Date: 2013-07-14
From: NJ 94

To: NY 17A
Miles today: 15.0
Weather: light rain

7.14.13 Sunday day 105NJ 94 - NY 17A12 miles - 11 hoursPretty poor sleep last night, felt stuffy and cramped in the room. Left St Thomas episcopal church hostel, Rosy Eagle vacuuming the carpet where we slept. crossed street to burger king to hitch hike. 8am mass was going on, beforehand some nice locals offered to drive us after mass, we wanted to go sooner on account of the humidity. Within 5 minutes, local man Tom picked us up & brought to trail, when he left he headed towards town again, he went out of his way to drive us, thanks!! Walked to base of mountain thru grassy field with sound of cicadas singing above, then nice climb up, some rock scrambles. At top of Wawayanda mountain there was great overlook towards west, we could see the boardwalk, farm & railroad we hiked through, as well as the steeple of church of way to the left. We all removed sweaty shirts to hang dry in sun, enjoyed the panorama, cool breeze & watched turkey vultures as they circled in front of us. Descent down other side of ridge to the road, Gravy passed us, said he had shoe/tent seam sealer if needed, then moved along. We made our way to Wawayanda state park, missed the blue blaze side trail so had to go extra mile around to front entrance. There we met friend from nearby who brought us fresh NJ bagels and sodas. Flavor Saver was there too, hadn't seen since left trail due to injury before Shenandoah. He caught up and passed us recently. Tom, the one who gave us a hitch this morning walks up to table to our surprise and says hello, he was there by coincidence doing volunteer work with a friend. After long rest and visit, we said goodbye & moved on into the afternoon heat through damp forest floor. In this area in particular was so many different kinds of mushrooms & fungi, all different shapes, sizes, colors, textures etc. i photographed the more colorful ones. If you are into fungi, you'll find dozens of kinds in this general area, may take a while to continuously stop to look at them all. Then some hand over hand rock scrambles to ridge top on purple colored boulders the whole time. One climb involved going up a ladder. Once on top, a 15 foot quick steep climb then walk down smooth purple rock face, this continues many times. Finally New Jersey - New York border!! We pose for photos next to the "NJ / NY" painted on rock face in white. I kiss my hand & put it on 1st NY tree after the white marker. Quick snack rest here, we read some trail register entries here. More climb up walk down, to highest point on AT in NY, here is American flag with large tree branch anchored into grounds as a flag pole. Nice lake views to the right below. Heat and humidity of the late afternoon was pretty oppressive. Trail bends down off of the ridge top and back into the forest where we listen to cicadas song as we decend to NY 17A, the hot dog stand was closed up, fortunately was able to get a hitch from Dan from Harrisburg, PA. Frequent section hiker, working in this area, on his way home, he picked us up, took us 3.5 miles the other direction, literally went out of his way to help us, thank you! Warwick inn, Rami at front desk very helpful, checked us in, ordered pizza for us, missed 8:30pm delivery cutoff by ten minutes, drove to restaurant, picked up food and brought to our room no extra charge, great service! So thankful especially after tough climb in the heat. So refreshing to change out of sweaty clothes, shower and put on fresh clothes.