Vernon, NJ – mile 1346 – 61.4 percent of the trail complete
August 8th – Wind Gap to Delaware Water Gap
Total miles on AT – 15.5
Elevation gain – 977ft
Elevation loss – 1571ft
Start time: 11:50am
Finish time: 7:50pm
Total time hiking: 6:25
Weather: sunny, warm
About a good a day as I could expect after two and a half weeks off the trail. A smooth trip from my cousin’s in Lower Manhattan to the subway to the Port Authority where I got the bus to Strasbourg, and a costly cab ride to Wind Gap. I made a stop at CVS and Dunkin Donuts and a family there started asking me questions about my hike so I asked them for a ride to the trail and they obliged.
I took it nice and easy. I only intended to do 9 miles to Kirkridge Shelter. Both my back and my shin felt good. (I was surprised how good my back felt yesterday on the comfy Acela speed train.) I arrived at the shelter at just after four and stretched. No one showed up and I got a bit lonely. Since all my friends are two and a half weeks ahead of me, I was anxious to meet more. So I hiked 6.4 miles farther, all the way to Delaware Water Gap, a town that looks a lot like Harper’s Ferry but without the national park stuffiness.
I am staying at a church hostel – suggested donation $3. I had not stayed or camped with a single south-bounder until tonight. There are two here. One is named is Flower Power. She calculates that there are 15-30 south-bounders ahead of her. She said that the northbound crowd that she has been passing for three weeks really thinned out the last five days. She’s done 64 miles in the last two days! I recognize some names in the register that are now ahead of me – folks whom I passed well before I got off the trail two and a half weeks ago.
There are four other north-bounders here. One is skipping up to New Hampshire tomorrow and flip flopping, and two others are going to try and slack pack all of New Jersey tomorrow. All of New Jersey! That’s 72 miles! One of those fellas is a guy whom I met and have not seen since Cable Gap Shelter at mile 159 just before the Smokies. His original trail name was “Trail Name” but a lot of other people didn’t like it. He switched it to “Counselor.”
Everything feels pretty good. I wish I could ice my shin, but all in all the body responded about as well as I could have hoped today. Hopefully no soreness or unexpected flare ups tomorrow.
August 9th – Delaware Water Gap to Rattlesnake Spring, NJ
Total miles on AT – 13.5
Elevation gain – 1743ft
Elevation loss – 761ft
Start time: 10:40am
Finish time: 8:00pm
Total time hiking: 5:25
Weather: sunny, very warm, humid later in the day
I had breakfast at the diner in town with the northbound lady who is going to take the bus up to Hanover tomorrow and head to Katahdin before coming back to finish this section. She was off the trail recently for three weeks with kidney stones.
I got a later start but was not planning on a big day. I crossed the Delaware River on the I 80 bridge. My right foot was uncomfortable in my boot and I noticed that there was a lot of seemingly unnecessary stress on my lower leg and my shin became sore again. This very much worried me. I wonder if having too small of a boot is the reason my calf and shin feel tight in the first place.
I passed around Sunfish Pond, created by a glacier; it was a sign that we are getting farther north.
10.8 miles in I took a left to go to Mohican Outdoor Center where I got a club sandwich. I ran into a young woman named Rabbit whom I hadn’t seen since before Damascus. She was doing big miles then and had gotten to the head of the pack, but she had to get off the trail with back problems.
My back still hurts. My pack is not, nor has it ever been very comfortable. I ordered more boots online while at the outdoor center. I plan to wear a half size larger on my right foot than on my left foot. I’ll pick them up at the Bear Mountain Inn a hundred miles up the trail. Ironically, my foot and my calf felt better the rest of the day after putting in the order.
I hiked with a 48 year-old guy from Georgia at the end of the day. He’s a little strange and I’m not sure his stories match up. I think he’s been unemployed for a while and he admitted having tax problems after not having paid any taxes in three years. He seems utterly unwise and unprepared. He didn’t even know how to attach his bag to my bear line and hang it up. Camping with him worries me a bit but he seems harmless enough.
I hope I feel well in the morning.
August 10th – Rattlesnake Spring to Branchville, NJ
Total miles on AT – 14.9
Elevation gain – 807ft
Elevation loss – 1130ft
Start time: 8:35am
Finish time: 4:50pm
Total time hiking: 5:45
Weather: misty turning to midday showers turning to afternoon sun, very warm
A mostly painful, sore, slow slog. My back hurt, my shin hurt, my feet hurt. A couple hours of rain made the rocks slippery, and there were a decent amount of rocks. A woman from the Bronx out for a day hike made me an avocado sandwich at the top of Rattlesnake Mountain – there seems to be more place names with Rattlesnake in New Jersey. I worry about my back, and I worry about my shin.
I am staying in one of the dirtier motels I have ever stayed in. Tomorrow my buddies arrive. We’ll be doing three shorter days, but I can’t wait for them to be here! It’s gonna be fun!
August 11th – Branchville to Sunrise Mountain
Total miles on AT – 5.4
Elevation gain – 928ft
Elevation loss – 210ft
Start time: 2:15pm
Finish time: 7:10pm
Total time hiking: ?
Weather: hot and humid, thunder and lightning
What a great time with all my best buddies from high school – the Campbell boys: Brian, Craig, John, their dad, and Jared. Very slow progress with the heat and the humidity, but we had fun. Great conversations. I wish they were hiking with me for a lot longer.
August 12th – Sunrise Mountain to High Point Shelter
Total miles on AT – 10.6
Elevation gain – 513ft
Elevation loss – 868ft
Start time: 8:20am
Finish time: 6:55pm
Total time hiking: ?
Weather: hot and humid, early afternoon thunderstorm
Another fun day with the boys. For the second day in a row we had a close lightning strike, this one less than a second away. It poured for a short bit which made the rocks slippery the rest of the day. The rocks will not relent in New Jersey and it was slow going for us. We came upon a wooden tower that Brian fell off of when he was three years old – a good fifteen foot drop. He survived to return 37 years later to the exact same spot. Brian, Craig, and I went swimming in the nearby lake and we had great views of the 220 foot tower on top of High Point, suitably the highest point in New Jersey at 1803 feet. I took a side trip up to the tower after the lake and met the boys a bit later at camp.
My iPad got a little wet when it poured – I forgot to put it away and now it’s acting funny. The camera doesn’t work and the keyboard is not working 100%. Ugh!
This might be the hottest night on the trail yet.
August 13th – High Point Shelter to Lower Road
Total miles on AT – 8.6
Elevation gain – 177ft
Elevation loss – 956ft
Start time: 8:55am
Finish time: 2:05pm
Total time hiking: ?
Weather: sunny, very hot and humid
Last night was extremely warm and we all struggled to stay cool in our tents. The heat index was 108 degrees today. Alan (Mr. Campbell) , at 72 years old, decided to stop at a road about two miles before our final destination because of exhaustion. John stayed with him while the rest of us hiked the last two miles. But Brian also felt fatigued from the heat as we completed the hike. When we got to the road, there was no car. In fact, it was a mile and a half farther via a road walk that I ran alone as the guys waited for me.
After it was all said and done and we had picked up Alan and John, we stayed in a Quality Inn in Vernon, NJ, the town where the Campbell’s lived when they were very young. When we first arrived, a bear raided the hotel’s dumpster and carried off a trash bag.
We had an amazing dinner at a nice Italian restaurant, perhaps the best Italian restaurant I have ever eaten at in the States, and at a great price. It was BYOB and John bought a huge jug of Paisano table wine. We ate like hiker royalty. Great food, company, and conversations!