I have never thought of deer as being clumsy, but over the last several days I have come to realize that the New York deer may need some lessons in being graceful. Last night, around dusk, I heard from in my tent a lot of cracking of twigs and rustling of leaves. The intensity of the sound made be think that possibly a bear was snooping around camp. Wrong - out walks a deer who stares at our tents like they were alien beings. Days earlier on Bear Mountain as I came around a cliff side on a narrow ledge, a deer jumped out from a little ledge to my right not more than four feet in front of me and tumbled down the mountain. He was alright after he shook off the initial fall.
Was another hot and steamy day. Thank goodness our starting point had nice clean potable water. Sure makes a difference in taste. Our first climb of the day brought us to Shenandoah mountain which has the notable feature of a US flag painted on the rock surface in honor of 9/11. It was a great spot for a lunch break.
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| Lunch on Shenandoah Mountain |
As the temp's continued to climb we arrived at RPH Shelter. Nice facility. Cinder block walls, bunks, hand pump and very few flying bugs. Time for a hiker nap. As the weather get hotter, many hikers will take several hours off during the mid day to rest and continue to hike after 3pm when the sun starts to decline.
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| RPH - Looks nice - but has only three walls. |
Tough haul out of RPH. The mountain kind of made us feel like returning to the shelter and taking a longer nap. The one good thing was when we reached NY 52 there was a deli waiting for us just .4 miles down the road. Nothing like a nice hot pizza to re-energize the body.
We hiked another 40 minutes after dinner and settled for a spot just off the trail. Unfortunately the interstate was about a mile away, so we were serenaded all night long with the sounds of big rig trucks cruising the highway.
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