Day 112 – NJ94 to Lost n Found Hostel at NY RT 17A

“I’m so sick and tired

Trying to turn the tide, yeah

So I’ll say my goodbye

Laugh, laugh

I nearly died” – The Rolling Stones

Up at 6:30. Packed up. Breakfast at the hotel. Ubered back to the trail. On the trail at 8:00. 

Upper 80s, very humid, 50% chance of rain after 1:00 lasting through tomorrow.

Texted Lost n Found hostel about bunks for tonight. Confirmed bunks for tonight. $45 includes laundry and shower. They will pick us up at NY RT 17A.

Also got us a 3-bed room at Bear Mountain Bridge Motel in Fort Montgomery for Monday and Tuesday nights. 

We met our first SOBO thru-hiker today. He started on June 1 at Katahdin.

Climbed 1.4 miles up The NJ Stairway to Heaven this morning. Would not be bad except for it’s very slippery from the storm and it’s like 96% humidity.

Stopped at the top for a second breakfast at 9:00. Birds-eye view of the farm store where we took shelter from the storm last night. 

Back on the trail at 9:30.

Arrived at Wawayanda State Park Headquarters at 11:30. Topped off water, had lunch, and tried to dry out my pack. Back on the trail at 12:30.

We crossed into NY at 3:10 in the rain.

For the next 4 miles and 3 hours, NY tried to kill us. It was a 4-mile rock scramble, sometimes near vertical 30-foot ups and downs, in the pouring rain, thunder, and lightning. Boulders were big and very slippery. We both fell twice. Hard to describe the experience. Could have easily gotten very injured . It ranged from very concerned, to ridiculous, to drudgery, to despair. We both agreed that this was the most dangerous thing we have done on the entire hike to date.

Finally got near the end. The last 2.2 miles were normal trail and not boulder fields. 

We finally made it to the parking lot at NY Route 17A at 7:25, two hours late. We are both soaked and our packs are carrying several extra pounds of water. Peter, the owner of Lost n Found Hostel, picked us up and drove 7 minutes to his house/hostel. Peter is a bit older than me and is a thru-hiker, so he gets it. He runs a nice 7-bed hostel from his home. We got showered and did a load of laundry. We had trail food(ramen) for dinner at 9:00 then crawled into bed.

Given how miserable we are and how soaked our gear is, we decided to zero here instead of Fort Montgomery. I called the motel and dropped our reservation to one night as we still pass right by town in 2 days.

Technical Notes:

• Apple juice 140
• Waffle with syrup 500
• Oreos (53 per) 318
• Candy bar 330
• Zero-sugar sausage 200
• Peanut butter crackers 200
• Skittles 100
• Misc 420
• Misc 300
• Skittles 100
• Ramen 740
• Dehydrated chicken 170
• Fritos 400
• Water liters 5
• Miles 15.1
• Time 11:30
• Elevation gain 
• Calories consumed 4000
• Calories burned 6400