7/24/99: Dennytown Camping Area   Miles Today : 20.3 Miles to Katahdin : 764.9

Today was a very interesting day, fun but overall not the best day on the trail. This morning, DB and I started from the shelter on a blue blaze trail towards Bear Mountain, NY. Basically, this means that we are taking a different trail than the AT, but still walking to our destination. In this case, it was because the shelter was .6 miles off the AT, but right on a blue blaze. This turned out not to be the best of decisions. While the trail was nice and provided fine outlooks, it was considerably longer than the AT and even involved an extra climb.

We got to Bear Mountain, NY about 11:00 or so, just in time for our mail drops. Bear Mountain is essentially where inner city New York goes for a cookout. There were about 8 hikers hanging out and we did not blend at all. Mostly, it made us laugh that this was a lot of peoples idea of "getting away".

Anyway, we were all hanging out when Grizzwaldo shows up. He lives in the area and brought food and beer for a barbacue for the hikers. Sweet! For the next few hours, we ate burgers, drank beers and shared laughs. Before we knew it, the time was 4:00 and we still have 15 miles to hike, since Colorado is getting off the trail on Sunday. Our options were limited to 1) hike 10 miles buzzed and pull off a long day tomorrow or 2) walk 3 miles, hitch a ride and then walk 4 more putting us where we were supposed to be, but skipping a section of the trail. We opted for plan #2, despite the fact that I did not want to hitch past a section. It turned out to be a fun time, however, as a father and daughter picked us up. Their car was kind of full, so the guy let Colorado SIT ON HIS LAP! They were both very nice, and even went out of their way to drop us off where it was most convenient for us! Wow, what great trail magic.

After a few more miles of walking, we got to the camping area to find Professor Booty and Chico-Man. After dinner and setup time, we got a little wiffleball game going, Professor B. and myself versus Chico-Man and Colorado. Drive-By, who joined later, was the DH for both teams. I am sad to say that despite 5 home runs by myself, out team was beaten, mostly behind the SEVEN homers hit by Colorado. I did hit back-to-back dingers against Chico-Man while he was wearing his Yankees jersey, so that made me smile a little bit.

Well, that's it for today. The sky is beautiful tonight and the whip-or-wills are singing. Ahh...

-Chomp

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