Date: 2005-07-01
From: Gren Anderson Shelter

To: Unionville, N.Y.
Miles today: 20.1

2:30 pmI¢m just a couple of miles from Unionville. I got a late start this morning. I woke up late and took my time getting out because I knew I was only doing 21 miles today and knew I had all day to do it. So, I¢ve been farting around all day. Actually, the past two/three days I¢ve been taking my time. Right now I am out of breath because I am in a hurry. The Coronas have been calling me from Unionville, so now I am hauling ass. The past few days, coming out of Delaware Water Gap until after somewhere approaching Mohican Outdoor Center, a lot of the walks, maybe 50%, were across ridges in New Jersey that were either fully exposed or partially exposed. Little or no trees. Right at the backbone of the mountain where the solid rock stuck out of the dirt and leaves and everything were big huge faces of rock. Some of them really smooth, which really sucks when they¢re wet, and with my shoes I¢ve been skidding around a lot. I¢ve taken some good decent slams on the ground.The rest of the time, they seem to take you up to a ridge, across these big stone faces and drop you back down a few hundred feet through really damp marshy areas. The last few miles going into Unionville, after the High Point Shelter, drops you into farm fields, corn fields, and hay fields. There were a couple of areas that were underwater and they had 2 x 6¢s on top of 8x8 posts that were laying sideways on the ground to keep you above the water. And then stuff that was very reminiscent of sawgrass from the Everglades. It looked very much like the Everglades in fact with the water and the tall, 4 foot high grass going through it.I could have stopped a few miles short here before going into Unionville, but like I said, the food and the Coronas are calling me. So, I¢ll just get into town and eat and drink and then figure out what to do. I can stay in the hostel at the bar which is basically just a broom closet for all intents and purposes. Or I could tent at the park which is wide open. You¢re fully exposed to everyone who drives by, so it is almost like you are a side show.I just ran into Desparado again at the roadside here right after High Point Shelter, and he says there is a stealth spot up by the pond there. So I¢m going to check that out on the way into town; see what¢s up with it.Slowly winding into shape. It¢s been rough. Yesterday was a rough day. This morning seemed a little rough but I seem to be getting back into pace again here. I did notice yesterday that even when I did run hard I had a hard time staying at three miles an hour. Now I¢m sure I¢m back up to three and a half. Maybe what I did was lost all that weight I¢ve been gaining this past week with only doing half days, easy days, and stuff like that. It¢s tough to stay up at the top in terms of conditioning but it¢s coming back. We shall see tomorrow. Actually, tomorrow I¢m going to be hanging out in town, so that sucks. I¢ll see the day after when I run out with OC1. He¢s going to be at the top of his game as he walks in and walks right back out of town and I¢ll be sitting around for a day once again drinking beer and getting fat. Anyway, that¢s it until later tonight wherever I go, where ever I end up, I¢ll try to put the last entry in here; the total mileage and any other news.