Date: 2016-05-27
From: High Point Shelter 

To: St. Thomas Episcopal Hostel, Vernon NJ
Miles today: 18.9
Weather: scattered clouds

It was pretty sweaty in the shelter last night. All this heat does not agree with me. The Bears were up around 6, I waited a little longer in my bag. I was still ahead of all the flip floppers in getting out of camp. Rob and Claire are very kind and softspoken. I hike a little faster than they do, but I am trying to take my time til the Hudson and they are pushing big miles. Today was unbelievably muggy. Temperatures were in the mid 80s, and we were at consistently lower elevations than we had been at in weeks. It was a sweaty sweaty day. The terrain started out easy. In the same way that the Cumberland Valley took us from the very end of the blue ridge mountains (geologically) and up onto the ridge-and-valley formations that span Pennsylvania, today took us off the ridge we'd been following since Port Clinton and back to the "Appalachians." The trail wove down through forests reminiscent of the ones I know in Connecticut, across many roads and driveways. After a few bumps, I ran into the Bears and began hiking with Rob. We walked along State Line road in the boiling heat before turning into the Walkill Wildlife Preserve, where the trail traces out three sides of a giant rectangle around a swamp. It was pretty in a way, but mostly the swamp was radiating heat and making us even warmer. I did see a great blue heron and a number of red-wing blackbirds. We and Claire stopped in at an abandoned house that serves as the water source for Pochuck Mountain Shelter, before climbing steeply up to the shelter for lunch. I was able to wring a FOUL amount of sweat out of my shirt, which I left out to dry on the side of the shelter while I ate. I also picked up some extra food that someone had left in the bear box, which meant I didn't need to do any resupply in Vernon! I pulled over some climbs near Pochuck before dropping down to the famous Pochuck Creek Boardwalk, an elevated boardwalk that hangs about four feet above the swamp and extends for a mile over the wetlands. The boardwalk itself is gorgeous, a real piece of trail engineering. Rob caught up with me and we walked over most of it together. He waited on the other side for Claire and I pushed on over one more set of pastures to NJ 94, where I planned to hitch into Vernon. The weather was nice and I was in a great mood as I walked across the street to start hitching. But the first car I saw had an Appalachian trail license plate mooring, so I thought I might be in luck! The car was driven by Graybeard, a former thru hiker and active member of ALDHA, the Appalachian long-distance hikers association. He dropped off one other hiker (who really seemed to have no idea what he was doing) and offered to give me a ride into Vernon! Of course I said yes, and he handed me a Mountain Dew as we drove a little ways into the town of VernonWe pulled up behind the St. Thomas Episcopal Church and headed down to their basement, where they run a hiker hostel! It's a truly great place, tons of space and room to hang out, a kitchen, free ice cream and 50 cent soda, free laundry and shower... Apparently the church is shutting down later this year, and it's a real shame. I also found Rigby, whom I'd met at Rausch Gap Shelter, on a futon watching a movie. She had apparently intended to start hiking this morning after staying last night, then never got up. We three were the only ones to show up. I showered and threw my clothes in the wash before walking over to he Vernon Inn for a burger and some beer. As I was finishing up my additional plate of wings, however, I checked my email and found a note that Rigby had left in my guest book saying to hurry back to the hostel because we had an offer of a steak dinner!I paid up and briskly walked back over to the hostel, where I was met by Melissa, a trail angel from the town. She drove Rigby and me up in her car to her condo (apparently there's a ski resort here. Ridiculous.) where we met her mother and a few of her brothers. We hung out and talked before they served us a wonderful meal of steak, potatoes and asparagus. It's these kind of experiences that make the trail so strange and special. Melissa, if you find this, thank you so much! Melissa drove us back to the hostel where we immediately passed out. It was a great evening. In other news, one of my pole tips (which I have replaced twice already) decided to start folding in half, not breaking, just folding. I managed to find a piece of a broken MSR groundhog tent stake at the shelter this morning that was exactly the length I needed, and splinted the folding pole using some duct tape. God they need to make better tips.