NCT / FLT Weekend

Lots of hiking this weekend. Used a daypack on Saturday and drank all 3L of water. My Pesto Chicken & Pesto MRE was actually good. The cherry cobbler was okay. I started at the Sugar Hill Fire Tower and made it just past Julie's Crossing down near the Watkins Glen State Park.

First I went from Sugar Hill towards Watkins Glen...


Then I stopped for a break and had a Chicken Pesto Pasta MRE. Also had the cherry cobbler. The oatmeal cookie & breadsticks were gross, though.

In the morning I finished the rest of the trail from Sugar Hill to FLT map M14 access point #1. The scrambled eggs tasted okay, but man, they sure didn't come out well.


Finally I walked around some of the gorge and found the point where the FLT intersects with route 329.


My R knee was swollen before I started and this didn't help it much. On the brighter side, I made it. I wore a knee brace and it wasn't that hard but there were a few times when I had to take it really easy. The trail was well marked - didn't really need the map but it was great for swatting bugs away from my ears.  The hardest part was Julie's Crossing as the trail was obscured. On the way back I actually went in circles once before finding it. There were also some parts east of Vanzandt Hollow Road that needed to be adjusted where it fell off the cliff due to erosion.

At night I had a nice set up with a hammock and a rain fly. It was good at first, but then it got wicked windy and rainy - I had to get up a few times to resecure the stakes and tighten the string. I tossed and turned a bit, but was still more comfortable than in a tent. I wasn't sleeping that well, but I was resting okay starting at 9pm.

Then a group of people came in around 10 and decided to start setting up camp. They didn't shut up until 4am. Eventually I even got some water in my hammock somehow and ended up going into the car at 5am. I then slept until 9:30.

So as of the weekend (20.61 miles) I now have 23.29 miles towards the challenge - almost halfway towards the 50, so now I think I can seriously look towards the 100 challenge.