Sunday, 7/5 & Monday, 7/6
Sunday
AT Miles = 17.1 / 1364.0
Other Miles = 0.4 / 47.4
Total Miles = 17.5 / 1411.4
Monday
AT Miles = 19.6 / 1383.6
Other Miles = 0.6 / 48.0
Total Miles = 20.2 / 1431.6
My apologies yet again for combining days. The last couple of days have ended with me just exhausted. I am not sure why. I'm not doing huge miles that I've never done before or anything like that. Maybe I am just getting worn out and need a few days off. We'll see.
Anyway, I left New Jersey and crossed into New York yesterday. Soon afterwards I was atop the ledges of Prospect Rock eating my lunch while looking down on all the boats on Greenwood Lake, with the Manhattan skyline just visible in the far distance. That was pretty darned cool!
Whoever laid out the trail in New York really likes scrambling around on huge rock ledges, and goes out of the way to route the trail over every chunk of rock to be found. It's fun for a while, but it gets old fast. I don't even want to think what it would have been like if it were raining!
Yesterday was Jodi and my 3rd anniversary! On our anniversary last year we were cycling from Boston to DC. This year Jodi was out in Denver visiting friends and I was hiking the AT in New York. Gosh, I miss Jodi! The single biggest negative about hiking the trail is being separated for so much time.
Today was more up and down hiking. We haven't had to do so much up and down since probably way back in southern Virginia, and it makes a huge difference in how tired my legs feel at the end of the day.
Right now I am less than 10 trail miles from the Hudson River, which I will cross tomorrow. That seems like a huge milestone to me. Tomorrow night I plan to camp at the Graymoor Monastery, just outside of Peekskill, NY. The monastery provides camping, a covered pavilion, water, privy, and shower for hikers, all free of charge. In the past they even invited hikers in for dinner with them, but they no longer do that. Since there is a 31 mile gap with no trail shelters, the monastery's generosity solves a huge logistical problem for hikers.
—
"Home is where I hang my food bag"
Monkeywrench
Allen Freeman
allen@allenf.com
www.allenf.com
allenf.blogspot.com
