Jun 28 - New Jersey/New York

DAY #102
START LOCATION: Wawayanda Shelter
FINISH LOCATION: Wildcat Shelter
TODAY'S MILEAGE: 12.0
TRIP MILEAGE: 1,364.8
MILES TO GO: 814.3

I slept well last night. The mosquito army retreated overnight and I
was able to break down camp in relative peace. The shelter is located
close to the Wawayanda State Park office, which has a spigot and very
clean restroom. That was a nice way to start the day.

There were lots of taxing ups and downs this morning. Some of the
terrain was boulder scaling and scrambling. I reached the New York/New
Jersey border by 10:30AM. I stood at the border and noticed a dog tick
on my leg... The first tick I've found since Shenandoah. It was a nice
Bon voyage gesture from the Garden State. I was welcomed into New York
with some questionable blazing and ended up losing the trail for about
a quarter mile. Thanks New York, glad to be here... Or "there" in
light of the situation. Oh, and New York gave me another tick too, not
to be outdone by their neighbor to the south.

The temps reached 92 by noon. I was ecstatic to see in my book that a
little ice cream place was 500' from the trail to my left at NY-17A. I
went, had lunch, filled up on water and was about to select my flavor
then it hit me... Cash only. I was out of cash, I only had credit
cards. Buzz kill. No ice cream for me today.

The next two miles from NY-17A were critical. If it were to start
raining, I'd lay up at Wildcat Shelter. If it didn't, I'd make the big
push to Fingerboard Shelter... 14 more miles. The skies opened up as I
left the ice cream joint. It stopped however before I got to the first
shelter. But, the scaling I did on the wet rock was extremely
dangerous. I made the tough decision to stay at Wildcat. Its a bummer,
but weather is supposed to me clear for quite a few days. I'll reharge
here, get an early jump tomorrow and get my butt to Bear Mountain
Bridge ASAP.

-natedog