Snap for photos. After 60 seconds, you will be returned to this page.

When I hike a trail, I prefer to minimum segments of at least 1609 clicks (Kilometers-1000 Miles) at a time. That's how I completed the Appalachian, Pacific Crest and Florida trails. My intention for '92 was to hike the NCT from Crown Point State Park, NY to White Cloud, MI. Didn't quite make it. On the trail April 22, Earth Day, at 08:30 AM, in a slight drizzle reached Crown Point, New York, to begin my hike. I'd gotten off AMTRAK, at Port Henry the previous evening, hiking down the road to within 1.6 clicks (1 mile) of the park. Note: the first store is right there. I tanked up on coffee and donuts that morning! Took photos of the point, and started west. By the afternoon I passed through the town of Crown Point Center (friendly folks at McCabes general store) and reached North Hudson Road. There I camped. Rain. 23 April: I couldn't find the trail that should head northwest from North Hudson Road, so I keep on the road till Johnson Pond Road, following it northwest. Rain. 24 April: Packed up in pouring rain, hiked into the town of North Hudson, stopping at McDonalds at the junction of Highways I-87 & 2B. The rain slacked off after two hours, so west on 2B I went. 25 April-26 April: Still on 2B, rain. The twenty-sixth was the first sunny day! At Newcomb, I got on the Santanoni horse trail heading northwest, toward Shattuck Clearing. Got there about 8 PM. First camp on an actual trail. The next morning I started south on the Northville-Placid Trail. Both trails were very muddy, and snow patches were everywhere. 27 April: Another sunny day. Crossed Highway 2B (4.8 clicks east of Long Lake Village) late in the day. The trail is 96 more clicks (60 miles) south from here to Piseco and Highway 8. About 3 clicks down the muddy trail was the first part of my shorter than usual hike. Starting up a ridge, the trail covered with a deep snowpack. I was sinking up to my hips in it. Well, one time I did a hard split "s", that's when I wrenched my right knee. I've fallen, but I did get up! Of course, I fell some more, this snowpack went on for 3 clicks. My knee was painful, but I hoped just for a while, as I still could walk. In another 2 clicks or so I reached Tracy Shanty clearing, it being completely flooded. Detouring around it, through more snow, I got to an area where there were big rocks next to a creek. I laid there about an hour, letting the sun soothe me. Reaching Tirrell Pond lean-to about 5 PM, I stopped for the day. 28 April - 2 May: Still hobbling along on the snowy, icy and muddy trail. Crossing a stream on the second, I slipped, hurting my knee again. Reached Piseco that day, hiking through a four hour downpour. 3 May: Reached Hoffmiester, on Highway 8, my first post office food drop. Ate a good meal, at the Bear Paw Inn. 4 May: Reached Noblesboro. Followed a rutted dirt road north to a snowmobile trail that heads northwest towards Atwell, From there I would take a road towards the town of Alder Creek. That trail was deep in snow. My knee still swollen, it was too painful to thread through. I backtracked to Highway 8. I figured if I went down it, and Highway 365, to Rome, my knee would take less pounding. 5-6 May: Left the border of Adirondack Park. Note: This year was its 100th anniversary. On the fifth, at Barneveld, I checked into a motel. First shower since the start, along with laundered clothes. Also had a new pair of boots priority mailed to Holland Patent, which I picked up on the sixth.

I got to Rome very late in the afternoon on the sixth . I confess! I took city buses through Rome as I didn't want any hassle by cops or anyone else. Seeing someone hiking through a city with a big backpack is not a common sight. I stopped at Fort Stanwix NM, then took a bus as close to Erie Canal Village as I could get. It was raining when I got there, but it stopped within the hour. Another trail at last, very flat and straight! Hiking some in moonlight, I covered 10 to 12 clicks. 7-8 May: My knee wasn't as swollen, the weather sunny. There are breaks along the towpath where you have to walk the highway sometimes, but there are interesting sights to see along it. Covering the 34 clicks, I got to Canastota the afternoon of the eighth. 9 May: What a change in the terrain! From flat to very hilly! The abandoned railroad the NCT is supposed to follow was overgrown, and I was told the bridges where not safe or missing. So I took roads, mainly Highway 13, to Cazenovia, my second food drop. 10-16 May: Got to the Onondaga Trail, west of Fabus. Then, south of Cuyler, the Finger Lakes Trail. These trails are quite up, down, up, down, and have road walking in many places. On the sixteenth I fell again, reinjuring my still sore knee. Lots of off and on rain, from drizzles to thunderstorms. Some sun, muddy, but no snow and ice. 17 May: I was near Ithaca, and decided to get off the trail there, as I found out there was no Greyhound out of Watkins Glen, my next food drop. As of this date I've hiked approximately 163 clicks on Finger Lakes Trail. 18 July: Got off the bus at Ithaca. My knee had healed after two months off the trail. Ready to try again! Hiked to and through Robert Treaman SP to the Connecticut Hill Wildlife Management Area. Rain. 19-20 July: Hiked past Cayuta Lake to a shelter in the Finger Lakes National Forest. Rain. On the twentieth I reached Watkins Glen State Park, hiking several clicks into it. Pouring rain that night into the morning. 21 July: The second part of my shorter than usual hike. Hiking a few more clicks that damp overcast morning, I had just descended some stone steps, and was climbing the trail, when I stepped on a short, slightly tilted, wet wooden walkway. My feet went from under me, and I crashed to the ground, my left wrist hitting first. Laying there, I knew the wrist was broken. Just before I fell, I had heard people noises off to my right through the woods. I figured someone might be camping there. Getting up, I went down the side of the hill through the woods to the noise. When I got there, it turned out to be a 4-H summer camp. A nurse was there. She drove me to the Schuyler County Hospital at Montour Falls. X-rays confirmed the wrist was broken. The way it had broken couldn't be set by the doctors there. I was put in an ambulance, and taken to St. Joseph's Hospital in Elmira. My wrist in a cast, I took a bus towards home. My arm was in a cast for at least eight weeks - and I'm left-handed. My shorter than usual hike. Only about 563 clicks (350 miles) on the NCT.

Hike to Part 2 of 4

<BGSOUND SRC="stamp.wav">