today : 14.514.3 AT miles + 0.2 mile of side trailI woke up at 6:05 a.m. this morning after a very good night of sleep. I was packed and hiking at 6:45 a.m. and was happy to see that the sky was clear, especially after the storm last night.I reached Fitzgerald Falls at 7:45 a.m. and found 3 day hikers lounging near the top of the falls. They offered me a chocolate muffin for breakfast, though I declined as I wasn't very hungry. Moving along, I reached the Orange Turnpike at 10:25 a.m. and stopped for a 10 minute break, having covered 8.2 miles.At 11:45 a.m., I was at the summit of Arden Mountain with an excellent view of the surrounding hills. Looking upward, i saw that there were some dark clouds forming and made an effort to quickly descend to NY17, arriving at 12:20 p.m. I stopped for a 10 minute break and called the post office in Bear Mountain to forward a gear package to Kent, CT, as I was still 17.8 miles away and they were going to close for the weekend at 2 p.m.After crossing NY17, I entered Harriman State Park and saw that the sky had cleared. I had a short road walk and soon after returning to soil, I saw that some kind soul had cached 2 gallons of water. I quickly drank a liter and carried a second liter with me as I traversed the many ups and downs on the way to the Lemon Squeezer.I reached the Lemon Squeezer at 1:55 p.m. and was surprised to see that the trail passed through a rock tunnel, as I'd previously been under the impression that the AT only went under 3 rock underpasses (Fatman Squeeze, The Guillotine, and Mahoosuc Notch). As I walked up to the Lemon Squeezer, I smiled, as I wasn't sure whether I was going to fit through with my pack on. The Lemon Squeezer is a 2 foot wide, 15 foot long channel between two huge rock formations. The rock formation on the right is more than 30 feet tall and the formation on the left is about 6 feet tall. The trail inclines as it passes through, so it is possible to see over the edge of the left rock formation at the northern end of the channel.I stepped forward, began passing through, and could hear the sides of my pack scraping. I stopped moving and realized that I probably couldn't back out, even if I wanted to. I maneuvered my left arm behind me and had my right arm pressed against slimy, wet rocks as I proceeded forward. Scrape, scrape, scrape, and after a couple minutes, I was able to free my left arm to help pull me the rest of the way through. I stopped to snap some photographs and then moved on.Less than 50 feet later, I came to another obstacle. This was a 8 foot tall ledge with seemingly no handholds or footholds, especially since the lower part of the ledge was hollowed out. There was, however, a tree at the left of the ledge with a large exposed root that looked as if it might make a good handhold. I knew that it would be very difficult to ascend this obstacle with my pack on, so I threw it and my trekking poles up before me. My spare water bottle fell to my feet, so I tossed it up as well, only to watch it fall off the ledge and roll 30 feet down the hill. I went after it and set it on the ledge, though it fell again and I had to go back down the hill to retrieve it. As I returned to the ledge, I saw a marker that pointed out the bypass around the ledge. Bypass schmypass! I set my water bottle where I could see that it wouldn't fall and considered my climbing options. It took a couple attempts to climb the ledge and I had to rest my weight on my left knee on a rocky ledge as I carefully maneuvered upward. In all, this was largely an exercise in upper body strength, though I ended up with some "rock rash" on both of my knees.It took about 10 minutes to cover 100 feet of trail and I still had 2.1 miles to go until I reached Fingerboard Shelter. I ascended and descended quite a few times before reaching the shelter at 3:15 p.m. Opa was at the shelter and expressed that he'd found the day to be difficult. I echoed his sentiment and settled down for lunch, which turned into dinner, as I was famished. I'd been snacking throughout the day, though 14.5 miles with relatively few breaks really worked up my appetite.Opa and I had discussed hiking another 5.3 miles to the next shelter, though it was largely apparent that neither of us wanted to press on. I began journaling after dinner and Shades of Blue showed up just before 5 p.m., happy to see that we were still here. Opa was kind enough to walk 1.0 mile roundtrip to the water source to fetch water for the 3 of us and I continued journaling while he was gone. Upon his return, it took quite awhile to filter 2 liters of water, as my filter was severely clogged after the extremely silty water supply at the Wildcat Shelter last night.After filtering water, I set up my sleeping gear and settled in to read before bed. As of today, there is only 800.2 miles left to Mount Katahdin and tomorrow afternoon, I'll pass the lowest point of the trail.Bedtime at 9:00 p.m.