It’s been two weeks since we returned to the Trail after our six-days off at home. We were glad to get back out and continue on our adventure, but we could have never guessed what was in store for us in the next 250 miles.

On several occasions since we started our thru-hike, we have talked about how fortunate we’ve been throughout our entire hike. We’ve both been happy, healthy, and lucky in seemingly every circumstance and we feel so blessed that it has been this way for two months.

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700 miles!

At the summit of Bear Mountain in Connecticut, the state’s highest point.

We slept at the RPH shelter, which is the only one on the Trail where you can have food delivered to your tent! Only in NY.

Researching historic sites after we stumble across them…this was at the site of Shay’s Rebellion

This was actually when we crossed the border into NY, but there was no sign for that so we just took one with the CT sign.

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But when it rains, it pours- or in this case when it doesn’t rain, everything dries up.

We knew that the water situation was bad, but we never expected it to be this severe or for it to start being an issue this far north. Nearly every stream, brook, and spring has stopped running by now; and the water that is still running has signs posted that warn of chemicals and/or nearby farm waste that makes it undrinkable.

Obviously, not having water presents a problem in normal conditions, but the weather the past two weeks has been reminiscent of July and August. Everyday is 80+ degrees, so when we do find water (which is normally only in cases where people let us use their spigots or hoses, or Trail Angels leave gallons of water at road crossings) we end up carrying at least four liters of water each. This is the equivalent of almost ten pounds, making the already high temperatures feel even hotter.

Trail magic water that was left for hikers

This vacant house is on National Park state forest land, and the water is left on for hikers so we can fill up. A little creepy, but desperate times call for creepy measures!

Hand in hand with the hot temperatures and dry weather are the gnats, which fly into our eyes and ears incessantly. Several afternoons we were driven to wear our fashionable bug nets, which are great at keeping the heat in and inhibiting our view of the rocky path ahead.

How we celebrated 800 miles?

We had a couple amazing surprises when we crossed the border from CT into NY- our friend Evan hosted us one night for pizza & the Jets game, and the Campion fam had us over a couple nights later for beer, guac, and pizza. Thank you, everyone!! You don’t know how much it helps to not only have a dry place to sleep inside, but familiar faces to see along the way?

Our luck really seemed to turn when we arrived into Fort Montgomery, NY last weekend though.

Crossing the Bear Mountain Bridge over the Hudson

The lowest point in elevation on the whole AT is at the bear cage in the Bear Mountain Zoo in Fort Montgomery.

We had two nights booked at the local motel with plans to take a zero, which is trail code for a day off. Unfortunately, the owner of the motel woke up on the wrong side of the bed that morning and was not in the mood to deal with his customers politely that day…after being harassed, overcharged, and realizing the rooms were very creepy, we decided to check out and head to the Holiday Inn across the street. While it cost a bit more than the motel, we thought it was justified after the week we had had.

But, in line with our luck that week, it turned out that I had accidentally booked the Holiday Inn for the FOLLOWING Sunday night instead of THAT Sunday night. And for that Sunday night, they were completely booked. And Expedia wouldn’t be able to offer me a refund. So we were out several hundred dollars between the two hotel bookings, and still had no where to stay. With my legs feeling like they couldn’t walk another half mile if I had to (which it was looking more and more like we would) I sat on a cement block in the middle of the parking lot and cried.  The nearest town was 20 miles away and there was no where where else in Fort Montgomery to stay.

Between Shawn’s hushes telling me I would need to cry quieter and his facial expressions that mirrored mine in a “What do we do now??” kind of panic, he went to the front desk at the Holiday Inn, explained the situation, and worked it all out. They had a last minute cancellation they gave to us and they talked to Expedia to issue our refund. So! We were all set and SO thankful.

But if we had only known that that Sunday morning was only the beginning.

While the environmental elements continued to be difficult, we were also low on fuel for our stove. Because of the significant decrease in hikers (all the NOBOs and summer hikers are long gone) local stores and markets have cut back on carrying necessary backpacking items. We stopped at five different stores throughout the week with no luck on finding more fuel. This meant cold oatmeal for breakfast and lunch food for dinner.

Two nights in a row we solved the dilemma by having ice cream for dinner.

One night we really wanted a warm dinner, so we boiled water over the fire.  This is how the cavemen made their Ramen, right?

We also seemed to cross paths with all the wildlife known to the Trail this week. The list included: two rattlesnakes (one of which leapt up at Shawn and wouldn’t let us pass for ten minutes), two black rat snakes, a copperhead snake, a scorpion, and a porcupine. The porcupine shuffled around our tent all night one night and gave us quite a scare until we realized what it was. He visited us again the next morning during breakfast but my phone was dead so I didn’t get a picture.

Everytime something would happen, we would just look at each other and think “Ugh, what a week. This has to be rock bottom, right?”

But it really isn’t rock bottom until you wake up to find out that a bear took all your food during the middle of the night.

On Sunday morning we excitedly woke up- we had made it! We survived our week of bad luck, it was a town day, and we had under 14 miles to go to get there! We had two nights booked at a hotel and were taking a zero the next day so we’d have time to relax, resupply, and get some Army paperwork done. But we did it! Our terrible week was finally over.

As I started to roll up the sleeping bags, Shawn headed out to take the food bag down. He had hung it up high in a tree the night before because we knew bears were common in the area. I heard him sigh and then say “Uhh, Em….our food’s gone.” I laughed and told him that he was very funny, and wouldn’t that be just our luck.

“No, really. Our food’s gone”

The tree on the right is where the food bags were hung up… The trail of wrappers on the left are where they went?

The bear took every.single.piece of our food. He even took the food bags, rope, and the caribeeners that were with it! Shawn followed the Hansel & Gretel type path it left for us but found nothing more than wrappers and marks in the dirt from where it had dragged the bags. You could tell from the brush that was pushed away that it was definitely a bigger animal, NOT the porcupine we just assumed it was again when we heard shuffling outside our tent during the night.

Knowing we only had a half day of hiking to get to Delaware Water Gap (our next town) we just sighed, packed up the rest of our things, and started hiking. Three miles into our morning we came across a sign for the Mohichan Outdoor Center, which is the first AMC hut we’ve passed since we were in the Whites in New Hampshire. Our guide book said they had a small backpacking store, so we figured we’d give them a try and grab a couple Snickers to hold us over for the remainder of the day.

When we walked in, Gabby (the AMC worker on duty) was setting the table for breakfast. There was a group of about ten there for a weekend retreat and they were set to eat at 9am. Gabby said she could open the store after that for us, and we gratefully took a seat to wait. We chatted with the group’s leader, Gerry, about our situation and what brought us into the hut that morning and laughed about our whole week in general.

Suddenly, the next thing we knew Gabby was bringing us out homemade cider donuts, fresh strawberries, breakfast sausages, orange juice, and coffee cups. As soon as the group had taken their fill of the eggs and potatoes they passed those to us as well. We were stunned, but starving, and started devouring the most delicious and unexpected breakfast.

As if that wasn’t enough, the AMC workers brought us out leftover pasta salad, apples, and blocks of cheese for lunch. We kept insisting that we would be fine and it was already much more than enough, but they would not take “no” for an answer. Their generosity brought tears to my eyes and we left an hour later with full stomachs and plenty of hugs. THANK YOU to Gabby, Gerry, and everyone at the Mohichan Outdoor Center that morning. We appreciate it more than you know!!

The remaining ten miles into town flew by, thanks to our new optimistic moods, the cool fall weather, the gorgeous ridgeline, and the stream of day hikers we got to chat with. We even saw a bald eagle fly overhead.

If last Sunday was any premonition of what the week had in store for us, I hope this Sunday was too.

Pennsylvania, we’re coming for you!