"Lose yourself in nature and find peace."
-Ralph Waldo Emerson
Start: Barret Road, NY
Finish: 17A, NY
Today: 11.9 mi
Total: 217.0 mi
We had fun with Heather's family and even toyed with the idea of taking a zero but we need to put some serious miles behind us. Just before her parents dropped us off at the trail head, we stopped at CVS for candy bars and mole skin (big surprise, I know). Maybe it was the candy bars I was buying or the unkempt hair, but a nice old lady came up to me and asked if I was hiking the trail. She even said that if we needed a place to stay that night, we could sleep at her house. There really are such amazing, giving people out there in the world. Perhaps she offered because I still looked and smelled clean. If she had seen me emerge from the forest with twigs stuck in my hair, dripping sweat and splattered mosquitoes on my arms and legs, she might not have been so generous.
After saying our goodbyes and jumping back on the trail, Heather began to cry. Although we are having a great time waking up everyday in a new place and meeting awesome people, she was definitely feeling homesick. She bounced back a couple of minutes later and we were off. This trail is a roller coaster of emotions!
Halfway through our hike today we left NJ for good and once again entered NY. For people who have viewed NJ through the windows of their cars on I-95, I have to tell you that western NJ is a beautiful place. The lush green hills roll off into the distance, dotted with blue lakes. There were many more ups and downs than we had expected today and our feet took a beating. Even the nice, smooth ledges that Heather refers to as "sidewalk" weren't nice. They were so slanted that we had to walk on a 45 degree tilt which made our feet slide to one side of our boots and our blisters in agony!
With a couple of miles to go Heather convinced me to stay at the same hotel we stayed at last night with her parents (convinced = "please, please, please, please, please..."). Since the trail winds its way all around this area we were still relatively close to the hotel we stayed at with her parents and the owner was nice enough to come pick us up from the trail head so we didn't have to walk to 2 miles into town on the roads. That might not sound like much but we are used to walking in the forest and the hard roads kill our feet). We went across the street and had dinner with our new friend, "No Whistle" and soon after went to bed...
~Daddy Long Legs
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