Day Before Hike
Sunday, September 25, 2016
This will be our 9th section hike. We started in the Fall of 2011 at Springer Mountain,
Georgia, and have hiked 1293.2 up to the Delaware River Bridge where the
Pennsylvania/New Jersey State line falls in the middle of the bridge. We have seen some beautiful countryside from
a vantage point that few people are privileged to experience. Some people think we are crazy, some are in
amazement, and some are envious. We
count ourselves blessed to have good health and the ability to do what we are
doing. These adventures – both enjoyable
and not so enjoyable – make good memories and these memories are ones that only
Wait-up and Catch-up can rehash over and over again. We come home each time thoroughly exhausted,
but we don’t get home before we start talking about our next journey.
We have done minimal training for this section, but we feel
confident that we can make up for it by planning fewer miles the first few
days, and by the fact that the elevation is not that bad. Wait-up has just come home from an elk
hunting trip in Colorado where he had more elevation and tougher days than we
will have, plus he did do some training with his backback before he went hunting. So we figure he should be in shape by
now. Catch-up (me) also did a little
training with my backpack, but not nearly as much as usual. The summertime in Florida is very hot, and
hard to make yourself get out there and do it.
Before starting this section, we were figuring our remaining
miles. “Someone” had the thought that,
if we could do 300 miles for the next three times, we would be finished. That would be wonderful, since we have so far
to drive now from Florida. So we began
to put that plan into place. This hike
would cover New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, and Massachusetts for a total of
299 miles. We had no doubt that we could
do that mileage.
We also planned our itinerary to be in the woods for longer
stretches of time – seven days instead of our usual three or four. We will really begin to feel (and smell) like
thru-hikers by the end of seven days!
This was due to the fact that shuttle drivers and hostels are fewer in
these upper states than they are in the south.
It’s not very feasible to have a driver come a great distance to take us
only a short distance up the trail.
Other changes we have made this time include, leaving our
stove out and eating cold meals and using a tarp to construct a tent. This is due to the fact that there has been a
drought this summer and the water sources are dried up. We will have to carry more water with us for
further distances, making our packs heavier.
We need to save weight where we can.
Wait-up was suffering from a sinus problem which got worse
when we got in the wet, cold woods. He didn’t sleep well because of it and it
would prove to be a hindrance.
So – I’ll go ahead and give you the end of the story
now. We both struggled, both mentally
and physically the entire 15 days. As it
turned out, we only did 162 miles through New Jersey and New York. Which, of course, is nothing to be ashamed
of, it’s just not what we planned
for. Granted,
both states were pretty challenging with a lot of rocks, but so was
Pennsylvania and we had a great time there.
What was so different about this time?
We couldn’t have gotten that much older in 5 months time. In hind sight, we should not
have planned our first week to be seven days out without a break, since we were
not in good condition when we started. Seven
days out from the car turned into nine and we were never so glad to see the car
when we finally reached it. Perhaps
we should have waited a while longer after Wait-up’s elk hunting trip – maybe he
was still run down from that. We should
have taken some sinus medications with us.
We should have taken our stove – we both decided that it would have been
advantageous to have a hot meals morning and night. It probably would have helped with the mental
struggle (comfort food, you know) as well as the physical. We both got tired of the cold food and lost
our appetite for it.
Our daily mileage was around 12 miles, usually it’s closer
to 14. We hiked for 13 days, with 2 days
off. We were 4 days behind our planned
schedule when we stopped in Wingdale, New York – 162 miles. We both agreed it was time to call it a
day.
So here goes our story about New Jersey and New York:
On Sunday, September 25, 2016, we drove to Tuxedo, New York – a distance some
18 hours or 1200 miles from our house in Florida – made more manageable by a
stopover in Knoxville, TN where our daughter, son-in-law, and granddaughter
live. Tuxedo is a little spot on the
map, identified in our Hiker’s Companion as the crossing for Southfields, New
York or Harriman, New York. Anyway, we
chose this location because it is located near the end of where we wanted to
hike to on the first leg of this section, so we could leave our car.
The Tuxedo Motel had good reviews, so we felt fairly
confident about staying there. Upon
checking in after dark on Sunday night, we found it to be okay. The check-in process is a little different –
the clerk was behind a caged-in window.
He directed us to our room around the corner, which was a typical
motel-looking setting. It had a walkway
running along in front of the rooms, which smelled heavily of cigarette smoke
as we walked to our room. We thought, uh
oh, this is not good. But when we got to
our room we were pleasantly surprised to find that it did not smell of
smoke. It was clean smelling and in good
order. Nothing fancy, but nicer than
some we have stayed in. The shower was clean and adequate. We found the two
double beds to be hard, but clean. That, plus the sinus problem Wait-up had, led to a pretty sleepless night.
It rained again last night with cold wind blowing, flapping
the sides of the tarp. I dreamt that a
bear was standing at my side of the tent and hitting it with his paw. I could see his silhouette very clearly. I awoke
myself and Wait-up trying to scream. 
We arose and quickly got on our way, as we were planning to
hike about three miles then have breakfast at Gyp’s Tavern or Sunrise Appalachian Trail Deli in
Branchville. They are supposed to be right on the trail. When we got to the deli there was a sign on the door saying it was temporarily closed and recommended we go to Gyp's Tavern right down the road. Our hiker’s companion said
Gyp's opened at 9:00 a.m., and we would be just in time. HOWEVER, when we got there, there was not a soul to be
seen. They were not opened. We went next door to a Sport’s Shop and asked
them, they said Gyp’s opened at 11:00. We
quickly surveyed the place and found the only thing they had to offer us was a
soda, which we took advantage of, but that’s not breakfast. We asked about other restaurants and they
said there was one about a mile the other direction. We asked about a local taxi service (not
wanting to walk an extra two miles) and were told that the closest taxi charges
$40 just to come here. Oh well, we sat
on a rock outside and ate a Clif Bar along with our soda. What a disappointment. But this is not the only time we will be
disappointed on this trip, expecting a deli and the deli being closed. 
It was exciting to see the Delaware/New Jersey state line
about half way across the Delaware River Bridge. Here we go!
On the shore of the pond, a little further north, is an interesting "cairn field", ha ha. (Not to be confused with a "corn field.")
