The sun’s broken through on this summer solstice and is baking me as I eat a bagel with pepper jack and Spam atop the Kittatinny Ridge. Solstice is traditionally Hike Naked Day, but I’m eschewing that and challenging myself to hike sunup to sundown instead. That’s right, I was on the trail at 5:31 this morning, bidding Delaware Water Gap adieu and walking on the bridge over the Delaware River into New Jersey. Seven states down, seven to go!
New Jersey is known for its dense bear population, but after almost 1300 miles of no bear sightings, I was prepared for the drought to continue. In fact, a hiker passed me this morning and said he saw a bear in his first mile in NJ, and I lamented my bad luck. Not 20 minutes later, I came upon the same hiker standing still on the trail, grinning and pointing into the blueberry bushes to the right. A mama watched us warily while her cub greedily devoured blueberries! It was an unexpected and amazing sight, and I’m so glad to be out on this trail instead of, well, anywhere else!
I helped myself to lots of blueberries, too, once I gave the bears a good amount of space. The top of this ridge is covered with them, and they’re just starting to get ripe. Hey, it turns out New Jersey, or at least this little corner of it, is a great place!
I liked PA too. Hikers whine about the rocks and monotony. I thought the true boulder fields, like the Knife Edge or the scramble up out of Lehigh Gap over the Superfund site, were fun challenges. As for the rest of the rocks, well we’ve had similar sections all along the trail. Pennsylvania gets a bad rap.
Also in PA was splendid trail magic, thanks to Torie’s aunt Kim and uncle John. They picked me up from Little Gap and whisked me off to their home for a shower, laundry, groceries, tasty home-cooked breakfast and dinner, some baseball on the TV, and a comfy bed to sleep in. Kim and John (and their dog Zelda) gave me a warm welcome and I’m so grateful for their hospitality!
It seems criminal to be typing away on my phone when there are raptors to watch and miles to hike. Even though there’s so much more to tell about, I’m going to wrap this one up and go enjoy The Nature.
A Very Long Walk 