Today was a good day on the trail. The temperature was only in the 80’s and there was a breeze throughout the day. This kept down the bugs and kept me from sweating all day.
I ran into quite a bit of wildlife today. I woke up to a turkey trotting by my tent, saw a small copperhead crossing the trail (only about a foot long), and ran into a second turkey moseying along the trail. I also encountered an unusual SOBO (southbound) hiker - a large black bear who was oblivious to my presence. He was busy walking down the trail and looking down, the wind was blowing in my direction so he didn’t pick up my smell and he didn’t seem to hear me until I called out “Hey, Bear!” when he was only about 25 feet away. I raised my walking sticks above my head into an X when I realized the bear wasn’t just crossing the trail, he was following the path of least resistance – walking the same path as I. The bear took a good look at me and then moved off the path. I tried to shoot a video, we’ll see if I caught anything.
Today I officially crossed into New York and climbed Prospect Rock. There were lots of rocks along the path – I swear the designers of the trail went out of their way to make sure we have to hike over every rock. Sometimes I had to move hand-over-hand with the full pack on my back. Tomorrow I will tackle Lemon Squeezer, a very tight fit where I will probably have to take my pack off in order to move ahead on the trail.
Mr. Sunshine caught up to me at the shelter and we will probably be hiking together for a while. We have 12 people at the shelter tonight so I will be tenting out so I can get some peace, quiet and sleep! Tomorrow is a 14+ mile day if all goes well.
Will upload pictures when I reach a town where I can recharge my batteries!
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