Aug 16th, Day Sixteen

Our campmates, who were generous enough to share their food.

Today started off great; Sam, Alan, and Will were the people camped inside the shelter the previous night.  They were a father and two twin boys out for a couple weeks having an adventure.  They were all up before us and talked with us as we got ready to break camp.  They ended up offering us some orange, and more importantly some bacon they were cooking up.  Not only was it bacon but it was some of the best bacon ever, big thick slabs of Kentucky bacon; and you all know how Miles likes anything Kentucky!  As we enjoyed our nice crispy fatty calories, we chatted about adventures and all the cool things to do in nature.  Finally, after a wonderful surprise breakfast, we bid the guys adieu and took off on the trail. 

Afternoon waterfall.

Early morning waterfall.

From that point on the whole day just went downhill.  The trail was rough that day with lots of boulders strewn about; it was hard to get a pace.  The trail didn’t go by any really spectacular views either it was just a lot of up and down through the woods which tended to be demoralizing.  Miles was also still kind of exhausted from his long day yesterday, so todays pace suffered as a consequence.  There were many times during the day where Miles would say, “Man, I just wish I could be back in NYC with the guys, drinkin beer and watchin football.”  This was not the first or last day for this though to occur, but it was the most prevalent. 

Something else we must climb.

Towards the end of the day we decided to pass up going into Palenville, since we were still well supplied.  From there we hiked up a long hill on an old carriage road.  This brought us into a very popular area of the Catskills.  There were lots of horse trails, and bike trails; and it was here that we set up camp for the evening.  We camped alone in a circular clearing with a fire pit and an outhouse; the park service called it a primitive camp site.  It suited our needs just fine. 

Also the land of Rip Van Winkle.

Traveled 14.42 miles of trail.  

-SM-

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