Day 142, Tuesday, July 3. Stream before Rattlesnake Mountain—11.7 miles

I woke up at 6 for some unknown reason, so I peed.  Bunny woke up at 7:30 raring to go (pretty annoyingly so) and insisted we go have breakfast in the common room. To my great relief, they were out of pancake mix. I insisted on pancakes, so we would just have to wait while a new batch was mixed up. It was 9:30 before we were done eating. Already the heat was unbearable.  Timex decided he was taking his second zero of the trip and called for a shuttle to take him to an air conditioned hotel. We were having difficulty getting motivated because of the heat. 

We hemmed and hawed about what to do. My vote was to chill until it cooled some time in September but Bunny voted to get going. We took off at 11.  As soon as we stepped on the road, I heard an unusual sound—cicadas in the woods ahead. Bunny freaked and told me to move to my right. The “cicadas” was really just a rattlesnake trying to make me aware of his (or her—I chose to respect its privacy) presence. It’s going to be a great day. 

Stamina was not a term that applied to us today. We had to stop every mile because of the heat. We had frozen our bladders of water (the kind you drink out of, not the organ where you accumulate waste, although, that might have been very cooling). Timex had told us that there was a heat index 115 predicted for today which was why he was going to zero.  

There’s a fire tower right on the trail.  I followed Flip Flop and Caveman up to the top. Bunny chose to sit in the shade and sweat. Inside the tower, a fire watchman, Bob, greeted us and told us a bit about his job.  He said there are over 2000 fires per year in NJ, alone. The state maintains 21 active towers at a lower cost than having a plane fly over like Illinois does. When I was coming down, I could hear Bunny talking to someone. I thought she was on the phone, but when I got down, I could see Murphy sitting in the shade. We hadn’t seen him since Waynesboro before entering Shenandoah. 

We started walking together planning to search out a water source at the next road crossing. What we found was much better than a spring.  A local trail club was putting on trail magic. We had been walking for 3 1/2 hours and had just made 3 miles. We sat and enjoyed the hospitality for over an hour, not to mention the hamburgers, hot dogs, chips, fruit, sodas, beer, and water. This was beyond welcome today. 

We still had 8 miles to go and if we didn’t pick up our rate, we were going to not get to our camping spot before 9. Water sources are going to be a problem in NJ. We chose to stop before the shelter because all the comments say the mosquitoes are unbearable there. Since the bugs have been terrible ever since we crossed the Delaware River, we had no desire to stay where everyone was saying they were the worst. There was supposed to be nice camping spots close to a stream just before the shelter, so that was our goal. 

We’ve only been in NJ for two days, but I’ve got to say, NJ sucks.  We’ve had 15 miles of rock worse than any 15 mile stretch in PA.  The heat has been beyond terrible—even Satan is avoiding the area. The bugs have been the worst I’ve ever encountered any where. There is a constant high patched whir of mosquitoes in my ear. I have to walk with by buff over my ears to keep them from flying in. And the water…there isn’t any. NJ makes PA look like an oasis. 

Murphy, Dave and us walked together for a few miles. This is only Dave’s second day on the trail. Murphy eventually dropped back to hike with Flip Flop and Caveman. Dave took off ahead when we stopped for a break. A little later, Dave was hiking towards us. He had left his hammock straps where he camped last night. He had to retrace the 8 miles he had walked today before he could stop. I hope he likes this section of trail since he’s going to be hiking it 3 times. 

I was expecting nothing but a cesspool for breading mosquitoes and gnats when I entered NJ. I really thought that was just going to be Newark and not the whole state. I know I shouldn’t blame the state for the weather, but I do. The trail has become a mental challenge that is driving me crazy. We’ve treated our clothes with permethrin and I’m dousing myself with 100% deet but these NJ bugs are too stupid to know they are supposed to be repelled by all this.  Flip Flop and Caveman are carrying citronella fans and they claim it helps. 

We got to our camping spot around 8:30 only to find our worst campsite ever.  Mosquitos are everywhere, there are no trees suitable for hanging bear bags, no level spots big enough for a tent, and the supposed stream is just a stagnant pool.  As bad as it is, I still haven’t set up my tent in the trail (Daniel!).  Since we had magic earlier, we just ate protein bars and nuts for supper. We couldn’t even turn on our red lights on our headlamps because the mosquitoes would swarm. There was absolutely no breeze and it was still 90 out after dark. I’d still rather deal with this than work in a tire plant. 

EFG