Legs and Borders

Long, hot, demanding day. I've woke up at 4 AM with a plan to arrive at Toni's Deli one mile down the road very early, get a coffee, eat a small breakfast (as I still had pizza from yesterday) and be back on trail asap. Everything was going well until I've mistaken the gas station for the restaurant (it was too early and my brain couldn't comprehend that they can be two separate buildings) and stood outside for half an hour waiting for it to open. Finally I've realized my mistake and managed to order a coffee and an egg and bacon bagel which with two slices of cold pizza was a perfect amount of nutrition for breakfast. I was back on trail at 6 AM and spotted three ticks crawling on my legs within first half an hour, absolute madness. Mosquitoes were also relentless for the whole day which somewhat made me going faster because I had no interest in stopping for longer periods of time as that meant getting swarmed immediately. After 8 miles I've said goodbye to New...

Amazing views, good food and weather! I'm now on what's called a "deli blaze" section of the AT going through NY state, which has many cafes and restaurants close to the trail, tempting hikers with it's delicious (or not so much) produce. In the morning, after a series of short but steep climbs I've arrived at the Black Mountain and because the sky was clear I got rewarder with the best skyline view of Manhattan on the entire trail, it still was really far away and my camera wasn't nearly good enough to catch it but my eyes definitely did and it was a cool view. I've carried on to the Bear Mountain where I got rewarded with yet another superb view, this time of Hudson River and it's surroundings and my camera was definitely capable of catching it. The descent from here was smooth, it engineered for hundreds of day hikers scaling it every day. At the bottom, I've had a quick lunch break at the Bear Mountain Inn, a very beautiful, wooden hotel bu...

A low energy day, mosquitoes were in full attack mode. It was perhaps that I haven't slept very well or some virus or cold was bothering me but my stamina throughout the day was not great. The terrain was also quite demanding with a lot of manoeuvring around boulders and scrambling up and down the hills. The views were very decent tough and weather sunny. There was few water caches along the way which helped a lot. At about 2 PM I came across a trail magic ran by Fred, a retired military veteran from New York. Apparently he used to go to school with Donald Trump, the age and place were matching so I had no reason to disbelief him. Fred offered me a drink and very tasty homemade banana bread, he also gave me some trail mix for the way, great guy! Not long after I was going through a well known section called "Lemon Squeezer" a narrow corridor carved into the rock, which some were able to squeeze through but sadly I wasn't, the backpa...

A tasty last day in New Jersey. I've had a really late start, firstly I've waited for Daug to wake up at 7 AM and come down so I could check out. Then I went to general store and had a breakfast bap, coffee and a swirly doughnut, it was all very good. After all this I've only set the foot on trail at about 8 AM. The New Jersey stretch of Appalachian Trail was afloat, especially considering that fair bit of it was a marsh area but it also rained heavily recently. I went through two very beautiful marshes along the way, first one was called Wallkill National Wildlife Refuge and the second Pochuk Creek, they both been frequented by wildlife photographers and day hikers, especially as it was Sunday. I've gave up on having dry feet very early and was just walking through the streams and puddles with my shoes on which caught few surprised glimpses from people. Just before midday I've arrived at a food stop with T...

Rainy and muddy day, it reminded me of the time I've spend hiking in New Zealand. Morning was wet and windy, the path was running with water. I managed to face plant the trail for the first time after slipping on a rock, it had to be done, it was like paying respect to the trail gods, I'm surprised I've managed to hike for that long without doing it. Luckily I didn't bruise anything as it was mostly twigs and leaves I've smashed into. This section of AT was particularly boggy and muddy, I've gave up on keeping my feet dry and was just walking straight through streams and various wet patches to save time and effort. At 4:30 PM I've reached the town called Unionville where I was planning to spend the night at donation based Sola Appalachian Christian Retreat, it only had four bunk beds available and I was worried that they might have been already taken but I was wrong, I was the only person staying here tonight! I've got greeted by ...