I'm back in New York, hopefully to finish the state.
I started by heading under the Taconic State Parkway.
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Lynn waves good-bye.
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The morning fog was still lifting as I neared the summmit of Hosner Mountain.
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I dropped down and crossed a small stream.
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Some creative person turned this white blaze into an American flag.
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I came out onto a road . . .
. . .which brought me across I-84.
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This small snake hardly compares to the rattlesnake that I saw yesterday.
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I saw Jay Bird, who I had met two days earlier, heading south.
I then came to the Morgan Stewart Shelter which was right on the trail.
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I crossed some railroad tracks . . .
. . . and then a bridge that looked like it had been built yesterday.
The wood smelled as if it was just cut.
Right after the bridge I saw a hiker coming the other way. I was expecting to run into her.
"Hi Bonnie," I said.
"How did you know my name?" she asked.
"My wife gave you a ride to the trailhead yesterday. Besides that, I met you once in Maine as you were coming down Moxie Bald Mountain."
This was great to see her again. Because I hike the trail just a couple weeks at a time and jump all around it's rare for me to meet the same hiker several months apart. She is doing a flip flop. She just has a couple hundred miles left as she hikes south to Port Clinton, Pennsylvania. Good luck, Bonnie!
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After another road crossing, I came across a March 2006 trail relo.
I have to take a moment and tease my friend Runtrails who did a 2005 thru hike.
"Hey Sue, you missed a piece."
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Here's a tight squeeze.
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Despite the name of this lake, Nuclear Lake was quite beautiful.
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There are lots and lots of stone walls in New York.
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The weather never did clear today, but here's the view from West Mountain.
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I decided to take the short blue blazed side trail to the shelter.
The blue blazes first brought me across this bridge.
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The Telephone Pioneers Shelter
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I crossed County Route 20 where I saw this huge tree.
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Across an open field
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I met a section hiker named Dave. I actually had seen him a couple days earlier, but didn't have a chance to talk to him since I was trying to catch up to Jay Bird.
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With the leaves falling, it wasn't often that I could actually see a dirt trail.
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Last bridge off the day . . .
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. . . unless you count bog bridging as a bridge.
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These were the tallest reeds that I've seen on the trail yet.
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I met Lynn at the Appalachian Trail railroad station where I had been a few days earlier.
I've finished New York, my 8th completed state.
