.April 24, 2006 am
Today will have two entries. I have two sections left in N.J. and this is my last day here. If I want to complete New Jersey during this vacation, it will have to be today. One section is 9.5 miles coming from New York. The other is about 9 miles.
I left New York and headed south. The trail goes across a series of ridges. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Quite a bit of scrambling is necessary from here to there and I had one ladder to climb down today. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ The rain has finally stopped and the fog has cleared. It is still overcast however. This section of trail was hard to judge my mileage. For the first few miles I had no type of marker. There is one place on the map that was named Prospect Rock. When I finally found it I wasn't quite sure I was there, because I had crossed so many rocks. I was hoping this was it, because I really didn't want to miss the N.Y./N.J. state line which should be nearby. Sure enough I found it. I took my small pack off and took my camera out to snap some pictures. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ With it being overcast there was really no good place to take a break this morning so I decided this was as good as any. I pulled out an orange. Leaned up against the boulder that is by the state line and enjoyed. When I was done, I realized I made one big mistake. I was now in N.J. and I had left my pack back in N.Y. It was tough but I managed the three foot hike back to New York, picked up my pack, and returned once again into New Jersey. I took a brief look at the trail register located on a nearby tree and tried to find some familiar names but had no luck.
A few minutes further into New Jersey I came across the state line trail. This trail is a good way to separate the A.T. in N.J from N.Y. if you don't mind a few bonus miles. I preceded the rest of the way. The creeks were swollen to capacity from the recent rain and I was glad there was adequate bridging. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
I didn't see a single hiker all morning. One more N.J. section left, hopefully I can finish it up this afternoon.
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