Date: 2008-05-26
From: MayorÃÂÃÂ¢ÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂs House Unionville NY 

To: Wawayanda Shelter NJ
Miles today: 16.9
Weather: clear sky

Day 99 ¢ Monday May 26 ¢ Wawayanda Shelter NJ ¢ Miles Today: 16.9 Total Miles: 1350.0Happy Anniversary to Grasshopper and Brakeman. The morning started rather early despite Grasshopper¢s lack of sleep. She was up most of the night thanks to her caffeine buzz. One caffeinated soda, and she¢s buzzed for most of the night! We got up at 5:45 so that we could quickly use the bathroom before the rest of the house awoke. We packed our bags and were ready for our breakfast before 6:30. Breakfast was huge.   We had 3 scrambled eggs, 4 sausage patties, a big helping of hash browns, 2 pieces of toast, and O.J.   In addition, Brakeman enjoyed a cup of coffee. Bill did a tremendous job cooking us a very good and filling breakfast. While Grasshopper was trying to get to sleep last night, she had thoughts of having ice cream as her breakfast dessert, but luckily she did not make a scene and ask for any as the breakfast was quite filling. The mayor wished us a "Happy Anniversary" this morning and sent us out the door with 2 of his prized possessions ¢ imported Dutch Bakery Syrup Waffle cookies! Yesterday he shared them with us but we were allowed only 1 each, as he only had a few left. But today we got his last 2 as a happy anniversary gift. A very, very sweet man.Butch was to pick us up at 7:15 but was running a tad late. Upon his arrival, we did quick goodbyes to Bill and the Mayor and hopped in the car to head to the small town grocery store, so we could get some flat bread, peanut butter and oatmeal. Unfortunately at the checkout counter, as Grasshopper opened the oatmeal container to transfer it to a baggie, she ended up exploding the package all over the counter. The clerk just sort of stood there speechless, as we scooped all the oats off the counter and into the bag. Of course, in the process, we included any dirt that was on the counter. Hmm, I wonder how our breakfast will taste for the next few days? Perhaps gritty or crunchy? Butch then drove us back to the trailhead and we were hiking by 7:45, a little bit later than we wanted, as during these hot days we really like early morning starts. By 9:00 we had a good sun beating down on us and were quite hot.About 3 miles past Unionville, we walked along the Wallkill National Wildlife Preserve, a marshy lake or pond, where we saw some ducks and egrets. Unfortunately the trail took us along all 3 sides of the water¢s edge, almost back to our starting point (the road), in the direct sun for probably 1.5 miles. It was quite hot. We had no interest in stopping and our bodies just wanted to be back in the shade of the woods. A few hours later, we were at another preserve, the Pochuck, walking in the direct sun again for about a mile on a raised boardwalk, overlooking a marsh full of cattails and other marsh type plants. We were out in the open sun a good bit today, which made for some mighty hot hikers. There are a lot of marshes in this area, as in addition to the 2 preserves, we walked over more marshy areas for quite a bit on planks attached to railroad ties or telephone poles. We're really in a boggy area here it seems.By early afternoon we reached the parking lot for the trail leading to the top of Wawayanda Mountain, which according to folks that we passed, has a 900¢ incline in 14 mile. Sounded pretty outrageous of an incline, to us. The climb out of Palmerton was more than the 1,000¢ in 12 mile.As we approached the parking lot area, we realized that we were running low on water, especially given the heat. We had 2 choices. We could walk a couple hundred yards to a restaurant and try to get water, or we could just ask the people in the parking lot who were standing around their car if they had any water to spare. You know which one we tried first. Yep, the parking lot folks. No use walking extra yards! We scored 2 nice cool bottles of water from a nice couple. Of course, our useless trail guidebook showed no water from the mountain to the shelter despite the fact that we passed several water sources along the way. There was actually a nice river after the mountain where we stopped, rinsed out our shirts, took a little sponge bath with our bandana and walked the last 3+ miles to the shelter with wet shirts to keep us cool. Very nice and refreshing.I'm not quite sure if the 900¢ elevation in 14 mile was accurate for Wawayanda Mountain, but it was a good incline with lots of stone stairs. It took us quite a while to reach the top as we stopped to talk to the tons of day hikers out enjoying the holiday weekend. All the socializing made it more of a relaxing day. The day hikers climbing Wawayanda Mountain did not hike much faster than us despite our huge packs with 6-7 days of food. We actually witnessed 2 ladies, one middle-aged and one a young girl, have meltdowns! The young girl just sat on the trail while her boyfriend tried to cheer her on. She kept telling him that she wasn't going any further, but eventually she got up and started hiking again. The middle-aged lady had a melt down when she lost the white blazed trail and ended up bushwhacking up the mountainside to relocate it. She was none too pleased.   Brakeman was quite happy that at least his female hiking partner didn't have any meltdowns.We saw a deer on the trail, as we were coming around a corner. It just stood there staring us down. We were within 15' of it and it still had not moved! Eventually Grasshopper tapped her sticks and it moved about 15' off the trail and continued to stare at us as we walked by. It did not appear to be afraid of us at all.   We got to camp about 5:00 after a leisurely day, arriving about an hour sooner than expected. The rocks are definitely getting less; we had a lot of clear path today. Our feet are definitely sore on the bottom due to the beating from the Pennsylvania and New Jersey rocks. Grasshopper's pinky toe on her left foot is still tender. We're really looking forward to just a 12-mile day tomorrow. We're hoping to get to our site by lunchtime and spend the rest of the day laying flat in the tent! There is a 60% chance of showers tomorrow, but the rest of the week is supposed to be clear. We've had 3-4 days in the 80s sweating under the hot sun, so if we have a little bit of rain, I guess that¢s OK.   We're just looking forward to a half-day off. We've been in and out of New York and New Jersey the last couple days but tomorrow we leave New Jersey for the last time! Goodnight from just shy of permanently in New York.