Date: 2018-08-24
From: High Point State Park 

To: New Jersey Rt 94 
Miles today: 20.6
Weather: clear sky

I saw my chiropractor for the last time this morning. We headed to the trail from his office. On the way there we passed a harness horse farm. I wanted to stop and chat but time wouldn¢t allow. As a young adult I trained and raced harness horses. I loved it, and I really miss owning a horse.  Just as we hopped out of the vehicle at High Point State Park to start hiking north, a SOBO came across the field towards us. I never caught her name, but it makes me happy to see strong women out here enjoying the trail. I feel confident that Grandma Gatewood is smiling down on us!  Today¢s hike started out going UP. We went up 1692.3 feet to an observation deck. The views were great! Leaving the deck we went down a hill and found ourselves on a road. Hmmm that¢s always fishy. Very quickly we looked at Guthook¢s and did a U-Turn. Right back up that hill...ugh!  The next few miles were spent weaving through pastures, fields, and woods. It was nice. There was sunshine and blue skies. There were orange butterflies bouncing from purple clover to purple clover. I thought of my horses again. They love purple clover!  There was a marshy area with boardwalks for the hikers. I¢m so grateful to the volunteers who maintain all of this for us.  Eventually we popped out on the road to Unionville NY. It was past lunchtime and we were hungry so we walked 0.3 miles to Wits End Bar. Both of us had wings and a salad for lunch. Thinking we were ahead of schedule we decided to enjoy an adult beverage after lunch. This bar was really nice. It felt like being at Cheers where everybody knows your name. Great food, friendly owner and staff! A nice stop. Once we got back to the trail I realized the mileage from the bar was different. We thought we only had 8 miles left to go but it was 11.8 trail miles! Good grief! I should have known 8 miles wasn¢t correct. By now it was after 3pm so we already knew we would be night hiking. The terrain was nice though. Other than copious amounts of mosquitoes it couldn¢t get better. We were walking beside the woods in another field chatting about grandkids when Hugs said she hadn¢t seen a blaze in a while. Immediately we checked Guthook¢s. I can¢t believe it, off trail again! Another U-Turn...Double Ugh!  There were more boardwalks, streams and fields until we came to a large rock scramble going UP. I think it was a 1000ft climb. But on our way to the rock scramble we got off trail again! This can¢t be real!?! We already had a 20 mile day planned! U-Turn AGAIN!!!! Triple Ugh! The AWOL guy said Jersey is the worst for poorly marked turns etc. I agree! But I love the trail here! Anyway, I made it to the scrambles and climbed up to Rocky Outcrop at 1080 Ft elevation. That view! You just can¢t beat the Jersey views! This would be the last big climb of the day.  Then we came to a park with a couple miles of boardwalk over marshy land. It was beautiful! The cattails were high, bullfrogs were croaking, and locals were strolling. The sun was fading fast by then and the mosquitoes were a force to be reckoned with, but wow it was a great place to be!  Just as the sun completely fell out of the sky our boardwalk came to an end. We had 1.5 miles left to go. I already had my headlamp on. We were back in the woods and my light attracted even more bugs! I was scared to take a deep breath. They were already flying up my nose. I didn¢t want them in my mouth too! Eventually we came to a swampy cow pasture. Thank goodness there was more boardwalk! It¢s a full moon tonight, and that was nice when hiking through the pasture. Finally we crossed the fence to a road and parking lot where Papa Big Swig would pick us up. In 10 minuets our chariot arrived.  We are both wiped out, but this day was great!  Until Next Time Blue Raccoon (2018) Where¢s your faith?