It was a cool morning and I didn’t want to get up. Whenever I’m comfortable and relaxed, Bunny becomes militant about hiking. She becomes the energizer bunny, but she only used neverready batteries which don’t even last past noon before she’s faltering. She kicked me out of the shelter to get the bear bag and make breakfast so she could tidy up the pad a bit.
We caught up with Maple Leaf and Yankee on the trail. We hadn’t seen them since Rock ‘n Soul Hostel. We enquirer about Yankees near encounter with the rattlesnake that took Slip ‘n Slide off the trail. We were shocked with her response—it was all a hoax. Slip ‘n Slide never got bit. She’s just a big baby and got a bad case of poison ivy (like Nightengale had told us). We had fallen for Slip ‘n Slide’s souped up story of bravery, hook, line, and sinker. There’s a special place for her right next to Noah.
Ear worm dilemma continues—“Grandma got ran over by a reindeer. Walking home from our house, Christmas Eve. You could say there’s no such thing as Santa, but as for me and Grandpa we believe.” Sometimes the cure is worse than the original ailment. “I’m proud to be a coal miner’s daughter.” There were so many chipmunks running around today that I tried to dislodge “Grandma got ran over…” by thinking of the chipmunks, but even in my mind when I have control of the lyrics, I can’t understand a single word the mini Mormon tabernacle singers were saying. My only choice was to use the nuclear option which I know I’ll regret…”It’s a small world after all…”.
We have been hearing of a pizza place in Unionville, NY less than a half mile off of the trail. We decided town food would be better than tuna or peanut butter so into our 9th state for lunch. Maple Leaf and Yankee caught up with us at the restaurant where we all sat on a nice big breezy porch eating our food. Bunny got a gyro (from an Italian restaurant). When I went to pay, I pronounced it properly…yee-row. They had no idea what I was trying to pay for. A hero sandwich? The mean woman from the kitchen came out, yelled at me, and told me I was pronouncing it wrong. It’s a jie-row. The little Spanish lady working in the Italian restaurant knows Greek much better than I do. My bad. In spite of the scary little cook, we had a hard time leaving.
It’s never a good idea to overeat at lunch and then pretend you’re going to get in big miles in the afternoon. We both needed naps. It took us over 2 hours to go 2.5 miles. We saw some people sitting in a shady parking lot off of the trail. They waved and said come have a cold drink. We could continue walking in the hot sun or sit in the shade drinking the sweetest drink known to hikers—a free one. Of course, the Coke and Gatorade and Snickers drew us in like moths to a flame. This is how we met Hummingbird who was slack-packing her husband, Bee Keeper. They are a nice couple in their upper 60s from around Utica, NY. He has over 400 bee hives that he maintains. They have a period of time in summer, after the hives have been set out and before they have to add boxes, that Bee Keeper can go hiking. This is his second or third year piecing together the trail. He is known as a LASHer (Long Ass Section Hiker).
Maverick was the first to leave the shade. When Huck showed up, we decided to free up some chairs for more people to sit. Once again, we were back in the full sun walking through a Fish and Wildlife Area. We ended up walking 3/4 of the way around the wetlands when we could have walked a much shorter distance in the opposite direction to get to the same place. At least it was level walking. Once around the wetlands, we got to experience our first major section of New Jersey boardwalk. It’s ironic that New Jersey is so much swamp, bog, and wetlands but water is nearly impossible to find.
The ATC owns an abandoned house just off of the trail. It may be a dump, but it was still nicer than the last hotel we stayed in. They keep it for one reason only—on the backside of the house, there is a spigot where hikers can get water. Bunny and I took the incorrect, long way to the house (with the directions provided by Maverick). We camelled up, but decided to NOT carry an extra 5 liters of water we would need if we planned on staying at the dry Pochuck Shelter. In other words, Bunny made the decision that we were definitely hiking another 2 miles today to get us next to a reliable water source.
We keep hearing conflicting information: you HAVE to camp at shelters in NJ and NY, and thru-hikers can camp anywhere in established sites along the trail. We found an existing site that had obviously been used for camping. There were downed trees around which we could sit on, reliable water, and not that many buzzing insects. We ate our non-cooked lunch for supper after we set up camp. We were in bed fast asleep before the sun even thought about setting.
EFG