The past two days, walking past several bodies of water, the bugs have been particularly horrendous. We hiked out of Delaware Water Gap fairly early yesterday morning, after a lovely meal at the diner in town. The first two miles of road walking down I-80 were particularly nerve-wracking, as the bridge that took us over the Delaware River shook with every passing truck and swayed ominously (I realize that this is what bridges are supposed to do but it doesn't make it any less terrifying). We then began to climb again back up to the ridge line through a beautiful state park.
Partway up the climb we had, hands down, the best animal encounter yet on the trail. Head down, focusing on where my feet were going, I nearly slammed into Red Knees who had stopped short in the middle of the trail. When I looked up I realized why. Directly in the center of the trail was a 4 foot long rattlesnake, rattling furiously, with a chipmunk hanging halfway out of its dislocated jaw. Normally I am petrified by rattlesnakes (and any animal that can kill me), but he had his mouth full so I took a good long video of him slithering slowly backwards off the trail, dragging his lunch by the head into the brush.
At the top of the climb we came to one of the 7 natural wonders of New Jersey - Sunfish Pond, a 41 acre glacial lake formed at the top of the ridge line during the last ice age. It was beautiful and serene so we stopped to grab a bite to eat. 2pac at this point tried desperately to get us to pick up the ants that were climbing over our bags and eat them (they taste like lemon!), leading by example and popping one enthusiastically into her mouth. Maybe next time. Between the mosquitos and the approaching storm, however, we had to move on quickly.
5 miles further we arrived at the Mohican Outdoor Center for a soda, small resupply and a break from the onslaught of bugs. We stayed for about 2 hours with Dip 'n Sip, S'rocket, Why Not, Whistler, P-Paw, Powderpuff, Outfitter and In Progress, enjoying the comforts of plumbing and electricity. We had the option to stay but opted to push on another 6 miles to a campsite.
I hiked largely on my own for those 6 miles until the very end when Red Knees, Beetlejuice and Whistler flew past me in a mad dash to set up tents before the storm. Mid-set up the rain started and covered the inside of my tent with a solid coating of water. Of course the rain stopped shortly after and I could've set up then, go figure. We spent the evening in our individual tents, telling riddles and stories until it was time for bed.
The next morning we decided to do a short day to wait for Monk to finally catch up to us. The miles were fairly easy but bug ridden and, with the shelter basically in a swampy mosquito breeding ground we decided we needed to just go to town and get a cabin at the state park.
We stopped for dinner at a steakhouse just off the trail a group of 7 of us (Violet, In Progress and Outfitter joined our group of four) and then headed out to attempt to hitch to the cabins 5 miles up the way. After a few minutes a red suburban pulled over with a trailer full of firewood and the driver, a young, handsome man with the beginnings of what could be an awesome trail beard told us to climb on in. He introduced himself as Joel and instantly became a trail angel in my book.
A few miles down the road we arrived at the cabin which, for the price, was shockingly quaint, with a small kitchen, bathroom and four beds. Joel came in to join us for a thank you beer before heading off to dinner with his family. We told him to come back after and, in fact he did, bringing with him a bounty of whiskey, beer (Happy 4th of July!) and red velvet cupcakes. What we would do without the kindness of strangers I will never know.
We have a few more hours in the cabin before we have to head out and do lord knows what with our day. I'm sure we will find a way to celebrate our independence somewhere in Branchville, NJ.
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