Date: 2004-07-07
From: High Point Observaqtion Platform

To: Wawayanda Shelter
Miles today: 24.9
Weather: clear sky

It was a very low impact night on the observation platform and we were out of there at dawn after a beautiful sunrise. Well maybe it was a little later than that. The sunrise was just perfect.It was another nice day. We wound up hiking solo a good deal today. A rabbit hung out in the trail in front of me for a while and later there was a wood chuck that paid a visit.The trail headed down into lowlands. It was wandering along fields and past farms. As the day wore on, it got hot. There was some road walking, about 2 or 3 miles, which was quite a lot compared to the rest of the trail.It was the heat of the day, around 2pm when I hit this road walk. Finally the trail turned off the road but it turned into a big field or drained bog. It traveled around 3 sides of this bog and then headed into the swampy woods on bog bridges. This was Walkill National Wildlife Preserve. Honestly, I didn't even see a bird. Maybe it was too hot. Certainly there is a good reason for this preserve but I just wanted to get out of the heat and the sun. This was one of those odd places where the trail went around two and three fourths sides of a field instead of one and one fourth just to avoid an extra hundred yards of road. I don't like road walking but this seemed silly.Not only was it hot but my water was gone, that is to say empty. There was plenty of water around but it was swampy. A couple of miles later the trail crossed Walkill Road and began a steep climb in dense woods. On the side of the trail, a hundred yards up the hill, a sign pointed to a blue blazed trail cut through the dense wood. The sign read water. It seemed like an odd place but I dropped my pack and followed the trail. It lead me to the back of a house with a spigot under a sign. Wow, this was great. What a relief. I drank my fill and filled my bottle.A half mile further was Pochuck Mountain Shelter. The journal there had an entry earlier today by Ponderer. I had met Ponderer at a shelter with Adam all the way back in the first 2 weeks of the trail. We were probably still in Georgia. He was an older south-bounder back then. He had flip flopped and was now north-bound. Too bad, he was heading into town today so we would miss each other. The thought of heading into Vernon to find him actually rattled around in my head for a while. But the trail called and the boots just kept on walking. It was good to know he was still at it.It was about 4:30 when the trail led across County Road 517 and into an interesting ecosystem. This was a large swamp full of cat tails and purple flowers.Eventually the board walk led to a big wooden suspension bridge over Pochuck Creek. It all just screamed for photos and I obliged. A couple of miles later the trail crossed NJ Route 94. According to the Handbook, Heaven Hill Farms was just a tenth of a mile down the road and they had ice cream. This was an over grown farm stand. They had every thing from scooped ice cream to lawn ornaments. Buick and I reunited here. We joined a couple of other thru-hikers at a table under an umbrella around the side. One of us had been sitting on a swinging bench right out front and was politely asked to go around to the side. Who wanted smelly thru-hikers gathering at the front door anyway. There were so many goodies inside it was not only hard to choose but hard to leave. A faucet on the split rail fence post provided plenty of good water too. The day was still gray and threatening and we had 5 more miles to go.The day ended at Wawayanda Shelter. Just past the turn to the shelter was the Wawayanda State Park maintenance yard and a spigot with good water. There was a bunch of kids goofing around and getting water. They were from some camp and headed for the shelter too.Buick got to the shelter just ahead of me and took the last space in the shelter. There were a fair number of folks here. There was a shelf on the outside of the shelter that served as a counter for cooking dinner and that was my first order of business. The camp group showed up and camped out back a fair distance from the shelter. I joined some other thru-hikers and Buick at the picnic table with my dinner. Most of them were probably in their twenties. We had a good time talking.Speed:Someone asked when we had started. We confessed it was May 2nd. After the customary hesitation as their minds wrapped around this new information, one of the girls exclaimed in astonishment, ¢That's 2 months after I started¢. I explained that she was getting a longer more intense trail experience. The conversation moved on, fortunately. It was an honest response though. She had been on the trail twice as long as we had to get to this spot, 1,347 miles from Springer Mountain. Admittedly it felt good but it's important not to appear to gloat.There was a bear box but it was pretty full. I pitched my tent behind the shelter and hung a bear bag. It was a 24.9 mile day. That was more like it.