What a week to be hiking! The temperatures up this way have been very similar to those at home. When I was hiking in the woods it wasn't as bad, but yesterday I had to hike on a boardwalk across a swampy area and it was ungodly hot and sunny! So I decided to try to get a place at a local motel in Vernon, NJ. (Mile 1348) There was no room at the inn, so I decided to try to make it into Vernon anyway and find a local hikers hostel there. There's not a lot of water in this area, so you will see trail angels have left jugs of water along the trail. Thank goodness for that. It probably saved me from having heat stroke. I was walking towards a little farm market just a tenth of a mile off the trail and some lady started talking to me. I was so out of it I couldn't understand a word she said. She asked if I was okay and I said I just needed to get my pack off and rest awhile. So I dropped my pack outside the market, went in and had some water, gatorade and a snack and started to feel a little better.
I hiked to the hostel in the basement of St. Thomas Episcopal Church. There isn't air conditioning, but a fan and it felt much better there. I got some spaghetti to eat at a local place and it was delish! I slept pretty well last night and decided to take a zero day today, which was probably a good idea. I think it got to 102 degrees here.
This morning I had a good breakfast, got my laundry done, and got some things organized. Then I went to the A & P and hung out there for a while in the frozen food section. Later we walked to Burger King for some air conditioning and lunch and then found a VFW and spent the rest of the afternoon having a few beers and swapping stories. I think they were glad to have the business.
My hiking buddy Patrick and I are hoping to get an early start tomorrow morning and should be in NY by mid-day. I think I'm only about 8 miles away from the line. From Vernon (450 ft.), we will be hiking up to about 1433 ft. to Prospect Rock, the highest point on the AT in New York. It looks like water will become a little scarce so we will have to get it when we can.
For those of you who read Amy's blog about our weekend, I got a second smaller Gatorade bottle yesterday. So "Gator" now has a little sis, "Little Gator" or "Gatorette!"
Reminds me of my safari in Africa. Somebody forgot the corkscrew and for several days we had to live on nothing but food and water.
-W. C. Fields
It's scary what the heat will do to you. Good thing you had enough sense to sit down.
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