NJ AT is Nice

It's been over 4 decades since I hiked parts of the Appalachian Trail in New Jersey, so I really don't remember much, nor did I have anything to compare it to, but I was very pleasantly surprised by what a nice section of trail it is. I'm not quite out of NJ, but I figured I'd make a short blog entry describing the last few days since I left Pennsylvania. I've been waiting too long between blog posts also, so I'm going to try and post more frequently.

After crossing the Delaware the trail goes through a park along the river that is part of the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area. The trail then meanders up a beautiful trail that parallels a trout stream into Worthington State Forest. After reaching a plateau, the trail runs along a ridge for about 10 miles. Since it was a sunny day when I was there, there were great views of both the Delaware Valley and Pennsylvania to the west and the rolling hills and lakes of New Jersey to the east. The forest surrounding the trail was carpeted with either ferns or grass.

I passed Sunfish Pond, which is completely surrounded by hills, is completely undeveloped, and is spring fed from underneath. It's considered one of the seven natural wonders of New Jersey according to a sign I read. Honestly though, Lake Wildwood is bigger, nicer, and surrounded by even higher hills. I came to a rock cairn on top of a mountain with 360 degree views. It was a sunny day so I could see the Delaware River Valley and Pennsylvania to the west and some lakes and rolling hills of New Jersey to the east. It really was quite scenic.  I camped about 13 miles into NJ.

Rock cairn.

View to the East.

View to the West.

It rained hard that night and the next day (Friday, June 3) was drizzly and cloudy.  I had dinner in Culver's Gap, at a place called Gyp's, right on Kittatiny Lake, just 3/10 of a mile from the trail. I was sitting at a table right next to the Lake talking to one of the property owners of Kittatiny Lake. It's a private community with bylaws, etc. They don't allow any motorboats, not even electric trolling motors. He told me that the lake has plenty of trout and is completely fed from the undeveloped hills surrounding it on three sides. Sussex County, NJ really does have some beautiful places besides Lake Wildwood. After dinner I hiked about seven miles before camping.

The next day, the trail went through High Point State Park. The weather cleared and it was good hiking. I passed many old stone walls and many areas that looked like they had once been dairy farms or apple orchards. The trail dipped into New York State for a while and I noticed in my trail guide that the village of Unionville, NY was just a half mile from the trail. Unionville offered free tent camping to AT hikers in its city park, right behind their Village Office (that's what they call their town hall).

I decided to take Unionville up on its camping offer. Two others were already there and two guys from Virginia that I had passed on the trail earlier showed up also. Unionville is a wonderful small town that was a dairy production and distribution center in its heyday. There are lots of old Victorian era houses and buildings. Only three retail establishments exist there now: a pizza place, a bar and grill, and a classic general store/deli, all housed in old buildings. The general store had a large front porch with American flag bunting draped over the rail. The porch had half a dozen chairs out front and electrical outlets inviting hikers to charge their cell phones.

A town official stopped by our tents later and introduced himself. He said that Unionville had once been ambivalent about hikers, but a former mayor led an effort to encourage them to stop in Unionville. He told us that the town now loves hikers and that they significantly impact the three businesses I mentioned above. He said that of the thousands of hikers who have stopped in Unionville only two or three have ever caused problems.

Two of the other hikers and I decided to split a pizza, which we ate in the park Pavilion. It was quite delicious.

It rained on Saturday night, so we all dried our tents off in the pavilion before having delicious breakfast sandwiches at the general store's deli. Everyone was talking about the weather forecast for Sunday, which called for torrential rains and extremely strong winds. It rained heavily for about an hour at around noon, but then tapered off. However, the forecast called for the worst to hit at around 4:00 PM. Most hikers were planning to get off trail to ride it out, so I did too, after hiking only about 10 miles.

I'm currently staying at Saint Thomas Episcopal Church in Vernon, NJ, which has been running a hiker hostel for 20 years. For a $10 donation you get a warm, dry place to sleep, a shower, and use of laundry and kitchen facilities. There are at least 10 of us here tonight, a mix of older and younger hikers. The church is centrally located in town and is just a couple of miles from the trail. One of those trail angels stopped and offered me a ride almost as soon as I stepped off the trail and onto Route 517. I wasn't even hitchhiking.

The Episcopal Church hostel isn't staffed, but run on an honor system. Most hikers, being honorable, abide by the rules and put the requested $10 donation into the donation box provided. We were supposed to read their rules (which I did) and complete at least one of the dozen or so housekeeping chores that need to be accomplished daily. Being a rule abider (most of the time), I started on my chores right after I  and put a load of clothes in the washer. I emptied the trash cans and then went to work cleaning and organizing the hiker box, throwing things out that weren't useful to anyone. Just as I would never donate anything to a thrift store that wasn't fully usable, I wouldn't put anything in a hiker box that someone else wouldn't use. Some others push the envelope a little. I threw any food not in original, unopened, unpunctured packaging in the trash. Fuel canisters with almost no fuel went in the trash. A right handed glove with no matching left glove went in the trash. I then found two pairs of underwear, one men's, one women's. I asked the couple from Dallas who were sitting on a sofa if they would ever use underwear from a hiker box. They looked at me funny and then the woman responded "No, I wouldn't." I told them that I wouldn't either and proceeded to toss them in the trash. The woman then said "Wait, don't throw out the sports bra, someone might want it." I hadn't come across a sports bra yet, but I eventually did and it's execution was stayed. When done with my chores I washed my hands.

I was chatting with one of the hikers who I had seen before. He was a Wall Street refugee, burned out from being a bond broker. He was hiking the trail while waiting to go back to Duke (his Alma Mater) in the fall for a Masters and a career change. There were also a couple of polite young college kids from Mississippi who I'd seen a few times before. They were the ones who had passed me, shirtless and in the cold rain, outside of Duncannon, PA.

There were also a few people who weren't hikers, although they had packs. It turns out they were attending a Rainbow Family type of weekend hippie gathering a few miles away. The hostel is for AT hikers only, but we didn't report them. One of them, a young tatted woman, stumbled in, apparently for the third time in the last four days (one night stay only - those pesky rules), stating that she just needed to come for one more night to clear her head. I couldn't help but think that if she hadn't been hanging out with a bunch of people in tie-dyed ponchos she wouldn't be having to clear her head in the first place.

I'll be out of New Jersey for good sometime late tomorrow. It's then on to the Hudson River.

Well, I 'm posting more often, but I still have to work on conciseness I think.