Guru Hikes

Lost on Trail

A few miles after Bear Mountain State Park, I found myself off of the Trail. Out of the entire 2,200 of the AT, I only got lost on the Trail twice, and both times were in New York. It was a two-fold problem. First, many trail markers in NY were ill-advisedly painted on saplings, making it difficult to distinguish trail markings from white lichen. Secondly, many of the ski trails that often overlapped the AT were marked with a white blaze with an emblem in the middle. When the Trail overlapped with these ski trails, it made it exceedingly tough to know when and where they split up later. Being a purist for the AT, when I realized I was off the trail, I hiked some bonus miles back to where I took a wrong turn.

Trail Treats

In Warick NY, I was lucky enough to make a stop at a trailside ice cream shop before they closed and ordered the best ice cream of my entire hike.

A bit after hitting the New York/New Jersey border, I hiked down The Stairway to Heaven and arrived at Heavenly Hill Farm Market. I ordered a few pastries and drank a half gallon of apple cider while the mist lifted.

Soon after, I came to a homestead that allowed hikers to spend the night. It included a small structure for sleeping in, and two very friendly donkeys lived on the premises! They were very cuddly and quite photogenic.

Stopping at the AMC Mohican Outdoor Center just off of Trail for breakfast a few days later, I picked up Todd. Todd the stuffed fox rode in my pack for the rest of the hike.

Fall and a New Friend

In New Jersey, the first signs of Fall colors started creeping in.
This was one of the premier benefits of a SOBO hike, over half of the hike takes place in the Fall in Appalachia! Much less rain than in Spring, beautiful colors, and the temperature is just right. Fall in the Appalachian Mountains is my favorite time and place to be.

The DWG

I hit the New Jersey/Pennsylvania border on a beautiful sunny day at the Delaware Water Gap. I was not expecting the border to be in the middle of a highway bridge. The Delaware Water Gap was a beautiful and unique place, and I wish I could have spent more time exploring it.

Bearing It All

In Pennsylvania, I heard of a not-so-well-known trail nudist resort near the trail that was very hiker-friendly in Palmerton, PA. A few days following the Deleware water gap I met a tramily: Sweet Monkey, Camel, and Sequoia. I hiked with them for a few days and as the nudist resort was starting to near, I brought up the resort and that I was planning on going. Sweet Monkey and Seqoia were down, and Camel took some convincing. At the end of the day, we all planned to go have a unique experience at a nudist resort!

After a hot day with scant tree cover and a strenuous rock scramble down Lehigh Gap, I called the resort to come pick us up. At the reception, the cutest bulldog puppy greeted me. We ended up getting a discount for being thru hikers as well as a discount for being under the age of 35.

Upon getting settled in, we headed down to the pool where everyone seemed to congregate. We immediately realized we were by far the youngest people at the resort as we walked to the restrooms to “change.” In the bathrooms, Sweet Monkey casually said, “Eh, I’ve been in prison before, can’t be worse than that,” took his swim trunks off, and walked out to the pool. I shrugged to Camel and did the same. At the pool we were celebrities. Everyone wanted to know about our hike and kept buying us drinks at the poolside bar. We were even invited to dinner (clothed) by a couple that lived at the resort! After locating Seqoia, who ended up on a naked four-wheeler ride around the resort, we went to the couple’s house. We ate copious amounts of pizza and headed to bed soon after, capping off the most unique stay on the Trail!

Rocks on Rocks

The feature many people learn pretty early on about the Pennsylvania section of the AT is that Pennsylvania is rocky. The next few days on Trail, Pennsylvania lived up to its reputation. The hiking wasn’t that tough, but the rocks made it that extra bit technical. I did order my second pizza to a shelter, which partly made up for the rocks!

After a few rocky days, I came to the SOBO 1,000-mile mark. I was almost halfway through the Trail! It felt like such a huge milestone, and I looked forward to hitting the actual halfway point! And at 1,000 miles in, that is all for this post!

What’s next!

Up next: The halfway mark, The Half-Gallon Challenge, and The Three-State Challenge! I’ll be back on track with a post on Friday! Thanks for reading!