Date: 2005-06-10
From: Lakes Rd. (New Milford, CT)

To: Seven Lakes Dr, N of West Mtn. Shltr (New Milford)
Miles today: 22.8

start: Lakes Rd.finish: Seven Lakes Dr., north of West Mtn. Shelter (New Milford, CT) (moosie hostel)miles: 22.8day: 95Well, I got a bit more sleep last night, but still not enough.  Mrs. Moosie set us all up with another good breakfast and we were off to work again.We had a pretty easy time finding the trailhead today.  First out today are Moosie and Gunter, the current SOBOs.  We started off with a fair climb, and then right back down, and across the Palisades Parkway.  I've heard that it can take 2 hours to cross this during rush hour, but we had no problem.  There was probably a view up top, but we couldn't see anything with all the moisture in the air.The trail is much more up and down today.  By the end of the day I estimate our total elevation gain to be over 3000 feet.  And the rocks!  Not really like Pennsylvania - only in small stretches.  More like Maine.  Lots of rock slabs and large step ups.  Sometimes it seems like someone's idea of a joke, as there are easier possible routes.  I recall Underpants saying that the NY AT is harder than it has to be.  Yup.  Oh yeah, we crossed the NJ-NY border yesterday.  Did a small happy dance.  Shuffle, shuffle.There's even less water today than there was yesterday.  We decide we need to walk 0.3 down a road to a park restroom to fill our bottles.  As usual, the AT crosses the road at it's apex, so we head down.  But there's nothing down there.  Hmmm, we must've walked more than 0.3 by now.  Oh wait.  Dammit, dammit, dammit.  The one major criticism I have of Wingfoot is that the book is written for northbounders.  Today we're southbound, and when it says water is "right 0.3 miles" we need to translate that to "left".  So now we'll walk over 1.2 miles total for what turns out to be gross tasting spigot water.  Almost as brown as yesterday.  I wish Wingfoot would use something like "trail east 0.3 miles" to avoid this confusion.  Darn Wingfoot, stupid me.Around mid morning Gunter is in the lead and he jumps back as I hear an electric-sounding buzz.  I don't know what's going on at first, and then I realize it's a rattlesnake!  The first I've seen.  It doesn't sound like a rattle at all.  It's about 3-1/2 feet long, and as thick as my wrist.  Right on the edge of the narrow trail.  It buzzes again, and we walk off the trail into some blueberry bushes to give it some room.  I shall now call Gunter "snakebait".  I let him lead the rest of the day.There's a thunderstorm brewing as we meet the other half of Team Moosie Hostel.  We all move on, realizing that since the trail is a bit harder than expected we'll be pushing to complete in daylight.The rain comes, and we come upon Paddy-O at the next trailhead.  He's a former hiker turned angel with a cooler full of goodies.  I have a root beer and a glass of Mango Tango juice.  He promises we'll likely see him further north later in the season.  Bring it on!The second half of the day the only available water is in the form of trail magic - gallon jugs left by trailheads.  I don't know who leaves it, but we sure appreciate it.  It was a thirsty day.We finally reach the car just when it's getting too dark to make out the blazes.  This was a very tough day - I'm limping because of my hip, and the feet hurt even while driving.The mosquitoes and deer flies were pretty bad today, and we hustle to pick up the others, hoping they're not having trouble night hiking, or waiting at the road getting eaten alive.When we get to the northern trailhead, Gunter and Pigpen, who have been slacking, pull their packs out of the car.  We give them what little water we have, as they're camping tonight, and rushing 10 miles to the PO tomorrow.  They just spent a bunch of time in their own town and aren't prepared to zero now.  So they'll get ahead of us.  Hope we see them further north.  It was fun hiking with them.Goldilocks and I commute home with two zeroes on the horizon.  Yay.  I'm so tired I fall asleep while eating dinner.