Just finished a section hike from Port Clinton, PA to I-87 in New York (southern end of Harriman State Park). From what I'd read I thought the rocks would be worst in PA, then things would get a bit easier in NJ and NY. This turned out to be completely false. The trail in New Jersey was every bit as rocky as in northern PA. Even so, I still managed to get through the state in 5 days, which is about 14 MPD.

I camped about a mile south of the NJ/NY state line, then woke up to fog and light rain the next morning. From just south of the state line going north for about 4 miles, the trail was surprisingly very difficult, to the point of being downright scary. Lots of scrambling up and down slippery, wet rocks, including climbing using hands and having to sit and slide on my bottom. It kind of reminded me of Dragon's Tooth or some of the boulder scrambles in PA, but those were all fairly short, and this one just kept going and going. It took me about 3 1/2 hours to do those 4 miles.

Thankfully, the next few miles around NY 17A were easy, and after a couple of hot dogs at the roadside stand I managed to keep going and even did the short but also tough scrambles over Eastern Pinnacles and Cat Rocks. I camped about 2 miles north of Wildcat Shelter, which was only 11 miles for the day but it felt tougher than most of my 15 mile days.

But I wasn't done yet - the next day I had only 9 miles to my pickup point north of I-87 where my shuttle driver was meeting me at 2 pm. Those were some tough miles! Lots more really steep trail over rocks and scrambling using hands. I started at 7:30, which should have given me more than enough time but I didn't reach my destination until 1:50 and I was pretty tired by that point. If I had been continuing north, I would have needed to get off the trail here for a couple days first.

I have some questions for those that have hiked southern NY and north of there. 1) My guess is that the AT through Harriman is probably just as tough as what I just finished, but what about the rest of the state? 2) Should I dial back my daily mileage expectations going north from I-87? 3) Why is it that PA gets all the hype in terms of rocks and rugged terrain yet I've heard next to nothing about this even more difficult stretch? 4) In terms of ruggedness, how does this section compare to New Hampshire and Maine? (I know the climbs and descents are longer, but is the physical terrain even more difficult than this section?)