Called Again by Jennifer Pharr Davis & Pharr Davis

Author:Jennifer Pharr Davis & Pharr Davis
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Beaufort Books
Published: 2013-11-12T22:00:00+00:00

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A CHANGE OF CREW

JULY I, 2011—JULY 6, 2011

I like New York—the cannoli, the pizza, the bagels. And I like the trail in the Empire State. It feels almost sneaky to hike a wild and scenic trail a mere thirty miles from one of the most densely populated metropolitan areas in the United States. I mean, how can something so precious remain hidden from so many people?

However, after my first twenty-four hours in New York, nothing about the state was how I had remembered it. It was now a rainy Fourth of July weekend. The storm made the rocks and mud on the trail extremely slick, and the upcoming holiday created sound effects similar to a war zone. For three straight days, brilliant displays of fireworks filled the night sky, and the daytime assault of firecrackers scared away all of the songbirds. I continued to smell hikers and campsites hidden off the trail throughout the entire state of New York. But instead of cooked food or citronella, it seemed like every tent and shelter that I passed smelled like marijuana.

Though my experience hiking through New York was not how I remembered it, our friend New York Steve was exactly the same. He came out to help us and brought enthusiasm, encouragement, and homemade goodies from his wife Maryellen.

New York Steve is a trail-record junkie. He helped David Horton on his trail record in 1991; he helped Andrew Thompson on one of his first attempts in 2003; and in 2008, when Brew and I established the women’s record, New York Steve was there to help with that, as well. He was my trail companion for part of the day, and he made sure Brew was well fed and taken care of the rest of the time.

New York Steve was fun and he was a great ultra-runner, but he was not a hiker or a backpacker. And Brew and I both knew he did not camp. Instead, at the end of the day, he would place his daypack inside his luxury SUV and drive back to his house, which was fifteen minutes away from Bear Mountain State Park. In 2008, he told us that his evening ritual consisted of sitting in his outdoor hot tub while sipping a strawberry daiquiri, then rinsing off in a long hot shower. After that he would enjoy a delicious meal prepared by his wife and eventually fall asleep on his Tempur-Pedic mattress.

On our last hike, after two days of hearing about how nice his house was and what a great cook his wife was, Brew and I stopped one late afternoon near Canopus Lake to visit Steve’s house and test all of his amenities.

Everything was just as wonderful as he had described it. But something struck me while sitting in the hot tub, sipping a daiquiri made with fresh local strawberries. This felt too good, too easy, to be taking place on a trail record.

This time around, when New York Steve first arrived to help

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