Warwick Turnpike 1365.9 to Kloibers Pond Outlet 1382.7(16.8 miles, 357.3 total miles)
I slept like a baby last night, in a totally dark room in a super comfy bed at Paul’s apartment. It was the type of night where I was asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow, and felt like I didn’t move until I woke up at 6:30.
I made some Dino Egg oatmeal that I had gotten at trail magic the other day, and enjoyed the pure nostalgia and sugar. I compounded the sugar by finishing most of a very large cinnamon bun I had gotten from the breakfast spot the day before.
I took another shower, having learned my lesson to take full advantage of getting clean when I can. I texted Baked Potato, and he was nice enough to pick me up and take me back to the trailhead where I’d left off. It was late, around 9:15, by the time I was starting to hike.
It felt like hiking through jungle at first, with everything wet from the day before, and still traveling on boardwalks here and there. I tried to carefully step around slugs and newts, and saw a baby mouse on the trail at one point.
I had put my trekking poles in my pack, knowing the terrain was going to be easy and wanting them out of the way. I was rocking my new smaller sized Hokas (Four Shoe Challenge complete) that I’d paid to have overnighted to the apartment, and was hoping these were the ones.
I had left my previous Hokas and Altras there for Paul to take back to CT, and for the first time since DWG I wasn’t carrying an extra pair of shoes in my pack. From the get go today, I was a hiking machine, finally wearing shoes that felt like they helped me rather than hindered me.
After a couple miles I caught up with Piñata, and hiked with her for a few minutes. She was having a slow day today, and I know those days only too well. The rest of the Cult had decided to get a room in town for the evening, but her and I decided to camp together at the originally planned spot.
I passed by after a bit, savoring another perfect day of weather. Baked Potato had told me that he’d seen Jedi crossing the road earlier, so I knew the rest were ahead of me, but Piñata said they were stopping for lunch at the shelter 12 miles in, so I thought I might catch them there.
I caught up to Professor K a little way into the day as well. He was doing some slack packing with his wife following him in their daughter’s conversion van. As always, he had a smile on his face and a cheerful attitude. He’d had some shoe struggles as well, but was back in better shoes now.
The terrain had looked easy on the map, so I was surprised when the trail turned into huge boulders, starting with a rebar climb up a sheer rock face.
I hadn’t heard or realized till then, but I had picked the perfect day to decide to hike without poles. For miles, there were four point boulders climb up and down, over and over. I would’ve hated fiddling with my poles on those.
My pack was light with only a couple days of food, and I had a great time on the climbs. The only thing I had to be careful of without the trekking poles was not falling, since the Hokas seemed a tad more slippery than the Altras, and there were a lot of slanted pieces of rock to climb.
At one point, the trail dipped back down and turned into a spring, with all the water from the heavy rains last night flowing down the trail, and mosquitos on the prowl. I passed Slow Chef around there, and hiked with him for a few minutes.
Past that, it was back up on the ridges, with beautiful huge slabs of stone to hike across. The Hokas felt way better than the Altras on flat stone like that, and I rocked and rolled across those spots.
I was taken by surprise when I was hiking along, and saw the New Jersey/New York border on a slab of stone on the trail. I had forgotten how short NJ is, and hadn’t looked at the map points closely at all before heading out for the day.
Not being around the Cult photographer, Jedi, at the moment, I had to make due with another bad border selfie. At the top of the ridge, greeted by the beautiful breeze that persisted all day, I saw some of the most breathtaking views that I’ve ever seen on the trail.
The views slowed me down a little, but they were so worth it. When I was 6 miles to the shelter, I finished my energy drink and put on my tunes. I was enjoying another day hiking solo, but the last couple miles I was feeling the long morning.
I ran out of snacks in my fanny pack, and it’s never fun hiking hungry. I toughed it out, though, and made myself resist the hot dog stand .1 off trail just a couple miles before the shelter. There were another one or decent climbs before the shelter, too.
Finally, I arrived at Wildcat Shelter just after 2pm, and found Jedi, Neon, QT, and Updog there. The Cult members had left camp an hour before me, and had been there for an hour and a half before I arrived.
They did .6 more than me, because I’d hiked that part the day before, but I still made excellent time for how much climbing there was. It finally felt like I was a hiking machine again with the right shoes.
I hung out for a nice lunch break, and devoured a cheese and meat stick wrapped in a tortilla with corn chips inside. It was heavenly honestly, and I had some of Neon’s Skittles, a bunch of trail mix, and a Crystal Light with caffeine.
Everyone but Updog headed out maybe half an hour after I arrived, to get into town as soon as possible. I was glad I got to see them, not least because Neon still had my micro pump, and I was going to need that tonight for my sleeping pad.
I caught up with Updog on our happenings since seeing him last at Eckville Shelter, and after a bit another hiker showed up as well. Her name was Hummingbird, because she has a penchant for attracting aggressive hummingbirds.
Hummingbird is from Hawaii, and doing a flip flop as well. She’s had some shoe issues too, and had gone through three pairs since starting at the end of April.
I’m now convinced shoes should be an extra consideration for doing a flip flop. With the new REI In Carlisle, future flip floppers will have a good resource, but if it is too soon to tell by then (like what happened to me) it can be very tricky with limited options to switch out footwear.
I headed out of the shelter at 3:30, with only 5 miles to go, and the first 1.5 miles downhill went super fast. I had my trekking poles out again, because of the moderate descent and ascent ahead of the shelter.
At the road, I saw Professor K’s wife, Wendy, with the van doing trail magic. She had their black lab, Zeke, with her, plus plenty of good treats and handwritten notes from her first grade class at the school she teaches at.
I spent quite a while talking with her, and Professor K joined us after a bit. I had a nice time with them, and as I hiked ahead, I thought how great it was to be hiking faster and having more time to spend taking breaks and enjoying good company.
After the rest of the descent, there was a cool little waterfall right off the trail called Fitzgerald Falls. There weren’t many waterfalls on trail that I or Piñata could recall later, and I very much loved seeing one.
The climb ahead wasn’t too steep, but it did get very PA-type rocky for a bit. When I was half a mile from the campsite, I saw Baked Potato hiking over a ridge when he appeared ten feet away from me.
We both laughed, neither expecting to see each other on the trail. He said he was hiking south to meet Shrek, who was a mile or so behind me, and was giving her a ride to the motel everyone was staying at.
I spent several minutes chatting with him as well, and he was nice enough to offer to pack out the trash I had in my fanny pack. We said bye, and I finished the last little bit to the tent site, texting with Piñata, who was only a couple miles back.
I made a Backpacker’s Pantry chicken risotto, and added some fresh broccoli to it that I had gotten from Wendy. It was very satisfying, and I noticed my energy levels were great and my feet weren’t swollen at all after a long day hiking. I can’t express the happiness I have that I finally am hiking in the right shoes. It’s like Christmas came early.
Piñata showed up around 7:30, and we hung out and talked about our days and plans for the next couple days while she had her dinner. We fit both our food into my Ursack and got that hung up. We were each glad we had someone to camp with tonight.
Tomorrow will be interesting, a couple things are up in the air right now as to the exact plans and how they will shape up. Either way, today was a fantastic day of hiking, fun climbs, great company, and awesome views.
It feels amazing to have footwear that works for me finally, and I can’t believe I’ve already finished three complete states! I am loving New York already, and excited for more.