I ❤️ NY
Day 1: 49 miles
I’d been wanting to get out for a fastpack effort and had had my eye on this route. When I was scheduled for a work trip to NYC and saw how close I would be to the trail, I decided to extend my time in the area and just go for it!
I started at the Cascade Lake trailhead before 3am and crossed the state line at 3:15. For any day where I’ll be moving more hours than there is daylight, I like to bookend the effort so that I start before sunrise and finish after sunset, as it is mentally more palatable for me to split the nighttime portion into two pieces.
The first section in NY was the only section of trail I had already done before; my husband and I had hiked maybe 15 miles of the southernmost part of the trail together many years ago. I was glad I had the visual in my head from that trip of stunning Greenwood Lake, since all I could see below the rocky ridge was a swath of pitch blackness with a few lights twinkling on the shores across. A huge orange crescent moon rose as I paced along, fading as the sunrise lit up the sky.
Day One was filled with trail landmarks I was excited to experience. The first one was the Agony Grind, a short steep section around mile 17 that had been part of a family inside joke for years even though I had never been to it. When I’d first started hiking with my dad when I was a little kid, there was a section of our favorite trail in the Finger Lakes that was steep enough for my dad to nickname it the Agony Grind in honor of the AT section by the same name, which he had hiked before. I had a huge smile on my face the whole time I descended the Grind, taking a selfie for my dad with a look of feigned agony and thinking of all our great hikes together.
The day passed quickly and smoothly. The leaves of the blueberry bushes that lined the tops of the peaks turned the summits into a carpet of fiery red, and naturally Taylor Swift singing “I still see it all in my head / in burning red” played on repeat in my mind.
When I’d thought about how the mileage would unfold, I wasn’t sure whether I would make it to the Bear Mountain Bridge during daylight hours. Realizing I was on pace to do so gave me the motivation to get to the bridge (around mile 36) with no real stops to speak of. The bridge was magnificent and definitely worth the push.
In a departure from my daily experience, there is pretty much no kind of fuel that is appetizing to me when I’m doing these sorts of efforts. Shoving calories down, I channel the words of my great friend and adventure partner Katie Rhodes, who once counseled me: “Don’t give yourself a choice. Food go in.”
I took a short break on the climb leading up from the bridge. The sun set as I walked up Canada Hill. After crossing Rt 9 at just over 42 miles, I decided to push to as close to 50 as I could. I had originally budgeted for two nights on the trail but had been moving so well on Day 1 that I knew if I could get more than halfway on the first day, there was a decent chance I’d find the willpower to finish in just one overnight. After about 48 miles, I decided to start looking for a good place to sleep. At that very moment, my headlamp beam illuminated a hand-painted sign proclaiming: “WARNING. FOUR BEARS LIVE HERE. PLEASE BE SAFE.” I put two more road crossings between me and what I hoped was the four bears’ very small living area, set up my sleeping bag, and took a long nap.
Day 2: 40 miles
I slept for about 4 hours and got moving by 4:30am. My legs felt good. I trekked through rolling forest paths and ascended a long ridge above Canopus Lake. An audiobook about the competition between Boston and New York City in the late 1800s to build the U.S.’s first subway helped pass the time.
I made it 22 miles to the Mt. Egbert shelter, where I chatted with Sunny Jim the thru-hiker before settling in for a 30 minute nap. My feet had started hurting pretty early in the day so I’d decided to add two 30-45 minute naps to get a mini reset.
I filtered water at the bridge near the AT train stop. I’d read that New York did not have a lot of water sources, so I made a point to filter whenever I could so I wasn’t worried about running out. I do most of my big hikes in the mud capital of NY, the High Peaks, so dry shoes and no swamp crossings were a dream.
The beauty of the next few miles was obscured by the increasing discomfort of the effort. I tried music and audiobooks but the pain was louder than the distractions, so I turned them off and continued in silence. I set an interim goal of just moving forward until the sun set, at which point I would take a final break before attempting a push to the end.
The long slow sunset corresponded with some of the gentlest miles of the trail. An endless sky of stars emerged as I crossed farm field after field. When I got back into the woods, too tired to switch into the few extra clothes I had brought for rests, I pulled off the trail a few feet and all but collapsed in a clearing under a tree. I stared up into the dark, the sound of insects and frogs ringing out around me, and silhouettes of bats fluttering above.
I took 45 minutes, drank as much electrolyte drink as I could stomach, and began the final 9 or 10 mile push. The miles passed more easily than I expected, and I made it to the Connecticut line not long after 10pm!
I absolutely loved this trail and could not have designed a better weekend for it, with Fall foliage at peak and temps ranging from the low 40s overnight to the mid-60s during the day. I will be going back to memories from this hike for a long time.
Gear:
Backpack - Black Diamond Beta Light 30
Sleeping bag - Cumulus Vencer 200
Headlamps - NITECORE NU25 UL 400
Jackets - Patagonia Houdini and Patagonia Micropuff
Water Filter - Sawyer mini
Shoes - Hoka Speedgoat 6 GTX
Fuel - Skratch High Carb mix, Clif Bloks + caffeine, assorted bars and salty snacks