NJAT

Actually, its only 1/7th of the NJ Appalachian Trail, but still the NJAT. Lisa and I met Joe at 10am near Unionville NY to drop his car, and made our way back to High Point SP in NJ. This was to be 10 miles of mostly flat AT hiking; the section was High Point SP (NJ-23) to NJ-284.

Starting the hike around 11am (a little late), we slated some 5 hours to do this hike. It took entirely too long to reach the HPSP phallus, longer than expected (the time that is). The hike was not merely wilderness, but a mix of farming and rural areas as well. Forest -- muddy stream bank -- farm field; repeat; taeper. It was an interesting mix of scenery, with farm fields, ponds, and streams.

We ate lunch on the bank of a farm's pond, complete with swans. Looks like some beavers have done some work in the area as well. It took a while to get going again after lunch, as we could not find the trail. Turn out that our industrious beavers had taken down a tree that had a (turn-indicating) trail blaze on it. Damn beavers!

Joe became progressively muddier as the day went on, thanks to the "January thaw" (doesn't something have to freeze, before it thaws; what if it never froze in the first place?); muddy streambanks, and an ill-placed twig. I fell prey to a cow chip, as I mistook it for solid rock, while traversing a muddy farmfield. We were also taken back by a decaying deer carcass (Joe thought it was just "tree fur"). Lisa wanted me to note that she stayed clean and chipper, despite the 10 miles being a daily distance record for her. She's quite a trooper!

As promised, we finished within the given 5 hours, and were back at the car before 4pm.

Joe and I (and maybe Lisa) will do 15 more miles next weekend; the next NJAT section (NJ-284 to Wawayanda SP). For me, this would mean 40 miles of NJAT completed, with only 30 miles (PA/NJ border to US-206; 2 days) remaining. Then comes the PAAT and the Catoctin Trail.

We were idiots; we forgot the camera. Joe took pictures, but who knows if and when we'll see those.