18 May.

18 May.
A nice night at Wildcat shelter. In the morning, I refilled my water from the nearby spring after wandering around and being finicky about the best source. I'm not thrilled about water flowing out of leaf litter, but I was running low and expected a difficult day.

Cinnamon Girl, Wilderness Hawk and I were headed 14 miles to Fingerboard shelter, and we heard that there were big rocks on the way. Dory expected a friend to pick her up at a road to replace some damaged clothes.

Yeah, it was a tough day, but it was cool and sunny with a nice breeze. One nice area was Fitzgerald Falls (pictures), where Cinnamon Girl and Wilderness Hawk were filtering water. Also passed a nice pond and a not-so-nice rocky section (pictures). Two intimidating cliff climbs (pictures), a steep descent on a leafy, rocky trail, and crossing a fast moving creek on a loose tangle of branches (pictures) that left my feet soaked (pictured). After crossing, a woman section hiking from Pawling NY to Peaks of Otter VA arrived, but decided not to risk the crossing, and walked one mile back north to the road she started the day on with me so she could catch a ride back to a hotel. Her trail name was Crush (her motorcycle group nickname), but when I asked about the spelling, she adopted Krush. Along the way was a pretty pond with water-lilies (pictured).

I crossed NY 17 then the bridge over NY State Thruway into Harrington State Park (pictures).

Then a long uphill climb, passage through a narrow rock cleft feature known as the "Lemon Squeezer" (pictures, I cheated by taking off my pack rather than risk getting stuck) and a 8 foot rock face climb that I attempted but decided was too risky for a hike-ending injury, and took the "Easy Way" bypass.

And it was still a couple of miles of up and down trail with some really easy and pretty areas before I reached the Fingerboard shelter (pictures), very sore and tired. I found Shirtless already settled at the shelter, as was Steve who was just doing a two day section hike. Shirtless spent the previous night in Southfields NY, splitting a motel room with Traveller, who was taking another zero day today. Cinnamon Girl and Wilderness Hawk showed up about a half hour later.

It is clouding up and getting colder. We expect a chilly rain tomorrow. I need to figure out my plan, as I am ready for a town day with restaurant food. It's been a tough few days.