Date: 2018-07-25
From: Unionville Park 

To: Wawayanda Shelter
Miles today: 16.8
Weather: light rain

I heard rain hitting my fly in the middle of the night. The rain had come again. I went back to sleep until 7 am. In the morning it was still sprinkling and I didn't want to get out of my tent. It let up for a little bit and I quickly packed up my stuff. Lupine and John were sharing a tent.  Lupine said she wasn't hiking today because her feet had been beaten up by the several days of rain.  She wanted to rest them and let them heal. Rosie and I understood. We were still planning on hiking 17 miles today to a drive in movie theater where you could camp. I hung out in the gazebo while Lupine and John got their stuff together. I ate some bananas, oranges, and muffins for breakfast. We then headed over to the local general store for 2nd breakfast. I got a sandwich with eggs, cheese, and sausage.  It was really good and I was stuffed. I was sad to be splitting up with Lupine today since we had hiked so many days together. I'm sure our paths will cross again. John dropped Rosie and I off on the trail and we had a heartfelt goodbye with Lupine.  Back on the trail my feet were getting used to hiking in Chacos again. There didn't seem to be any pain in my ankle or arch and my feet were free again. The trail was pretty gradual and didn't have too many rocks.  There was still lots of mud from the several days of rain. Rosie and I arrived at a long boardwalk and we stopped under a tree for lunch.  I ate a Pad Thai meal that I had been given by a couple of hikers who were doing a relay of the AT for LL Bean. As we were eating it started to rain. It rained so much that the trees couldn't protect us anymore. It unloaded its wet leaves onto us. I quickly covered my stuff with my poncho. The rain let up again and we headed out. The boardwalk went over a large section of wetlands for about a mile. In another mile we came to a mountain which was a 1000 foot climb. It was entirely covered with boulders. We hadn't had a climb like that in some time. The rocks were slippery and wet from days of rain. I huffed up the mountain and made my way to the top. There was a spectacular view of the valley below. I could see the wetlands we hiked through as well as the New Jersey high point in the distance.It started sprinkling then raining hard. I got on my poncho in time before the downpour. My feet were soaking again as I hiked through the mud puddles on the trail. At one point I came to a gap with a cooler. It was trail magic! I slammed a root beer then hiked on. In one section there as a huge puddle. I walked carelessly through it to find that it came up to my knees. Luckily I didn't fall into it! After another mile I met up with Rosie and we pushed on to the shelter. We didn't think the drive in was happening tonight with all this rain. At the shelter it was pretty jammed packed with hikers already. Cosmic and Naked Santa were there! I hadn't seen them in sometime. We talked about the caboose crew. Apparently Stealth had taken a zero and was now behind me. It was good to hear that I was catching up on them. Everyone in the shelter made room for Rosie and I. We were going to be jammed packed in there like sardines. I would be sleeping at the foot of the shelter since the rest of the space was taken up. I made my enchilada meal in the rain and tried quickly to eat it but it was way too hot. All I could think about is crawling into my sleeping bag for the night. After dinner I stripped off my wet clothes and got into my bag.Tonight Rosie's feet are kicking me in the back.