Mountains Under Foot

Hi MUFaddicts,
I have updated the journal entries from Hazard’s emails that he’s sent me to date. They said that they were heading out of the City today. I was hoping that Hazard would have caught up to at least through 7/27/09, but I guess they were pressed for time… I’ll be working on the photo gallery tonight for awhile, so check back for new photos. If you haven’t checked out the new video you should it’s hilarious!

*Edited – I added a new gallery for NJ/NY uploading photos for Days 73-75. Plus I added the photos for Day 72 to the PA gallery which completes that gallery. Enjoy!

Happy Trails,

K

From Hazard’s notes:
Day 77: July 25, 2009
Travel:
From: West Mountain Shelter, NY
To: NY 301. Clarence Fahnestock State Park, NY
Beginning: 8:00am
Ending: 9:30pm
Number of miles hiked:
a) Trail – 24
b) other – wandering about the zoo, about 1.4 miles to and from Ft. Montgomery for lunch, 1 mile to covered pavilion to sleep.
c) AT Mile Marker – 1410.7 cumulative
Weather:
AM: Beautiful sunny day and hot.
PM: Great day until after 8pm when it started sporadically raining and then later turned to full on rain.
People: Stewball & Otter. All the people grilling, Zookeeper and his wife. Of course Crocstar.
Animals: Too many to name at the Zoo! Basically it was everything we had seen or heard while on the trail.
Money: $6 lunch, $4 snacks, $1328 cumulative.
Notes of the day:
AM: When we awoke Stewball (the man responsible for the Hannah’s Hiking Tips) was already gone. We had one big climb early on to the top of Bear Mountain. which ended up being really easy because most of it is a road walk with only the last bit in the woods. At the top we saw Stewball and Otter. There is also a stone lookout tower that had great views of the surrounding area and a park ranger handed us some granola bars that were apart of a fundraising partnership between NY Parks and Cascadian Farm. Simply go to their website and send them an email about how great NY Parks are and they donate $1 to NY Parks. Too easy! The link is provided on the right side bar. After taking in the views from the top of the mountain we descended down to the Bear Mountain Zoo. The trail actually winds through this local zoo, white blazes and all, which had animals from our entire trip. There was a statue of Walt Whitman, the bear pen, which was actually the lowest physical point on the AT, and many other animals. We made a stop at the information booth and asked them for cardboard so we could make a sign for the lowest point to get our picture with. We spent some time talking with them about our trip, I got some epoxy for my boot (new boots already coming apart..), and got a recommendation to hit Ft. Montgomery for lunch. After getting our picture taken in front of the bear pen with our sign we headed to lunch.

PM: It was a really long road walk to a gas station that sold hot dogs, frozen pizza, ice cream, and such. We all picked up a handful of food and sat out in the sun at a picnic table to eat. I was already feeling pretty slow today and the sun was really draining me. After lunch we headed back to the trail which took us over the Bear Mountain Bridge and up Anthony’s Nose which was a straight uphill climb that did not feel good on a full stomach. After coming down we hit another highway and the Appalachian Market conveniently on the trail and I noticed a pair of familiar packs outside so I went in. I got a drink and some cream savers to keep me going on the trail as I was really fatigued. My
muscles were weak, my energy was low, and it felt like I hadn’t recovered very well from the previous day. After the break I rambled on as the other guys charged ahead. I pretty much walked the rest of the day alone. It started to get dark so I dropped my pack to grab my headlamp and as soon as I put it back on the sky opened up. I dropped my pack again to put my camera away and get my pack cover on but before I could finish it stopped raining. It was going to be a long night. I finally got to the road and headed toward the park. It was a long walk from the trail and I was spent. I found Spoon and Croc at the rangers office waiting for me and I started to make dinner because I was starving. It started to rain again so we just gathered everything in our arms and walked across the street to the covered pavilion. We ate, we fell asleep. Tomorrow we needed to cover 25+ miles to get to the AT station by 6:35pm to get into New York City.

From Hazard’s notes:
Day 76: July 24, 2009
Travel:
From: NY 17A (and the Mayor’s place), NY
To: West Mountain Shelter, NY
Beginning: 8:30am
Ending: 9:15pm
Number of miles hiked:
a) Trail – 24.8
b) other – .6 to shelter
c) AT Mile Marker – 1386.7 cumulative
Weather:
AM: Sunny and nice all day
PM: Clouds rolled in and brought a really nasty thunderstorm after 9pm.
People: Said goodbye to Dick and crew, saw Lion King, trail magic sponsored by Campmor. I talked to Cat!
Animals: Big rattlesnake.
Money: $0, $1318 cumulative.
Notes of the day:
AM: Another early morning with a great breakfast. We got ourselves prepared for our ride back to the trail and then jumped on the computer to check out hostels in NYC. Crocstar sadly didn’t have any interest in going into the city. We had a short delay due to Spoon temporarily misplacing his cash & cards. When we hit the trail Spoon also was feeling pain in his ankle, so we took things slow and easy. He started to feel a lot better and got ahead of me so it was a good time to give Cat a call. We talked for about an hour up and over some mountains and I found a rattlesnake which I had to be told not play with it. I got off the phone just before Highway 17 and where we were told some trail magic would be going down provided by Campmor.

PM: As I strolled down the road looking for everyone, a cacophony of human-made bird sounds warned me to walk down the gravel road to the party. I was greeted by Lion King, Butch, and crew and was handed a cold soda, candy, an apple, and a new pair of Darn Tough socks by the guy from Campmor. We all joked around and had a good time…for a long time. Spoon and I didn’t leave until around 3pm and Crocstar had left about an hour before that. The next section of trail took us up and over a ton of ridges as we headed east against the grain of the mountains. There was one section called the Lemon Squeezer where we dropped down in between two tightly spaced rocks and had to shimmy our way past them and then climb on top of a rock ledge afterwards. This ledge required us to toss our poles up and over the rock and climb up hand-over-hand. I ended up learning that Crocstar had tossed his whole pack over to get across the obstacle. So we mini-rollercoastered all afternoon and into the evening. West Mountain Shelter is listed as having no water, so to be safe I filled my Nalgene and Spoon pumped water for our reservoirs two miles from the shelter at a good source. Then we proceeded to hit water source after source all the way to the shelter up until about .2 miles from the shelter. That last section was not easy and I had to do it with almost 4 liters of water in my pack. But when we got to the shelter there was only Croc sitting outside taking a smoke so it felt good to not have to fight for a spot. Shortly afterwards, Stewball came in looking for space inside the shelter because it sounded like a storm was coming. Now the unique thing about this shelter is it’s unobstructed view of the Hudson river and on clear days NYC. That storm did come and we watched lightning strike the cities in front of us for a long while. We joked that when we got to NYC that it would just be smoldering ash.

From Hazard’s notes:
Day 75: July 23, 2009
Travel:
From: The Mayor’s place (Unionville, NY) to NY 17A (SOBO) then back
To: The Mayor’s place (Unionville, NY)
Beginning: 8:00am
Ending: 7:00pm
Number of miles hiked:
a) Trail – 26.9
b) other -
c) AT Mile Marker – 1361.9 cumulative
Weather:
AM: Overcast again.
PM: Skies got dark and threatening, drizzled for two seconds then the storm blew away.
People: Saw Fancypants & Gozer on the trail, tons of new people at the Mayor’s, Natty & Many Names made it.
Animals: The small furry ones that nibble your food and mosquitoes.
Money: $6 sub, $5 drink & ice cream, $20 resupply. $1318 cumulative.
Notes of the day:
AM: Some one’s alarm started going off around 5:30am and seemed to continue to go off every fifteen minutes. I finally rolled out of my bunk around 6:30am and went upstairs for breakfast. All I had to do was sit down at the table and I was served a plate with a cheese omelet, sausage, hash browns, and toast by Bill. After breakfast, Dick drove us to the general store/deli to pick up some delicious subs, then out to 17A for our first slackpack. Slackpacking is when you take everything out of your pack but food and water and get dropped off up the trail to hike back to where you stayed the night before (in this case). We got dropped off 6 miles into NY heading back into NJ and then back onto Unionville, NY. Weird, I know. The first part of the day had us scrambling up huge boulders and rock walls. Thankfully, it hadn’t rained recently or else things would have been really treacherous. Six miles in, we hit the state line identified by paint on the rocks, and saw Fancypants & Gozer. At Wawayanda State Park we indulged in our magnificent deli sandwiches on the picnic area. Next stop on the trail was Vernon, NJ where we were told a great ice cream shop was just down the road from where the trail crosses it. On the way, I ran into Lion King going the other direction and we chatted for a bit and I made sure I knew where the ice cream was by asking him. He truly is a database of AT knowledge.

PM: I had to make a tough decision between small or large and then what flavors to choose. It was all so overwhelming for a simple bum such as myself. I walked away with a trifecta of tastiness: chocolate chip cookie dough, mint chocolate chip, and chocolate. I indulged for a very long time. Then it was time to hoof it back into town (Unionville) and thankfully the trail was about as easy as it comes. Coming back down to Quarry Road I noticed a beautiful newly built home visible from the AT. I tramped into the woods a bit to take a picture and the owner of the home came out onto the porch to greet me. I complimented her on the house and she said they purchased the property because it was next to the AT and they hoped to open a hostel one day. I told her I’d have to come back one day when they’re open. I continued down to the store where Croc and Spoon were waiting. We needed to resupply, so we put together some meals the best we could. As we were checking out, Butch walked in and told us to get in the truck when we were done and he would take us up to the house. He told us the house was packed and there would be 26 people staying there tonight and he wasn’t lying. Most everyone had already eaten so I asked Bill if we could serve ourselves some soup and he replied with, “No! Sit down at the table.” We all complied and soup was laid before us immediately. I can really dig this place. After the newbies watched their video we grabbed the TV and put in the movie “Into the Wild” and watched that until way past our bedtime.

From Hazard’s notes:
Day 74: July 22, 2009
Travel:
From: Gren Anderson Shelter, NJ
To: Unionville, NY & the Mayor’s place
Beginning: 8:30am
Ending: 6:00pm
Number of miles hiked:
a) Trail – 20.1
b) other – .8 into town
c) AT Mile Marker – 1335.0 cumulative
Weather:
AM: Morning had the sun poke through but it was overcast overall.
PM: Skies cleared up in the afternoon.
People: The Unionville assistant fire chief. The Mayor! aka Dick and his cohorts Bill and Butch.
Animals: Mosquitoes
Money: $0, $1287 cumulative.
Notes of the day:
AM: Slow morning probably because of the noise last night or lack of distance we had to go today. The leaders of the group behind the shelter came up to us as we were leaving to apologize for all the noise last night. Apparently, they found out a couple of their tents were broken and blah, blah, blah. We pretty much hiked past group after group of hikers all day, some were singing, and some whispered, “There go real hikers” as we walked by. New Jersey, to me, is by far the most clogged section on the AT. We hiked into High Point State Park which had a Washington Monument-esqe spire that is dedicated to veterans past, present, and future.

PM: We had lunch on top of a rocky outcropping with a decent view. Uneventful afternoon of walking while we searched for the Jim Murray property because it was our only lead to this mysterious Mayor. After walking through a field we hit a gravel road with a sign that said “Well water 100ft” and Crocstar remembered we were supposed to follow that sign to Jim Murray’s place. When we got there, we discovered that this was the location of the famed secret shelter, but had a sign saying it was closed for now. So we were kinda lost as to what to do so we made some phone calls to try and figure out where the Mayor was. I ended up calling my brother Will to ask him to search the Internet for what we needed. He was successful and found the Mayor’s exact address. Bingo. It was only another two miles into town so we headed on down the trail until we hit Quarry Road. From there we flagged down a car and they told us Unionville was just down the street, so we followed the road into town. On our way we stopped a man walking on the opposite side of the street and told him we were looking for “the Mayor”. A big grin spread across his face as he knew exactly who we were looking for and gave us directions to his house. We made a quick stop at the general store for drinks and snacks, but I wanted to get to the Mayor’s for dinner. Once at the Mayor’s we knocked on the door and were greeted by Dick, got the tour and “rules”, then ordered to take a shower before dinner. Dinner was sausage and potatoes in sauerkraut, veggie salad, corn on the cob, and garlic bread. It was truly awesome and filling. To top things off we had watermelon for dessert. One of the rules of the house was that we were required to watch a certain video that was actually pretty inspiring. I can’t tell you what it was about, but I will say “Vincera”. (mom’s note – found out ‘who’ the Mayor is, see mine and Steve’s comments below. You should also check out the YouTube link in Steve’s comment, it’s amazing! Also, I think Hazard does mean “Vincerò!”)

From Hazard’s notes:
Day 73: July 21, 2009
Travel:
From: Mohican Outdoor Center, NJ
To: Gren Anderson Shelter, NJ
Beginning: 8:30am
Ending: 4:30pm
Number of miles hiked:
a) Trail – 20.9
b) other – .4 to and from Brink Road shelter, .2 to tonight’s shelter
c) AT Mile Marker – 1314.9 cumulative
Weather:
AM: Started drizzling the moment we started hiking and only got increasingly heavy as the day wore on.
PM: After lunch things slowed down a bit. Started up again in the evening pretty steady.
People: Crocstar, Cleancut. Two massive groups of kids near the shelter, one of which were yelling and making noise way past hiker bedtime.
Animals: Mosquitoes!
Money: $0, $1287 cumulative.
Notes of the day:
AM: Around 4am it started to drizzle so I packed up my stuff, grabbed my sleeping bag, and staggered off to one of the cabins. I figured I could crash under the back porch overhang to get out of the rain and not anger a park ranger, because you have to pay to use the cabins. When I woke up again around 6:30am from mosquitoes eating me alive I was so fed up with the morning that I took my stuff and threw it in the unlocked cabin and went inside to pass out on a cushy couch. I woke up from my nap at 7:30 and needed to find Spoon and Crocstar because they had no idea where I went. Breakfast was had inside the visitor center where we could sit at a folding table and smell the delicious things cooking in the kitchen. As soon as we had everything packed up and ready to step off the front porch it started to drizzle. Awesome. So we walked in the rain all morning as it increasingly became more steady.

PM: We stopped at Brink Road Shelter for lunch, which was the poorest excuse for a shelter I’ve seen in awhile. It was infested with mosquitoes but we stuck around anyway. I went off to find the privy and found a box over a hole with a toilet seat on top in the open woods labeled “The Throne”. The mosquitoes were so bad I came back and motioned us to get as far from this place as possible. It was here that we decided that it might be a good idea to stop short today and walk into Unionville, NY tomorrow to try and find “The Mayor” who we had heard all of these too-good-to-be-true stories. Everywhere we looked while hiking there were large groups of hikers, anyone from Boy Scouts to local campers. The worst part is one of these groups decided it would be cool to camp behind the shelter this evening. They pretty much made as much noise as possible even after we told them to keep it down when they came down the trail. They were yelling at each other apparently until 11pm and Spoon had to tell them to shut up. (Mom’s note – Welcome to New Jersey, son…)