08/06

Our Bear Hangs were successful! Although it’s harder than you think trying to get those suckers back down. After packing up camp, we hiked into Greenwood Lake, NY. A small town with not a whole lot going on, but we needed to resupply. Taking a side trail into town, we stumbled into “Old Country Store Deli,” run by Greenwood Lakes, owned by the citizen of the year 2023. Hakim was an elderly man who manned the store and deli all by himself. It had everything we needed, and he made us one hell of an Italian sub. Wandering over to the public library, we heard, hoping to find a place to charge our things, which we did, alongside some “local history.” Jucko, the talking juggling crow, sat there on the shelf. Taxidermied over 100 years ago…. Yes, you read all of that right. The Librarian was quick to reprimand me, stating pictures are not allowed. However, Jucko supposedly likes the attention, so she’d let it slide. We hitched a ride back to the trailhead after hanging around a bit too long and made way to camp for the night. Due to the days getting shorter, we’ve seen a new challenge arise. Racing the sun. It’s strange; you don’t really feel the urgency of daylight as much when you’re not living in the woods. When that sun goes down, that’s it. You’d better be set up inside your tent because outside, outside becomes another beast. One I dare not try to tame. So that left us running up rocky cliffs and over bogs, trying to reach the shelter. We ended up cutting the hike a little short upon stumbling by a lakeside campsite. Too nice to pass up, but if we’d known just how bad the mosquitoes and bugs were, we probably would have. Trying to be responsible, I attempted to hang our food yet again. Only this time, I lost my tent stake bag (which I was using as a rock sack) after swinging it over a branch and into the tall grass never to be seen again. Defeated, I stuffed my food into my backpack and went to sleep with a hundred fresh mosquito bites.