Date: 2006-07-04
From: Vernon, NJ

To: Wildcat Shelter
Miles today: 17.5
Weather: light rain

Plans for a holiday celebration fell through. We didn't make it to the hiker feed and Party near Wolf Mountain, NY. We didn't find a town with its own celebration. Most towns celebrated over the weekend. We didn't get our act together after talking about taking the party out to a shelter.Without any plans I had to hike. I wanted to hike. The rest was needed and fun, but the trail called. Even on the hardest days the hike feels clean and has a clear purpose.More beautiful New Jersey hiking including the climb up Wawayanda Mtn. Not many climbs in New Jersey so this one felt like a return to normal. Some steep work picking my way across short boulder fields and a nice view from the top, maybe too hazy but green fields and farms spread out below. Because it's a holiday I passed a number of day hikers. As I've been doing, I expressed my enjoyment of their state to them. I always like meeting people who take advantage of what they have in their back yards.Hot and sweaty, I wanted to take a swim. One hiker confirmed there was a nice lake ahead in Wawayanda state Park. I accidentally passed the side trail to the park, but no matter. A dog-walking couple told me it was a couple of miles from there to the beach. The woman with dog offered me an alternative. She said that a couple of miles up the trail there was a stream running under a footbridge, perfect for cooling off. Kutsa came up from behind during the conversation and we hiked off to find the spot. After crossing several small streams we found the one with the bridge. It flows from a marsh, full after recent rain. I joked about there being leeches from the marsh but decided they only found in standing water not flowing water. What do I know? Of course I asked Kutsa to take my picture cooling off. Of course I stripped ff my shirt and kilt. Charlie Foxtrot hiked out of the woods just then and stopped at the scene of the crime.The water felt great, cool but not too cool and flowing quickly. The bottom of the stream was weedy but I sat down in a sandy spot and Kutsa happily snapped a few shots. Refreshed, I climbed out, dressed, and the tree of us sat beside the stream for lunch. Glancing down at my foot I saw that the stream was a mistake. There was indeed a leech squirming on my ankle. I wasn't disgusted, just annoyed as I picked it off. I found more twined around the hairs on my legs, maybe ten in all. They weren't the big Stand By Me/African Queen style leeches. They were small, about half an inch long. I explored further but didn't find any down below. Kutsa didn't find any on my back. Charlie Foxtrot saw me sitting in the stream and decided there was a region I¢d missed. Of his own volition he offered to help with a search. Strange, but he was probably right. He had me step up on the bridge for a better view. An odd tableau. Two men in kilts. One leaning over, kilt flipped over his back. The other leaning over doing a prison style inspection. Add in a woman with a camera who decided she had to document the proceedings. It had the feel and look of a very strange threesome. Encounter over, I said I only had one cigarette left and we'd have to share.Happy