Date: 2017-06-06
From: Wawayanda Shelter, NJ

To: West Mombasha Rd, NY
Miles today: 17.1

Beth, that microfiber cloth you gave me really works. I put it to use drying myself off last night after my shower and it was amazing.It rained all night but eased off around 8. I was able to pack up the tent in fairly dry conditions, with just the rain fly being wet - which of course makes it heavier. I got on the trail by 9:09. Today was easily the most technically difficult day so far on the AT, with three sections of rocks that demanded care, some risk-taking, and abandoning the use of poles so as to use hands to grab onto rocks and haul oneself up. I think I've seen up until today maybe two places where the AT offers an alternative route for those leery of rocks and a little danger. Today, there were at least two and possibly three 'blue-blazed' escape routes for the faint-hearted. On one very difficult vertical, the ATC sadists had recognized the impossibility of the ascent and had inserted rebar steps and handholds.Just before 11, I crossed the state line into New York. New Jersey has been fun, with rounded rocks, lots of stretches with no rocks, and a generally kinder, gentler attitude to hikers than that Great Satan of a state, Pennsylvania (may its name be forever reviled, yea even unto the seventh generation, or at least until say 2019. Cursed be he who utters its name in my presence. Henceforth it is to be referred to as Pxxxxxxxxxxa, which is probably a common Basque name, likely pronounced 'Pisha'. Pisha it shall be.) By 11 the rain had re-started, which only made things even more exciting, especially when you factor in the lack of tread on my shoes. I got onto one stretch of smooth rock, roughly 20 feet from top to bottom, tilted at a 30-degree angle (the rock, you idiot, not me), and my feet started to slide. I was jabbing frantically at the rock with my poles to no avail, did a complete 360, and ended up sliding-running down the last ten feet. Adrenaline rush!The rain stopped around 2pm, and shortly after that I was up on top of a long stretch of rocks known as the Pinnacles, with ravens nesting on the sheer sides. They are so used to hikers going by that they don't move until you are about six feet from them. I even came upon a big turkey barreling along the top of some rocks. He rushed away from me.The rain and gloomy overcast conditions had created the perfect environment for the little orange newts, and there were tons of them. Now I play a game where I try to see how many of them I can squish underfoot in any 10-minute period. Getting two with one footstep counts as four.During the day I hiked alone, apart from brief spells when 'the kids' would overtake me and vanish - Nople and his friend Frodo, for example. I caught up with Whistler and Stretch, and we leapfrogged each other during the course of the day. I also met an Israeli, Rock Spider, who was moving fairly slowly on the rocks, and his younger US buddy Thoreau.My goal today was to get to the intersection with West Mombasha Road by 5. I was a bit late - 5:02 - but so was my old friend Rich, who showed up in his car at 5:03, and whisked me off to his house, stopping along the way to help me get a few supplies at a grocery store. He discreetly opened the sun-roof after I'd been in the car a few minutes. He and his wife Lori took me to dinner (after I'd had a long shower). I had a rack-and-a-half of BBQd ribs, and lots of other food too. My hosts looked on in some amusement as I methodically ensured that no food on the table went to waste. Back at the house, I tried to do my trail journal, but that was a total failure, as my phone had gotten wet during the day and typing was impossible. Now really, you didn't believe that I'd squish cute little newts, didya?Tipperary