July 20

GTL

Had breakfast downstairs again this morning, then we hung out lazily in the room watching TV and resting.  We've really been up to speed on our pop music this entire trip.  Every time we stay in a hotel, VH1 is always on.  It's a dark, rainy morning and we are all dreading the inevitable.  But we're not spending anymore time here, so the boots went on, pack covers and rain jackets went on too, and we started walking toward the trail.  Getting out of town wasn't easy though.  Stopped for lunch at the diner, then dessert at the Bakery.  The trail followed a road where it dead ended just before the busy interstate.  The trail then continued directly on the interstate.  Only a waist-high concrete wall separated us from the traffic speeding by as we walked down the highway.  It was odd to see the juxtaposition of the "AT" and the "EZ Pass" toll lanes on the road.  After crossing over the river, we were now in New Jersey.  Woo-hoo!  I turned around, walking backward for a bit, to fist pump at some of the cars flying by us.  I got a couple to beep at me.  Haha!  We're nowhere near the "shore", but I was hoping someone with Jersey tags would get it.  That amused me.  Anyway, the rain was still drizzling as we entered the DWG recreational area, where we stopped by the park office to check out some of the exhibits.  Apparently there's a bald eagle in the area that was seen a couple days ago swooping down to the river to catch fish.  That would be so great to see one in the wild.  The next section of the trail was really pretty.  We crossed into a parking area, then off into the woods, climbing up the Kittatinny ridge.  Along the climb, the trail paralleled a beautiful cascading brook for a while.  The sky was still grey and misty.  I was wet, but happy.  After a few miles, we made it up to the ridge, and eventually came to Sunfish Pond.  The pond was so pretty.  It was still rainy, and fairly windy.  We could see small clouds blowing quickly over the surface of the pond.  We stopped for a break, and noticed huge highbush blueberries along the shore, so we spent a while picking as many of the delicious berries as we could.  The trail continued further along the ridgeline, with more smaller blueberry bushes and ferns lining the path.  Really pretty.  Near the end of the day, we had made it to the Mohican Outdoor Center.  The staff there said that even for thru-hikers there was a fee to camp there.  We decided to move on, and camp for free in the woods at the first bit of flat ground that we found.  The rain had pretty much stopped, but everything was wet.  We set up camp for the night with about 10 miles of NJ done.

First day in NJ, at Sunfish Pond