Date: 2012-06-24
From: Unionville NY - town park

To: Campsite on Wawayanda Mountain
Miles today: 15.3

Campsite on Wawayanda Mtn - 15.3First night hikeI was up at 6:00, but last night I agreed to walk with Far East Coast while Jeff and Sugar Plum went to church since Far East has been struggling for a while. Jeff and Sugar Plum will catch up after church. So I didn't leave until 8:30 when Far East Coast was ready. We hiked back to the trail, then continued north. It was slow going. We hiked over to the base of Pochuck Mountain and got water. It was slow going and we didn't reach NJ 94 until 2:30. At 94 we went to the Heaven Hill Farm, a produce stand. There I bought ice cream and a soda for now, and plums and grapes for the group for later. After getting this, I texted Sugar Plum to let her and Jeff know what I bought. Then I got a call from Sugar Plum that they were almost there, so we waited a half hour till they arrived. When they arrived, they told us there was a free concert just up the hill. I could hear the music from the farm but didn't know it was a free concert. So Sugar Plum went in the store and bought all kinds of stuff for a group dinner, and we hiked over to the concert. There was a band playing, maybe 100 people listening and walking around, vendors selling food and other stuff, and camping. We sat down and prepared a dinner from the food Sugar Plum brought. It was great, eating good food, music playing, people passing by. We discussed plans of how we were going to be at Fort Montgomery by Tuesday, still 48 miles away, since we didn't make much progress today, and it is already Sunday night. Sugar Plum has to participate in a conference call 10am Tuesday and has to be somewhere with a good cell signal at that time. I told her I was willing to walk with her, since she is the critical person in this. She rented a car that has to be picked up by 3:30 Tuesday before they close at 4:00 and also has that conference call. She told me she would walk with Jeff since he is the stronger hiker (he is also 20 years younger than me). Later, Jeff and Sugar Plum didn't seem interested in my comments, and finally Jeff told me "I had to hike my own hike". If I never stated this before, that is a common phrase out here, meaning you have to hike the way you want; fast or slow, mileage your body can adapt to, stopping when you want, enjoying what makes YOU happy. Not what someone else wants. Well in this case, I took his words very negatively. As in, he and Sugar Plum were making a plan and I wasn't invited. I was frustrated, I want to get there too. They discussed night hiking a few miles tonight, or staying there and doing big miles tomorrow. They were back and forth on what they were going to do and I was stewing. After while I got up, packed up and left. It was 9:00, and I was setting off on my first ever night hike without them while they still talked about what they were going to do. A lot of people like to night hike, including both Jeff and Sugar Plum. I have never done it because I have enough trouble with the rocks in daylight let alone at night; but here I was setting off on my first night hike. It is interesting how much you can see at night. I used my headlamp and could see the rocks and blazes very well. I had to go slow, but had no significant problems. I climbed up Wawayanda Mountain and hiked along the ridge. I went about 2 1/2 miles when it started to drizzle. With that, I decided to make camp for the night. So I found a place and set up camp. It was midnight when I finally went to bed.