BROOKLYN

Went to feed my cat Mary while mom was away.

Ah, memories... I used to play here back in the day.

The place was empty. After reading that book "Playing Off the Rail", I decided to get the "money table", the first one by the counter, since it's probably the best maintained one. Hehe.

Dinner at Mirage Diner, more memories of high school.

And a LATE dinner at Moshi Moshi (hehe).

Driving around Brooklyn

Saturday, June 30, 2007 - Wednesday, July 4, 2007

My First REAL Hiking Trip!

Day 1

6:30 a.m.

There is toxic waste outside my house. We couldn't have picked a better time to get away from here!

2:30 p.m.

Eight hours later, after dropping off keys and cat feeding instructions to Boris, picking up car in Brooklyn, food shopping at Shop-Rite, going back to Manhattan to pick up Art, going to Campmor in Jersey for last minute gear shopping, breakfast in the Chester Diner, we are here, at High Point, New Jersey (near Port Jervis), named such because it's the highest point in N.J. (I guess they needed to make it easy to remember for the public), a whopping 1,800 feet above sea-level (does that include their monument?)!

An hour later, we had parked, walked the mile and some from the lot, around Lake Marcia, and up to the Monument.

And then I learned how to properly adjust my backpack...

The Monument Trail, a moderately difficult 3.5 mile trail through High Point Park, Good thing we went on it backwards, which resulted in a pleasant downhill stroll.

Oh crap! Bear poo right on the trail. High Point has a large black bear population.

Berries

Mushrooms

8:00 p.m.

Right according to the itinerary (just how I like it!), we hiked down a trail from Lake Marcia to the Appalachian Trail (A.T.), and at the intersection stands the High Point Lean-to.

There we met our first thru-hikers, hiking the A.T. from Georgia to Maine.

We set up camp nearby.

8:00 a.m.

Wake up, eat breakfast, pack, and go!

When you camp, you start living according to the sun... your body naturally readjusts.

Good hiking foods:

Cup O'Noodles, tuna, peanut butter, bread.

Also: trail mix, fruit (anything that won't go bad and isn't heavy), crackers, easy to make pasta dishes (the just-add-water ones).

And it's good to know your eating habits, and not bring 10 extra pounds of food you won't eat (like I did...ooops).

The plan: follow an unmarked short-cut trail back to the car, repack our food and clothing for the next three nights, and hike to the next site.

Rule of thumb: if you follow unmarked trails, check your compass periodically.

Turned out the unmarked trail did not correspond to how it was drawn on our trail map.

So we ended up at an intersection, and, thinking we were somewhere else, we headed west, in search of the car, which, as it happens, was actually about 50 feet to the east, right over the hill.

But of course we did not know that.

The good thing was (and there weren't many good things at that point), that we saw a huge Beaver Dam, and ate lots of berries. Not to mention the amount of hiking we got in.

3 miles later, we were at Lake Rutherford (according to a local fisherman we ran into). Lost, we now needed to head 3 miles back east, to the car.

We tried looking for the Iris Trail, which was supposed to be by the shore of the lake, and should lead us directly back to the car.

But alas, the trail was nowhere to be seen, and we hiked through the woods, relying on compass alone.

And lo and behold, we finally came across a barn that we had walked by 4 hours earlier!

So we were back at the same intersection, and for diversity purposes, decided to head east this time, to find a sign or a person or something. And of course, 50 feet later, was the car.

What else did we find along our journey?

A tick and a beaver!

By the way, those big ticks, as in the picture, are not deer ticks... they're gross, but they're not the ones that carry lyme disease. The deer ticks are smaller, like a pinhead... or a tiny freckle.

And the park signs don't lie. There are many of them, and they are nasty. They jump on you from out of nowhere, and cling to you, so you can't just easily brush them off.

If you're in the woods, tuck your pants into your socks, wear a hat, and check yourself, your clothing, and your tent for ticks twice a day.

Back at Lake Marcia.

Swimming is on the itinerary, damn it, I don't care how cold it is!

It's nearing 8:00 p.m. That means only an hour until it's dark, and we're not at the Rutherford Lean-to yet.

So we crash up on the mountain for the night.

The sunset, through the trees.

Day 3

Caterpillar

Butterfly

Lake Rutherford again, this time to ressuply on water.

I use Aqua Mira to purify the water, works well, I think.

Water is probably the biggest problem when hiking. It's heavy, and sources are unreliable and not always along a trail.

Our backpacks. Adrian and I probably carried about 30-40 lbs. I think we could probably get away with 20-25 for our next 5-day trip. Or at least trade in some food weight for extra water.

Another beautiful view from atop a mountain, after another strenuous hike.

We're now hiking the A.T. exclusively.

And berries! Lots of berries!

We hiked about 3 miles to the next Lean-to.

Not including our 1-2 mile stopover at the lake.

What I can't understand is how these A.T. thruhikers are complaining about a lack of water, yet they won't go a mile off the trail to a lake.

Nor a mile off for showers, or a roadside deli, or even a stop for some blueberries. Many of them seem to be lost in some competitive aspect of it. What do you mean you don't have time to go off the trail for a shower? This isn't a job... it's pleasure... incorporate the stops into your hike.

Am I missing something here?

The Mashipacong Lean-to. We spent the evening with a number of hikers. Some thru-hiking, some section-hiking. One had his dog hiking with him from Georgia, and his dog had his own backpack and hiking shoes!

And everyone except us has seen bears! =( I am jealous. All I see is bear poo.

Day 4

Check it out, pine cones! Or, in Russian, shishkas!

Sunrise Mountain

And look, it's Jersey Mike! What's he doing here? He's supposed to have met us for the rest of the hike, but instead he decided to eat old dates, and now our itinerary is thrown off. That crazy vegan.

So now we're not in High Point Park, but in Stokes State Park.

It's definately a difference. This forest is not as dense, and the trees are older. It must be better maintained.

After Mike drove us to our car, we reparked by the Stokes park office (don't forget to obtain permits before just parking anywhere overnight.. this is the only overnight parking spot in Stokes).

We hiked along the Coursen Trail to Stony Lake, went in for a dip, and then took showers (finally) and restocked on water.

Then we hiked along the Stony Brook Trail (one difficult mile!) until the Gren Anderson Lean-to, which was a disappointment, so we hiked along the A.T. to the Normanook Lookout Tower, and made camp right underneath!

And man oh man, this was the best camping spot of the entire trip!

Tip: if you're ever out hiking, looking for a place to camp, those spots atop the mountains are some of the best! And this one even had benches, and a great spot to make a campfire.

And as always, not a soul passing by.

How perfect for our last night out here. The sun setting over the mountains.

Afterwards, we were able to see little fireworks in the hills.

Day 5

8:00 a.m. Good-bye mountains. We are going home.

11:30 a.m.

At the car. Ready for some REAL food.

12:00 p.m.

Jumboland Diner

 

12:15 p.m.

The end.