Date: 2005-10-19
From: Vernon, N.J.

To: Gren Anderson Shelter
Miles today: 31.9
Weather: clear sky

A most interesting day on the trail - and no, I did NOT actually hike 31.9 miles today, but I can explain!It has to do with New Jersey's "drowned lands", what happens when you add record setting rainfall, and a concept new to this journal: "yellow blazing."Knowing I faced an 18 mile hike through swamp lands, I got an early start this morning. The trail began with a climb over a stile - wooden stairs over a barbed wire fence - leading to an active pasture area. Stapled to the style was a small white card, laminated, but the water had gotten into it and thus only the top line was readable: "caution." Usually those signs tell you the fence includes a "live" wire to discourage the cows from leaving, but that means the hiker needs to pay attention to both various body parts and his metal hiking poles as he negotiates the stile.After pasing through a soggy, cowpie filled pasture, I climbed another stile and entered a lower lying area. I immediately encountered a number of puncheons - a wooden contraption consisting of one or two 10-12 foot long boards, secured at each end to a larger block of wood that is stuck into the ground as both an anchor and to raise the walking board(s) above the (normal) water level.In this particular area, a number of these rather heavy contraptions had been picked up and moved several yards to the left by the force of water moving across the field. I managed to slog through the wet areas to the next set of puncheons, but over the next half mile the situation just kept geting worse. Eventually I concluded this was a ridiculous endeavor, and not worth it. Especially since the water just kept getting deeper, and the puncheons themselves were under water. I decided, therefore, to return to the road and see if I could find a way around this particular section.As I climbed back over the original stile, I had another look at that hand-written caution notice. In the improved daylight, I was able to make out several more words in the next couple of lines. One line included the word "out", and the word preceeding it had the letters "d" and "g" in it. The next line included the words "passable areas" followed by a word that included the letters "c", "l" and "s". I had this odd sense that Vanna White was by my side and that I should be asking for a vowel... After puzzling over the note a bit longer, and adding the logic of some of my observations of the past hour, I was able to make out the full message:          "CAUTION! Bridge Out. Passable Areas Closed"Okay, fine, my instincts were right. I can take a hint. As was subsequently confirmed, there was a bridge over a stream that had been destroyed, and thus this section of the trail was closed.In a few places, the trail allows for alternative routes, usually a blue-blazed trail, that can be used in the event of bad weather. I've only availed myself of this option a couple of times, and make no apologies for having done so. This was a different case, however, involving a trail closure.In this case, it is legitimate to find a suitable detour around the trail closure. This is different from hikers who take to the roads simply to skip sections of the trail when there are no such obstacles. Hiking the trail is called white blazing, taking other trails as a substitute for the AT is called blue-blazing; walking (or hitching a ride) along roads is called yellow-blazing - named after the dotted yellow lines on the pavement. This would be my first ever yellow-blazing experience.My first thought was simply to head east on Route 94, take the first road going south, take that road to the next road west, and pick up the trail again there. As I looked at the highway conditions, however, I wasn't all that happy with what I saw: a narrow two lane road, heavily used during the morning rush hour by fast moving trucks, with a two foot wide berm, guard rails on both sides, but no place to walk on the outside of the rails.To the west, however, the berm was wider, and it led toward a farm market, so I headed for that. They were just opening, so I got a cup of coffee, dug out my maps, and set out to come up with a modified hike plan.As I considered my options, I decided that I would take a pass on essentially the entire section. Not all of it was swampy, but you either do swamps and all, or none of it. After the low lying area I had already tried, there was another section called the Pochuck Swamp (also known as the "Pochuck Quagmire"), nearly a mile long. After that, every couple of miles the guide book noted more swamps: "cross swampy area on puncheons", "cross dirt road and puncheons in swampy area", "reach the northen end of a swampy area", "follow puncheon through swampy thickets", "reach northern end of Vernie Swamp (the AT follows more than 112 puncheons through 0.2 miles of this wetland)", and "southbound hikers turn left and re-enter the woods, passing through a swampy area".   After studying the maps, I decided to yellow blaze from Vernon to Route 23, just south of the High Point shelter in the High Point National Park, my original destination for the day. I also decided that hiking unsafe country roads was not an essential part of my AT experience, so I simply called for a taxi and implemented my detour plans, arriving back on the trail at about 10.30 some 20 miles further south.By 5PM I was at the Gren Anderson Shelter and set up my tent in the shelter. I was soon joined by a school group of 8 kids and 4 adults, but they were tenting and proved to be a very nice group. It was nice not to be alone, especialy in N.J.'s bear country.I couldn't help but feel a bit guilty about my yellow-blazing, however legitimate it was due to the trail closure, but that's just me. At least it was a first, and I still haven't slack packed! And I am 31 miles closer to home. In fact, at 254 miles down, I'm almost half way there!Stay tuned, Longhaul------------------------------Sent via PocketMailEmail Anywherewww.pocketmail.com