Week Fourteen – Finishing Pennsylvania and New Jersey

Hey everyone! Thanks for checking back in and following along. We had yet another busy week on the AT; here’s what’s been going on!

Day 92, Monday June 19th: I ended up not falling asleep until later than usual the night before, and so slept in naturally until after 7am for the first time in a while. The sun was shining beautifully over the tent and the sea of ferns we had camped in, and getting moving was easier than normal.

Since we had plenty of water and plans to get more later in the morning we decided to cook our grits for first breakfast. I had cheesy bacon grits with summer sausage (this one garlic flavored!), which was the gift that kept on giving. We hit the trail around 8:30am and immediately were walking and stumbling over rocks again. The high temperature for the day was supposed to be above 80 degrees, and the air warmed up quickly. Meadow and I tried to hydrate much more than the previous day. By the time we reached Wind Gap, we had only hiked a little more than four miles but I was ready hot and exhausted from the rocky terrain. We had heard that the Gateway Motel just up the road was friendly to hikers and we could pick up some more water there, and we were not disappointed. The owner was a man named Satish from India, and he allows hikers to camp on the lawn for free, and offers free refills on water, free showers, and free laundry to hikers as well. We charged our phones and gratefully accepted bottles of water and filled our other bottles of water, and listened to Satish tell us why he is so generous to hikers. While he spoke, an enormous gray cat sprawled on the counter of the office that we couldn’t resist petting as we stood there. Satish said that both he and “this cat,” giving the unflappable feline a sharp prod, are both so lucky to meet hikers that pass through. Satish mentioned that he feels that God gave him the opportunity to help people and therefore he wants to do it; he also said (loosely paraphrased from a 10-minute conversation) that helping people is what gives him energy and allows him to live freely. Whatever the reason, Satish’s generosity is certainly something special, and I’m sure he has blessed hundreds of Thru-Hikers before us. Before we left he offered us some doughnuts which we also graciously accepted. Before we left we chatted with another Thru-Hiker named Fire, who we had actually met before in the first week of our hike down in Georgia although he went by Firemaster then. Around noon, we left the Gateway Motel with full water bottles once again. The climb back up the other side of Wind Gap was also rocky, and the rocks continued for the remainder of the afternoon. Between the heat and the rocks, we tired quickly and we didn’t cross any water sources. About mid-afternoon we paused for a brief break, and Meadow thought she saw something up ahead. “There’s a bear!” She said, and by the time I turned to look it was already running away through the woods, a black lumbering blob moving silently through the trees. Someone had told us a while ago that bears typically don’t make much (or any) noise in the woods, and I was still surprised at how quickly the bear was moving and I didn’t hear so much as a rustling leaf. I was glad to have finally seen a bear, and was definitely relieved that it ran away as it was supposed to.

Around 5pm we hit another shelter that had a water spigot nearby, and we discussed whether we should stop here or hike the next five miles to the next tenting site with a water source nearby. We agreed that while we were physically able to hike on, we were both exhausted and the thought of setting up camp at 8pm just to squeeze out a few more miles seemed unnecessary. We decided to stay in the shelter, and by 5:30pm our sleeping kits were set up and a bear rope was hung over a sturdy branch. We watched a family of Eastern Phoebe birds that were nested in the rafters of the shelter for a while. We ate dinner around 7pm and went to bed by 8pm for the first time in what felt like a very long time.

Day 93, Tuesday June 20: Happy Three-Month Anniversary to us and the Appalachian Trail! Time has been flying by, and it seems unreal that we’ve been on the AT for three months already, but here we are! We slept in a little later than usual despite going to bed early, possibly because we were in a shelter that didn’t let in as much might as our tent. We packed up our stuff and cooked some grits, all while the mom and dad eastern phoebes darted in and out of the shelter to pick up bugs to feed their chicks. We hit the trail around 8:30am, and had a fairly flat but rocky first few miles. We came to a small overlook where we got our first view of the Delaware River and the Delaware Water Gap! The walk down into the Delaware Water Gap was steep, rocky, and lined with rhododendron trees. When we were close to the bottom, we crossed a small pond filled with Lily pads and large pink and yellow blooms.

After hiking about five miles, we reached the town of Daware Water Gap, and decided to celebrate being near the end of Pennsylvania by finding a local cafe. The first one we found was closed on Tuesdays, and the nearby Sycamore Grill was also closed on Tuesdays…bummer! We had already wandered almost a mile off the trail, which is a lot for a Thru-Hiker, so we turned around and just headed back to the trail. We decided to just have our usual snack of crackers and protein bars to celebrate instead. We continued walking through town on the AT, and as luck would have it the trail passed right by a creamery! We walked in, and found it completely deserted, with the lights off and a very sad, wilting waffle cone in the display. We quickly surmised that it was also closed on Tuesdays, but the door was accidentally left unlocked. We turned around and left before someone accused us of breaking in, but part of me at least wanted to check to see what flavors of ice cream were in the freezer. The trail continued out of town and over the Delaware River via a huge bridge, and the Pennsylvania/New Jersey border was in the middle of the bridge. We did it! We made it out of Rocksylvania without injuries!

We finished crossing the bridge, bouncing along with the tractor trailers that roared past us. As we disembarked the bridge on the Jersey side, a pickup truck pulled over in front of us with a man and woman inside. “Is this where the AT crosses the Delaware?” the man asked us. His wife chimed in “Our son is Thru-Hiking and will be coming from PA to New Jersey, and I haven’t seen him in three months. Is this where he will be crossing into New Jersey?” We said yes, and after learning that we were also Thru-Hikers the man said that he had something for us too, and parked his truck. Two minutes later we had granola bars, beers, and bottles of water in our hands and were watching the man set up a camp chair so they could wait for their son. As soon as his black and white Harley Davidson hat came into view, his mom threw her hands in the air and ran towards him yelling “Hi Jakey!!” His dad wasn’t long after her, and they had a beautiful reunion. As the trio walked back towards Meadow and I, now seated on the grass beside their truck, Jake’s mom told him that the only other time that she was this excited to see him was the moment he was born. At this point both Meadow and I got something in our eyes, along with Jake’s mom (it was just so wholesome!), and his dad joked with us that we would need more bottles of water if we were going to dehydrate ourselves like that. Their prodigal son sat on the grass next to us and his parents pulled out watermelon, some bananas, and some cookies that we all shared. Jake’s dad lavished us with more water, barbeque potato chips, some lemongrass bug spray, and a few wet wipes. We chatted about the trail, and after a few minutes we got up off he grass–Jake’s parents were eager to get him home! We took a photo together and got Jake’s number to send it to him. He asked us to text him tomorrow and remind him that he was only going to stay home for a one day visit, and that he needs to get back on the trail! We parted ways as friends, Meadow and I both shocked once again at how generous these total strangers were to us.

The heat had become almost unbearable, and sitting in the sun for an hour made it much worse. We staggered across the busy roads, winding our way around d the Delaware Water Gap info center and Kittany Mountain Visitor Center, before finally reaching the thermal safety of the forest once again. After a few miles we hit yet another significant milestone: mile 1300! This meant we “only” had less than 900 miles left to hike!

We hiked on through the heat, and found the New Jersey rocks to be much friendlier than the PA rocks. We circumnavigated Sunfish Pond, a natural landmark glacial lake which has a slightly acidic pH and therefore only allows a few hardy species of fish to survive like the yellow perch and pumpkinseed sunfish. The pond was huge, more like a small lake to my eyes, and was lined with rocks and blooming mountain laurel bushes.

After around 3pm we still had about seven miles to hike. We passed Racoon Ridge, which is simply labeled as “Large Pile of Rocks” on Google Maps. The tall cairn marking the ridgetop was actually rather small compared to he PA rocks, but still photogenic nonetheless. After a few more hours of hiking we finally crossed a water source, where we filled up and topped off all of our bottles. After a brief climb back up to the top of the next ridge, we crossed a few vistas looking out over a huge New Jersey valley with large homes and beautiful farmland. We found a wide camp spot with a few other tents in it, and set up camp just after 7:30pm. We finished dinner and chores just before 9pm, and I fell asleep to the songs of crickets and spring peepers.

Day 94, Wednesday June 21: I woke up naturally around 5:15am to the sunrise illuminating the tent and the sound of crickets again. Since we were up on a beautiful ridge that was open to the east, I only had to unzip my side of the tent to have a direct view of the sunrise right from the warmth of my sleeping bag.

We started hiking around 7:30am, and within a few hundred feet we passed by a small rattlesnake stretched across the trail. Meadow almost kicked it in the head, but it didn’t seem to mind since it didn’t move at all except cocking its head towards me to see if I would try the same thing! After walking carefully around the stoic reptile, we hiked up a small incline to the Catfish Fire Tower. We climbed to the top, maintaining a death grip on the railings the whole way, and admired the windy view for a few minutes.

We hiked on for a few more miles, and we came across a large pond. There were a few chewed trees in the area: evidence of beavers! Near the pond’s center there was a tangled mass of branches, where the beaver had built its underwater home. I was disappointed that we didn’t get to see an actual beaver, but it was neat to see the trees and dam.

We left the beaver pond and hiked into the afternoon in wonderful ridgetop forests and views of Culver’s Lake. The descent into Culver’s Gap was relatively easy due to the fact that New Jersey’s rocks were more well-behaved than those in Pennsylvania, meaning that they were less sharp and more permanently affixed into the Earth so they didn’t move around as much. We got to the parking lot, and after a short while my sister-in-law’s mom Sue came to pick us up. (Hi, Sue!). They live in New Jersey and very generously offered to let us stay with them and slackpack for a few days! We stopped for ice cream (yum!) and went to their lovely home to shower immediately and eat a delicious dinner before heading to bed.

Day 95, Thursday June 22: We woke after an amazing nights’ sleep in real beds, and were on the trail by 7:30am. Rain was in the forecast, but the sky seemed reluctant to let loose. We began the hiking day with an uphill climb, and soon came across another fire tower that looked identical to the one we had seen the day before. For a split second I thought we had somehow gone the wrong way when we started hiking, until reason kicked in and reminded me that we had seen the fire tower very early in the previous day, and there was no way we would have reached it so early had we gone SOBO (southbound) instead of NOBO (northbound). We climbed up the fire tower and appreciated the view for a few minutes, and then mercifully headed back down to solid ground. On our way into High Point State Park, we stopped to take photos of a few flowers, including dogsbane, daisies, and some hot pink roses.

The state park is aptly if not creatively named High Point because it contains the highest peak in New Jersey, upon which is built a monument to fallen soldiers. We could see the monument from a distance, and we ended up taking a quarter-mile side trail to see the monument up close. We walked in and two young park employees were manning the tiny base of the monument, waiting to answer questions and take payments for the t-shirts and water bottles you could buy there. After being informed that there were only 290 stairs up to the top and it was “really cool,” we decided it was worth the trip. We dumped our packs next to the attendants and flew up all 290 stairs, barely getting out of breath. The windows were a little high off the ground, so I had to stand on my tiptoes to see out. The view was worth the trip, but there wasn’t much else to do once we had looked out in all directions. So we flew back down the stairs, informing the attendants that it was worth it before picking up our packs and heading back out onto the overcast air.

We spent the rest of the afternoon mostly cruising along ridgetops for several miles. The ticks were particularly bad on this day, for whatever reason, and it seemed we stopped every few minutes to make sure that there were no unwelcome stowaways on our legs or socks. We had opted not to use pesticides up until the point, but all of a sudden taking a bath in permethrin and treating our clothes didn’t seem like such a bad idea! We ended our day in a low farm valley, where the trail crossed through a few grassy fields and finally a wetland with tall cattails growing right up to the trail. After a 19.4-mile day, we were ready to be done! We reached our extraction point and very shortly thereafter were spirited away back to Sue’s house. After another glorious shower and an amazing spaghetti dinner (with salad!!), we played a fun round of the card game Chronology before heading to bed.

Day 96, Friday June 23: We hit the trail just after 7:15am to a cloudy and threatening sky. The terrain was relatively flat for most of the morning, which is ways a treat. After a few miles we hit a small river valley, and a handwritten notice was posted on a tree: “NO NO NO. Don’t even think about it. Swamp is flooded, follow temporary reroute.” We hooked a sharp ralphie (right turn) to avoid the swamp, and followed the white-blazed trail reroute up to the road and around the large wetland. Once we got back to the original trail, I was curious to see how “flooded” the swamp really was. I walked back the small boardwalk to the point where my weight on the planks started pushing them beneath the water. The swamp would have indeed resulted in wet feet, but it was a really nice forested wetland! We found a green frog floating on the water just by the trail boards, and after we snapped a few photos it splashed out of sight.

We hiked a few more miles through open fields with hay bales scattered throughout, and forests with low rock walls. Eventually we hit the US Fish and Wildlife Service Wallkill National Wildlife Refuge. The AT circumnavigates a large, square patch of land that is protected from unauthorized entry as a Pollinator Pathway and bird sanctuary. The ponded area looked shallow, possibly due to the lack of recent rains, but I could still see something disturbing the water: frogs maybe? We saw many honeybees at the thistles and milkweed, and heard migratory killdeer calling from the reeds.

Eventually the AT went back to the woods for a few more miles, and we climbed a few small hills that were still large enough to make us sweat in the humidity. A light but steady rain fell on us for maybe an hour, and we put on our raincoats for just long enough to get extremely overheated. As we approached the Pochuk Boardwalk, the rain cleared almost completely. The boardwalk is almost a mile long, and passes through a rich wetland with cattails, phragmites grasses, arrowheads, and other aquatic plants. We enjoyed the boardwalk for its flatness and the ability to experience the wetland without harming the delicate ground (or getting our feet wet!).

After exiting the Pochuk Boardwalk area we crossed a small cow pasture and headed up the road to Heaven Hill Farm. The idyllic farm store had rustic housewares for sale, and also a hefty bakery, chocolatier counter, and an ice cream counter. Meadow and I each bought some ice cream, an apple cider doughnut, and a piece of cake. Delicious! We savored our empty calories in the picnic area outside the store, relishing the cover of the canvas tent when it started to downpour for a few minutes. When it was finally time to leave, we threw out trash away and headed back to the Trail. The section of trail we hiked next is called the Stairway to Heaven because of the rocky stairs and steepness of the climb. We took our time on the wet rocks, making sure that each footstep was secure to avoid slipping. As we reached the top of the ridge, the fog settled in and gave the mountainside an ethereal mist. The high humidity and warm temperatures made the climb challenging but not unbearable, and eventually we made it to the top with little ado. About a mile later we reached out extraction point. Bud picked us up just as the deep rolls of thunder began booming in the sky, and several minutes later rain was pouring once again–phew! Back at the house we showered and did laundry, and after another delicious diner went to bed for another delicious night’s sleep in a real bed.

Day 97, Saturday June 24: We slept in a little and hit the Trail just after 10am. Thank you so much Sue and Bud for your generosity and amazing hospitality! A chilly drizzle was falling when we started the day’s hike, but it only lasted about an hour or two. By the time we had hiked six miles the sun was shining hot intermittently behind grey clouds, just as we came across the border between New Jersey and New York. Another state down! We celebrated at the state line, marvelling once again that we had completed ANOTHER state!

Our elation was short-lived, however, as New York came out swinging hard. The rounded slabs of rock along the ridgetops were coated in a thin sage-green lichen, which was extremely slippery because it was wet from the rain; the rocks may as well have been coated in Crisco vegetable oil for all the traction we had on them. The next five miles were taken extremely slow due to the likely possibility of slipping to our deaths. It felt like we had been walking on large sheets of ice for days, in the sweltering heat and lingering humidity front he rain. At one point we were walking along the ridgetop and I heard a faint humming noise. Looking around I saw a fat rattlesnake that barely seemed to be putting in any effort to actually rattle to warn us of its presence. I was probably less than five feet away from it when I saw it, so we moved away as quickly and safely as we could.

We hiked to NY Route 17A, where we walked up the road a short distance to a local creamery. One of Meadow’s friends from college Dan was waiting there for us with his quiet and devoted black lab Thor. The creamery was very friendly to hikers, as it had a charging station and water spigot available outside. We all got some ice cream (honey lavender, and a white chocolate raspberry swirl in a waffle cone for me!) and sat talking for a few minutes. Dan drive us to a grocery store to pick up a few more things we needed including dinner. We stopped by a local cidery before heading to the Warwick Drive-In movie theater, which allows hikers to camp and watch the movies. We curled up in the bed of Dan’s pickup truck, rolling the waterproof Velcro bed cap up over our heads when it started to drizzle. Thor the large black lab curled up right with us, and kept us warm. We watched Elementals and the live action Little Mermaid movies, both of which I thought were pretty underwhelming. But being at the drive-in was a ton of fun, and it was still worth it! We decided not to camp at the drive-in, and so Dan dropped us off back at the trail just before 2am. We hiked with our headlamps for just a few minutes until we came to the first flat spot we could find, and we set up the tent and hung the bear bags in the pitch darkness before falling asleep immediately.

Day 98, Sunday June 25: Despite only going to bed at 2am, I woke up naturally around 7:30am and couldn’t fall back asleep. I at least stayed in my sleeping bag for another hopeful hour, but eventually just got up. We started hiking around 9:30am, and were instantly buffeted by the sweltering humidity. We were planning on staying at the West Mountain Shelter on Monday night, and so had about 26 miles to cover on Sunday and Monday: on Sunday we had planned on hiking somewhere between 13 and 17 miles, and it turned out to be an extremely difficult day of hiking. The humidity was positively stifling, even after a light drizzle fell in the early afternoon amidst long bouts of thunder. We climbed almost 4,000 feet of elevation, which was the biggest elevation day we had since Virginia. The climbs were all extremely steep, in many places requiring us to toss our trekking poles up or down the rocky cliffs before using all four limbs to carefully scramble after them. Climbing in the humidity left sweat pouring down my face, arms, and legs. We didn’t cross a single water source during the day, but luckily we did find a water cache of a few gallons in a large blue tub near a road crossing that a Trail Angel had left. By the time we got to camp and cooked dinner we both only had one liter left, which we sipped form judiciously. We knew we would be passing through a NY state park the next day with access to tap water, even if we didn’t cross any decent streams. After hiking 13.9 miles, we set up camp near a large pond and fell asleep to the sounds of bullfrogs and spring peepers.

This upcoming week we will be hitting more mileage milestones, and making progress through New York. We will also be getting off the trail towards the end of next week for a few days of rest, seeing friends and family, and a wedding. Stay tuned!

Thanks for stopping by!