July 12 in NY

July 12, 2005 | Day 107 | Miles: 10.3 | Total Miles: 1382.3
End: Beechy Bottom Brook unofficial campsite, Tent
Danielle:
Sunny, hot and humid
Today is one of those days when you should be either in a lake, pool or in an air-conditioned room, with an umbrella drink in hand. Hot, hot, hot and humid. But us, we were out trudging through New York. And as I am sure Ryan will be noting in his journal, I have been finding NY to be a pain in the a**. All these silly, ridiculous ups that have no point, lots of wandering around looking for blazes and of course it's been hot so that just makes it harder. There were some nice parts of the trail today--Black Mountain with some nice vista and a breeze, and of course, we woke up to a beautiful view of the lake this morning, very calm and peaceful--but in general I'm just feeling some frustration toward the trail. Not all day, mind you, but in spurts. Is it that I expected it to be "easy" by now? Or that I am just spoiled by the hiking we're used to up north, where the signage, blazing and routing is good and for a purpose? I am not the only one grumbling--there was quite a bit of it in the shelter register where we stopped for lunch. Oh well. We did a short day today, and weren't feeling exhausted when we stopped which was nice. We had camp all set up by 4:30pm, and I am now relaxing in my chair... Ahhhh... Tomorrow we head through the Bear Mountain Zoo and on to the Graymoor Friary where they've been allowing hikers to stay in the yard and eat dinner with them for years. Should make for an interesting day :-)
Flora and fauna report for the day: 8 deer, 1 rattlesnake seen by Ryan and reportedly (I did not go back to verify!) quite large, frogs, toads, 2 turkey vultures in a tree on Black Mtn., and some very large bear prints in the mud (but no sighting of it). Blueberries are now abundant--yum!--but not much else in terms of flora.

Ryan:
three h's
i would like to start my journal today with a quote from sparkplug: "if i'm going to remember new york, it's because it's a pain in the ass. and, we've only gone 20 miles. [sigh] bastards." ah yes, new york is pleasant. every little bump they can find, we go up and over. new york is best described in one word: unnecessary. it was really hot today, so we took it easy. 10 miles feels so short. it was great. even with a late start and almost 2 hours for lunch, we had the tent set up by 3:30. so, relaxing. now, we're waiting for the thunderstorm to hit..it's rumbling in the distance. i saw a huge rattlesnake today. luckily, danielle missed it and it didn't care that we were walking by. it was as big as my fist around the middle. needless to say, i didn't spend much time observing him. we also saw some huge bear tracks today. here's the wierd thing: only about .5 mile from here is the pallisades parkway with a sign that read, "new york 34." we sure don't feel that close. new york is an interesting place. i guarantee we're going to see a bear tomorrow.