Date: 2014-06-10
From: Gren Anderson Shelter

To: Unionville, NY
Miles today: 20.1
Weather: scattered clouds

Day 90-June 10, Gren Anderson Shelter to Unionville, NY, 20.1 miles. Last night I awoke at 11:30 PM, lifted my head up to look out of the open front of the shelter and there was this hiker coming down the trail with his headlamp on! He put the light into the shelter, decided the shelter was full so he laid out his stuff and slept on the picnic table! He was up and gone by 5:30 AM! A Ridgerunner later told us it was Bear Bait, a young hiker we met a couple of weeks ago who was trying to average 30 miles a day! That is not the way I want to hike! We are staying the night in New York State but the trail is not officially in NY. We are here because Trail Jeannie sent Jim's new boots here. The trail is very close to the NJ /NY border and when we got off the trail and started to walk to town we crossed into NY. I'm still not used to seeing all the NY license plates. Our hike today took us past 3 shelters. We stopped at the first one for our morning break and met a Ridgerunner named Grasshopper. These folks are always full of good information and Grasshopper told us to be sure to stop at the High Point State Park Visitor's Center for a free can of pop! After 12 miles of hiking we got to the Visitor's center and sure enough we were each given a pop, compliments of the Friends of High Point volunteer group. The drink went very nicely with our peanut butter sandwiches! Two different people told us that the rocks got much more bearable after the High Point shelter and they were right. The trail smoothed out considerably and rocky spots were the exception, not the rule. We are happy about this. We are not happy about the way our feet responded to being wet for the past few days. During the last 3 or 4 miles we both felt like we had sand rubbing on the backs of our heels. I stopped to adjust my socks. It that didn't seem to make a difference. When we got to camp we took off our boots and we both have red blisters along our heels. We're not sure why this has happened since we have walked multiple days with wet feet in the past. Fortunately tomorrow is a short day, but unfortunately wet weather is in the forecast until the weekend. We are camped in the town park in Unionville for free. We have a nice grassy spot for our tent with a water spigot and porta potty very close by. There is a small general store where we bought an afternoon snack and dessert. Tomorrow we will try their breakfast sandwiches before getting back on the trail! We had an interesting discussion with 2 young guys who are thru-hiking and we just met last night. Texaco and Pnuemo thinking out loud about how you can "coast" in activities like bike and canoeing or kayaking but you cannot coast when hiking. There is no way to stop your movements and gain ground without any effort. How true is this! A note about High Point State Park, it does indeed have the highest point in NJ. There is a structure on top of the highest point that looks like a mini-Washington Monument. We did not take the side trail to this point because once again the cloud were low today and there would have been no view. The temps have been in the lower 70's which has made for good walking conditions. Our Trail Jeannie included a food resupply when she mailed the boots and in it she included a package of TimTam cookies from Australia! These came for a former colleague of Jim's via another friend from home! These are well travelled cookies and will be savored! Thanks Steve and Dave! Wildlife update: Day 2 of Newt-mania, the wet weather has brought them out. 2 garter snakes. One more very large turtle laying her eggs along side the trail-we actually saw the eggs dropping into the hole she dug! Tomorrow we are only walking about 10 miles to a highly regarded hostel in Vernan, NY. We hope to be able to do laundry there. All is well.