Day 1: New York City.
Our flight got in at about 4pm EST. We decided to spend the night in New York City as it would be difficult for us to make it in time from JFK airport to the bus terminal to travel out to Bear Mountain, NY. This turned out to be an excellent idea since it took us a hour and a half to go from JFK airport to Midtown. How far is that? A little more than 16 miles.
Our hotel was kind of a dive, but it was cheap. The room was nice and clean, but we had to share a bathroom with 10 other rooms. Not so bad since we were hardly there anyway. The best thing, though, was that it was half a block from the heart of Times Square. Here's Kim happy to be in the Big Apple.
And here I am happy to be in the Big Apple.
Times Square is just as bright and glitzy as you would imagine. If you like the "big city atmosphere" you'll love New York City.
One of the few Broadway shows to see.
Kim watched the Grease reality show religiously. The winners would star in the Broadway show. Well, here's the two winners, larger than life.
Times Square at night is pretty amazing.
In case you ever wondered what the back of my head looked like, here you go.
This little guy was in the bathroom of our hotel. Kim thought it was a roach, but I set her mind at ease and let her know it was just a gigantic moth.
Day 2: New York City to Bear Mountain, NY and hike to Graymoor Monastery (about 7.1 miles).
We woke up bright an early so we could walk the 6 blocks from our hotel to the NY Port Authority Bus Terminal. We took a bus from there to Bear Mountain, where we would start our trip. Funny story, 300 yards into our hike, we got lost. Little did we know it would be the first of many "off-trail" excursions we would make.
The trail in this section actually winds though the Bear Mountain Zoo. Hikers can enter for free, so we did! This is a statue of Walt Whitman. Kim is the much smaller flesh-toned person in the photo.
Thankfully these are the only bears we saw on our trip. That we know of.
Yep, that's a bald eagle. And to think Benjamin Franklin wanted our national symbol to be a turkey. He may have been a genious, but a turkey? Come on.
This is the Bear Mountain bridge. It was originally built by an early governor of New York specifically so he could reach his hundreds of acres of property on the other side of the Hudson river without having to drive some ungodly amount of miles north to the next nearest bridge.
One of the signs on the bridge. I think had we hiked southbound, we might have ignored this sign and jumped instead.
The famous Hudson river.
That's Bear Mountain in the background. Luckily we didn't have to climb that. It's 1,305 feet high.
This is our beginning of the trail. Little did we know the rest of the trail would look exactly like this. Lots of rocks and lots of trees. Trees expected. Rocks not.
Yes, the bent tree is still alive.
Kim is still smiling because we hadn't gotten lost yet. Shortly after this photo, we missed a crucial turn and took a 2-mile side detour. The mistake can be blamed on a felled tree that bore the correct marker for the turn. Oh, that Mother Nature is a trickster...
This unexpected detour really put our map-reading skills to the test. Luckily we found our way back to the main trail, after much worrying on my part might I add (huzzah for the compass!). Here you can see Kim is happy to be back on the main trail. Incidentally, those white rectangles are called blazes. They're what mark the AT's path. White blazes are main trails, blue blazes are main side trails, and yellow blazes are something different all together. Sometimes it's pretty hard to see these things.
Here we are at our final destination for the day: Graymoor Monastery. Here we met some pretty cool people. We also found out that we needed trail names. Apparently this is something else that wasn't in the literature, but Kim gave us some decent ones. Since her feet blister easily, she was Tenderfoot, and because of my earlier worrying spell, I was Worrywart. The guy pitching the tent was Iceman, he had Lyme disease but was still hiking (crazy) and the girl in the blue shirt was Gaiter Girl, so named because of the loud "gaiters" she wore over her hiking boots to ward off ticks. This was also the first spot we were asked why we didn't do the Pacific Crest Trail.
Here's our "cozy" tent among some very shady trees.
Day 3: Graymoor to Dennytown Road campground. This was to be an 8.2 mile day.
Now, according to the book and maps we have, this should have only been 8.2 miles from point to point. I believe this figure was WAY off. It sure seemed like way more miles. We averaged .75 miles per hour on this day. It was VERY hard, and VERY hot, and VERY humid. This was by far the most difficult day on the trail. My asthma even kicked in a little and I had visions of buzzards picking apart my carcass. Again, my trail name was Worrywart. A little word about Dennytown Road campground. The word "campground" is misleading. It should actually be called "Dennytown Road open-field horror film experience." We were all alone in this place from the moment we got there to the moment we left the next day. It was a novel experience to have a skunk run out of the brush and poke around the other "campsites" (he appeared to be interested in the garbage), but not so novel during the night when he -- or something -- rustled around our tent and kept us awake. This place also had the most disgusting and primative "bathroom" you have ever seen. Basically, it was a wooden shed with a door that didn't close and two toilet seats nailed to planks of wood. Anything put in the toilets just falls out the bottom of the shed and lays on the ground. Note: It seems woodland animals enjoy playing with toilet paper. One positive thing that can be said: There was cell phone reception! This was the day we realized we might not make all 100 miles to Massachusetts, and we were able to use the phone to amend our travel plans.
A cool little barn thingie at the beginning of the trail. Which, coincidentally, was impossible to find. It involved wading through a field of waist-high, wet grass, and then basically guessing where the trail might be. All at 7 a.m., no less.
Kim eager to get the day started.
Yep, lost again. The trail just disappeared and we spent 5 minutes trying to find the white blazes. This is a much more frustrating experience than you might think..
Here's another thing we didn't anticipate: the lack of scenic views. You expend so much energy climbing these mountains only to reach the top and find... trees... Lots of them obstructing your view.
A few feet further, we got a better view, but not much better. This was Denning Hill. It's a whopping 987 feet high, though it felt as if we climbed 3 times that high.
More rocks, trees, and a genuine wild Kim. Shhh...don't scare her away.
About 98% of the time we spent on the trail was under the cover of trees. Luckily, this helped keep us "cooler," but was another aspect of the trip we didn't anticipate. Worked out great for Kim, who burns easily. Unfortunately, also works out great for lots of bugs.
Me trying to be a big boy and not show how miserable I was.
One of the 300 hundred stops we would make this day. Kim is tending to her sore knee. This came about because of yet another aspect of the trail we didn't know about. The AT meanders over every hill possible. So even when the topographical map shows you're declining 300 feet, you're still climbing because you going up and down over every hill in New York. Rough on the joints when you're carrying more than 30 pounds on your back.
This is the little stream we stopped by. This was one of our fruity snack and jerky break spots.
One of the few rock-less stretches of trail we walked on that day.
Our final destination. Dennytown Rd campsite. This is by far, the scariest place I have ever camped at. Our tent backed up to the thick woods and all night we could hear animals walking around rustling through the leaves and stepping on twigs. This was also the point in which we realized we weren't going to make the entire 100 mile journey to Sheffield, MA. At the rate we were going, we were going to be somewhere in Connecticut at the end of our two weeks with no way to get back to NYC. There were only a few towns where we could get back to NYC, and unfortunately the only one we would make it to would be the halfway point. Luckily we got cell phone service here, so we changed our flight reservation and decided to stop at Wingdale, NY.
This little guy scared the hell out of us. There was a bunch of rustling in the bushes, and at first we thought it might be a bear (there was a lot of trash strewn about at the clearing next to us, plus an open privy). Turns out it was only a skunk, who started walking towards us and then we got scared again because we didn't want him to spray us. Though I think it would've been an improvement considering how bad we both smelled.
Day 4: Dennytown Road campground to Fahnestock State Park. This was to be an 5 mile day.
Given that we knew we weren't going to make it the entire 100 miles, and exhausted from the day before, we decided to take a half day and only go 5 miles. This 5 miles though still took us the better part of 6 hours to navigate. This was yet another really rocky section of trail that was very slow going for us.
So we started the day off by instantly getting lost. The map showed the AT continuing straght across Dennytown Rd. Unbeknownst to us however, the trail was actually some distance down the road. According to the map however, this trail would eventually meet up with the AT. This is an illustration of how thick the woods can be. We had walked past this building at least 5 times and didn't even notice it until we were 20 feet from it.
One of the things we learned on this trip was that the blue blazed side trails are often more difficult than the white blazed main AT. This is because NO ONE takes the blue blazed trails, so they don't get worn down like the AT. As you can see, we had walked on uneven rocks for the first 2 hours of the day.
Where does the trial go? Yeah, over rocks and through the woods.
This is John Allen Pond. It should've been named Stinky Lilly Pad Infested Pond. Just past this pond our blue blazed trail continued past a small dirt road and would go past Hidden Lake where it would meet up with the AT. Unfortunately the trail disappeared, so we had to double back a couple hundred yards and walk about a mile down the road to the AT. I think it was time well wasted.
Finally back on the AT. Another good illustration on what the majority of the trail looks like in New York. VERY ROCKY. But from what we hear, this was a cake walk. Apparently the rocks in Pennsylvania are just as plentiful, but much sharper.
Day 5: Fahnestock State Park to the RPH Shelter on Hortontown Rd. This was to be an 8 mile day.
This was a pretty uneventful day. We had spent the latter half of the day before resting and swimming in Canopus Lake. We even were able to take a shower at the campground. I was a little peeved about the start of the day however. According to the guidebook, there is a trail that goes from the north end of the lake's parking lot to the AT. Unfortunately, it's not on any of the maps, and none of the workers at the park know where it's at. So without being able to take this shortcut, we had to double back some 4 miles just to get back to the AT and walk to the north end of the lake. My suggestion to the ALDHA (Appalachian Long Distance Hikers Association), put this trail on the map.
At about the middle of the lake you could rent a row boat and row around the lake. This is what it looks like at about 6:30 in the morning.
The lake was smooth as glass. It made for a really neet photo.
Yep, those are trees growing in the middle of the lake.
Kim and I broke several rules while on this trip. One of which was walking down the shoulder of a highway for a good mile and a half to make it back to the trailhead. As you can see, it just disappears into the woods.
Kim and I had never seen yellow moss before. So, here you go... Yellow moss.
And 4 miles later, we were half a mile from where we had started. :( This is a view from the mountain top seen 3 photos back.
One of the four rocky climbs we had to make over the the hilltops. These hills averaged 200-300 foot elevation changes. Very tiring with 30 pounds of stuff on your back. Very tough on the ankles too.
Nearing the summit of Shenandoah Mountain. We had only climbed 362 feet from where we started the day, but we did it a total of four times. This is what makes the AT so difficult, so many elevation changes. In fact, we ran into some hikers taking a break and when we told them we were from California, they asked why we hadn't done the PCT (Pacific Crest Trail) since it's easier than the AT.
A friend of mine at work who grew up in Connecticut told me the east coast has the 3 H's. Heat, humidity, and haze. I believe you can see all three in this photo from almost the summit of Shenandoah Mountain.
A tribute to those who died in the attacks on 9/11.
Okay, now we finally made it to the 1,282 foot summit of Shenandoah Mountain. It's official.
No less than 500 yards from our triumphant summit, Kim's ankle rolled over and she fell into a bush. I couldn't get the camera out quick enough to capture her stuck on her back like a turtle, but I did capture her nursing her knee which helped break her fall by landing on a rock.
Where's the tenting campground? Oh, you just follow the scary trail though the tick infested grass through the Friday the 13th looking fence. Yeah, no thanks. We'll walk another 1.5 miles to a proper stopping point.
One of the very few parts of the trail not covered by trees.
Ahh, civilization... Sorta. This was a nice little cabin that had been turned into a "shelter" for the AT thru-hikers to stop at. This was also one of the few places on the trail where you could order pizza and have it delivered.
The RPHC on the building stood for Ralph's Peak Hikers Cabin. A now defunct club that helped save this building from the wrecking crew. We actually met two fixtures of the AT in this neck of the woods. The first was Ralph himself (His trail name is Elvis Trailsley). He is quite a character. We actually ran into him 2 more times the next day. He's an awesome guy with lots of great stories. The other person we met was Tim Messerich (Trail name Bascom Grillmaster). A group of three young guys all stumbled into the cabin. They had started the trail at the begining in Georgia and planned on making the entire 2,175 mile journey to Maine. These guys were so hungry, they decided to see if they could convince some chinese food resturaunts to deliver to the shelter. After spending an hour and a half on the phone, the young guy from Utah (trail name Triple A, I didn't catch his real name) almost gave up until Tim showed up. Tim actually drove Triple A to the resturaunt to pick up his order. This was one of the many acts of kindness we witnessed on the trail. A complete stranger giving another stranger a ride for no reason other than helping out another fellow hiker. Incidentally, Tim was a 2000-miler (someone who has walked the entire 2,175 miles of the trail), Ralph is a 4000-miler. Yep, he's walked it twice. It takes about 6 months to do the entire trail.
Because of some local building codes and whatnot, to classify as a shelter or lean-to, the cabin can only have 3 walls. You can sort of see under the overhang there's a large open area on the back wall. We had thought about sleeping inside in one of the bunks, however the bugs were out in force that day. So we decided to sleep in our mosquito free tent. After deciding to call it a day, we climbed inside the tent, and 1 minute later, the sky opened up and rained most of the night.
Day 6: RPH Shelter to the Morgan Stewart Shelter. This was to be a 9 mile day.
Yet another fun filled day of trudging through the woods with 30 pounds of junk on your back. The bright spot of the day was, at the halfway point we could walk about 6/10ths of a mile up the road to a deli to have lunch. Well... It was more like brunch since we stopped there at 10am, but you get the idea. We ended up running in Ralph again in the morning and it turned out we had quite a bit in common. He writes a column for the Poughkeepsie Journal, and he and Kim talked about "The Biz" for few minutes after she told him she was the editor of the paper back home. He and his wife also had honeymooned in Bora Bora, and was excited to find out thats where we would be going too. He also told us about an orange painted rock we would come across later on the trail. Ralph maintains a section of the AT (most of the 2,175 miles is maintained by volunteers), and while working one day alone, he tripped over a rock and broke his ankle. He continued working for another half and hour and hobbled back to his car. He was confering with the local librarian about what to do about the rock. She suggested that he "piss on the rock". So, that's exactly what he did. It has now become local lore, and numerous people have watered the rock with their urine. It's painted orange so you know exactly which rock it is.
One of the many bridges that were built entirely by volunteers.
The AT crosses several freeways. This is one of those crossings.
We decided we didn't want to climb another peak (which was very rocky) so we decided to take a side trail that skirted around the side of the mountain. Another blue blaze trail mistake. It was the most treacherous trail we took. I almost fell down the side of the hill. It was not fun.
Another impossible to follow blue blazed trail that has been lightly traveled. The rocks and wet leaves made it real fun.
Most of the trail looked like this until we met back up with the main white blazed trail.
The infamous orange rock that Elvis Trailsley had described.
Well, when in New York, do as the New Yorkers do.
This was a neat little farm that could be seen through one of the few breaks in the forest.
There are numerous rock walls built from the rocks that were removed to help blaze the AT. Here I am helping out.
I now know what people mean about the New York deli experience. There is nothing like it. This little shop made one of the best sandwiches I had ever had..
Kim and I posed for a photo to be imortalized in a roadside sign. I think it looks a lot like us.
They have much nicer looking highways back east.
Where does the trail continue? Yeah, in that break in the guardrail.
Continuing with tradition, the shelf photo. This didn't come out all that great because we were both miserable at this point.
The Morgan Stewart shelter had a pretty deep fire pit. It was filled with a bunch of these guys. So Kim and another hiker (trail name Findy) decided to save them from certain doom.
A better shot of the spotted newt. These guys were cute.
This robin sang for a good 3 hours straight. Cool at first, but then it just got annoying. It decided to come down and search for bugs. Apparently singing works up an appetite.
