Date: 2006-07-08
From: Unionville

To: Wawayanda Shelter
Miles today: 17.1
Weather: clear sky

Hmmmmmm....what should I tell you guys about? So much happened today. I guessit's just best to start from the beginning.Did I mention how awesome Unionville is? We met the Mayor again early in themorning while we were eating at Sara's Soda Shop. (Great breakfast) It took us abit to get going because we were both tired from the last two days. Normally twotwenties wouldn't be bad- but after 7 days off...We left town around 9:15. The walk out of town is nice and easy- no climbs atall. In fact, the first climb didn't start for 5 odd miles. Sounds nice huh? Butthe AT decides to throw a new and more devious obstacle at us...mosquitos.Now, most the people that are reading this live in NC, where I'm from- so let metell you- we southerners don't know a damn thing about these little blood sucking bastards. Looking back on all my previous camping experience, mosquitoencounters seem almost cute. We entered what New Jersey calls a "wildlife refuge" but what every thruhikerhas called "the breeding grounds." The wildlife refuge consists of acres andacres of old sod farm- stagnant water over what had to be two sqaure miles. (Forthose of you that don't know, mosquitos breed in stagnant water.) The Trailtakes a 90 degree right turn off a road to follow the field line. It goesthrough the woods where at any given time you have 5 or 6 "skeeters" on you.This, to say the least, is fairly annoying. At least when you get out in the sunthey're gone. The Trail takes a 90 left to follow the lower half of the fields,then another 90 left to head back towards the road.....wait...you mean the ATtook us through about a mile of skeeter infested fields just so we wouldn't do100 yards of road walking? Oh well- we'll go where the Trail leads us- at leastwe're leaving the sod farm and mosqiutos behind. Haha- silly me, I thought thebugs we had seen just now was what everyone was talking about when they said "northern bugs." No no no a thousand times no. As we entered the woods the AT walked on bog bridges for a while, and this is where the ambush took place. Tortoise was walking in front. When her trekking pole first hit a clump ofgrass and some white stuff flew up, my first thought was: "dandelion seeds!" Mysecond thought was: "Wait, those aren't..bleh ew they're in my mouth!" Everystep we took another contingent of mosquitos flew up to greet us. They launchout of the grass like a group of fighters in perfect formation. It probablywould have made a great scene in some Pixar movie about bugs. They get in you eyes, they get in your ears, they get in your mouth. The cloudsof them were so thick that at the time my view of Tortoise (5 feet ahead) wasblurred. I tried to stop to take a picture, but that's just asking to get youblood drained. We made record time, pushing close to 4 mph- even on the 800 footclimb. I know it sounds like I'm complaining, and I was (bitching is probably acloser term) but it was quite the exciting experience. We made great time allday because of the bugs- you can't stop to rest for long with those thingsaround, and it was better since we had someone to share our pain with. En route to the shelter, Tortoise calls 411 and gets the info on a drive intheater near the shleter we're staying at. Pirates of the Caribbean 2 isplaying- so needless to say- we hitched down the road to watch it. (Picking Mr.Parkay up along the way.) Just a single day in the bugs convinced me to call my brother and get my tentback. So I'm sitting right now at the Shop Rite in Warwick (on the 9th) waitingfor him to come down. Thank the Lord for brothers willing to do huge favors.