Date: 2005-05-02
From:  Delaware Water Gap - Deer Head Inn, Room 21

To:  Mohican Outdoor Center
Miles today: 10.5
Weather: broken clouds

My 24th Wedding University!Had dinner with John last evening at the Deer Head Inn to the music of a solo guitarist. Arose and was on the trail by 6AM in a cold morning.   Crossed the Delaware to the roar of the passing traffic on I 80 and was impressed by the amount, and abundance, of evidence of the recent floods. The islands in the main stream are swept clean of ground cover vegetation, and piles of flotsam and jetsam were everywhere. The DWG NRA Information Center was closed because of the flooding, and the whole area looks devastated.   After ducking under I 80, the trail enters Worthington State Forest, with much evidence of flooding here also. The Dunfield Creek Trail was officially closed, and the bridge on the AT over Dunfield Creek ¢ also officially closed ¢ was canted over on its side, but still allowed a reasonable passage.   The trail then parallels the Dunfield Creek ¢ I love streams ¢ as it starts its ascent up out of the gap on the Kittatinny Mountain. Half way up it leaves the creek ¢ and the Dunfield Trail - and continues with a gentle, but occasionally rocky, ascent to the ridge line. Gaining the ridge line I passed Backpacker Camp Site #2 and was heading towards Sunfish Pond when I was startled to see John walking down towards me!   We both started into the ¢You are going the wrong way¢ routine. I truly thought that me was joking, because last night at dinner I had told him the ¢wrong way¢ story about Grizzly Dave from last year. I thought that he had seen me coming and walked down to meet me with the ¢wrong way¢ as a joke. Turns out that he was serious! After consulting with my map, we figured out that me had taken the ¢ officially closed ¢ Dunfield Creek Trail, which is also blazed with small white rectangular blazes. He had spent the last two hours bushwhacking his way along a washed out trail on the banks of the creek, often choked with dead-fall and debris. He described harrowing sections where the trail was completely swept away, with vertical drops to the stream below of 15 feet at a time. That trail joins the AT just below Sunfish Pond and he was following the AT back down the mountain, under the mistaken impression that he was still going north.   I must say he took the whole thing with a great deal of aplomb and good humor. We both hiked together to Sunfish Pond, took each others photos and he bade me adieu once again and was soon striding away out of sight.      Sunfish Pond is the first of the glacial lakes that you encounter as you travel north along the AT and indeed it is a beauty to behold.   The trail hugs the rocky shoreline of the lake in an amorous embrace as it passes it by. Soon it was back to a somewhat rocky, and somewhat up and down, ridge walk along the ridge of the Kittatinny Mountain. There is a spectacular 360-degree vista at a stone cairn along this section. You can see the Delaware River winding its way along the valley bottom to your left, and the Yards Creek Reservoir down in the valley to your right. The surrounding mountains were all crisp and clear in, what was now, a bright and sunny day. Truly a moment to remember.      I met one other SOBO hiker on this stretch, whose only concern was the status of the stream where he planned on finding water. Upon hearing that it was indeed flowing, he was off and past me like a flash, without any further conversation or goodbyes.      The day was so pleasant, and the trail and the vistas so inviting and splendid, that I slowed down my already slow pace, to take it all in. Despite my deliberate dalliance I soon found myself descending down to Camp Road. From there it was an easy 0.25 miles on here to the Mohican Outdoor Center.   The MOC is run by the ATC, and I am now ensconced in the Black Oak Lodge ¢ very nice. Showers, kitchen, fridge, the whole works, all impeccably clean and modern. It even has central heating ¢ much appreciated because it has turned cold and rainy as forecast ¢ with a warning for frost tonight.      I have stocked up on Diet Coke from the store here and had a hot meal in mid-afternoon. Got a signal of sorts and left a message for KT. No one else here in the lodge and only one car parked here, that hints at someone¢s presence in one of the cabins. Am well contented to spend my 24th Wedding Anniversary in these conditions, but am looking forward to a long talk with KT tonight.Thought for today ¢      Not all who pray are supplicants!