Memorial Day Masochism

Where do 4 days go?

Lisa and I have a BBQ on Saturday, with both old and new friends. It was a lot of fun, and great to see everyone again.

On Sunday, Joe and I left to meet with Mike and Hyunmi to do the 28-mile Delaware Water Gap section of the NJAT. We began walking at 1:30, after some car placements, food shopping, and pizza. Being a holiday weekend, the Water Gap was being heavily used (as it should be), with rafters, picnicers, hikers, and (illegal) stream swimmers. However, as the mileage increased, the sightings of people decreased.

We reached Sunfish Pond in great time, where Joe and Mike took a swim (albeit an illegal one), and we saw a (very small) fawn and some snakes. This was the first of our many distracting stops. After the pond, we came across a forest fire. Yes, a real working fire. As we passed through it, the firefighters came to start fighting the blaze. For the rest of the day we could hear helicopters and planes working on the same effort.

Upon arriving at AMC's Camp Mohican, we found semi-luxurious digs. We had a full kitchen, bunks, and showers. While we gorged ourselves on dinner, we also lamented on how we should have brought "better" food for dinner. The only drawback was the thousands of bugs near the lights. Mike took care of half of those with some windex, but some still bothered us during the night.

After a sleep-deprived night, we back-tracked to the AT for a 6:30 start. Within the first hour, it started to drizzle. I wish the weather stayed like this all day, because it began to get unbearably hot by about 11am. Many more miles and tick-checks later (I found no fewer than 8 on me, but I think Mike too the crown), we finished at 2:40pm.

Sweatty, tired, and chaffed, we took our tenderized tooties home for junk food and showers. This was fun (just a little), but still great to be done with the NJ AT. As Hyunmi stated, "why do we do this to ourselves?" I'm not sure, but in the future, we just may spend our precious hiking time "doing more enjoyable hikes."

Pictures soon.

NJAT Continuation

Lisa and I met up with Joe T. for another NJAT section hike. We left my car (with coolers full of lunch) at the halfway point, and took Joe's car back to Wawayanda SP for the start. It took us a while to get there, but as Joe decreed, we were walking by 930. Before long, we came up to a horse and rider. The horse was as curious to see us as we were to see him on the intersecting trail. We crossed through more forests, ravines, and even some farm fields. The last stretch before lunch was through the wetlands around the Pochuck Creek. This was a birder's paradise, as we were accompanied by many birds, including red-winged black birds, yellow warblers, herons, and even a loon (I think).

Lunch was very leisurely, as we did a tailgate picnic at the edge of the birding area. Lisa and I still brought "trail-quality" lunches (still a rookie mistake), while Joe brought avocado, salad, and tofu Chinese food. This was mile 7.5, and Lisa's end point; she would meet us at the end.

The hills immediately after lunch weren't too fun; Joe insisted that I guaranteed it would be flat after lunch. Well, I was half right - the last 4 miles were flat. Over mountains we went, running low on water. As we were on the downside of the last mountain, we made it to a water spigot - what a Godsend. After this, it was an "easy" 3.5 miles to the end. This last section was the flat part, as promised. It went through another birder's area, an inland marsh, part of the Wallkill River NWR. Yes, this place is a restored sod farm. Some road walking and a couple more hills brought us to the end, where Lisa was waiting for us by the creek. We finished those final 8.5 miles in 3 hours, great time! We cracked a few beers, relaxed, and made our way home.

It's interesting how diverse the terrain and scenery can be along the AT, in NJ of all places.

Pictures here.