Goodbye Painsylvania, Hello New Joyzee

Sherry
Jun 2, 2019
7 min read

Our hike from Pine Grove to Wind Gap turned out being quite eventful. We extended our zero days due to impending rainstorms that lasted longer than anticipated. Our last down day was spent waiting in a shelter for the rain to stop. The rain never let up, and we ended up staying the night. It was only about 40 degrees inside the shelter, and we felt a little guilty for feeling so cold as other through-hikers continued to trickle in throughout the day soaking wet. It seems like a 4 day rest would be just the ticket for a trail weary hiker, but while my aching feet felt much better, out first day back at it was the most miserable 16 miles to date. I felt so bad that day that I couldn't see any of the beauty that surrounded me or even write in my journal that night. Fortunately, after 12 hours of sleep and enjoying a leisurely breakfast in the sunshine, I was able to have an enjoyable hike into Port Clinton in spite of the continued rocks and mud.

Our stay in Port Clinton was unique. Not only was it a treat to stay at a town where a hot meal could be purchased, but also a church there has a big pavilion that they let hikers sleep under for free. Community members bring by bags and tubs of what hikers call "trail magic" to the pavilion. Trail magic is any unexpected kindness to long-distance hikers and can come in many forms. In this case it was lots of trail snacks and an ice chest of cold drinks. It is amazing how impactful trail magic can be on hiker morale.

I celebrated my 51st birthday on the trail and had the best hiking day to date! I felt strong and was relatively pain free. And we experienced our best trail magic yet--a hiker feed. A hiker, Fresh Ground, was cooking sloppy joes, grilled cheese, homemade french fries and had Kool Aid, fresh fruit and snacks set out. He even gave Lily a plate of sloppy joe. It really was awesome! We sat there resting and enjoying the food and camaraderie with other hikers until we were ready to push on and hike even further than we originally intended. Happy birthday indeed!

I also had my first fall of this adventure--ironically at Balance Rocks. I thought I might have broken my big toe that had wedged itself snugly between some rocks while I went down, so unfortunately, I didn't get to see the spectacular natural phenomena of Balance Rock. But, while I recovered Jim hiked the side trail and was able to easily lift the giant boulders a foot or so. Fortunately, my toe was not broken and I was able to hike on.

In one section we hiked in, we saw some of the biggest snakes we've ever seen in the wild--one nearly eight feet long! Moments after one such encounter I scared a wild turkey out of the brush at the side of the trail. When it exploded into the air I jumped back, screamed, and nearly crapped myself--the turkey didn't have such the "near miss" and quite literally did crap itself. You wouldn't believe me if I told you how much came out of that bird.

With all the rocks and mud, I am always very careful with my foot placement on the trail. Consequently, I am a slower than average hiker and spend a great deal of my time looking at my feet and the ground. Therefore, I can tell you that there seems to be a plentiful millipede population in Pennsylvania in spite of the multitudes that have been trampled on by hikers who are obviously less aware of there foot placement. One of these millipedes even found its way into the lining of Jim's hiking shoe one evening.

We had some of our most challenging and technical rock climbing to date. It took us four exhausting hours to cover only 4 miles of Pennsylvania's varied rock challenges. The little unavoidable sharp pointy ones, the medium ones spaced so that you can't get a pattern or rhythm to your stride, the large pointy sharp ones with the tempting flat ones mixed in that seem to be great stepping stones but are inevitable unstable and fall away from your foot, and the giant boulder mazes. After all this came Knife Edge--as the name implies, we had to cross the narrow ridge of rocks. This was difficult for me, but the view was spectacular.

Coming out of Lehigh Gap also had some hand over hand rock climbing that was out of my league. I was glad for the alternate winter route. Jim took the rocks, and Lily and I took the bypass. It was super steep and much longer, so after Jim got to the summit he dropped his pack, ran down to us, then carried my pack the rest of the way up--what a guy!

Our next zero day of rest turned into two days because of heavy rain. On the second day after getting back on the trail, before crossing the Delaware River into New Jersey leaving Pennsylvania (and its rocks), behind for good, we got more trail magic at Delaware Water Gap from the parents of another flip-flopper, Joy. We had egg salad sandwiches, a salad, chips, hotdogs, chicken, drinks and desserts—yes, hiker hunger is real and a through-hiker never turns away from free food.

To leave you with some positive notes on Pennsylvania…if you are not hiking miles on end carrying a heavy pack over their rocks, it is likely easier to enjoy its beauty. There are some stunning vistas, lots of cold-water springs, some beautiful flowers, and green as far as the eyes can see. Most notable to me was the constant cacophony of bird song (always a happy noise). I have heard bird songs that I have never heard before.

So, did I expect that the rocks would magically disappear as soon as we crossed into New Jersey? Well yes, I did. They didn’t! But, I can say that the rocks of New Jersey are softer, with rounded edges making them easier on the rock-bruised soles of my feet. But there are other challenges. These smoother softer rocks are very slippery. With all of the rain we have been having this is problematic. Also, New Jersey is full of lakes and ponds and bogs—who knew? These warm wet swampy conditions are perfect for breeding mosquitoes, and they are out in full force. The bird song has been partially replaced by frog song (which is very cool), but apparently the frogs are not eating enough mosquitoes to control their population.

All this moisture is also great for ticks. Have I mentioned that I hate ticks? Besides being disgusting little creatures, they carry Lyme disease. We are vigilant about daily tick checks on ourselves, but have had to up our game on checking Lily, AKA Sidewinder, AKA our little tick-magnet. We sometimes need to stop hourly to pick them off her feet and legs. Fortunately, they are easy to spot since she is white.

There are fewer water sources here (bogs and ponds aside), and many of the streams are extremely tannic. Not only the tannins clog up our water filter, but also the color and taste of them do not filter out. My latest challenge is to drink more water. I used to drink lots of water, but water is HEAVY so I unintentionally (or was it intentional?), have cut my typical water intake in half since beginning this hike. Add to this water that tastes bad and is the color of weak tea and some hot and humid hiking conditions, and you have a recipe for disaster—a dehydration disaster. So, we are starting are days early in the morning to take advantage of cooler temperatures, and I plan to get some flavor powder to add to the water to help it become more palatable. I’m not sure how to make it any lighter!

Most exciting moment in New Jersey so far?...(drumroll please), BEAR SIGHTING! We were hiking and chatting away as normal when we heard a crashing through the brush in front of us. We froze to look around. Then we saw a bear running up the hill through a small clearing about 70 yards or so in front of us. Moments later we realized that it was a cub when mama bear (much larger), come to the same clearing. Only she didn’t keep running. She stopped, turned, and looked right at us. We were completely frozen (both in fear and in awe), even Lily didn’t make a sound. Staring into her eyes, I was using all my energy to send her the message that her baby was safe because we were not moving or intending harm. After what seemed like an eternity, she turned around and followed her after cub.

In the last three days into Wawayanda State Park, we hiked almost 13 miles a day and summited 3 of New Jersey’s highest points. With all those miles and constant ups and downs, I am more than ready for this zero day. Through-hikers talk about getting their hiker legs—when you feel as you can just keep walking and walking. I feel that I have my hiker legs now too, but unfortunately they are connected to my half-century old feet, knees, and hips so they don’t do me much good at all! One young through-hiker we met was talking about the day she “accidentally” hiked a 25 mile day—yeah, I accidentally hiked a 25 mile day too, only as it turns out it was only about 8 miles!