Day 102 - 6/25

Daily mileage: 10.9
Total trail mileage: 1385.8
Starting location: New York Thruway 87
Ending location: Black Mountain
Weather: 79 - 82 degrees during the day. Partly cloudy all day

I am at
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=41.283971,+-74.040127

Patrick's mom made us breakfast (Thanks Mary Beth!) and then his
parents drove us back to the trail. When we got close to the trail,
we saw a black bear cub (we think it was a cub) run across the road
avoiding the traffic. I wasn't actually on the trail at the time, but
I think I can call this BLACK BEAR #9 for the trip! Then we got to
the dropoff point and continued/began the hike.

The forest today was different than it has been. It was very open
with grass and ferns growing among the sparse trees. It was rather
quiet and peaceful, and we didn't see many people during the day.

We reached the Lemon Squeezer, a rock formation with the trail
squeezing between two large boulders. I believe the last time I was
here we were headed down the rocks, which would have been much easier
than going up. This was the first time along the trail that I have
had to take my pack off to navigate the trail, and it involved
throwing my pack up the cliff face and then climbing up. Patrick
chose to wimp out (or be smarter?) and take the "easy way" around the
worst part.

Oh, Patrick wanted me to fudge the numbers so the blog showed that we
hiked 40 miles today. So, when you see him, congratulate him on the 40
mile day :P

We camped on Black Mountain with pretty decent views of the area.
Josey Wales came by later and decided to camp with us. The sunset was
decent, and the moon is really bright tonight.

Tomorrow we head over to Bear Mountain. Supposedly they have done a
major reroute of the area and the new trail just opened at the
beginning of this month. That is hopefully good news as I remember
the old trail being badly eroded from all the foot traffic Bear
Mountain gets.