Rutherford Shelter to Lott Road

  

 

Day Four
Thursday, September 29, 2016
Rutherford Shelter to Lott Road
11.7 miles

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. 

Although it was a short day today, it was hard for us.  The first part of the day was rocks, rocks, and more rocks.  Rocks are getting really old, we are not getting much sleep, and we both have blisters.

 

 

Observation Tower

High Point Monument

 

 

High Point Monument

At High Point State Park office the kind lady gave us a cup of coffee.  We have been missing our hot coffee in the mornings because we chose not to bring our stove with us in order to save weight since we have to carry more water.  And since it is cold and wet, the coffee was a very welcomed treat.  She also offered us a complimentary Pepsi, provided by a friends of hikers group in the area to thru-hikers.  She said we qualified, since we are doing a long section.  Another thru-hiker came in and she made him the same offer and he said, “Can I have both?”  Huh, we hadn’t thought of that.  Wish we had. 

We saw and took pictures of High Point Monument, the highest point in the state of New Jersey at 1803 feet. 

Between High Point State Park and Lott Road, it seemed like we were crossing a road every few minutes, 8 of them within 8 miles. 

The last 3 or 4 miles before Lott Road, we finally got out of so many rocks and found rolling pasturelands and boardwalks.  Still, it was a long 4 miles before we reached town and we were again exhausted.  We reached Lott Road or Jersey Avenue and walked .4 downhill into Unionville, New York. Local folks will know that although we are hiking New Jersey, almost immediately when you leave the trail and head toward town, you enter New York.  The A.T. is right on the borderline for several miles in this area.
 

 

We had planned to resupply in Unionville at Horler’s Store and camp in the Unionville Memorial Park where we had read that we could get a cold shower.  Although I was not looking forward to a cold shower, I thought it would be at least enclosed.  No, the lady in the store told us it was a water hose outside.  Oh my! 

As we sat on the front porch of Horler’s weighing our options, talking to the store employees and several customers about places to stay in the area, we had the good fortune of one of the store clerk’s offering to take us to a Day’s Inn about 15 minutes away in Montague (or Port Jervis).  We don’t know how will get back, but right now we just wanted to get there and take a day off tomorrow.  Wait-up needs to get some sinus medication, we need to treat our blisters, and we need to rest.  We’ll worry about getting back when the time comes. 

So Kelly drove us to Day’s Inn.  We ordered pizza delivery then walked down a hill to Shop-Rite to get medicine and resupply.  While in line at the check-out, the lady in front of me started talking to me and found out we were hikers staying at Day’s Inn.  She offered to drive us back up the hill.  Score!  Two trail angels in one day!  God is good.