I am on a 5:30 AM plane headed north to the next leg of my Appalachian Trail adventure. Many of you have asked to be included in my “daily” trail log, and it’s that time again. If you would like to be removed from this list for the next 12 days, just reply to me and I will pull your name off. Please do not “reply to all” during that response. I will be hiking all of the trail in New Jersey, New York and much of Connecticut during the next 12 days. It should be a cool (and wet)…
Fall Log #1
I am warm and drying out in Branchville, NJ where I am waiting for Cindy and her cousins to pass through en route Maine. It’s a good time to catch up on my trail logs. After 15 hours of planes, trains and buses, I arrived safely in Delaware Water Gap, PA at 8 PM on Wednesday. I saw both train stations in New York this trip. A short walk from the Stroudsburg PA bus station took me to the Presbyterian Church of the Mountain, a wonderful church that ministers to hikers with a lean to, 16 indoor bunks, a bathroom…
Fall Log #2
Cindy is 36 miles away driving on inky black New Jersey roads on a cold wet October night with her cousins… trying to reach me and connect as she drives to Maine for a fall vacation. The car has a nail in the tire. She’s in the middle of nowhere on a “PeeWee’s Big Adventure” kind of night. I am chilling at Gyp’s Tavern which was conveniently located adjacent the trail. The pizza was great. I am praying that Cindy’s tire holds together until she gets here. We will all spend the night in Branchville. It’s not every day that…
Fall Log #3
Greetings from the mountains! You have probably heard it said that “time is money.” Here on the Appalachian Trail, that saying is easily modified to “time is mileage.” My lack of trail logs these past three days is purely a function of the lack of time, and for that I apologize. I’ve been pushing hard to make some personal goals and hit a big one last night. I am writing from New York State, having completed the New Jersey section last night at sundown. I wanted to reach Prospect Rock, overlooking lower New Jersey with a view of New York…
Fall Log #4
In my my last post I was very focused on getting out of New Jersey and showing better progress in terms of my daily mileage. That’s the post where I opined that “time is mileage.” That was the “through hiker” coming out in me, frustrated by my pitifully slow pace. I also have a Henry David Thoreau side to me that deserves equal time. Perhaps better than “equal time” because the “get it done and get on with it” mentality can lead a guy focused only on mileage to completely miss the beauty and the message that God has…
Fall Log #5
I’ve been delinquent again in my writing as I pounded out the days north through New York. On post #3, the “mileage post,” I wrote to you from near Prospect Rock at the NJ/NY state line. A flag, erected on a slim tree trunk, flies in tribute to those lives lost on 9/11. It was an awesome place to view NYC at sunset, only 30-40 miles away. I camped that night in what I call a “bears den”, surrounded by dark caves at dusk. I have not ever been afraid in the woods at dark before but that evening I…
Fall Log #6
“The hills are alive… with the sound of music.” Those words from the famous movie and Julie Andrews put the exclamation point on a wonderful walking day headed toward the William Brien shelter. Leaving my “Walden Pond” campsite I followed the shores of Little Dam Lake for about a mile and then took a climb up Arden Mountain. At the bottom of the mountain the Palisades Parkway was an interesting challenge to cross at NYC rush hour. Only 34 miles outside the city, the parkway was loaded with cars screaming by. I didn’t have to run across but did have…