Date: 2017-05-09
From: Wawayanda Shelter 

To: Fingerboard Shelter
Miles today: 14.3
Weather: broken clouds

Today was another long difficult day, going up and down over rock climbs. In Harriman State Park, I got misplaced trying to follow the white blazes. More than once, I was hiking along a wide trail with Tag Along and Buzz not too far behind, and missed the white blazes turning off the wide flat trail, to a narrow rocky climb uphill. Tag Along and Buzz found the AT. It was around 5 pm when we came to the Lemon Squeezer. It was not particularly difficult. Then we passed the sign for the "Easy Trail". I was later told it was not an easy trail. Then we came to the hardest rock climb of the AT (in my opinion). So glad I was with people who are very experienced climbing rocks. We stood evaluating the climb from various angles for at least 10 minutes. I was glad I was not coming down this climb. Tag Along climbed up first, with assistance from Buzz. Tag Along is the shortest of our group. We passed all three packs up to Tag Along. I climbed up second with assistance from Buzz. Buzz cimbed up last. He had it hardest since we could not assist.    It was dark and we were over 2 miles from the next shelter. We put on our headlamps. Buzz said Tag Along and I should go on without him. He was holding us back. So we went on ahead. On earlier parts of the trail of this section, there were reflective thumb tacks marking the trail. In the dark, it was actually easier to see the reflective tacks than the white blazes. I was disappointed when in the dark, I realized there were no reflective thumb tacks in this area. We found our way along the trail and up to the top of a rock ridge. Almost as soon as we were on top of the rock ridge, the trail went down off the ridge. All the previous times the trail climbed to the top of a rock ridge, the trail continued on the ridge for a mile or two. Tag Along and I waited for Buzz to catch up. I envisioned getting to the shelter and then wondering if Buzz missed this turn in the dark. So we waited. We could see his headlamp bobbing along below us. Buzz caught up to us. The three of us continued on. In the dark, we found the trail to the Fingerboard Shelter.    I was in the lead, in the dark, down the side trail to the shelter. Tag Along and Buzz called to me. I had missed the shelter. I walked over uneven terrain to the shelter. There were metal pipes across the front of the shelter. This was very unusual. Then we spotted a person in the shelter. We asked him about the metal pipes. He directed us to the shelter log. Tag Along read the three pages of the last entry. Two days prior, a man was in the shelter by himself. A bear had charged him while he was in the shelter a few times and then went away. He was concerned being in the shelter by himself, so he looked for a way to protect himself through the night. The roof on the shelter was recently replaced and the scaffolding was still there, a few feet behind the shelter. He placed the scaffolding across the front of the shelter. The scaffolding could easily be moved or knocked down. It would not stop the bear but it would delay him.     We had dinner. Buzz did his usual great job of hanging our bear bags. Buzz was very concerned about the bear. Buzz had items to defend himself near him as he slept. I was concerned when I got up in the middle of the night to pee. Fortunately, it was uneventful.