Aug 4th, east of Walton, NY

Aug 4 Wed Bivouac

While hiking out of town, I was going up a long steep road hill, I stopped and did my resting position, leaning on my walking sticks, and a man stopped his car and asked if I was ok. Told him I was resting, and that I was coming down the home stretch on an end-to-end FLT hike. He wished me well. Over the whole trip, I have had 3 people make sure I was ok when I was resting. Got to the Horse Camp, which is a very nicely arranged and put together camp for horse activities. It would have been a very nice bivouac location, but I got there at 12 noon, so decided to continue. I found handfuls of blackberries on the trail this afternoon. Two very long and steep climbs this afternoon. According to the map, they were 1000 ft of vertical climb. I found my energy was good, though at the end of the day I was really tired. I saw the black bear calling card on trail in several places. It was clear that they were eating blackberries just like me. It is my estimation that had I started the hike from E to W, these hills would have taken me out, and at this point I have not gotten to the really high MT's. The high mountains are coming up next. According to the map, I was 2-3 miles from the little community of Corbett when I saw a little spring. I decided to make camp in part because I was really tired after the long climbs and in part because it was getting late. As I study the maps, it looks like water will be a real issue in the mountains over the next few days. It is clear that I like black berries and that the bears like black berries. I like Lipton dinners, it is probable that Mr. Bear will like Lipton dinners -- I hung my food bag high in the tree before going to bed. About 1 am, I was awakened by thunder and lightening to the south west of me. I got up and anchored the large tarp over the tent. Somewhere around 2 or 3 am it started to rain rather hard. I stayed warm and dry.