Total trail mileage: 1361.8 (approx)
Starting location: Pochuck Mountain Shelter
Ending location: After Village Vista Trail
Weather: 73 degrees in the morning. 80 - 86 degrees during the day.
Partly cloudy in the morning. Clear and sunny in the afternoon
I am at
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=41.232894,+-74.297137
I have now been out on the trail for 100 days! I can't believe it has
been that long. The days seem to fly by. Not too long ago I was
entering Virginia with less than a quarter of the trail complete. Now
I am in New York with less than 820 miles left to go.
Speaking of New York, I HAVE NOW COMPLETED MY EIGHTH STATE! New
Jersey is done; 6 left to go. New Jersey was dominated by bears,
blueberries, and the introduction to a lot of natural ponds and
lakes. Up to now, most of the lakes and ponds (which haven't been
many) have been man-made. Sure, there were blueberries in PA, but I
didn't feel safe eating them from the section I saw them in.
I got up this morning and had my leftover slice and a half of pizza
for breakfast (I ate the other 6 1/2 slices for lunch yesterday).
That was a good idea...the cold pizza tasted really good on the
trail. I crossed a long section of boardwalk and then got a pint of
icecream from a shop next to the trail. After that were a few views
and a lot of large rock scrambles. These are the types of rocks that
are fun. I felt like a mountain goat again, like I did on the Long
Trail.
I am not usually one to complain about markers as the trail in general
is very well marked. But, there were a number of times today where
the trail was ambiguous and there wasn't a marker in sight. There
were other places where the markers weren't used like they are on the
rest of the trail. For example, at one point the trail came out to a
dirt road. There was a double left-turn blaze before coming to the
dirt road. Ok. But, then the trail made a right off the dirt road
after about 10 feet with no blaze on the road and no blaze up the
trail. In the past, there have consistently been two ways to handle
this: (a) put a single blaze before coming to the dirt road indicating
that the trail essentially crosses or (b) put a double left-turn blaze
before the dirt road and then put a double right-turn blaze before the
trail. In both cases, there should be a blaze just up the trail
within sight of the intersection. The way the trail was marked today
should indicate that you turn onto the dirt road and then you stay on
the dirt road. Ok, end rant.
I wasn't able to watch the World Cup games today, but I was watching
the scores. Wow, USA got lucky with that final minute goal, which
will allow them to continue onto the bracket. Similarly Slovenia got
robbed of their position by that goal.
There was one and only one fly circling me continuously throughout the
day. It wasn't always the same fly though. I couldn't figure out if
they do shift work (work their 8 minute shift and pass me off to the
next fly) or zone-based work (each fly covers an acre zone). As far
as I can tell, their only job is to annoy me, but they may be paid by
the mosquitos to keep me distracted. At the end of the day, in either
a supreme sense of job loyalty or stupidity, the last fly dove into my
leftover boiling water and died, rendering the water undrinkable.
I didn't see any signs indicating that camping was not allowed after I
hit the state border, so I stopped a few miles short of where I
thought I had to push to. If I continued on I would have arrived at
the shelter just after dark. Now I am in my hammock with about 2
dozen mosquitoes trying to find their way in.
Tomorrow I go to my friend Patrick's parents' house for the night.
Then, Patrick will join me for the hike on Friday and Saturday through
Harriman State Park.
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