It’s confirmed, we will not be sleeping in a shelter again until we have a hard frost to kill all the mosquitoes. I still don’t know what the hell Noah was thinking when he saved the species. I don’t think I got two hours of sleep, total, last night. I know Lee and Zeric fared a bit better from their snoring. I’ll cut them slack since they were both Bernie supporters.
Bunny gave up at 5:20 and said “let’s get going.” I didn’t need to be told a second time. Lee got up at the same time that we did so we didn’t have to quietly pack up. The 5 of us left the shelter before 6:30, and it was already hot. We were pouring out sweat before we even had a mile of trail done. This is when the trail becomes much more of a mental challenge than a physical one. There’s no doubt Bunny and I can hike—the challenge has now become hiking in heat with next to no sleep, bugs constantly swarming in your face and ears, and not killing each other or quitting.
I can’t complain because it will get Bunny rolling so I keep my misery bottled up and calmly deal with my problems (like I always do and no one appreciates the effort it takes to keep quiet—woe is me). I will admit I enjoy hearing Bunny cuss at the bugs. I have a low tolerance for insects buzzing my ears and if I get upset, Bunny wastes no time in telling me to calm down. It’s great to see her patience taxed to the point of madness. I tell her to calm down, it’s just a few bugs, then I run far enough ahead that she can’t slap me with her walking sticks or hit me with a rock.
The first water is only a mile and a half away. It’s down in a tree covered gap and the air is easily 20 degrees cooler down there. The Ohio boys are already there filtering water. They are separating the frog water from the good water when we arrive. We sat down on the bridge and talked about some of our trail experiences with them. I think 5 days is their limit. We’re just 144 days past that.
Leaving the stream, we see the ideal camping spot we should have hiked to yesterday. Hind sight is 20/20. There were 3 other thru-hikers there and they said the mosquitoes were bad, but, at least in a tent, you can lock them out. Just after the spot we should have stayed at, we came to a waterfall that Stickers had left this comment in Guthook about—“I can piss a bigger stream than this sorry assed falls.” I can almost agree if he had added “after not drinking any water for a week.”
The heat was oppressive at best. I was feeling faint and getting weaker with each step. Of course, this made Bunny happy to think that I was miserable and might pass out or die—she’ll use any excuse to quit the trail at this point. We passed a beaver dam on the end of a lake. I was ready to fall in (or pass out).
New York has made the decision to route the trail over every rock pile on the ridge. As a result, the trail zig zag’s back and fourth. The only thing this accomplishes is pissing off the said hikers. Maybe 20 years ago, there might have been views from these piles. Today, the trees are so tall that there are no views. We end up walking 3 times the distance to bake our asses and feet on blistering rocks in full sun. New York is on par with New Jersey right now.
Finally, we enter Harriman State Park. It starts off with a road walk and then a short section of trail through weeds before we come to a parking lot to find…Hummingbird who greets us with magic pickles. We had lost so much salt in our sweat that we had white streaks on our clothes from where our sweat had dried. We needed salt and the jar of giant dill pickles helped (along with the chips and Gatorade). When we left her and Godfather 20 minutes later, I was feeling the best I had all day.
Upon getting to the top of our first climb in Harriman, the trail was absolutely gorgeous. We were hoping that since we were in a state park, the trail might be a bit better maintained. It was not as rocky, but it still liked to meander over every rock pile on top of the mountains. We knew we had to cross Seven Lakes Road ahead. When we got high enough, we understood the road name. The lakes in Harriman are nestled in the mountains and are tempting blue treasures. We were almost diverted to one, but decided to stay the course and head to the shower house at the beach.
There is also a famous rock formation we had to pass before the next shelter, the Lemon Squeezer where the hiker IS the lemon. Bunny was slightly apprehensive because the only part of it we were familiar with involved crawling through a small rock overhang (snake filled cave in her mind). This turned out to barely slow us down but when we came out the other side, we were in a small intersection of rock walls where the trail headed out through a crack between two cliffs. It was cool in here and not too buggy, so we plopped down for a short break. After a few minutes of rest, Godfather caught up with us. He went out of the courtyard first and through the crack. The trick is you have to take your pack off and push it ahead and up on the ledge before you. He got up there and offered to do us the favor of lifting our packs up for us. That was all fine and dandy, but now we each owe The Godfather a favor that he can ask at any time. It looks like we might have to kill someone in the future.
We decided to skip Fingerboard Shelter because of recent bear activity. Chad the Dad had texted us earlier telling us to not stay here. We had also heard through the trail grapevine that bears had gotten some hiker food last night. We held out hope for showers and a swim at the state park beach. Passing the area around the shelter was slow going because I was hobbling and Bunny was picking blueberries. It was easy to see why bears were hanging out around this shelter with nothing but blueberries on top of the mountain.
Only the bathrooms were still open when we finally arrived. The beach and bathhouse were under lockdown for the night. Bunny wanted to just grab water and head back to the trail to find a camping spot before complete darkness but I was done. My feet were shot and I needed food before I could think of anything else. I had never intended to leave this area once we got here—we’d find a place to stealth camp or sleep in some sort of picnic area. I didn’t have the energy to carry water and hike back uphill to the trail. We ended up sleeping in the vending area which was a covered section of building adjacent to the bathhouse. One other hiker, Mule, stayed there with us.
EFG