Date: 2003-06-21
To: Vernon, NJ
Miles today: 13.6

well, today WAS a better day than yesterday my attitude was better anyway. it was also the first day of summer. it was also the traditional "AT hike naked day". it was also overcast, cold, and rainy and i didn't see (or look for) anyone carrying on that thru-hiker tradition today. it was also the day a great friend of mine was getting MARRIED and i did not go home for it.and now that the stage is set, on with the show:we walked out of the shelter around 8amish in the rain. it was 2 miles to the town where i needed to buy my next batch of food to get me to the next town and we also bought some breakfast. i'll take this opportunity to mention the fact that spending 3+ months out on the AT does a certain something to your body odor. and you know it's really bad when you can smell yourself. I'll just say that lately, i have become very self-conscious of it when in public places. it's BAD. we all smell this bad so when hanging out with other hikers, it's bearable. but i feel so sorry for "normal" people if they have the bad luck of walking past us. (once, a week or so ago in a store, a kid even stuck his nose into his shirt as he drew near us! :-)anyway, i wanted to buy my supplies and get out of that store as fast as possible before we spoiled the milk. we leave Unionville near 11:30 and hike on in scattered drizzle. then the mosquitoes come out in force. up until now, i'll be happy to admit that the bugs haven't been bad at all. maybe it was the area we were walking through, but there were suddenly thousands of them. i am positive that i have at Least 25 bites on me somewhere. but around 2pmish, a thunderstorm rolled in and scared the bugs off so that was a mixed blessing. the clouds were so thick above us that it felt more like 8pm instead of 3pmish. "Mirkwood" is the best way to describe walking through the woods today, with the drip-dripping of the rain through the leaves.the 3 of us were drenched by the time our day was through. but we had one last obstacle: the last 8th of a mile was through a cow pasture... and it had been raining for the past month... and the trail was muddy to begin with... and cows do their "duty" wherever they want... and no matter how hard we tried to find firm ground, it was impossible to avoid... everyone's shoe went totally under "water" at least once. at least no one lost their balance! by this time, i was laughing at how hard we were trying to avoid the mud. i think i was a bit slap-happy by this point in the day.but we made it to the road crossing we were aiming for. with everything drenched and us cold, we hitched into the town of Vernon, NJ where St Thomas Church runs a hiker hostel in their basement. this is definitely on my list of "favorite hostels". we are now dry, clean, and fed. i wish the same could be said for our boots, but they'll just get muddy tomorrow anyway. someone made the mistake of turning on the weather channel. when they showed the east coast, there was only one rainy spot and it was RIGHT over where we are. i laughed a lot at that and got a picture of it--hope it turns out. the weather lady also said that this has been one of the wettest years for the east coast in a Long Time. we're Hard Core!we hiked 13.6 today, but boy did it feel like more than that.