Date: 2006-06-20
From: Deleware Water Gap

To: Mohican Outdoor Center, NJ (mile 1290.0)
Miles today: 10.5

Cell very weak signal.Last night I slept on the couch in the Hostel which was probably more comfortable than a bunk. The bunks have carpet on wood, the couch had nice big cushions.I started today by walking across town to the pay phone, the one across the street from the hostel doesn't work. While I was there I got an Egg Moc-muffin - a convenience store version of an Egg McMuffin. It was okay and I washed it down with a cup of coffee. I did this first as I had to wait until 8:30 am for the Post Office to open. By the time I got to the PO it was open and I retrieved my package. Fortunately, the PO and the hostel are very close to each other. I then sorted my food from the package and determined what I would bring for the next leg of my journey. I had extra food from the last leg because I ate in restaurants and at my sister Lilly's house. With the sorting done, I packed my food and put the extras in the hiker box. A hiker box is a box that can be found where hikers stay. Hikers who have extra food or equipment will leave it in the hiker box. Other hikers will look through it and take the things they need from it. I usually don't take much, as I have maildrops that usually contain my needs.After packing, I set out on my journey. The first major thing I did was cross the Delaware River into New Jersey by walking on the pedestrian walkway of Interstate 80. After I entered NJ I had to take a long route through the information center to avoid highway traffic.Crossing the Delaware Brought back many memories. The summer camp I went to when I was a Boy Scout was along the Delaware - Ten Mile River Scout Reservation. While at camp we would take an overnight hike, and often would camp near the Delaware River. My first whitewater canoe trip was from that camp and we went down the Delaware. This is unrelated, but the place I'm staying at tonight, "The Mohecan Outdoor Center" is a former Boy Scout Camp. The Appalachian Mountain Club owns it now, and uses it for a group retreat center. I can see the Boy Scout layout still, the paths lead around the camp and the buildings are placed in a certain order. I even found an old shower house that is all overgrown and definatly not used in this life.I kept wishing for the weather to get warm and summer to come. I knew all along that when it happened the mosquitos would come too. Well, in 12 hours summer will arrive and the mosquitos are already here. I don't know if they are here because it's summer or because I'm in New Jersey, I'll blame summer. Right now I'm a prisoner in my tent to not get bit. My tent is constructed of an inner screened shell and a rain repellant fly as my outer covering. It's light enough to see the mosquitos on the screening - they're crawling around, and I think they are fighting to see who gets the first bite of me. I hope they are gone in the morning - they usually are, as it's cooler then.If you've been following my journals lately you'll see I haven't tented much lately. Now that the mosquitos are out I'll be tenting a lot.I've had a question about my song of the day and what happened to it. Well I have a new Walkman radio that I listen to as I hike. With all the veriety played, no one song sticks very long. Yesterday was an exception, but I don't know if that will happen again. Old Goat Sue's Note: I love Old Goat's sense of humor. In his journaling above, Old Goat mentions the mosquitoes. When we talked this evening, he talked about the mosquitoes with his wonderful sense of humor. He started out saying, ¢one bad thing happened since I entered New Jersey ¢ I¢m in the zone of mosquitoes!¢ He called me from inside his tent ¢ he said there are lots of mosquitoes on the netting¢¦¢looking at me and saying Yum! Yum! Good blood!¢ He described being a prisoner inside his "own little bug net" (the tent). ¢Those little buggers will say if (Chip) gets out too slow, we¢ll get inside and bug him from the inside!¢