6/20/06 Tuesday: Vernon, NJ to Fitzgerald Falls, NY (19.2mi)

PICTURES:
1. 1339: State Line NY/NJ... Phoned Jackie and had lunch with some nice views...
2. 1426: Views of Greenwood Lake all day... This is one of the nicer views..
3. 1456: Some lovely summer wildflowers along the trail.
4. While rock hoping almost ran into this guy sunning himself... always got to be on your toes out here...;)
5. 1727: Views of the NY countryside once the lake had passed...
6. 1825: Reached the falls and decided to take a pic at the base before the rather steep ascent..
7. 1826: Thats Sven and Tailwind climbing up the trail besides the falls.. Nice camp spots up above the falls...

The weather system that brought last nights T-storms really eased the temps and reduced the humidity today... I went to breakfast at 0700, and had a nice meal next door to the church... I hooked back up with Sven and Tailwind and we all headed out to the gas station hoping to get a ride the 2.5mi back to the trail... Well, our ride wasnt there so our next option, LOL, our only other option was to hitch... We lined up, clean looking and hoped for the best... 45min later we finally were picked up by a high school kid who had noticed us from a different auto service station, went home with his small car to get his Dads pick-up to take us all to the trail... What a nice gesture and we all thanked him for his kindness and generosity... A nice way to start the day.. We had a long climb ahead but not too steep and nothing too eventful planned for the day... Ten miles into the trip I took a snack break and phoned Jackie from the NJ/NY border... Our best view of the day came late in the afternoon from the NY side with multiple views of Greenwood Lake and the surrounding community... A little later we crossed a road and encountered a sign for an ice cream parlor .2mi away.... Well you dont just pass by something like that...LOL...so off I went and met up again with my 2 Army friends along with 2 other hikers from the hostel. I took an hours break and three of us again struck out for our final 4mi to the falls... There were a few more vistas from the Eastern Pinnacles a mile from the parlor, and 2 miles later we came across the falls and decided to camp above them... There were some nice camping spots up there and we soon set up our tents, made our meals, and retired for the night...