Date: 2006-07-16
From: Delaware Water Gap

To: YMCA Camp
Miles today: 18.0

What a difference a day makes.The soul of this Catskill Eagle has been in a deep, dark gorge. The massive cruel rocks of Pennsylvania, the weeks of unrelenting torrential down pour of rain and the most vicious carnivorous mosquitoes that have ever lived to make hiking impossible have succeeded in dampening and more my spirits.But that is all different now.As I leave the Delaware Water Gap I am entering my familiar home territory. I have already hiked much of Worthington State Forrest in NJ, and I will be in New York at the end of this week. The Catskills, just to the north are home and the Delaware River is my personal playground. I have hiked and camped and canoed here. In fact I have canoed more miles on the Delaware River than I will have hiked on the Appalachian trail. Since the early 1960¢s when I took my first ever canoe trip I have spent nearly every summer canoeing. My longest canoe trip was 200 miles from Hancock, NY to Frenchtown, NJ. My favorite section is the 75 mile stretch from Hancock to Port Jervis, NY and now it is once again nearly in sight.The weather and the terrain change. The air although still warm is cooler and slightly less humid. The high clouds are wisps of white rather than the blanket of gray that has covered and wetted us so long. Oh, to be sure there are still rocks and mosquitoes and even rain but now¢¦. I am soaring. Quickly the trail rises above the placid level surface of the Delaware River and rises up to the summit of Mt. Tammany where on a bluff facing north I have an unrestricted 270¢ view 1,500 feet above sea level and to the horizon all around.My soul soars to the invisible sunny spaces above.I am now overlooking what was to be the Tocks Island Dam project. That was the source of much controversy in the 1960,70,80,and 90¢s. It was finally abandoned in the mid 1990¢s. I can see why building a huge lake would be so easy and such an attraction. I can also see why it is even more important to forever protect this wild river and wild land. I am in the midst of the best that nature has to share.Welcoming me home is an eagle. I see him as I stand on the bluff surveying the trail ahead and the terrain that separates me from my beloved Delaware river and the Catskill mountains. The eagle is flying fast, I am sure it is traveling more than 60mph. He is riding a thermal directly over the river and is completely carefree and oblivious to my presence. He flies by like a speeding car on a wonderful super highway in the sky. If only I could join him and head north! Alas, I can not. Slowly I descend from the mountain top and head north. Tonight I join Johnny K, Weatherman, Grover and BLT a long distance section hiker who I have not seen since Tennessee, we all camp on the lawn of the YMCA and share a dinner of spaghetti and brownies graciously provided by the camp director. We five stay up late talking in the abandoned dining room of the YMCA delaying our inevitable fight with mosquitoes when he step out the door. That night as we retire to our separate tents I sleep uncomfortably. It is hot and humid. Mosquitoes buzz frustrated by the thin netting that separates them from their favorite food. ME!