Date: 2004-06-15
From: North of Crigger Rd, NJ

To: Day 78: Quarry Rd near Unionville, NY
Miles today: 19.1

On AT Day 78, June 15 ¢ my 60th birthday! ¢ I awoke at 3:30 a.m. and hit the trail by 5:20 a.m. I wanted to get an early start so that I could reach the pre-planned pick-up spot 16 miles or so away at Lott Road by early afternoon. Good plan, bad execution¢¦ My first clue that this was not going to be one of my better days was the fact that I was not able to take any vitamin I for my dehydration-induced headache. I drank as much liquid as I could spare, but the pain was constant and a bit depressing. Compounding this was the fact that my right ankle hurt worse today than it did the day before.I reached the Mashipacong Shelter in about an hour and found that the trail angel Desperado had left an assortment of goodies in the bear box and multiple gallons of water at the near-by highway trailhead. Taking advantage of this wonderful generosity, I drank about a quart of water and added another three pints to my supply before I proceeded onward. Traveling along the rocky ridgeline, I stopped a couple of hours later to eat my morning snack and enjoy the glorious mountain view at the trailhead leading to the Rutherford Shelter ¢ I did not take the steeply down-going 0.4-mile Blue Blaze trail to the shelter. Two and half miles later, the AT crosses NJ 23 where I was finally able to find cell phone coverage to call my wife and tell her that I was way behind schedule for our planned reunion. Unfortunately, Hot Chocolate was already hiking toward me on the trail and did not get the message¢¦Continuing along the rocky ridgeline for another hour, I stopped at the High Point Monument observation platform to quickly take in the sights and get another drink. Shortly thereafter I followed the AT¢s rocky descent to the High Point Shelter where I stopped for lunch, a water fill-up at the near-by stream and much needed rest for my aching feet. From there on the AT continued a somewhat more gentle descent, including some wonderfully restful stretches across some farmer¢s fields, and finally some private woodlands and swamps (on boardwalks) as it crossed the roads leading into and out of Unionville, NY.When I got to Gemmer Road, about 3.2 miles from my pre-planned pick-up at Lott Road, my cell phone rang so thinking it was my wife I dropped my pack and unzipped my top pouch to retrieve the phone. Wrong number! Five minutes later, I repeated this annoying process with a second wrong number. About a mile later as I was crossing Goodrich Road, my cell phone rang again but this time it was my wife. As I suspected she had spent several hours out in the hot sun hiking up and down the trail looking for me and now she had returned to our truck and was driving around trying to find me. Once again I was testing our stable marriage, but by now it was already 4:30 p.m. (two hours beyond our pre-planned pick-up time) and I was anxious for her to rescue me.Unfortunately, with the poor maps at our disposal of this rural area we were unable to figure out how to get her to me. Thus, the best solution seemed to be for her to return to Quarry Road, where she had seen a sign denoting the AT and wait for me ¢ giving me about another mile and a half to cover, but saving me a mile off the Lott Road destination. I can honestly say that seeing that big truck of ours at the top of the hill was an emotional experience for me. After warmly greeting my wife we drove for perhaps an hour to our campsite in Florida, NY for a ¢home-cooked¢ meal with a large amount of ice cream for dessert. All things considered, I had not planned it this way, but this will surely be a memorable 60th birthday.My original plan had been to only take one day off after this segment, but because of the extreme soreness of my feet, I decided to take some extra time. I knew I needed to fix this problem; otherwise I would never make it to Maine. Thus, as I type, I am soaking my feet in a warm Epson Salts bath and I am looking forward to treating the pinched callus on my right toe with ¢corn remover¢ once Hot Chocolate returns from the drug store. If that doesn¢t work, our next step will be to seek an appointment with a podiatrist.