Week 9
Week 9
Monday-Monday Every week I am out here, I become more and more enveloped in these woods. I am at ease out here. My mind is clear, and the serenity of the forest constantly engulfs my entire spirit. I can already tell how much I will miss these woods when this is all over. I am trying to take in every second of it and squeeze as much joy out of every moment as possible, but as each week passes, the time I get to spend out here becomes less and less. The silver lining is that this means I am also getting closer to my goal of completing the trail, and closer to reaching Khatadin. I am so excited about the White Mountains of New Hampshire and the many summits of Maine ahead. Every night, I dream of the beauty that will surround me as I climb those hills. It will be breathtaking...but for now the AT has me walking about the Blue Mountains of New Jersey. I finally finished the 240M of rocky Pennsylvania. Super Fund was intense, but fun. As I had predicted, it was not as bad as the dread that preceded it. We started early, took our time, and successfully complete the climb, with a 15M water carry to boot.
Shortly after the summit, we were taken in for the night by a strange bird know as the Mechanical Man. This guy talked incessantly, but was nice enough to give us a hot shower and a place to sleep in his garage for only a mere $5.
The day after next, we made it to Delaware Water Gap, PA. The town was quaint, as most of these little trail towns are, and full of thru hikers. Wolfdog and I dropped into the local bakery for a slice of pie and scooted out of town quickly so we could make it a few miles passed the border before dark.
New Jersey has been nothing but beautiful ever since we stepped foot in the state. When you cross the border, the trail takes you over a bridge that crosses the Delaware River. From there, you go 3M straight up the Kittatinny ridge line. There is a glacial lake that you pass surrounded by rocks and boulders. It is so besutiful at dusk. After that, you are surrounded with view after view on either side of the ridge for miles. The name Kittatinny means "endless mountains". Looking out at the beautiful blue mountains of this state, I can see why the local Native Americans named it that. The mountains seem to go on forever in either direction.
We passed a fire tower along the ridge as well, and I climbed up to get an even grander view of the entire mountain range. The terrain was still pretty rocky, but there were definitely less rocks than there were in PA, which means I actually got to turn my gaze upward and enjoy the views more often.
At the end of a 20M day on Saturday, Wolfdog and I got off trail and stayed at Mosey's Hostel. Mosey is the sweetest and most serene lady I think I have ever met. She retired from the USPS in 2014 and hiked the trail in 2015. Since then, she has been running a hostel out of her home in Port Jervis, NY. She was so kind and took such good care of us.
She made us breakfast, and even let us take her Jeep Wrangler to the local super market to resupply. We met a Tramily of three while staying there. Frodo, Gimley, and Uncle Heather were their names. They were hilarious new characters I hadn't seen on the trail yet. Nerdy, sweet, funny... my kind of people. I hope we run into them again over the next few weeks. When Mosey says let us off at the trail head, we asked her for any advise for the upcoming weeks. She told us (in her cute little NY accent) to, "takes our time and takes it all in". I intend on continuing to do just that as I forge forward on this trek.
Later that day we made it to the highest point in New Jersey which had a big monument on top of it. We walked the .2 off trail to catch a view from the balcony of the monument, but ended up not waking to the very top. The 250 steps up a hot windy stairwell were deterring to say the least.
Wetlands, boardwalks, and rolling hills have been the terrain of the last several miles of New Jersey. We have seen all kinds of pretty wildflowers, and just a few hours ago, I ran into my second bear of the trail.
Tomorrow we will hit the New York border around lunch time. I am excited about this upcoming week because I have planned an off-trail adventure for myself. I will be taking a vacation from my vacation and meeting my husband Wes in New York City. There is a train station in the city of Pawling, NY where I will be catching a riding on the North-Metro line to Grand Central Station to meet him. By then, I will have been away from him for ten weeks. This is the longest we have been apart in ten years. This has definitely been the hardest part of the trail for me. The body aches, the exhaustion, the rainy muck, the blisters, the bruisers, the heat, the crappy food, the crazy high climbs...none of it has compared to how difficult it has been to be away from my person for so long. I miss him to pieces. This trip will be a fun one, and will hopefully fill me with enough hubby time to get me through another two and a half months without him. After that, it's on to Connecticut!
