Kloibers Pond Outlet 1382.7 to 1777 Trail Parking 1402.5 (19.8 miles, 377.1 total miles)
I fell asleep pretty quick last night around 9:30 or so, but woke up at midnight when I thought I heard light rain. All my clothes were laying out on fallen tree trunks, so I got up and put everything in my tent just in case.
I couldn’t fall back asleep after that, so I watched some YouTube on my phone and vaped a little to help with the pain in my feet and ankles that was mild but bothering me a tiny bit.
I dozed until around 6:30am, when I woke up to find Piñata was fully packed, minus the food bag still hanging up. She headed out around 7am to do 24 miles, and I laid in my tent for a while, debating what to do.
The plan was to get to the Warwick Drive In Theater for the opening night of Jurassic World: Dominion. The drive in has a spot for hikers to tent and watch movies for free, and we had coordinated this to make it happen.
We were all further down trail than the normal and closest spot for hikers to get to the theater, but were going to backtrack about 30-40 minutes by car to get there.
I had several options when I got up, including taking a zero in Warwick with most of the Cult, doing the original nearo as planned of 5 miles to a road and getting a ride in, or hiking 24 miles to the spot that Piñata’s boyfriend, Charlie, would be picking her up.
I didn’t know what I was going to do, but I did know it was beautiful out and I wanted to be in the woods. I started hiking late again, at 9am. I figured I would at least do the nearo, because it was such a good day for hiking.
Right away there were several rocky climbs, not as extreme as the day before, but many little peaks that involved going up and down lots of stone steps. Buchanan Mountain and Arden Mountain were two such spots, with a long flat part in between.
I was enjoying just hiking for hiking’s sake, and relished another amazing day of blue, sunny skies and perfect temperatures. I checked the map early on in my hike, and saw I was less than 100 miles away from from Kent, CT, where I could get picked up for a visit home.
Once I saw that, I figured I might do a bigger day. The Cult had been talking about visiting NYC and I thought maybe I could coordinate my zero at home with their trip to the city. I thought I might shoot ahead then have them catch up possibly.
I texted Piñata I’d probably hike a longer day today, and she said her and Charlie would be happy to pick me up wherever. It looked like there were several road crossings before 1405, where she was stopping.
I passed Professor K again, early on, and saw another hiker, Crunch, stop and talk to him as well. Crunch passed me, but I could tell he was a fast hiker, and I was surprised I kept seeing him in the distance ahead.
Piñata texted me there was trail magic at the road crossing 5 miles in, and I was very excited for that. I was 1.5 away, and there was a steep 1,000 foot descent over half a mile or so down to the road.
It was a knee jerker, and I was feeling it as I descended. I tried to use my trekking poles to take some of the weight off my knees, but the gravity was hard to fight.
After a little road walking, I found the parking lot where Sugar Gal and Swamp Irish were set up with trail magic. Sugar Gal handed me an “AT cookie”, showed me the cooler, and the table where they had all sorts of food set up.
Sugar Gal and Swamp Irish were from Louisiana and had thru hiked the Appalachian Trail last year, and were paying it forward this year. Crunch was there, and another hiker named Draft, plus a section hiker I’d seen a little earlier.
Crunch was a Swiss hiker completing his triple crown this year, and Draft was from Maryland and had just left the Navy. I hung out at trail magic and had lunch for about an hour.
From there, I figured it only made sense to keep hiking. There was a 700 foot climb through open forest for over a mile next that went by really quick, even with a full stomach.
After that, there was a little descent to an area of hiking around a pond, absolutely surrounded by mountain laurels on both sides of the trail. It then opened up into vast swaths of forest, with vibrant grass fields as far as I could see.
I fell a little behind Crunch and Draft, but found them at the Lemon Squeezer, a narrow crevasse that is very well known on the trail. Draft took a video of me awkwardly trying to get my pack and poles through the opening. It was not even a little graceful.
There was a little hand over hand climb right after that, and Crunch took a video of us climbing it, using his trekking pole as a tripod set up for his phone. He lost his grip on a rock, and broke his other trekking pole, one of a brand new set he’d just gotten a day ago.
Draft had asked me if Piñata and Charlie could give him a ride to the movie as well, and they’d said yes, so I told him we’d be meeting at 1403 or 1405 at 6:30pm for the pickup. It was a 40 minute drive, and the movie was going to start at 8:45.
Around mile 1394 I was feeling tired and my feet were sore from all the rocky ups and downs. I was out of water, so I found a stream and made a caffeine drink, took off my shoes, and had a couple snacks.
While I was there Draft showed up – I’d passed him half a mile back when he took a side trail to the lake nearby. We talked about our plan from there, since it was 3:30pm and we were looking at trying to do another 8.5 miles in three hours.
Not unmanageable, but it would require some hard hiking over questionable terrain to get there in time. There was a road 1.3 miles up, then the Palisades Interstate Parkway in 5.6 miles, then nothing else before the parking lot at 1402.5.
At the 1.3 mile road, we had no service at all, so had to just keep going. Before the Parkway, we saw the view of the NYC skyline up on a ridge. It was really hard hiking, though. I had Draft set the pace at 3mph, and we were going up and down more peaks and gnarly rock step climbs.
It was some of the most strenuous hiking I’ve done on the trail ever, probably, and I was just dripping sweat. At the Parkway, there was a long reroute to avoid the highway crossing, but the white blaze was still going straight across.
There was a visitor center half a mile up a shoulder walk that could be a potential pickup point, but we were sure it would be a sketchy walk and had no idea how hard it would be for Charlie to drive over there.
We crossed four lanes of the highway, with a median in the middle. It was a little intense, but only took a couple minutes. From there, it was just over 2.5 miles, and the pickup time had changed to 6:45 per Piñata, so we had an hour and twenty minutes to make the final miles.
We passed the 1400 point, and I wolfed down most of a protein bar. We took off again, and did the last big climb of the day. It was only about 600 feet over .8, but we were going so fast and I was feeling so tired that it was tough.
However, I had my music back in by then, and I did this weird thing where I started thinking about my most painful memories and turned them into hiking power. It was rather cathartic, and it got me up the incline very well, though I was gasping for breath by the end.
At the top, we still had 1.7 to go, and it was all downhill so we kept zooming. It got steep at the end, and my knees and ankles were mad at me, but I got into a little flow state with my music and was right on Draft’s tail at the end.
Finally, we made it to the parking lot at 6:35, and Charlie and Piñata arrived just a minute or two after. Piñata had ended at 1405, a little past us, and we got on the highway to head to the movie with a 7:20 eta to the theater.
Someone I knew from the trail back in 2015/2016 had been messaging me earlier in the day wanting to do some trail magic for us that evening. His name was Furprittius, and he’d done some trail magic in 2015 and hiked in 2016. He was going to meet us there.
We got to the theater, and there was a little tent city going on there, maybe 20 tents already. The rest of the Cult was there, plus several other hikers including Fallout, Gimp, Cobra, Coasty, and Spitfire.
They had given speakers to the hikers to hear the movie, and I got changed and cleaned up as best I could and set up to sit between Neon and Draft on the lawn. Furprittius arrived with a cargo van full of lots of goodies, pizza for dinner, and some seltzers. It was awesome, and he was super sweet to do that.
The movie was hard to hear at first with the speakers, but it was a really cool experience to be there for that. It was very special, especially when we suddenly saw fireworks going off from a town nearby for a few minutes.
Neon and I huddled under his quilt, since it was a little chilly outside. After the movie was over, most people turned in for the night. Neon and I were the last out, and finally at 12:30 I made myself get up and go to bed. Otherwise I’d have fallen asleep right on the lawn.
It was a really great time, and I was proud that I managed to hike 20 miles after 9am and make it to the drive in for the opening day of Jurassic World. Turtle and I had talked about that almost a month ago in Maryland. It had been some extra logistics and hiking, but overall it was an really great time and memories I will cherish forever.