Day 102
We were so ready to stay at the Murray Property forever, but we had a destination today - Vernon, NJ for a hostel with laundry and showers included in your donation! We left the Murray property just before 8 and walked the easy 0.8 miles to Unionville, NY. We found a grocery store that was open with real coffee and decently-priced snack food, so we stopped there for a bit. Ran into Leggs and Trekking Pole there also. The three of us then headed down to the Wallkill Game Preserve for a hot walk around it in the blazing sun (see video from my last post). After that, we began our climb up Pochunk Mountain (which is an Indian word for “out of the way place”) and then took a lunch break before descending down onto the 0.8-mile long boardwalk, again in the blazing afternoon sun! We then crossed through a large field/swamp and then made it to NJ-94, our road into Vernon. If we went 0.1 miles west, we would be at Heaven Hill Farms, a magical place to say the least! We went in and saw a selection of ice cream, italian ice, fresh fruits, and juice drinks. We paid for our stuff an sat outside with Rocket, Skinny Rambo, and their friend. Sunkist and Roller also showed up and we all hung out under some umbrellas at picnic tables. We decided to try and hitch the 2.5 miles into Vernon and got picked up immediately by Anita. She tools us to the hostel and dropped us off. We got hot showers and started laundry before heading to A&P to resupply. On the way back to the hostel I must have forgotten how to walk in civilization because I tripped on the sidewalk and skinned up my hands and tore up my watch. Thankfully, I didn’t break anything and we headed back to the hostel for a good nights’ rest. The photo is of the long boardwalk just before Vernon, NJ. Tomorrow - New York!
Day 101
Today we are planning to do another big day so we can not only hang out at the beach, but camp at “the secret” shelter on Jim Murray’s farm! We started the day a little bit early, but with a climb up to Sunrise Mountain to the pavilion. There was an awesome breeze up top, but we had to keep moving to get our miles in. We took an early morning ( read - second breakfast) break at the Rutherford Shelter) and ran in to Sunkist, Roller, and Cheeba. We were all headed to the ranger station at High Point State Park to get free cold pop! We had quite a bit of undulation up to the station, but we got there about 12:30. After getting our free cold drinks, the five of us all headed to the beach at Lake Maria to hang out and eat greasy and overpriced concession stand food :) We found out there were showers there too. We rinsed out our sweaty and salty clothes and showered before leaving the beach around 5 pm. Trekking Pole was also at the beach, so he headed out with Nokey, Testament, and me. We headed up to the High Point Monument, the highest point in NJ, on a side trip before heading back the AT. The next five miles reminded me so much of VA I almost couldn’t believe we were still in NJ! We walked through many old farms and homesteads with tons of old stone walls, fence stiles for livestock, and fields. We pulled a ton of ticks off ourselves as well. By the time there was less than a mile to go, we walked across some old boardwalks and then through a field where a doe had two small fawns with her. We made it to the road to the Murray property around 7:05 and I waited for Cheeba and Testament at the junction. We walked together up to the cabin and met Nokey and Trekking Pole there. Sunkist, Roller, Rocket, and two section hikers i call ‘The A Team’ showed up as well. I took another shower to try and get rid of a terrible heat rash I have from my pack and then we all hung out on the beautiful farm. We technically were in NY now on his farm. Tomorrow, on to the church hostel in Veron, NJ! The photo is of the crew hanging out at ‘the secret shelter.’
Days 98 and 99
We slept in a bit since we had a comfy hotel room and planned to hike out the short 11 miles to the Mohican Outdoor Center in the afternoon. We checked out of the hotel at around 1 pm and headed up the street a little to the Village Bakery. Cheesy Turtle told us Testament had come in to town this morning, so we went up to the hostel to see him. We sat inside for a while and cameled up on water before we decided we wanted to stay and hike out with Testament in the morning. My only condition for that was that we hiked into New Jersey today so I could say I crossed the state line. The boys agreed so we went and got milk shakes and walked across the bridge on I-80 over the Delaware River into NJ. I was bummed there wasn’t a sign or anything, but it was okay I guess. THe church hostel did a hiker feed where the members brought potluck dishes and they cooked us hotdogs. It was a great time and really hospitable of them.
The next morning, I woke up at 6:30 to Testament bringing me a giant 24-oz coffee to get me out of bed. We drank out coffee and got out of town by 7:30. We did a quick walk uphill on an old roadbed and got up to Sunfish Pond in about 2 hours. It’s the first glacial pond formation we’ll see on our hike and it was absolutely beautiful! We took tons of photos and then climbed up to the summit of Kittatiny Mountain. We also saw five deer on our way up too, which I didn’t expect. It was a gorgeous summit on a bald that reminded me of the places we hiked in the south. We got down the hill to the MOC by noon and bought cold drinks before going swimming for the afternoon in Catfish Pond, another glacial pond. It was nice and cool, but not cold, and we spent the afternoon here before hiking back up the Rattlesnake Swamp trail (where we saw no snakes or swamps) back up to the AT. On the way up, we got to eat wild blueberries! We got up to the ridgeline in less than 20 minutes and came to an old firetower. We also ran into Sunkist and Roller up there too. The five of us walked together to Rattlesnake Spring and camped about 1/4 mile away at a nice campsite. We had to hang a bear bag for the first time since Shenandoah that night as well! Jersey has the highest concentration of black bears in the country and we don’t want to lose all our food here!
The photo is of the glacial lake, Sunfish Pond.
Day 100
We woke up this morning ready for a longer day, nearly 19 miles. We hadn’t done a day that long in a while! We immediately crossed a road and climbed up shortly to a ridgeline where we’d be walking for pretty much the entire morning. Testament was with Nokey and me and the three of us hung pretty close together most of the day. We climbed over three humps that were balds - it reminded me a lot of the hiking down south. When we got to the junction with Brink Road Shelter, the skies turned dark and it got windy. It started sprinkling, so I put on my pack cover. If you aren’t aware, putting on your pack cover is a sure way to get it to stop raining. Sure enough, it stopped! Nokey was hiking with Trekking Pole now and the two of them had taken off, so Testament and I were hiking together down into Branchville. Nokey and Trekking Pole got there first and went into Joe to Go. When we got there, the guy turned off the lights and locked the door. We headed to Gyp’s Tavern down the street for some greasy food and a cold drink. We followed all the ‘hiker rules’ on the numerous signs. We were treated very poorly and the bartender kept yelling how it wasn’t a campground and we can’t just drink water there. We were about to order food and Nokey, Testament, Cheeba, and Trekking Pole were about to get another round of beers. We decided they didn’t deserve any of our money, so we left. We went and sat in the woods at the base of Sunrise Mountain when some section hikers came by who were also at the Tavern. They said the bartender came over to their table and poured out their drinks. Never stop in Branchville, NJ! Anyway, after sitting for an hour and taking the break we wanted at the bar, we headed up the hill to the Culver Firetower and then on to the Gren Anderson shelter. We were happy to find a good spring there as water has been hard to come by lately. Hoping NJ can redeem itself tomorrow! We’ve seen so much wildlife (so many deer and rabbits!) and I’m looking forward to friendlier people tomorrow! The photo is Testament and Nokey taking a break during the morning.