[at-l] Another Trip Report

[Robert L Dudley <grey_owl1@juno.com>]

05/03/99

Hey Gang,

Another trip report.  This past weekend I joined a group of scouts on a
Hike from High Point NJ to Rt. 94 (21.4 miles).  We arrived at High Point
at 6:30 PM Friday and did 1.7 miles to the shelter (Don't you just love
these big mile days?).  There is an observation platform near the tower
at High Point that offered an excellent view.  The tower itself was
closed for repairs.  The shelter was kind of nice with several streams
and a fairly large camping area.  We were able to disperse our tents
(there were 10 of us).  I pitched my tarp near the creek and I was able
to listen to the rushing water all night long.  That is also probably the
reason I had to go to the bathroom several times during the night :-) 
The shelter log said that three nights previously four bears (a mother
and three yearlings) had visited the shelter, the mother being quite
aggressive and enter the shelter to sniff the backpacks.  At 9:00 PM
another scout trip arrived at the site.  They pitched their tents around
the shelter and a couple of boys were actually planning to spend the
night in the shelter.  We warned them of the bear report and we removed
our food from the bear box.  We hung a couple of bear bags and made sure
our packs were well away from the tents.  The other group was hanging
bear backs right next to their tents and some of the boys actually took
their packs into the tents.  Not a real smart move on their part.  No
bears appeared during the night.

The next morning I woke up real early.  It is my curse as I always get up
at 5:00 in the morning.  The previous evening another leader and I though
that we had missed the turn off to the campsite and we bushwhacked to the
shelter.  It had turned out that we had to hike another couple of hundred
yards to reach the turn off.  I hiked that section and then did a little
scouting ahead.  Upon returning to camp I ran into the other troop
heading out from camp (6 am).  We were to cross paths with them the rest
of the day.  We broke camp and headed out at 7:00 am.  The day was
wonderful and the hiking was great.  The only problem was water.  I had a
gallon on me before we left the site and Just before Pochuck Shelter I
had run out of water.  We had just finished a particularly nasty piece of
the trail around an old sod farm and had hiked over two miles on road or
out in the open with the sun beating down on us.  We also had to wait an
hour before one of the parents to arrive to pick up his son and drop off
water.  We were able to refill all of our water bottles, but by the time
we reached the shelter I had already gone through a quart of water (In
less that a mile).  

As we arrived at Pochuck Shelter the other scout troop was leaving the
shelter.  We managed to pass them early in the morning and stay ahead of
them all day until we stop to wait for water.  I did not know where they
spent the night as the next shelter was 13 miles away.  The camping was
limited so we had to crowd the tents together.  I found a hemlock and
camped under it with my water bottle and had a two-hour nap!  The day's
hiking was interesting and varied.  We crossed many interesting springs
and the Wallkill River.  I would not pump water out of any of these as we
are in farming country.  Unfortunately not any great vista's thought we
were to have a nice one the next morning.

I slept better that night but woke up feeling really bad and sick to my
stomach.  I took a little water and my blood pressure medication.  Twenty
minutes later I took an aspirin with some more water and another twenty
minutes later I took a second aspirin and more water.  I found it almost
impossible to climb any of the hills and I was a real tail end Charlie. 
I did manage  travel faster on the level and I did enjoy the two plus
miles of road walking.  I managed to cover the final 7.9 miles in
slightly less than 4 hrs, this included several long breaks.  Did some
car shuttling and head to Burger King in Vernon.  That big cold Dr.
Pepper really did the trick.  I felt a lot better.  Again the days hiking
was varied and we had a couple of good vistas.

This was my first hiking in NJ and I was surprised at how good the trail
was.  It was well marked and the Shelters were in very good shape. 
Portions of the trail were rocky and we had rocky descents as well as
ascents.  There were a few blow downs across the trail but we did not
have any problems getting over them.  We did cross a number of bogs on
bogs bridges (or puncheons).  There were possibly two miles worth and I
was impressed with them.  A few needed to have a board replaced, but
otherwise they were wonderful to walk on.  I saw a number of bog plants
and on Saturday I saw 21 different species of birds.  We did not see bear
or deer, but it must be squirrel mating season. One bold chipmunk charged
me, looked at me square in the eyes, ran off about 20 feet and cursed me
out in chipmunk.  All in all a very good trip.

Grey Owl
GA -> Me 
98 to ??
One step at a time

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