On the way up to McCanes two very friendly men stopped and offered us a ride past the closed trailhead and up to Blue Mountain Lake.  We declined as we had permission to access the trail and planned on staying at Stephens Pond, but it drove home the point of this very unfortunate land ownership issue.  Without this stretch of trail there is simply no feasible way to complete a thru-hike.  Hopefully the DEC can re-route this portion of the trail in the near future.

A few miles in from McCanes, after crossing back over to state land, we hit what can only be described as a misplaced pond.  I am not sure if this was due to beaver activity or just the wet summer... but the entire trail was flooded and washed away for a stretch of about 100 feet.  There was no way around it (believe me I looked) and so we took off our boots and waded across.  At its deepest, the water came up to about mid thigh on me.  Warm, muddy, disgusting water.  I was glad to be on the other side.

I remember Stephens Pond as being a very tranquil, but very wild place.  And when a 3 foot long snake crawled up between my legs while I sat on a rock, I was reminded just how wild it is.

Boy, did I screw up today.  So much for being Zen.  Somehow I managed to drop my digital camera in a puddle as I was pumping water.  The thing is dead.  But at this point I couldn’t care less about the camera; it’s the memory card I’m worried about.  It survived lunch on Wakely Dam, but it can’t survive me pumping water.  I’m sick about it. 

Aside from that, today was good … long, but good.  We got through the toughest part, which was the long paved section from Carry Lean-to to Stephen’s Pond.  The blacktop is absolute murder on the feet.  At Dave’s suggestion I took my boots off and hiked in my Teevas.  Probably not a good idea unless you have killer blisters.  The sandals didn’t provide nearly enough support for carrying a full pack, but I was in so much pain by that point that it didn’t make a whole lot of difference. 

A couple of nice guys stopped to try and give us a lift to McCane’s property, but we declined after they assured us that the trail was “just around the next bend”.  Well, the next bend turned into 4 or 5 bends, and we began to regret that we did not accept the half-mile lift.  Oh well.  We made it to McCane’s in one piece, but only after some good natured heckling by some locals. 

We had been warned by the lady at Hamilton Lake Stream that this section was very muddy … it didn’t disappoint.  At one section the water came up to mid-thigh and there was no way around it.  No choice but to wade on through.  Kind of fun, though I don’t think Dave enjoyed wading through the slime.  At that point I continued on ahead while Dave took his time putting his boots back on.  The trail wound through a pretty heavily wooded section and as I walked I heard some rustling above me and to my left.  At first I paid it no attention, thinking it was nothing, just another sound in the woods.  But I soon realized it had to be something in order to make such a ruckus.  I stopped and peered into the tops of the trees just in time to see a bear scamper down and make his escape.  What a thrill!  I was awestruck, but then realized that I had seen a juvenile and quickly scanned the woods for Mama Bear.  Thank goodness she was nowhere to be found.  And, I must admit, I was pretty relieved to note that the little guy had wanted as little to do with me as I did with him.  I waited a while for Dave to come up the trail, hoping to share the experience with him, but by the time he caught up there was no sign of the beast.  Although my heart was still racing.