Date: 2018-05-27
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Miles today: 0.0

Sun Day 104 5/27 goal resupply Unionville NYWe had stealth cams someplace passed some Sunrise Mountain Pavilion. It was a nice sight and I had slept very well. I'm taking this stealth camping cuz it's so quiet. When you pack up in the morning there's nobody to disturb. And there is nobody to disturb you while you're sleeping. That's the best part. It also does feel a whole lot more like your camping and making your way on your own. Not as much socialization. At this point in the trail there's a lot more flip-floppers starting out at Harpers Ferry heading north. The weather is better so we're getting more section hiker as well. I really like talking to through hiker Who Gon a thousand miles. They understand and relate to what you have to say. You can dip relearn from A Thousand Miles through hiker. So now I'm okay to be stealth camping and sleeping better. We're doing longer miles and I definitely need my sleep. New York has its own challenges. You're walking on Long slabs Rock. You're climbing hand-over-hand. And their times you're doing the rock scramble and it's very easy to get off the trail. When you're Rock scrambling you cannot take your feet size off your feet. One misstep and you crash on lots of Grey Jagged granite. There's no soft Landing only bruises or broken bones. One girl had raccoon eyes when she slipped and face-planted in the granite. Joe Cool slept and is off the trail for a bit rehabbing. Spice lips and sliced up Ernie. Many people I've gals legs call Hann or sliced arms. From Pennsylvania this year has been very challenging. Hard sharp sharp Jagged rocks the only thing to walk on and you definitely don't want to fall on. The sharp rocks of eastern Pennsylvania we're now fading away as we got further into New Jersey. But the hand-over-hand climbing up and downs was significantly challenging. We were heading for High Point Park which was the symbolic end of the kitten eating Ridge and the end of the sharp rocks. It was cool to see the high point Monument off in the distance. We had passed a shelter early in the morning and a Southbound hiker and said you could get a shower and eat at the High Point Recreation Area. Ibex was pretty excited and motivated to get to that shower. I was ready to eat. I was down to one bar as we were headed for a resupply at Unionville New York. As we got closer to the high point Monument there was a observation tower fight on the trail. We stopped and made the climb and all you could see was mountains in every direction. I'm proud to say more New Jersey is a very pretty part of the trail. I had met people in North Carolina who told me New Jersey was their second favorite part of the trail. After all that Ridge light hiking the last couple days I could see why. Everybody enjoyed hiking the New Jersey Ridgeline. We didn't realize that you had to take a 3 tenths of a mile side Trail to get this concession stand and the high point Monument itself. We were going down down down and we realized we missed the monument and concession stand. Ibex was a bit bummed. The general rule is you never backtrack. 2200 miles you don't backtrack you only move forward. As we hiked on we passed the secret shelter which is a house that a through hiker owns that you can stop at camp at but it's not listed anywhere it's Word of Mouth. We got to use the road to go into Unionville. It's illegal to hitchhike in the state of New York. So we walk the three quarters of a mile into Unionville. Our first stop was a little Pizzeria. They didn't speak much English but they made great food. I had a caramel ice cream bar while I was waiting for a big slice of pizza. The pizza was fabulous. I ordered a salad and noodles and vodka sauce. That came with garlic bread of course. I had a couple lemonade as well. We then went to the little convenience store in town. It was unbelievably cold in this store. We did our resupply and back went back to the pizza store where we had our phone's charging. Why we're walking back out to the trail I fell asleep so down and asked us if we wanted a ride. So we graciously accepted a ride back out to the trail. It was only another 5 miles to the Pochuck Mountain shelter which was the maybe next water spot. There was confusion about where to get water at this shelter so we didn't take any chances and carried a liter and a half. We ended up with a 25 mile day getting in just before dark. I never actually saw the physical shelter as we set up on the campsites on the way in to the shelter. Our feet were very wet. We have walked around the Wallkill Preserve. The trail has let us on a grassy access road around The Preserve. Because of the rain when you walk through grass your boots start to slash. A scary scenario for people who are struggling with foot infections and disease. It would rain that night so when we would pack up we would be packing up wet tents and hammocks. Wet things add weight to your pack. Ounces feel like pounds. Who knew I could be so sensitive.