NY AT Day 4 (4/23/25)

I was the first person awake on the morning of Day 4. I tried to start getting ready without waking Parched and Bass Clef, but they eventually woke up. I wanted to get a fairly early start on this day, because I knew it was going to be a tough day. The FarOut app said that it was going to be 14.4 miles and more than 3,700 feet of gain to the next shelter. Amazingly, there was no option for a stop in-between. The only choice was to push forward to Fingerboard, the next shelter.

Unfortunately, Parched still wasn't feeling well. His stomach was still bothering him enough that he couldn't keep down much food. This left him unable to eat breakfast, and it was clear that he wasn't going to be able to hike very far without calories. Both because he didn't eat breakfast, and because he's just a faster packer than me, he got out quite a few minutes before I did despite the fact that I woke up first.

When I left, I said goodbye to Bass Clef and told him that I would see him at Fingerboard Shelter that evening. Then I got on trail. The first thing I saw was a field of plant buds. I had seen these a lot in New York. I don't know exactly what they are, but they are definitely a sign of spring, and spring is always welcome by me.

Later on, I passed Fitzgerald Falls. There was a high water route available around the area, but it wasn't necessary. Water levels in New York have been pretty low in general. Obviously they haven't been getting the constant rains that we have in Maine.

The path climbing out of the waterfall area had stone steps carved into the ascent. I have seen these quite a bit in New York, and I really appreciate them. They're a lot of work for trail workers to build, but they make the hiking so much easier.

As I was coming down a hill, I noticed a backpack sitting in the middle of the trail with no owner around. I recognized the pack at once; it belonged to Parched. I looked around and eventually spotted him coming out of the woods. We briefly conversed, and he told me that he still wasn't able to eat. I think we both knew that he was going to get off trail, but no official decision had been made yet. He told me to check my cell phone every so often to see if he sent me any messages. Not long afterwards, we came to a big rock climb, and it was here that he told me to push ahead, as he wasn't going to be able to catch up. I did so, and it was the last time I would see him during the hike. Roughly an hour later, I saw a text message telling me that he was getting off trail.

Eventually I came to Harriman State Park, where the AT crossed over I-81. Thankfully there was a road bridge with a sidewalk to cross over on, so it wasn't a scary road crossing.

I learned something new during this hike that I had not known before. In over forty years of life, I have never gotten sunburned on my hands. I assumed that it was impossible to get sunburned on your hands, because they move around too much and they are often shaded by your body. That is probably true. However, if you're carrying poles, then those protections go away. Sure enough, I got sunburned on the top of my hands, the only sunburns that I got during the entire hike. Everything else was protected by long pants, a sun shirt, and a sun hat.

In Harriman State Park, I came across a cool stone canal. I suspect it was pretty old, maybe related to old logging operations.

Nearby, there was so old equipment half-buried in the ground, so I suspect that just provides evidence in favor of the logging theory.

Also in that area was the infamous Lemon Squeezer. This section of the AT had two rocks very close together. I ran into a group right beforehand. They took one look at me and said that I was going to want to take off my pack before going into the Lemon Squeezer. I said that I thought I could make it through, as my pack is relatively small compared to most backpacking packs. That was a mistake. About halfway through, I realized that I was stuck and needed to take the pack off. Once I did so, I made it through the rest of the Lemon Squeezer without too much trouble. It was definitely a highlight of the trail, though.

As I continued on, I came to a family who were out hiking. There was a father, mother, young boy, and younger girl. The kids were absolutely fascinated with all of my backpacking gear. The young boy kept telling me about his hiking stick, and wanted to know about shelters. The girl had her mother's phone, and insisted that we all take a picture together. The parents asked if I was okay with it, and I said "Sure, why not?" Thus, some random family in New York has a selfie with Hawk.

I arrived at Fingerboard Shelter around 3 PM, but I already knew that I had no intention of staying. William Brien Shelter was just another five miles on, and I could easily make five miles and still have plenty of daylight left at the end of the day. I pressed on.

A little later, I came across a log with a strange pink color. I'm not sure what caused it, but it was pretty cool.

After that, I found a new bridge that was under construction. Unfortunately, it wasn't done yet, so I had to use the old bridge, which paled in comparison. You can see a picture of both bridges side-by-side below.

Finally, I made it to William Brien Memorial Shelter. This was an old stone shelter, which is one of the few times I have stayed in one of those.

The shelter supposedly had a well for a water source, but it was low and disgusting. Thus, I needed to travel 0.4 miles almost straight downhill to the alternative water source, and then uphill to come back. That was a pain in the neck, but it did get me over 20 miles for the day.

There were a lot of bugs, and I thought about setting up my tent to avoid them. However, they weren't quite as bad inside the shelter, so I figured I could deal. As I was setting up, I discovered something. Apparently my battery pack doesn't charge my mattress pump. I'm not sure why, but I tried several times and it just wouldn't work. That greatly reduces the value of the mattress pump, and I may just go back to the pump sack for trips longer than one night.

This was the first shelter that I have ever stayed at that had bear hooks, which were a cool feature. They're basically just easier to use bear lines. Probably not quite as effective as bear boxes, although given some of the bear boxes I have seen, maybe I'm wrong about that.

The only other people staying near the shelter were two Australian thru hikers. I found out the next day that they were called Badger and Beta. They seemed to really hate bugs, as I almost never saw them without head nets on, and they basically spent the entire night in their tent. Still, they seemed nice, although I was a bit disappointed that they chose not to use the bear hooks, as the shelter had a sign that said there was bear activity in the area. In some ways, it was an ideal evening for me, as I am always most comfortable if I have a lot of shelter space to myself, but still have people nearby.

After this, there was only one more day to go in my journey, and thanks to pushing to the Brien Shelter, it was going to be a considerably easier hike on my last day. Until next time, always remember that you can't take flight until you spread your wings.