I just can’t seem to get enough sleep at night. Maybe it’s because Bunny makes me drink a liter of water before bed so she can claim to have a superior bladder. Or maybe it’s because Bunny keeps pushing me off of MY sleeping pad so she can have more room. Or maybe it’s because Bunny flips her hair in my face every time she turns over. Any way you look at it, it appears that it’s because of Bunny. Of course I’ll catch hell for saying that, so it’s George’s fault. I can sleep better now that the mystery has been solved.
Today was also a pleasant day of walking. Just a little warmer than we would have liked. We overslept a bit (not Bunny’s fault). She made me get up at 8 which means we were on the trail by…9:30. It’s an hour and a half no matter what the conditions are (unless we are sleeping somewhere that is against the law). Good things started happening right away.
The first good thing to happen was that I got Bunny to agree the we were not going to do a 20 mile day like she wanted to. No seriously, she wanted to get up early and hike all the way to Warwick, NY. She’s got it in her head that we have to be in Fort Montgomery by Wednesday. We aren’t meeting anyone that I’m aware of.
The second good thing was that we started going over boardwalks and met Woodstock. He’s in charge of trail maintenance on the section we were hiking on. He was weed whacking when we crossed his section of boardwalk. He stopped and talked to us a bit and offered us some Gatorade (which we gladly accepted—thru-hikers never turn down food or drink). Woodstock section hiked the AT over a 12 year period and finished 10 years ago.
The third good thing happened as we approached the Pochuck Boardwalk. This is where we met Andy and Angie who are slackpacking Huck who we just met yesterday at Hummingbird’s magic. They were so generous and friendly. They had just finished walking the boardwalk and warned us it was full sun. I was still a little thirsty (I don’t think we drank enough yesterday) so when they offered us a cold bottle of water, I accepted. (See previous paragraph—thru-hikers never turn down food or drink). They were supposed to mail Huck a supply box but decided to bring it to him as a surprise. The bigger surprise will be that they are giving away all of his food. They gave us a bag of protein bars, beef and cheese sticks, applesauce, and other assorted goodies. They said they will make it up to him. After all, he is getting a few unexpected nights in AC on a bed.
The fourth good thing was the boardwalk itself. There is over a mile of boardwalk through a bog and swampy area and is what New Jersey is most famous for on the AT. We saw a pond full of turtles sunning themselves and a snake swimming through them. Because of all the duckweed, we couldn’t tell what kind of snake it was and Bunny didn’t want to investigate. We also ran into Hummingbird walking towards us to meet Bee Keeper for lunch.
The fifth good thing was exiting the boardwalk to a highway with a hot dog stand just across the road from a country store selling homemade ice cream. Our lunch of tuna wraps will have to wait one more day (an even bigger good thing). We each had 2 hot dogs, a bag of chips, and a soda before heading to get some ice cream. A large cone was $4.50 but a pint was only $6 so I suggested we get a pint. My darling wife thought I meant to share the pint with her. Oh, hell no. We can each get our own pint, after all we both completed the half gallon challenge so this is nothing. As a side note, there was just one correct combination of ice cream for the pint—Bunny did not get it right with chocolate peanut butter and blueberries and cream. I did nail it with chocolate and raspberry chocolate chunk. Don’t take my word, ask the server.
The sixth good thing was meeting Zaire and Samyuktha while we were climbing the “stairway to heaven” with stomachs full of ice cream and hot dogs. They are both graduate students at Rutgers. Zaire is studying psychology and is about to go to South Africa for a few weeks to work in some NGOs. Samyuktha is working a masters in Electrical Engineering. She was a little behind Zaire so we were talking to him while she caught up. When Zaire told her we were hiking the AT, she couldn’t get it. She kept asking us where our car was. “The whole trail? From Georgia to Maine? Do people actually do that? I don’t even like to walk from my car to the store.” She thinks we’re a little off. We walked most of the way up with them but eventually fell behind.
The seventh good thing was getting the shot Bunny has been wanting all of New Jersey. She was complaining that NJ is supposed to have the highest concentration of bears on the AT but we keep missing them. The other day at the Mohican Outdoor Center, everyone saw bears and we had to settle for a lousy rattlesnake. Today, we got our bear. After leaving the crowds at the Pinwheels Vista on Wawayanda Mountain, we had trail to ourselves and less than 10 miles of Jersey to go. Bunny said “I want a bear or I’m going to be pissed.” Nobody wants a pissed off Bunny. He appeared right in front of me. Bunny also took an amazing video and talked all about the bear for a couple of minutes—too bad she didn’t hit the record button on her camera.
The eighth good thing was making it to Wawayanda Shelter and finding a great tent site with plenty of time to run down to the park headquarters to use the porcelain, take a sponge bath in the sink, and getting water for tonight and tomorrow that we don’t have to filter. Along the way, we ran into Bee Keeper and told him about the bear. All this with plenty of light for us to set up camp and do our chores.
Since we had so many good things happen today, we had one minor hiccup. We were still pretty full from the hotdogs and ice cream so Bunny said “let’s just eat a cold supper.” We finally ate the tuna wraps I’ve been avoiding for the last few days. The scary thing is that I’m afraid I’m starting to like tuna. Tuna, like all fish and seafood, live in their own poop. I don’t like mushrooms because they grow in poop. Someone once told me I shouldn’t like pork because pigs wallow in poop and eat it. Get serious—have they never tasted bacon?
EFG
The snake was a black watersnake! They emit a musky odor if threatened
Thank you snake lady! 😉