Mountains Under Foot

Hi MUFaddicts,

Wow, I cannot believe that it’s already August! Our guys have been on the trail for 84 days and have covered more than 1415 miles. They are truly blazing through the Appalachian Trail. Even with the ‘zero’ days and mishaps, they are still making incredible time.

I’ve updated the NJ/NY gallery with photos through the current post, which is Day 78, 7/26/09. Last known location for the guys was Beacon, NY around 7/29/09. They should be making their way through Connecticut by now. As always I will keep you updated and post more journal entries and photos when I receive them from Hazard.

Happy Trails!

***In the meantime check out our MUFstore and show your support by purchasing your very own MUF t-shirt! There are many styles to choose from. Here are a couple of examples –>>

From Hazard’s notes:
Day 78: July 26, 2009
Travel:
From: NY 301. Clarence Fahnestock State Park, NY
To: Brooklyn, NY
Beginning: 7:00am
Ending: 9:30am
Number of miles hiked:
a) Trail – 4.6
b) other -
c) AT Mile Marker – 1415.3 cumulative
Weather:
AM: Woke up to the rain coming to a stop. Overcast and nasty.
PM: Overcast and then more rain in the city.
People: Police officer, park rangers, Hospital workers, our taxi driver. Sara who is letting us stay at her apt. in NYC. The thousands of people running around NY.
Animals: Flying rats…I mean pigeons.
Money: $10 lunch, $12 train ticket, $8 Metro card. $1348 cumulative.
Notes of the day:
AM: I was feeling much better this morning and maybe I had been able to sleep off the funk holding me back yesterday. It was still nasty outside but we had to get moving. A quick stop at the ranger station for water and have Spoon try to sweet talk a ranger to take us back to the trail without any success. Back on the trail I felt good and kept up with Spoon up until he pulled off the trail for some morning “business” from which I gained the lead. About 10 min. later Croc and I found ourselves on top of Shenandoah Mountain which was a good stop for a snack and for Croc to smoke. I figured it would be a good time for me to “take care of business” while we waited for Spoon, so I grabbed my TP and walked across the rocks to find a spot in the woods. The rocks were slick from all the rain lately and my feet were swept out from under me. Naturally I put my hand down to break my fall, but when I picked myself up I noticed blood streaming down my hand. Being a place .4 miles from the road a lot of people had come up and dumped their trash and broken their bottles so it was not a surprise that I would put my hand down on broken glass. I rushed over to Crocstar and asked him to pull his water out to try and wash out the cut but the blood was gushing too fast. I told him we had to wrap it fast as I was loosing a lot of blood. I fumbled to get the first aid kit out of my pack and had him help wrap my hand up as Spoon walked up. He had no clue as to what was going on and thought we were screwing around. Once he saw the mess I had made, he knew it was serious. After my hand was wrapped up I sat down and had some water to calm down and Croc got on the phone with the park rangers to try and figure out the next course of action. I clearly needed to see a doctor because the cut was deep and the glass was dirty, the only problem was we had no idea where the closest place to get attention was or have the means to get there. The park rangers bent the rules for us and agreed to take us to Putnam Hospital in nearby Carmel, NY. We took it easy down to the road where we waited for help to arrive. A cop came and he took my info and made sure the rangers were coming. When they arrived we piled in and headed to the hospital. When we got there I checked in and waited. I waited and waited until I could finally see a nurse who unwrapped my hand and concluded that I did in fact need a doctor. Thanks, I knew that. Anyway there were no beds available so I had to wait again. I pulled out my iPod and tapped into the free wireless to check my mail, catch up on Cat’s blog, and figure out our next move.

PM: Because of my injury we thought it would be a good idea to go into NYC tonight and take some time off to heal. I finally got a room and on the way back I asked, “I picked the wrong day to cut my hand, didn’t I?” She nodded her head and told me I indeed couldn’t have had worse timing because they were swamped today. When I finally got to see Gail after almost falling asleep in the bed, she pulled my bandage off and told me she needed to get something to numb my hand or it “would be like torture” when she went to clean it. Another long wait with my hand uncovered and bleeding before I saw anyone again. A couple people from registration came by to ask me odd questions, and multiple times I had to tell them that I wasn’t employed and my insurance was neither through my employer nor my father. It’s like they never have hikers come through. Anyway, Gail came back with a big needle and told me that this was going to really hurt and to be honest she really wasn’t lying because her jamming that needle into my hand over and over again was some of the sharpest pain I’ve ever felt. It was like she was stabbing me with a knife. It was awful. But then it wasn’t so bad at all because my hand was numb and couldn’t feel a thing. She cleaned everything and tied it all together with 6 stitches and after a tetanus shot I was discharged at 3pm. Crocstar had figured out that the village of Brewster was the closest metro north station and we could call a cab to take us there. One silent cab ride later we were in Brewster. We paid for our ticket at the electronic ticket dispenser thingy and then walked across the street to get some food because at least I was starving. I packed myself full of pancakes and an omelet while the other guys indulged in afternoon breakfast too. At 4:16pm our train arrived to take us into Grand Central Station. Croc had called a friend of his while at the ranger’s office while waiting for me yesterday and had secured us floorspace in her Brooklyn apartment so he went from not going to NYC to hooking us up in NYC. We were going to meet Sara at GCS where she would be able to lead us confused hikers, with virtually no knowledge of the scary City, to the safety of her apartment. We met up with Sara and she walked us through getting our first Metro card and then we hopped on the subway to her place. Once there she was delighted to let us shower and put on clean clothes. She gave me a plastic bag and hair ties to keep my “claw” dry while I showered. Afterwards I pretty much sat on the couch and didn’t want to move. The numbness had long worn off and I was in an uncomfortable amount of pain. Sara took the other guys down to one of the local bars while I stayed back and rested. Glad I did because Cat called me and talking with her made everything so much better.
(mom’s note: Hazard called me just after his accident happened, of course I was panic stricken and urged him to find help immediately, which thankfully they did. I spoke to him again after they arrived in the City because I wanted to make sure that he had be taken care of, which he had, so I was less panicked. After giving Cat the news (online) about Hazard’s injury I urged her to give him a call, since I knew she would be the best medicine and comfort that he could receive at that moment… I am still feeling twinges of parental worry when I think about his accident and I am concerned about the healing of his cut and hope that he takes the necessary steps to keep in clean and dry. “Son, are you listening and taking your antibiotics?”…)