AT Day 96: New York, New York!

Daily Miles: 15.1, Total Miles: 1,376.0

I slept hard and so enjoyed being dry this morning. As forecasted, it rained off and on all night and most of the day.

It wasn’t a fun day dealing with mud, slick rocks, slips, slides and constantly fogged up glasses. I was seeing well enough to spot a large black bear cross the trail in front of me soon after passing the NJ-NY state line. He didn’t even look my way.

After getting close to NY State Route 17A, a car pulled over and the driver asked me if I needed a ride. I said sure and he asked me where I was going. I said Lake Lodging in Greenwood Lake NY. He said, “I’m the owner, hop in”. How cool is that? Jim and Ingrid, the proprietors, are really nice people. They washed my clothes and even provided a shoe dryer to dry out my wet shoes and still damp socks. Even better, Jim showed me their hiker box which had a pair of hiking poles and a single pole. I checked out the single pole, still in fair shape but missing a basket so I took the basket off my snapped pole and put it on this one. Great, I now have a mix and match set of hiking poles!

Got cleaned up and walked into town with two hikers I met on the ride into town. Joined later by two other hikers already there for Mexican food – good dinner and conversation.

Zero day tomorrow!