Day 81 Slipping

Today was much harder than we expected. We planned to hike 26 miles but only made it 20.


I slept very well last night. I knocked out at 11 and didn’t move until 6:45. I even slept through my alarm by 15 minutes. I just didn’t hear it I guess.


It rained overnight and in the morning so our gear and the trail were wet. This made hiking much harder because of the rocks. In NY so far the rocks have been long rock slabs covered in lichen. And when they are wet they are as slippery as ice. About 3 miles of trail went over rock like this which slowed us down by a couple hours. Even going slow and taking our time we all slipped and fell a few times. Luckily the worst injury was a pretty decent cut on Tyler’s finger. It won’t need stitches and it’s not fun but I’m glad it’s the worst we suffered to make it through those conditions. 


The rain, fog, and rocks were very challenging. 




Finally the rain stopped around noon and we had a little blue sky and sun that dried the trail between the clouds. 





After hiking 16 miles we shuttled into Harriman NY to get a resupply from WalMart and get dinner from Wendy’s. Not the best food ever but it was nice to have a warm meal. We were back on trail around 6 with 4.5 miles to go. 


We hiked through Harriman State Park which was beautiful. There were large old hardwood trees and grassy undergrowth. 







We passed a landmark called the Lemon Squeezer which is basically a cave where the trail goes between two rocks that are only like 20 inches apart. It was very tight but we made it through.




We got to the shelter around 7:15 but took a bit to find a tent site. The shelter and the tent sites by the shelter were occupied. 


Tomorrow we will wake up early and try to hike 30 miles. The trail is supposed to get easier through this section of New York and the weather should be much nicer tomorrow. 


Goodnight,

Walker 





If you want to follow Tyler or Spencer, here are their logs as well:


Tyler: https://tylerat2024.blogspot.com/?m=1


Spencer: https://www.instagram.com/baxter.bound?utm_source=qr&igsh=MWx4MzRqa3M4dGk3Mw==

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