Date: 2004-08-05
From: Brink Road Shelter, New Jersey

To: Cobmar Ridge Motel, Branchville, NJ
Miles today: 3.6

So much for our mileage goals. There's a good reason, though today. We walked down from the shelter to Culvers Gap, where a legendary AT bakery is stationed. Supposedly Grandma Gatewood stayed there once. But it's closed this year, sadly. I had a mail drop in Branchville, a town three miles off the trail, so we hitched in and got a ride in a pick-up right away. The guy didn't know where the post office was, though, so he promised to drop us off at the municipal building. We figured that was close enough. But when we got there we discovered it was the county regional building, about three miles past the town center. So we bit the bullet and started hitching back again, the other way, to town. It's all New Jersey yuppies, though, on their lunch breaks driving past in their Mercedes SUVs, so we start walking, still hitching. A state police car goes past and County asks if he should hich to him. I say what the heck, so we stick our thumbs out. He drives past without stopping so we shrug our shoulders and keep walking. Then, he proceeds to turn around, come back, u-turns, and puts on his lights and siren behind us and pulls us over. While walking. He then tells us that hitch hiking is illegal in the state of New Jersey and that he could issue us both a summons right then so we would have to come back to court. He said he could also give anyone who picked us up a ticket. So no wonder no one picked us up. We told him we were hikers just trying to get to the post office, but it was obvious he had no idea what the trail was or that it was anywhere near. I ask him, still fishing for a ride, how far the post office is, and he tells us it's about two miles up the road, and gives us directions, on a hot August day. Jerk. He then trolls up and down the road as we walk, making sure we don't get a ride. Which is flat out ridiculous. So we basically do an extra two plus miles on the asphalt. We get to the post office, complaining about how much we hate New Jersey but the postmaster is extremely nice, and my mail drop is there, plus a package from my grandmother with cookies. We lounge for a while on a park bench, trying to decide what to do, not wanting to walk the three and a half miles back to the trail. We eventually go get lunch and get a great deal--$4.95 for a huge half-pound cheeseburger with fries, which is better than prices in the south, and the best hiker portions since Port Clinton. So we start feeling a little better about New Jersey. Then we see a motel in the guidebook that offers shuttles and we call and find out they'll come pick us up and give us a ride back to the trail in the morning, plus they will give us the lower listed rate. So we decide to splurge. As it turns out, we started talking to locals and some guy who lives next to the trail and whose son-in-law did the trail a couple of years ago offered us a place to stay in his basement, but we had made arrangements with the motel already. And sometimes it's just nice to have a real bed and a bathroom all to yourself, even if it is for less than twenty-four hours. Plus cable TV. So we ended up feeling better about New Jersey.