Day 98 – Up and Down

Although it was after midnight last night, it was another early morning as we had places to be, hands to shake, and babies to kiss. All that kind of stuff.

Back to the trail

I packed up my tent, got everything ready for the day, and left the drive-in before 7am. We headed to the grocery store next door to restock and then went to the bagel shop next door for breakfast. We finished all of that in relatively good order, but then had trouble getting back on the trail. Finally, after about an hour, we got a shuttle driver to respond and asked him to come pick us up. However, since our group was six people, we had to make two trips, but we finally made it back to the trail around 10 am.

The hike started out pretty easy for the first mile before having some rock climbing to slow the pace. That would be the theme for practically the rest of the day. Many steep climbs and descents that were not long but were slow and tedious. It probably would have been a lot more fun if I hadn’t been carrying my backpack and we hadn’t tried to cover some miles today.

The day continued with many more steep climbs and descents. It really was a kick-ass day. But on one of the climbs I ran into a trail maintainer named Pacer. He was a super nice guy and offered me some Oreos and a Gatorade, which I gladly accepted! After chatting with Pacer for a bit, I continued and ended up spraying myself a little while walking. After it sprayed enough to get everything a little wet, I had a little steep descent where I was lucky enough to run into two black rat snakes in a matter of 10 minutes…

After a hard day’s work, we arrived at Harriman State Park where I bought an overpriced Coke from the soda machine and had dinner. Making sure to take advantage of the luxuries the park offers, such as picnic tables, bathrooms, and drinking water. Shortly after dinner we sneakily found a campsite and called it a day.

Day 98 Statistics:

17.7 miles

4,186′ ascent, 4,134′ descent

New York Route 17A to the stealth site

6DSLC…

Stove use times: 14

Snakes seen on the trail: 22

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