Day 119: Field Trip Day to the Zoo

Today was like a field trip for Becca and me. And why not, there seemed to be a few dozen different groups having similar field trips along the way.

Our first trip of the day was up.to  Bear Mountain Observatory, and though the views were fine, we still had no view of NYC as the fog had not yet lifted from the Hudson Valley. However, we did see a picture of the view one might see on a clear day, and NYC was tiny anyways. Views of NYC from the AT are probably overrated anyway. There were lots of groups up there.for their own field trips. Middle aged men in lycra biking suits complaining about how the steep climb seemed.to be endless... until it ended. Fundamentalist Muslims with women wearing black robes completely covering themselves despite the 90 plus degree weather and humidity. And day hikers that didn't seem to want to hike the trails, but curiously asked us how they might be able to just drive to wherever the trails went. Lots of field trips.

From bear mountain we descended into the Harriman state park inn where we got ice cream from the "Hikers Cafe." We didn't feel like paying $5 for a bottle of beer though, so we moved on. Outside, on the banks of Hessian lake, dozens of groups of elementary school aged kids were ending their lunch picnics. We got really crappy concession stand food and ate while they filtered over to the pool.

On our way to our next field trip event, the trail side zoo, we passed the big pool that was just saturated with bobbing screaming kids. I was kinda jealous, but we had to move on.

The trail side zoo was kinda cool, but kinda sad. It was sad because the animals are rehab animals. A 3 legged fox losing its hair, birds with broken wings, etc. But we finally got to see a bear, and I don't know know why it was broken, but it looked pretty happy chillin in its pool even though it was surrounded by vultures. One particularly amazing exhibit, the utility pole... ?

After the zoo, we walked over the Hudson River and back up the mountains, eventually finding our way to a convenience store with a deli where we ate dinner. This was supposed to be our resupply, but once again, AWOL has screwed us by putting a misleading symbol on a glorified gas station. Appalachian Market my ass.

We ended the day with a few more miles to walk to the baseball field of the greymoor spiritual life center, a Franciscan Convent / monastary. It was a sweet place to camp and we chilled with about 8 other hikers.

Day 118: A city in the mist

After our Valero Food Mart breakfast, it took almost an hour to get a hitch the 2.5 miles back to the trail.

The trail, for yet another day, was gorgeous rocky steep mountains that just take it out of us. Luckily our solution to the precarious mileage problem has us only at about 13 miles today.

At the end of our hike we first went up black mountain, where we were supposed to get the best views of NYC. Unfortunately an hour earlier the storm clouds had.come in and at the top all we could see were the mist covered ridges of the nearest mountains. Yet another appalachian fa... but wait what's that? We could barely make.out the Hudson River and then maybe saw some towers.that looked like smokestacks. The mist covering the city only 30ish miles to the south was rising. And as soon as the process was started, a new cloud came to our mountain, this time with lightning amd the rumbles of thunder. Ok, we probably shouldn't wait to see if NYC shows its face on this exposed.mountain top with an incoming lightning cloud. So yes, appalachian fail.

By the time we were going up the next.mountain the rain had passed.and the setting sun was beginning to throw out golden filtered light through the thinning clouds on the horizon that sparkled in the wind blown wisps of water coming off the tree leaves. Poetic huh? It was beautiful. We were rewarded with clear views of the sun setting behind a distant storm cell after our climb to the ridgeline.

We crossed a road saying NYC was 34 miles away, and though we can hear cars from our tent, the mountains are somehow still enchanting. I really like this NY NJ section of the AT.

Day 117: NY, I love you but you're Killin us

Another fantastic but very challenging day of hiking. In fact, we only were able to hike 12 miles in about 9 hours. The extreme humidity didn't help. The predicted thunderstorms seemed to just evaporate into the hot air and cause more humidity. Also, many of the water sources were dried up or gross. This is a well known NY trail fact, and at nearly every trail crossing trail angels had placed water caches. One even had some beer. One could argue that this makes the trail too easy, less wild. I don't know how I feel yet, but I do know I feel grateful for the concerned hiking community here in NY.

At the top of the steep down around mile 12 for the day, we realized that our mileage plans would put us at a very precarious point in the next few days unless we took some intentionally short days. But the topography of the area and the shelter spacing are also precarious. So where would we sleep?

Serendipitously, Wings crested the hill during our conversation and informed us of a trail angel she met that could take the 3 of us to a cheap motel at the bottom of this very hill. Perfect timing. Thanks PattieO.

Now, instead of awaiting a severe thunderstorm in our tent, we are watching Harry Potter, eating pizza and having another new east coast IPA at a motel that seems to love tiny jockeys holding lamps. 

Day 116: Turning it up a notch in NY

Sleeping at the church was great and it was right by a burger king, so we went to our first non subway fast food meal for some deep fried french toast sticks. Worth it.

The hike up and out was fantastic, on well maintained trail that though steep, seemed to just flow. Becca said it made her feel like a zenlike Tai Chi master.

The trail on top was perfect. Beautiful forest, winding all over, and rolling terrain. At least for a while. Soon we were on a rock ridgeline going up and down steep steps that kill our knees. At least its not the ankle turning feet bruising rocks of PA.

Upon the rocky ridgeline, we crossed into NY! And as with PA and NJ, the first NY water source we were counting on was shitty, in fact, it was dry.

At the end of the day we ran into an awesome trail magic stash, 4 Coolers stocked with ice cold sodas. Then, just 0.2 down the road, we went to another awesome ice creamery. A perfect end to a challenging and beautiful day.

Day 113: More Jersey

Not much to report. Its the same jersey trail, but today is a little less hot and shitty.

This morning while drinking our coffee at a beautiful vista, which we only went to because we had to get up and out of mosquito pitlandia, we were told by Trial and Error that there was a deli right off the trail just a few miles away. We had forgotten this deli stop! So we downed our crappy coffee substitute and headed for the real thing.

Luckily, this reported deli had just been reopened a week ago. Phew. No appalachian fail today. We got breakfast sandwiches and coffees and the also loaded up on subs and sodas for later. Becca however couldn't wait and ate her sub right away. At the awesome old Ccc shelter up on a mtn top where we ate lunch, we finished off the 2 subs I bought.

At the deli we met a trail angel who is helping hikers immensely by dropping off spring water at a shelter, 22 gallons at a time. Given NJs water situation, this act is just heroic. And we definitely appreciated it when we reached the shelter and got to fill up.

I ended the day with a different appalachian fail. I threw my bear line and rock bag into a branch area that got it irretrievably stuck. I tried over and over to throw the line back over to change the angle and get it unstuck, but I ended up just making it worse. All brute force did was give me a big blister on my finger, right where my hand grips my hiking pole.

Day 112: NJ

Though our zero at the Colonel's was amazing, we needed to sleep in to recover from it.

The rocks have yet to subside and the weather is finally beginning to act like Summer. Unfortunately in the times when we want to drink a lot of water, many of the sources are gross with tannins and the sulfurous smell of muddy decaying leaf piles. Or they might be outlets of moss covered beaver ponds. Yuck. We went 17 miles in order to sleep by a nice spring, and the the water was fantastic, we descended the trail to the shelter into a pit of mosquitoes, and for some reason there were about 20 14 year olds too. So we watered up and got the hell back up to the ridgeline.

Day 115 : the garden state

More great hiking today on the way to Vernon NJ. We hiked for a few miles around a wetlands preserve and over super long boardwalks amd then up into the mountains with more gorgeous paths. We planned to end the day by resulting in vernon amd then hiking back out.

At the junction to the town we stopped in at heavenly hill farmstand where I got to pick up a new pair of chacos and get some ice cream. It only took asking one couple to hitch a ride into town and they dropped us off at a grocery store. It was exactly 5 oclock and I decided to try to hit the post office in order to send my old chacos in to be restrapped. They were just locking the door. so while I looked bewildered.in the lobby looking at how to get my shoes in the mail at the diy stand, the employees reopened amd saying they felt.sorry for the poor hiker they stayed a few minutes later to rush me through the mailing process.

After the resupply we were kinda sapped and not looking forward to a late evening climb with unknown camping options. So we walked into town and checked into the church hostel in town.

Day 114: Off the rocks?

Today was awesome. Well, it started out rocky and crappy, but when we got to highpoint state park, everything changed.

Though awol had said that the highpoint park hq had vending machines, we were super disappointed to arrive to a building with none. But!, the Rangers inside said the local hiking club provides a fridge full of free sodas for thru hikers! Booyakasha!

Then, more great news from our descent off the high point memorial (yet another giant phallus) ridge. An elder hiker told me that this ridgeline we were hiking down was the end of a particular geological Era that was a coastline turned quartzite. These were the sharp unyielding rocks we had been hiking over since about Duncannon. But now the AT was heading over to a different, older geological era, the Precambrian. This, supposedly means less rocks.

On the way down, this news turned out to be seemingly true. We are now hiking in lowlands though, so we will see when we hit the next ridge.

For lunch, we hit up what is known as secret shelter. An unofficial shelter on private land. Unfortunately, we did not get to meet the owner, but we hear he is awesome and after he throughiked a long time ago he decided to just move right next to the AT and buy an 80 acre farm. The place was gorgeous.  I think he made the right life choice.

In the late afternoon we crossed a road and realized it led 0.5 miles to a bar. Ok, let's go get dinner. AWOL says they have great ribs.

we sat at the bar asking about prices for different beers and pretty much immediately a guy told us to get whatever we wanted, he got the first round. Then we ordered food and talked to our new beer buddy until the owner of the bar out of the blue came up to us and suggested we sit at the table on the back corner of the room. Hell be happy to bring our food and get us drinks there. We are pretty sure this was his way of saying y'all stink like rotten cheese, please go away. So we obliged. Later as the bar became packed with locals, and the owner talked up his ribs with us, we decided his intentions may have been a little less rude, that instead he was just making sure his friends and regulars had their bar stools available.  Whatever, we were happy in the corner taking in the scene and playing big buck hunter. A few days later, now that I'm writing this, we found out the same thing happened to other hikers, but the person was less nice about it, saying that other people had to be able to actually eat.

Eventually we realized we were not hiking out of town tonight, so we better go buy beer at t he store before they close and set up camp in the city park, which is hiker friendly. At the park, we drank beers with the main town employee, sorta a handy man for an entire township. He was fantastic and had apparently been instrumental in getting the town to be so hiker friendly. We finished the night with Becca riding the merry go round with some teen girls. Kinda ridiculous day huh?

We love Unionville NY.

Day 111: Jersey, Baby!

Goodbye Pennsylvania, parting is such sweet sorrrr..Oh sweet baby Jesus, thank the lord we are out of Pennsylvania!

Once again, we want to thank the Colonel for his amazing trail magicianry. We had homemade breakfast this morning and then went back to the trail with two bags of fresh baked cookies. I just ate an entire bag while writing this. The Colonel dropped us off in town, and then slackpacked us a mile down the highway. While we walked, he got a pizza and met us at the picnic area by the river. AMAZEBALLS! He is the bestest.

On the way over the Delaware river, we stepped over the NJ stateline. What does this mean for our overburdened bodies? Less rocks? Let's all pray to His Holy Meatballed Noodleness that hovers majestically above us all that the rocks subside.

Oh yeah, we passed mile 1300 today!

Also, everyone in the world should use the dry rub below for making the best Pork carnitas evvarr.