New York
My home state! This is a train station right off of route 9. It goes into NYC once a week. We didn't go because we were to busy hiking big miles!
New York was nice, but a real pain to walk through. There weren't big climbs, just a lot of up and down. Icky and I were setting a good pace. We were hanging out with Backdraft and Walkabout for a while. There was also another guy named "Muto" (pronounced M-YOU-TOE) He was this real weird dude that wore a mechanics shirt and a hat like Gilligan. We think he was in love with Backdraft, but that's another story.
Here's a shot of Backdraft with Icky and Walkabout in the background. One thing that stands out in my mind in NY is "Agony Grind". Icky and I were hiking, and we were getting pretty close to Tuxedo. (A town in NY) For some reason, the trail was kicking our butts all day and if that weren't enough, the trail was going straight up in some places... I mean like a hand over hand climb! Finally when we were real close to the road, we saw a sign that says "A.T. via Agony Grind" and that meant we took a tough side trail as opposed to the "regular" A.T. That side trail kicked our asses even more and we were pissed! Tired and Hungry, we spent the last bit of energy we had screaming obscenities and throwing rocks at the sign! We never hit it On the plus sign, a state trooper gave us a ride into town after threatening to take us in for Hitchhiking! We got a room that night and we watched the Negotiator with Walkabout (Who showed up in town later)
The next day, my wife met up with us and we slackpacked into Bear Mountain. Lori had a barbeque set up for us when we got there! Food attracts hikers like crap attracts flies, so when we showed up, Pigpen, Mr. Daisy and Philth were eating our food. Good thing Lori brought enough! The hiking was tough because it was real hot. There were lots of wild fires that you could see from the tops of the mountains. Also, one of the helicopters that were spraying water on the fires came so close to us, I could have hit it with my leki (hiking stick)
Another cool thing in NY is that the A.T. actually goes through a zoo after bear mountain. We went through the zoo, then went over bear mountain bridge (The last time we saw Muto) and then up another steep pointless climb ... on to the next state!