Day 9 - Sunday, January 24, 2021

 
The next two days the weather forecast is cold and windy. Any sun will be surely welcomed. This morning the temperature was 18° and 🌞, the wind was gusting up to 17 mph. 


Today we are hiking from NY 17A Bellvale-Greenwood Lake (1374.4 NoBo) to Warwick Turnpike (1365.1 NoBo) equaling 9.7 miles. 


We began hiking at 9:27 am. 


We completed the AT in NY and continued into NJ. We climbed “Prospect Rock”, the highest point on the AT in NY at 1369.1 NoBo  (elev. 1433 Ft. ) and encounter the “Ladder” at 1370.3 NoBo. 


I officially became known as “Splinter” (my trail name) at 11:02 am as we crossed the NY-NJ border. 






I am “Splinter”....




We stopped here to grab our sandwiches.... found a warm

spot out of the wind. 




Prospect Rock. 






“The Ladder”. The AT Handbook noted,  “despite this sections unimposing  profile, rock and abrupt ups and down will make this section challenging”. We had to slide down on our backs/sides on one rock section as it was nearly vertical and there wasn’t any thing to hang onto.  We haven’t purchased the rock climbing rope and carabiners yet. We will have them when we get back on the trail after I return  from Florida. 




It was so cold that even the Mountain Laurel bushes were closed! The leaves are open in warmer weather. My hydration bags’ water line also froze up. I had to open the reservoir and drink directly from it. 🥶



Greenwood Lake, New Jersey. 





And that is why we are hiking Southbound....  OMG!


We are realizing that we will not have many easy hiking days... just less challenging ones. 


We Finished hiking at 1:59 pm. 


Till next time... Happy Hiking  🥾 


😋




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