Date: 2013-07-15
From: Wawayanda Shelter

To: Warwick Motel
Miles today: 10.0

Day One Hundred and Twenty Nine -(10) Wawayanda Shelter to Warwick What a day! We woke up at 5am packed up and headed to the State Park office to fill up on water, use a real restroom and sit at a table to eat our breakfast. I was so disappointed when I discovered the door was locked to the restroom. I hadn't even changed yet thinking I would have the privacy of four walls so I ended up changing by the front door. I wonder if they have security cameras. We headed back to the trail and started a very miserable day. We were walking through a swamp filled woods where the population of the mosquitoes far outnumbered the trees. The worst of the swampy sections had boards, logs or stones that we had to jump and hope we didn't land in the swamp or the mud. It was frustrating! Then we came to a rocky section and it was already hot. It wasn't the ankle turner type of rock but rock cliffs that we had to climb. The trail wasn't blazed very well and some of the rocks were still wet from last nights rain making everything slippery. The dog handled the rocks better than I did and even climbed a ladder that was attached to a sheer rock face. I wish I had a video of it. We finally came to the New Jersey/New York state line and stopped for a quick break.I'm glad to be done with New Jersey and hope that New York has something new to offer. I was so exhausted though! I had Two Socks take my picture there just in case I don't make it to the next state line. I even began to wonder if maybe I had Lyme Disease. Two Socks was just as tired as I was and even more grumpy. We decided that we would stop at ten miles go to Greenwood Lake and find a nice hotel. Normally the thought of town food and showers is enough to get us moving but today we crawled along at a snails pace. We met a section hiker on the trail who was headed back to his truck and he offered us a ride (hitch hiking is illegal in New York). He had ice cold water in his truck for us and he drove us to hotel after hotel but no one allowed pets. I felt really bad that he was going way out of his way for us. I quickly looked in my AT Guide and found a B&B that allows pets, I called and someone answered but my cell reception wasn't good enough for a conversation so we just headed over. This place was far away and near nothing. We said goodbye and thanked our trail angel only to find out that no one was there. Now we were stuck! We couldn't hitch hike back and we were miles from a town and far from the trail head. I checked my guide again and found a motel that was in a town called Warwick that I thought we had just driven through, I called got a room and now just had to figure out a ride. It was so hot out even Melkie wanted the day to end. We started walking down the side of the road and a dog started barking at us. It's owner peaked out of his garage to check on him and that's when I made my decision. I walked up his driveway and asked for his help. I explained what had happened and offered to pay him to drive us to Warwick. He said yes! His daughter Jessie (an honour roll student) came along for the ride. I tried to pay him but he wouldn't take my money so I gave it to his daughter to give to him later. He actually turned around and returned the money after he dropped us off! At the motel the owner helped us out as well, he said we could do laundry and offered to take us to the grocery store later. It has been amazing all of the help we have been given on this journey. Today started out as such a rough one but the kindness of the people here made the difference. It turns out there had been a heat advisory for today and tomorrow (that explains why we had no energy to climb) and we are planning to zero here tomorrow too. After cleaning up and washing our clothes we walked into town for dinner and grabbed snacks for later on the way back. While I was sitting outside someone offered me half of his pizza, he said there was no way he could eat the whole thing. Perfect! As usual I am ending up going to bed way too late but I will try to sleep in tomorrow. Good night world!TroubleConfessions of a thruhiker:"If it's a really good shower I try to do as many yoga moves in there so that the hot pressurized water touches every muscle directly."