S. of Wildcat shelter 4Sep05 Day 80

Last night was a late night and this morning was an early start. We all got up at 6:00 with the hopes of doing 26 miles. Alas my legs and feet could not handle it. By 8:00 I had just barely did the 14.3 miles between shelters. There was no way I could press on another 12 miles. Unfortunately, NY is in a drought state so ALL the brooks are bone dry and the streams are barely trickles. Some times people leave gallon jugs of water by the roads. So Wildcat was bone dry and I could not stay. I ended up going into town with D-Spo and Pokey for supper, water and a rest. We then came back and night hiked in about 1 mile. I am cowboy camping tonight. My feet are sore and tired but at least I am not in as much pain as I was last night. The pain was running up my legs to the point that I had to take some Tylenol to dull the ache so I could sleep. Tomorrow is labour day and I can hear party noise coming up from town.

Since NY is so dry, we have been forced to carry much more water than mornal. I generally carry about 1.5 liters but now I carry almost 3 liters and try to fill up any time I have the chance. One trick is to drink as much as possible at the source then carry as much as you can. Tomorrow I will be out of NY so I hope NJ is better. I think it will be similar as we are following the NY-NJ border.