Day 1

Distance: 4.68 mi | Elevation: 740 ft

Day 2

Distance: 4.0 mi | Elevation: 617 ft

The day started with Ivan and I heading over to Aidan’s house to rendezvous with Aidan and Raph. We arrive at 11AM to pack our bags and sort out the food situation as it would the first time we would be cooking on a trip. As we headed to the train station we quickly realized that we would need move with haste in order to make the train. When we left the apartment building Aidan realized that we were missing all of cooking wares. After retrieving those I was pressured to make it to Penn station on time. Luckily we were able to transfer over to the 2 train and made it in the nick of time. We met up with Spencer and hopped on the train.

The hike was a good one. The sun was beating down on us but with frequent water stops we made good time. When we finally set our eyes on Lake Skemonto we were filled with hope but we quickly realized that all of the campsites were already occupied by campers that seemingly arrived hours before. We walked around the shore of the lake checking each site only to be disappointed. Spencer found a suitable site but Ivan and I kept on going as we had some hope for an even better site. We walked about 10 minutes and I was losing hope but Ivan convinced us to go for one more and as we crested a hill we saw a beautiful grassy plateau that would hold the 4 tents that we had that day. I quickly gathered the group and led them to the new site.

We set up our tents and our hammocks and finally had a bit of rest and tranquility. The music was playing and we had the whole evening of cooking, eating and swimming in the lake ahead of us. We took some time to refill our water and wash off in the lake. After that we started a fire and began to prepare our meal of steak, potatoes and asparagus. We retreated to our tents for the evening and I personally had the best night sleep I’ve ever had outdoors.

The next morning we made some fantastic breakfast burritos and made our way over to the Lake to relax and play some cards. Slowly packing up camp the group thought about the great memories we had made over the course of the last day. We took the short way home and arrived back at the train station where we grabbed some sandwiches and played cards as we waited for our train to arrive.