[at-l] My trip report

[atfelix@hotmail.com (Felix McGillicuddy)]

My Trip Report

By Felix J. McGillicuddy


On Friday, about ten days ago, Sundown and I met at the parking lot near the 
AT where the trail crosses NJ Highway 23. We hiked. We talked. We tried to 
slide rocks across all the frozen ponds we passed. It was fun. It hurt my 
arm. As we hiked through/around the peat bog on the north end of the 
wallkill river bridge, Sundown said something about not liking that the 
trail winds through the bog instead of roadwalking around it. After many 
minutes of profanity-laced yelling, I convinced him that the route the trail 
takes is the better route. How else, I explained, could we have seen that 
two-headed deer? He agreed.  We got to Pochuck S. right at dark. MY FEET 
HURT!!!  Not ache hurt…but, rubbin'-raw hurt. (I blamed my parents. At least 
that's the way my lawyer is wording it.)

The next day, we hiked. We talked. It was Saturday and the woods was 
crawling with hunters. (Should it be '…the woods WERE crawling with 
hunters'?) (I should clarify: The woods were not literally 'crawling' with 
hunters. We saw many hunters, however. None of them, to my memories best, 
were crawling. Nor was the 'woods' itself, actually crawling.) (I guess I 
shouldn't say that 'the woods itself' wasn't actually 'crawling'. I really 
don't know what that means or what it would look like if the woods were 
actually crawling.) (Were I to start this paragraff over, I'd say "The next 
day, we hiked. We talked. It was Saturday and there were lots of hunters 
around.")  We talked about that dangerous roadwalk trailsouth of NJ 94. We 
were dreading walking along the highway on a Saturday morning. It's bizzy 
and dangerous anythyme. But, especially so on a Saturday morning.

When we got there, however, we were pleasantly surprised to find a hot 
chocolate stand offering free cocoa and donuts to the hikers. The 
bare-chested servers wore smiles and little more. (Actually, there was no 
hot chocolate stand or bare-chested servers.) We were equally pleasantly 
surprised to find that the relo to THE BRIDGE TO NOWHERE was finally opened. 
And, what a relo it is. A four foot wide swath through cattails winds around 
on aluminum supports and is made of uncarved, unburnt treated lumber. It 
looks like a sidewalk/boardwalk in Atlantic City, where I met my first wife, 
lo these many years. The bridge does seem to be a bit overkill. It actually 
has a sign on it that sez something like 'Capacity 20 people'.  (Does anyone 
know the new mileage from 94 to the road that is connected by the relo?)

When we got to 94, we hitched to Vernon. We stopped at Burger King on an 
incredibly bizzy Saturday afternoon. I ate a double Whopper and a large 
Strawberry shake. In less than 60 minutes time we hitched from the trail, 
ate and were climbing Wawayanda Mt. I was ill. But, there was no way that I 
was going to pass up a damned trailtown. I hiked on.

Sundown left me to die about halfway up Wawayanda. I hadn't seen him for a 
few hours when I was lucky enuff to notice his candle lighting up the inside 
of the shelter. (It was well after dark and the signs for the shelter are 
hard to see. I had passed the sidetrail. Sundown had passed the sidetrail 
but remembered it from his thru-hike this year.) So, we spent night number 
two at Wawayanda S. The next morning we saw some joggers running on the 
trail. The girl jogger had on those tight black pants that you like to see 
on girl joggers…the kind that men hate to see on men joggers cause they 
can't tell if they are girl joggers or men joggers from behind. We were 
still in the shelter when we saw them…so, I really couldn't tell if any of 
them were girl joggers or not.

When we got to the second road north of the shelter (Something lake??? It 
has a 'b' in it) the book said that there are 'meals' .7 west. It was not .7 
west from this road. It was the first road north of the shelter. We got a 
ride all the same. We talked to the guy driving us (who was out driving 
around so his baby dotter would go to sleep) and he took us to a restaurant 
in downtown Warwick. Seems like the name of the place was just a letter. It 
was nice and had lots of women for with which to flirt. So, I did. After 
eating a really good open-faced beef sandwich, we went to the drug store 
across the street. I bought tape and bandages for with which to tape my 
feet. We then walked back down the street, nearly to the deli we thought we 
were hitching/walking to in the first place. There we were picked up by an 
old guy that turned out to be the most frightening hitch I've ever had. He 
was looking all over the place and stopping to point at stuff. There was 
traffic behind us. He was swerving. I wasn't positive where we were or were 
going, but he kept wanting me to 'skip that section and I'll drop you off at 
17A. ' Finally I talked him into taking us back where we wanted to be (Brady 
Lake Road???). I was very glad to get out of that car. We hiked about five 
minutes and I had to stop and re-tape my feet with my new tape. It helped. 
(The more I think about it, the less sure I am about which would make me 
more pleasantly surprised: bare-chested servers or the relo to the Bridge to 
Nowhere. I wonder.)

Anyway, we hiked. We talked. Sundown was listening to his walkman and said 
it was going to 'rain turning to freezing rain turning to snow' that 
evening.  Water was pretty scarce for most of this section. So, when we got 
to a little section with a bunch of hemlock trees, I asked Sundown if he 
wanted me to go look for water. (We were both empty.) He said that he had 
gotten water from this same place on his thru. So, I went down and looked. 
There was a nice little stream with lots of water flowing over rocks and 
stuff. Sundown was scared of the water because it was about the color of 
apple cider. I figured bad water was better than no water. (Can water the 
color of apple cider that you take from a stream flowing from hemlock tree 
roots be dangerous? Is that what go Socrates?) Anyway, for some reason this 
water wasn't listed on the book as a water source. We drank anyway.

It was dark by the time we got to highway 17A. As we reached the other side 
the first flakes of snow fell. I was glad we got snow instead of rain. The 
trail was nice and we were making good time. The snow was really coming 
down, but it was pretty and we knew we were close to the shelter. UNTIL we 
got to those big rocks you have to climb north of 17A.  There was about an 
inch of snow on the ground, and the rocks, when we started over them. There 
was a funny blue blaze (with three squares) (three squares indicating the 
shape of the blaze, not three well-rounded meals.) (hmmm, I don't know how a 
well-rounded meal could be square because it would then seem to be 
oxymoronic, or at least a geometric misnomer.) Anyway, it was difficult and 
dangerous as we crossed these rocks. I had to get down on my taut ace 
several times and slide. The white blazes painted on the rocks were 
impossible to see.  It added to the fun, though. By the time we made it to 
Wildcat S., there were 2 or 3 inches of snow. The shelter was nice. It is 
the shelter I spent my 36th birthday in on my thru-hike. It was nice to be 
there again.

Sundown and I talked and watched it snow. We decided to take a zero the next 
day. I've always wanted to take a zero in the shelter and this seemed like 
the perfect time/place. We had plenty of food and the snow would make plenty 
of water. So, I got in my sleeping bag at 8 p.m. Sunday evening and was out 
of it two times, for less than seven minutes (to drain Minute-maid coloured 
urine from my bladder twice and get snow to melt one of those times) in the 
next 36 hours. It was a blast. Sundown is a great guy to hang with. He's 
hilarious and doesn't even know it.  The only bad thing we could figger 
about taking a zero in a shelter was that we didn't get a chance to hitch to 
a restaurant.

The next morning we got up and hiked through a beautiful woods. The snow on 
Fitzgerald Falls (are those the falls just north of the road to Lake 
Greenwood?) was beautiful and slick and dangerous. We got to Mombasha 
Rd…where there is a deli 6 tenths west, and walked to 'town'.  We ate a 
really good hero there. The owner was really nice and I asked him if he 
likes the hikers coming there. He said he does. (Bentley's North, I think is 
the name of the place. Great sandwich.) After we were there a few minutes, 
we decided to call the rest of the trip off. Logistics and rides had been 
set up and the zero in the shelter would have made it more difficult to meet 
at a better road crossing (17 near Arden). So, we got a ride from a man 
whose son was a fireman who died in the WTC. Gregory Sikorsky, if you're 
interested. He dropped us off at a place on 17 called The Red Apple Rest. We 
ate pie and waited on Oscar to pick us up. We also listened to a bunch of 
senior citizens talk about the merits of a John Deere lawn tractor and snow 
blower….

Epilogue…Epilady….

Even though we only mde it about 45 miles, I had a blast. I loved hiking 
with Sundown and getting NJ done for my section-hikes. We were really lucky 
getting rides (a strange thing happened that got us the ride with the 
fireman's dad. I had a funny feeling about something that came true…I like 
that.) and that made the trip more trip-like.

Mmmmm, Peggy Lipton.


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