Date: 2006-06-10
From: Vernon, NJ

To: Wawayanda Shelter
Miles today: 5.3
Weather: overcast clouds

June 10, Wawayanda Shelter I'm getting ahead of myself so I had a short day. If I shelter hop, I can get myself back on schedule. So I'm at Wawayanda with three thru hikers and a father/son camping trip. The thru hikers are, Don, Tins (short for There Is No Someday) and Trooper. All long mileage young fellows. All three are talking about doing 20 plus miles tomorrow. They only did 19 miles today. Trooper has a really bad looking toe on each foot. Tins think it might be infected. I have to agree. They taped it with duct tape. Oops, another thru hiker, HomeBrew, who just came in from a 24 mile day. Back to the morning. I slept in, six thirty. Something about a roof over the head and a heater that is very nice. The deal at this hostel is that each hiker is requested to do a chore as part of your stay. So we ran around and pulled a chore out of the chore box and got it done. Then the three of us went to The Mixing Bowl for breakfast. We all made phone calls. I was the only one who got to talk to a real person. I talked to Paul and then I spoke to my sister, who is my transcriber. Let her know the first batch of entries were downloaded for her to clean up. All is as well as can be expected at home. Then Dave, the hostel host came by, we sat around and chatted. He offered to take us back to the trailhead. I somehow got myself talked into for taking the ride. Not good.   Didn¢t get to the post office for a second check on mail. And I only had a 5.3 mile today. The climb up Wawayanda Mt. was very nice. It is a huge pile of rock. The maintainers moved rocks to make stairs in some areas. It was an hour of slow pace uphill. Spotted two others with packs ahead of us. And the parking lot was full. Dave mentioned this is the first weekend there has been no rain and it¢s the weekend. Rocky forgot the cheese she bought. At the vista at the top, she asked a couple who were geocaching if they would go to the hostel to get her cheese. They agreed to do that and the plan was to meet at the next road crossing, and off went Rocky. Swamp Fox and I had a leisurely walk left in the dust. The cheese transfer went well. I stopped to wait. The mystery hikers ahead of us were at the road crossing for a break. Two fellows out for the weekend. As we sat, I walked down to a garage sale down the road. Then back into the woods. Nice thing about Rocky is that she had worked in a garden store. I learned tall phlox, buttercup and Ring of gold. The buttercup and phlox, I knew. She also pointed out a plant used for poison ivy. Can't remember the name, but I know it by sight. Rocky and Swamp walked past this shelter. I thought I would have a quiet afternoon to read. No such luck. A young couple came by with their three kids for lunch. The Don showed up. Dave from the hostel brought water. The father/son weekend campers came. It was a pandemonium of people. So much for quiet afternoon. After the day people left, we are now all hikers here. I had supper with Tins, Trooper and the father/son team.   The father had questions about hiking the trail, as always. And now we're settling in for the evening while listening to HomeBrew fix dinner. Me, I think I'll read some before calling it a night.Namaste