Jun 29 - New York

DAY #103
START LOCATION: Wildcat Shelter
FINISH LOCATION: West Mountain Shelter
TODAY'S MILEAGE: 22.7
TRIP MILEAGE: 1,387.5
MILES TO GO: 791.6

My shelter mates were up at 4:30AM. As a result, so was I. They said
the bugs and the heat were miserable. I'm pretty temperature
insensitive and I was in my bug screen, so I was ok. I went back to
sleep until 7. This was great. I was planning big miles and needed a
catch up from yesterday's short mileage. Needed to catch up you
wonder? Hike your own hike right? My problem was food. As it stood, I
had 30 miles to my next resupply and only 1 lunch, 1 dinner and 2
breakfasts left. I needed 20+ today to set me up where I could eat
breakfast and get to town by lunch. Weather would be on my side.

The trail today was dynamic to say the least... Ups, downs, steeps,
summits, valleys, swamps, rocks, scaling, scrambling, you name it. But
it was pretty cool actually. I dug the variety. Another nice thing was
trail magic water. There were two perfectly placed caches of water
that were a huge help today. Thank you trail angels!

I stopped and had lunch at my day's 10 mile mark... The entrance to
Harriman State Park. HSP is 46,000 acres of trees, grasslands, swamps,
lakes, rivers. It was donated to te state by the Harriman family way
back... Really nice folks, especially when you see the terrain. It is
a gorgeous place. The variety I mentioned above is all on display
here. One interesting point is the "Lemon Squeezer" as it is called.
It's two unique rock challenges... First, a large boulder is cracked
and separated about 2'... just enough for a hiker and their pack to
squeeze through... It's about 30 feet long and the trail routes you
straight through. What makes it tough is the crack is about 4' deep
and tilts to the side. So you have to walk at that same angle and
shimmy your way through. Very awkward, and I'm glad I was alone and
glad no video cameras rolling. Second, one must scale a big rock ledge
with only the help of a tree that leans over. Also very awkward. I did
it, but had to take my pack off to do it... Lame... Earl Shaeffer, I'm
with you.

I pulled into HSP's Lake Tiorati recreational camping area and beach
at my 15th mile. Lots of NYC folks there... HSP is only 35 miles up
the Palisades Parkway from downtown. I was excited to see vending
machines with ice cream. As I walked up with the only cash money I
had, $1.25 worth of change, I saw that the minimum ice cream purchase
was $1.50. Skunked again (See yesterday's post). Just when I thought
the only thing that would cheer me up was having La Rue's
"Bulletproof" come on the radio, I turned on my iphone. I was tickled
pink to see that my friend Suzanne in Los Angeles, young adult writer,
and blogger extraordinaire was featuring my thru-hike as the subject
of her 600th daily post on her blog... Question Of The Day. She
mentioned my thru-hike and it's status on my bucket list, and asked
what are on the readers' bucket lists. It was the only item on my
bucket list, so I may add this item... Write a book about thru-hiking
the AT. Anyway, I urge my readers to check out her blog... < Http://suzannecasamento.blogspot.com
> It's fantastic, and has always been a big inspiration behind this
blog. Thanks and congrats on 600 great questions Suzie!

I reupped the water at Lake Tiorati's water spigot and pushed on to
William Brien Shelter where I'd stop and eat dinner... 20 miles in.
Shorts was there with a couple others. I whipped up my last dinner
consisting of instant potatoes, a packet of tuna fish and a Kit Kat.
It was all yummy... And all gone in about 7 minutes. At 6:30PM, I
cleaned up and said my goodbyes to the shelter crew and began my 3
mile hike up to West Mountain. It dropped down to 680' and climbed up
steeply to 1,240' in under a half mile. With 20+ miles on my feet, I
wasn't looking forward to it. But, my god, did that change quickly.
Halfway up, I noticed a gorgeous sunset brewing... I was on "West
Mountain" after all. Also, a small vista yielded a perfect view of the
New York City skyline. I was able to zoom in on it and capture it on
camera. The last time I saw a big city skyline was on Blood Mountain,
Georgia, and the big city was Atlanta. I was elated to see I had a
gorgeous campsite all to myself to witness the sunset and the skyline.
The campsite is on the trail to the shelter, about 1/2 mile away.
Clear skies, a nice breeze and cool weather make this perfect sleeping
weather. Very excited to see Panda and meet up with Smokestack in Bear
Mountain, NY tomorrow.

-natedog