Date: 2015-06-30
From: Camp site 1374.7

To: Camp site 1395.8
Miles today: 21.1

We started out this morning with a long decent down off the top of the mountain. Then of course we started another climb. We were not long at the top when Count, who was in the lead, started backing up saying "wow, wow, wow". Just a few yards up the trail was the biggest black bear we have seen yet. It had been walking up the trail in our direction. The bear wasn't at all afraid of us and the more we backed up, the more he came toward us. We had never had a bear come at us. So we started banging our trekking poles together and yelling. Fortunately, after about a minute of this standoff, the bear decided we weren't worth investigating any further. By this time, both of our hearts were beating out of our chests. Seeing how big the bear was makes you realize there is really nothing you could do if a bear attacked you. You just need to trust the Lord will protect you. After another rocky descent, we had a nice stroll on a boardwalk across some swamp land. It was easy hiking and a nice change of scenery from being in the woods all the time. Just before the start of the board walk we came to our first trail magic of the day, jugs of water by a road crossing. We filled up our water bottles and didn't even have to filter! After the boardwalk, the rest of the day was spent climbing up, over, through and down rocky hills. We never knew how rocky New York hiking was. It seems the trail builders made sure we went up to the top of every rock outcropping in the area. There was one particular climb that was appropriately named "Agony Climb" which it definitely was. We had to put our hiking poles away so we could climb up the rocks because it was so steep.   Hand over hand we climbed. The roller coaster of Virginia and the rocks of Pennsylvania have NOTHING on New York!    Back down the other side of the mountain we came to another road crossing and our second trail magic for the day. This time it was both water and fresh fruit. We are starting to really like NY. Well, except for the terrain!   We continued hiking and then we went through what is known as the "Lemon Squeezer". This rock formation has you start off between two sheer rock faces about four feet apart. The distance between the rock slowly gets smaller and smaller until you need to take your backpack off and toss it up about 8 feet to the ledge. Our arms were getting a workout today.   Later in the day we crossed over I87 and entered Elk Park. We came upon our third trail magic of the day. In the parking lot was "3 Bears" who had thru-hiked back in 2010. This trail magic was a feast!   He cooked us burgers and hotdogs. We ate hummus, carrots, pretzels, fresh fruit, doughnuts, Little Debbie cakes and more. We also had fruit juice and sodas! We sat and talked with 3 Bears for an hour before reluctantly daying goodbye to continue our hike.    The rest of the day was pretty much the same terrain; steep and very rocky. We did see two deer at one point and another deer with a little fawn. We also kept seeing these tiny black toads on the trail today. They reminf us of the little coqui frogs we saw in Puerro Rico when we lived there. We also came across two more places where someone left water as trail magic. That brought our trail magic for the day to 5! The last water we did not even use as we still had water fromthe last trail magic. According to 3 Bears, when he thru-hiked, there was no rain. Thus, it was hard to find water. We certainly do not have that problem!   We ended the day crossing over the Palisades Parkway which was an adventure in itself. Trying to cross a busy 4 lane highway with cars buzzing by at 65 MPH is like the old game of frogger. Fortunately we didn't get run over. We went about another 1/2 mile and found a nice spot to camp for the night. It has been a long hard day, both of us frustrated with the terrain. We really didn't enjoy the scenery because of being so tired. Some areas were so beautiful and different from other forest we have seen. We hope a good night's sleep will help. We are ready to rest.