Day: 086
Date: Wednesday, 19 July 2023
Start: Louemma Creek (AT Mile 1356.0)
Finish: NY Route 17A (AT Mile 1375.5)
Daily Kilometres: 30.2 (Ascent 3140', Descent 2707')
GPX Track: Click here for Julie’s Strava & Photos
Total Kilometres: 2305.6
Weather: Warm, humid, hazy and partly sunny.
Accommodation: Hostel
Nutrition:
Breakfast: Pop tarts
Lunch: Snickers Bars
Dinner: Sourdough breakfast sandwiches & hash browns, ice cream
Aches: Dave - the usual niggles and some chafing; Julie - nothing to report.
Highlight: The early morning walk along the Appalachian Trail boardwalk that wound its way through the vast peaceful marshland bordering Pochuck Creek was magic.
Lowlight: The first three "Welcome to New York" miles of the AT were some of the hardest and slowest hiking we have encountered. It took 2.5 hours to do three miles going up and down, this way and that, along rocky ledges, gnarly trail and through boulder fields. It was almost as if New York was boasting to AT thru-hikers that it can be as tough a state as any on the trail.
Pictures: Click here
Map and Position: Click here for Google Map
Journal:
We were hiking by soon after 6:00am with the goal of reaching NY Route 17A, 19.5 miles away, from where we would be picked up and taken to a hostel, as early as possible.
The trail wasn't too bad initially and we made good time, particularly enjoying the long boardwalk (see above), but also the beautiful early morning forest. It was mostly very peaceful apart from the frequent noise of aircraft descending towards New York's LaGuardia or Westchester airports. We were also conscious that we were close to civilisation as we passed near houses, crossed roads or heard machinery at various times.
Sadly, at one of those road crossings we were an hour too early for the farm store which opened at 9:00am and offered drinks, baked goods and ice-cream - the perfect for a thru-hiker's breakfast. Instead, starting across the road, we got to climb the exhausting boulder-scrambling "Stairway to Heaven", our biggest climb of the day. It was tough, though it was "heaven" to reach the top.
Not long after our breakfast break beside a rushing stream we crossed another road to find an esky full of soft drink cans left by a "trail angel" and, despite having just drunk our fill of water at breakfast, we managed to down a few more cans. It was a treat.
We continued to make good time on a day that wasn't quite as hot and humid as it's predecessors along reasonable trail with plenty of short ups and downs and many boggy sections. And, of course, still plenty of mosquitoes. We took our lunch break around 1:00pm high on a rocky ridge at what was supposed to be a viewpoint, though the trees blocked any vistas, before starting our last six mile leg of the day.
The trail wasn't easy, and got even harder when we left New Jersey for the last time and entered New York (see above). Our hopes for an early finish diminished and we just concentrated on moving forward and enjoying the couple of hazy views we got down over Greenwood Lake.
Fortunately, with two miles to go the trail quality improved and we reached our target highway at 5:15pm. Dave rang the hostel owner, who turned up a few minutes later and drove us first to a large supermarket where we did our resupply shopping before taking us to the hostel in the village of Greenwood Lake. After showers and leaving our laundry with the hostel owner, we walked to Dunkin' Donuts, the only nearby food option, to buy a late dinner which we ate back at the hostel. We are later than we would like, but not too much, and feel like we have had a good day.
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