Date: 2017-07-07
From: Parking lot on Elk spend Rd., mile 1384.2

To: Fingerboard shelter, mile 1388.3
Miles today: 4.1
Weather: broken clouds

I woke up to a steady downpour.  It was good to be off the trail. I showered, packed up, called an Uber and waited for him to arrive. The Uber driver was a nice enough guy but it seemed his operating theory of vehicle driving was to "go slow enough and it doesn't matter it you don't know where your going". After a few wrong turns and backtracks we finally arrived at the Fort Mongomery NY Post Office.  He waited while I picked up my mail drop and shipped home some extra stuff. I told him to take me to the nearst Starbucks which we found out was located on the West Point military base - can't get on to the base property without military ID. At least the rain had stopped. He took me to some colossal outdoor shopping complex with tons of foreign tourists walking around with wheeled suitcases snapping photos of the Applebee's and Guess stores - a surreal, jarring scene compared to the paradise I've been walking around in for the last 11 days!  I told him I'd find the Starbucks and bid the Uber driver farewell.I wandered around this retail shopping park for a while without finding the Starbucks and finally stopped into a Shake Shack for a burger, fries, and a root beer. After eating, a Shack Shake employee gave me directions to the Starbucks.  I recaffieinated, called another Uber, and was back on the trail around 2pm.What I've seen of NY State so far on the trail has been really beautiful.  It was a really peaceful walk today.  I saw several deer including a mother and her fawn, and a young buck.  The deer here seem to be acclimated to hikers.  For the most part the just look at you passing by.  I passed several ruined man made stone structures in the middle of the woods.  One appeared to once have been a water powered mill of some sort next to brook.I passed through the famous "Lemon Squeezer" this afternoon.  This a narrow passage thru two mammoth rock walls. I had to take my pack off and push it ahead of me to get through.  It was really cool.Right after that there was an optional part of the trail (there was a secondary easy path around it).  I had to throw my pack and trekking poles up onto a ledge in order to scale a rock face up to the next point.  I slipped off once, but made it the second time!  Awesome!!!I made it to my destination for the night, the Fingerboard shelter, before 5pm and chatted with a couple of overnight hikers staying the the night.  By the the time I hit my hammock for the nite I counted six of us staying the night here.While filtering water from the nearby spring I feasted on wild blueberries. Oh my god we're they delicious.  Just wonderful!This particular shelter as been seeing bear "activity" lately.  By that it's meant that a wily bear(s) has learned that it can get tastey goodies from those strange bags hikers have hung in the trees.  This shelter has no bear-proof box to store food and other delicious smelling stuff safe from hungry bears.  The alternate is to hang a "bear bag" containing the deliciously scented items from a tree.  The problem is black bears can climb trees and can be clever creatures.  The bag needs to be hung from a tree limb at least twelve feet from the ground and at least 4 feet away from the tree trunk and other branches.We'll see if I hung my bag well enough tomorrow morning.  Hikers have come to call the act of a bear taking a food bag "Yogi-ing" after the picnic basket stealing bear of cartoon fame.  Here's hoping I don't get Yogi-ed tonight!