Date: 2014-06-11
From: Unionville, NY

To: Vernon, NY, Mile 1352.9
Miles today: 11.8
Weather: overcast clouds

Day 91-June 11, Unionville, NY to Vernon, NJ, 11.8 miles. We had another night hiker sighting. This time it was at 12:45 last night. Not sure why I woke up but I did and there was this guy hiking into the park. He looked around and decided to lay his sleeping bag out on the floor of the little picnic pavilion. He was up and on his way before 6. We got up at 6:20 AM and went to the general store for breakfast sandwiches and there was the night hiker, doing a resupply. His name is Moose and he loves to hike at night. He seems like a nice guy. Before we hiked back to the trail from the general store, Survivor man, The Machine, Reroute and Mary Poppins walked to the store. They had all camped about 2 miles away and The Machine had a box to pick up at the PO so they had to come into Unionville. We hiked out ahead of all them but I'm not sure when we'll see them again as we had a short day planned. We had a few ups and downs to get to the Wallkill Reserve, where we had a flat walk of 1.5 miles around most of the periphery of the wetland refuge area. We saw a swan and her babies, some ducks and a great blue heron. It was easy walking and we moved along nicely. Once past the Wallkill Reserve we had to climb Pochuck Mountain, which had several false summits. It wasn't a terrible climb and there was only one steep section of "rock vomit" where we were climbing up a stream of boulders. The challenge came from trying to not slip on the wet rocks. Once over Pochuck Mountain we had to cross many wetland areas and New Jersey has built lots of plank bridges and boardwalks to traverse these marshy places. At one point we were on plank bridges for hundreds of yards. Later we came to a raised boardwalk that went for almost a mile! Impressive! I guess New Jersey is kind of a "boardwalk" expert! It all sure made for easier walking. It was a wet day and we had to use our umbrellas for awhile. We haven't seen the sun for a few days but hopefully that will change by the weekend. Our feet were OK today, but we didn't really walk that far, which may be a good thing. We put some Neosporin on the red, sore spots last night and will do the same again tonight. We'll test them out more tomorrow when we have a 17+ mile day planned. We are staying at the St. Thomas Episcopal Church hostel in Vernon, NJ tonight. We chose to stay here and have a short day for a few reasons: 1. Our feet needed a short day, 2. We desperately needed to do our laundry and 3. We were out of sync for a good shelter schedule. Taking a short day today allows us to have reasonable hiking days for the next 3-4 days, allowing us to camp at the shelters. So we continue to eat town food which is nice because we always seem to be hungry! This hostel is over 2 miles from the trail and I hitched us a ride with a young guy named Kelly. He lives in NY but drives the short distance to NJ to buy gas which is 30-35 cents cheaper than in NY! The hostel is in the basement of this church and is quite nice. They ask for a $10 donation per person which is quite reasonable considering that includes a shower (with soap and a towel) and a load of wash. Happy Birthday to my Mom! It was great to talk to you today and we'll see you in a couple of weeks or so. All is well.