Delaware Water Gap to Connecticut

In which I become a bear magnet

Day 101

Today was the summer solstice, so I decided to get up early to see the sunrise from the fire tower. While I can tolerate early mornings, this is not my preferred long term schedule, and I thrive with more sleep than many people. So up I climb into the wind above treeline, I see it, it's lovely, and I crawl back into my tent for a quick 20 minute nap/snooze button equivalent.

I think the colors and clouds look way better than the night before

All of the sudden, I hear snuffling and the rustling movement of a large creature and immediately conclude BEAR. I am up and standing outside my tent in a flash. A bear wanders up the hill, crossing the far edge of the campsite clearing about 30 yards from me. It doesn't seem too interested in me or too bothered by me shouting, mostly passing through.

I'm wide awake now. I wonder at my luck and have time to put my jacket on in the morning chill when THE BEAR RETURNS. Unless other bears have pale/blonde/bald patches on their left butt, the same bear managed to circle around and come from the original direction. I was able to get a quick photo this time showcasing the bear and my properly stored food (which it didn't seem to sniff at). It actually got closer than this, but I was focused on action, not documentation. Again, not particularly interested or bothered by me or my food, but clearly enough to visit a second time.

My food bag is printed with a picture of a bear and the phrase "reach for your dreams"

Thoroughly on edge, I started playing music out loud and singing along while I packed up camp with my head on a swivel.

My hiking time passed relatively uneventfully. I enjoyed the great views from this ridgeline. Other thru hikers have described New Jersey as "surprisingly beautiful", and I think that's because the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area is so so different than the rest of the state.

Second fire tower was less impressive 

One of the other hikers at camp tonight was a fellow Dartmouth alum, hiking the trail in his retirement. Several of us chose to sleep in the shelter because of a possible overnight rain. It's dark and I was just starting to fall asleep, when the hiker next to me shouted. Given my morning and recent bear sightings, I also yelled by reflex and sat up ready for a fight. This was only a raccoon, though a nuisance one as described by other recent visitors. It was ready to walk right into the shelter among our sleeping selves and get up to shenanigans. The hiker was sitting propped up on his elbows, watching the racoon walk closer, and only yelled when it made it to the top step.

Does the state of New Jersey assume you can't read?

Day 102

Amidst a light morning drizzle, trail magic walked into camp in the form of a local man armed with water jugs and toilet paper. He also shared knowledge about the upcoming trail; while we can read maps and Far Out app comments until we're blue in the face, feedback in person remains valuable.

Kind of irrelevant, but I was listening to a podcast about wilderness firefighters when I climbed this peak. Cool stone lodge but no camping allowed.

The highlight of the day was the High Point of New Jersey (see what I did there?). It has a dedicated state park and monument. There's a travel/hiking checklist where people visit the highest point in all 50 states, and I've heard from a "high pointer" that they vary considerably. Obviously, mountain tops are cool, and some are more developed or well travelled than others. For flatter states, it might be a sign at an intersection (hi Delaware). See my first ever blog post for details about Rhode Island's tallest point.

Just my luck, I SAW ANOTHER BEAR. This makes 4 bears in less than 1 week. At least this time it ran off right quick.

No bonus stairs for me today, though normally I'm the type to climb towers

I stayed at what was called the Secret Shelter, an enclosed small cabin on private land adjacent to trail. Joining me were Rodeo, a woman from Texas who I shared camp with last night as well, and a couple Scott and Jo from New Zealand. They had started the PCT this year but like many were turned off by the record snowpack. They're not the first people I've met who came to the AT as a backup.

Day 103

Official wetland nature preserve

This morning I was overcome by bunnies. It was actually along a 2 mile road walk through a neighborhood. I probably saw a dozen rabbits - so cute. The trail also circumnavigates a wetland nature preserve, which was a very chill flat stretch full of birds.

I was only two feet away from this fluff ball

I hiked the New Jersey boardwalk today, a 2 mile section of trail with built elevated boardwalks over wetland marsh. It was going pretty well until it started raining, yet I was still swarmed by mosquitoes. Spirits were lifted, however, when the trail crossed a road just past a farm stand with bakery and ice cream. So my lunch was ice cream, potato chips, and apple strudel.

These are normal board walks over isolated swampy areas

Unfortunately, I ended up skipping over a fun side trip to a drive in movie theater that allows hikers to tent on site. With another rain storm in the evening and overnight and an unclear weather policy, I opted to stay in a shelter.

This was the fancy boardwalk

Day 104

Into the morning rain, I hiked into New York. Unfortunately, New York appears to be full of ridges with smooth slabs of exposed bedrock covered in lichen. It was not fun slipping and sliding in the rain since my shoes have no tread left after Pennsylvania rocks. I took a few falls but no injury, thankfully.

New Jersey is done

After a shorter day of only 10 miles, I stayed at a hostel in Greenwood Lake. But not before a quick trailside ice cream stop. Laundry, shower, and food work wonders. Plus by late afternoon it was warm and sunny enough to dry out tents and things.

Day 105

Beautiful rock squeeze

It didn't rain too much during the day, but the wet trail was still tricky at times. There were many hand over hand scrambles today. While the total change in elevation didn't look too intimidating at first glance, it definitely required focus and often putting the trekking poles away so I could use handholds in the rock (or a convenient tree, in which case I thanked it for being where it was).

The AT intersects with New York's Long Path, which goes north south most of the state

I mentioned that I rarely feel acute risk while hiking. One exception to that is road walks and road crossings. People often tell nervous hikers that they are at greater risk driving to the trailhead than hiking. American infrastructure in general is not designed for pedestrians. Road walks generally have a decent shoulder but not always. Crossings vary in intensity with the amount of traffic, but there have been 50 mph+ roads that we dash across. Occasionally, it's two lanes of traffic in each direction. I always assume foot travel is not frequent enough for drivers to be expecting us. There's maybe a sign indicating pedestrians ahead, and no crosswalks. There are often blind curves nearby. 

There were several water caches today - thanks, nearby trail angels of New York! Sadly, mosquitoes are out in full force now. You don't want to be distracted swatting bugs so much that you trip.

My bear photos aren't fantastic, I promise it was more intimidating in real life

And... I saw another bear! It was in a pleasant state park, and while I again yelled at it from a good distance, it didn't seem too bothered by me and mostly kept on its original trajectory.

Day 106

Can you tell the rain is near?

The New York rock scrambles continue. I tend to use the tennis grunt method whenever I need to take a big step up. Science says it increases athletic performance. So continued the intense rain. Bear Mountain, New York was a pretty cool state park with a more urban, deliberate feel to it. However, crossing the exposed summit with its giant stone tower during an active thunder and lightning storm was NOT ideal.

The AT sometimes created brand new trail and sometimes used existing paths. This was clearly a paved road with a nice stone retaining wall at left, but now it's foot travel or maybe emergency vehicles only.

Unfortunately, I was too late in the day to see another trail attraction. The AT walks right through a zoo! There's also a trail museum on the same property. Right after this is when the trail reaches its lowest elevation as it crosses the Hudson River. I go to take a photo of the bridge and river only to see black storm clouds right on my heels. I had partially dried out from the earlier rain by this point. It's tough when you go through the effort to dry out only to get drenched again later in the day. 

It's actually all uphill from here

It was only a few minutes before the wind picked up, thunder again, and the torrential downpour started. This made the last two or so miles to camp a veritable slog. Runoff was cascading directly down the steeply climbing trail. All I could do what shout into the wind at my predicament and cackle at the absurdity of it all. I slipped and practically belly flopped onto a muddy hillside. At least my one wish to the universe was granted, and it was only a light rain by the time I was setting up camp and eating dinner. In the mid 70s, I was not cold even though I was drenched.

Day 107

Starting out the day in entirely wet clothes is never the best, but at least I was only an hour or so away from a deli. There's a trail tradition of deli hopping in the state of New York as there are many road crossings close to civilization. Some people try to hit one each day. I got a decent breakfast sandwich and hiked on into a mid day downpour. Luckily, this one lasted less than two hours, so by the time I took a late lunch I was able to largely dry out my tent.

The telephone of the wind is a concept I'd heard about before but never seen

Even though I was warned a little bit about the rock scrambles in New York, it was a bit of a shock after so much smooth easy trail the past few weeks. I ended the day in a challenging state park section. No climbs were tall, it was just relentless uneven terrain. The shelter is near a swimming beach, so even though I arrived after hours I was able to rinse off with their outdoor shower. Did I immediately put bug spray back on? Yes. I actually used up all my big spray and need to get more in the next town.

Day 108

Blue skies for a change

Many NOBOs talk about the Virginia Blues, when trail can become a grind after the novelty wears off. I only felt short bursts of that, but I'm definitely feeling some New York blues. Rain soaked clothes start to chafe in new places and get mildewy and stinky. Wet shoes start to get old after 3 or 4 days, and blisters and trench foot are a real concern. My lack of tread has made this section tense, but I'm almost to my new pair of shoes in the mail. I slipped again, not unique, but I wonder why I only seem to bash my right knee into rocks and not my left. Luckily, nothing has compared to the first impact in Pennsylvania. After about a week, movement no longer bothered me, but kneeling and deep squats remain out. I'm normally not a work through the pain person, but a thru hike is not a normal time.

Black raspberries are my favorite! This has been a highlight of the past few days, along with the start of wild blueberry season

The generous water caches continued today, which is good because fresh runoff turned all the streams a nice milk chocolate turbid brown. I also tend to not drink enough when it's raining because I try so hard to think about anything but water.

I camped at a lovely tent site, but it was chock full of mosquitoes. My tent has performed admirably in all the rain so far, so I remain dry when sleeping (and don't want to leave this safe space to hike in the rain).

Turns out this wasn't the official Big Tree, though I got a much better photo here

Day 109

There's a commuter rail stop called Appalachian Trail 

A quick morning into the town of Pawling, New York. There was NO rain in today's forecast. Putting on new dry shoes and doing laundry definitely boosted my spirits. I realized pretty quickly, and had been thinking about this for a few days, that my feet appear to have changed size. This is relatively common on a long thru hike, but it sadly took some of the joy out of new shoes.

Woohoo a new color 

I encountered a rather unexpected hiker friendly business today. There's a landscaping garden center immediately next to a trail road crossing that sells water, soda, ice cream, and light snacks plus a place to sit and charge devices. Most unusually, they have a free outdoor shower. It's piped with hot water and tucked behind a little fencing, but still an odd experience. A quick rinse of layers of sweat, sunscreen, and bug spray was appreciated. I've now learned to successfully dry off with only a 1 foot camp towel.

The green tunnel fights back, or why we do tick checks daily

Crossed into Connecticut today, and I stayed at a shelter site all by myself. The lightning bugs were out!

More new states

A somewhat sketchy bridge

With that, I will wrap up this post. Happy hiking!