The 10th State of the Calendar Year Triple Crown

This morning I slept in until around 7 AM. I scheduled a shuttle ride for this morning around 8:30 AM. And I actually packed my backpack last night so I didn’t really have much to do. It’s awesome that we’re renewing the room for today and are just going to slack pack. That means I can just leave all my stuff behind and not have to worry about getting fully packed up.

I think this is going to be the first time all year that I’m hiking southbound along a section of trail. But the trailhead we’re going to is 45 minutes away, so it wasn’t going to be an option to get a ride back from there at the end of the day. It makes more sense to get a ride out there and then walk back to town. Then tomorrow, my buddy Road Soda will be around and can just bring us back to that trailhead.

I wouldn’t recommend getting picked up from an obscure trailhead unless you have a plan to get back there. There are Ubers around Delaware water gap but I don’t think that any of them would be able to drive out there. It seems like it might be an old mountain road or possibly some dirt roads.

After I got up, I grabbed some Dunkin’ Donuts for breakfast. Then Misty came and picked us up around 8:15 AM. She’s a volunteer search and rescue and EMS worker. She was so nice and told us all kinds of interesting stories while she drove us there. She had a lot of historical information about Delaware water Gap that I’d never heard before. And it was a 45 minute ride so it was nice to get entertained.

Misty is completely donation based, but I knew that I planned on giving her some cash because the ride was so long. I’ve seen how much Ubers would’ve costed to get out there, if they even would’ve even taken us. So I knew I wanted to compensate her for her time.

We were on a really old paved road for most of the ride. Some sections of it had a ton of potholes and were pretty crazy. Luckily though it’s an area that she’s familiar with and she drives through frequently. And it also seems like an area that my buddy should have no problem getting us back to you tomorrow. So that’s good.

The trailhead where we got dropped off this morning, and began hiking south!

We got dropped off at the Crater Lake parking area around 9 AM. Then just had to do a really short spur trail to get back to the Appalachian Trail. From there, we only had 20 miles to go to get back to Delaware water gap. It was super cold out, around 34°. But it wasn’t raining which was awesome. This is definitely the type of weather that could get a little dangerous if it was raining. If the rain was heavy enough, and you got soaking wet, that could pose problems in these temperatures.

Crater Lake. It might be the first Crater Lake that we’ll hike past this year. But it won’t be the last!

That’s pretty much the main reason why we’re doing the slack pack today. It’s just tough to predict what’s actually going to happen with the weather. And the forecast for today and tomorrow just looked really bad when I checked last night. But I really don’t want to take a day off if we don’t have to. So rather than taking a zero to avoid the weather, we’re just being a little strategic and doing a slack pack. Then if we do end up getting soaking wet and freezing cold, at least we’re ending the night in town so it’s not a huge deal.

What is this, the Florida trail!?

My buddy Road Soda is going to drive into Delaware water Gap tonight and possibly crash at the room with us. Then he’s going to hang out with us all day tomorrow. So he should be able to bring us back to the trailhead in the morning. And also give us assistance if the weather is really bad tomorrow too! It’s just nice to have options when it comes to possibly having to hunker down somewhere or get dry.

A spray painted sign for the AT.

It was a foggy and misty start to the day, but I really enjoyed the trail itself. There were some stretches with rocks just like Pennsylvania. But overall, it was ridiculously flat and pretty much smooth sailing for the first couple of hours. We ended up talking on the phone with Fresh Ground for a while, which was nice. I miss him and it’s always great to catch up with him.

There was a ton of beaver activity in this area. But not a beaver in sight!

For a lot of the day we were walking along a wide flat trail that almost looked like it would allow vehicles, or at least ATVs, to drive along it. I didn’t remember how nice and cruisy this section was. There were some areas with rocks that you had to climb up and around. They were pretty slick from the rain and I did slip once. But that just made me be more cautious for the rest of the day. Aside from a few sections of rocks though the trail was really nice and easy. 

We walked past this cool fire tower. But it wasn’t open to the public.

I ended up having a service for most of the day, which was amazing. I had about five or six emails that I needed to draft up and respond to. So I wound up doing that for a while. That made me feel super productive, which is always great. And it’s just one less thing to do in town. Then I got some writing done and wrote up some descriptions for my upcoming YouTube videos.

Even though it was foggy for some of the day, we actually still got some great views. It was more of a mist, so when we got to overlook, you actually could still see a lot. It felt like a pretty beautiful day and I was just super glad that it wasn’t pouring rain. Sadly, we could’ve probably just left town and hiked north with all of our stuff. It seems like there’s a good chance we’re going get all the way back to Delaware water gap without any rain. But we had the opportunity to do something different and it doesn’t really hurt us much either way. Sure, it would’ve been nice to get 30 miles in today. But a 20 mile day isn’t the end of the world. Hopefully the weather is better than predicted tomorrow as well and we could do about 30 miles.

I really enjoyed this section of trail as we walked along this rocky cliff.

Sometime around noon we went by a spur trail for this AMC camp building. I went over there in 2023 just to grab some lunch and a soda. I think they have lodging and they allow tenting and stuff like that. This time we really didn’t need anything so we didn’t plan on stopping until we got back to Delaware water gap. It’s just 20 miles and typically we’ll go even further in a day without ever stopping off for a break.

The sign for the Mohican Center.

Around 1 PM it started to drop a little bit of rain on us. But just barely. I was just hoping it would hold off for another three hours until we go into town around 4 PM. It’s funny that we are officially in New Jersey now! But because we’re going southbound, we’re not actually going to cross the border between Pennsylvania and New Jersey until we basically get back to town. So that’s a little funny. This is our 10th state of the year!They’re really going start flying by now as most of the states north of here are significantly shorter than the ones we’ve done already.

Climbing up a particularly rocky section of trail.

The trail continued to be a breeze for most of the day. And it never did begin to rain. We had a couple very small climbs to do. And there were some segments of trail covered in rocks to navigate between. I was careful on the larger boulders so that I didn’t slip and wipe out. We wound up walking alongside some rocky cliffs and the views were great. Even with the fog you had great visibility. And the weather actually made the views even more lovely! There is always an upside to everything.

The overcast weather actually made for some fantastic views today.

A large cairn at the top of a small climb.

As we made our way toward Sunfish pond there were a ton of rocks to walk through. I hadn’t remembered alot about this section of trail until we got closer to the pond. Then it all came back to me. The only thing that I’ve noticed about hiking this time of year is that the trail isn’t blooming yet! In 2023 I was here at a completely different time of year. The mountain laurel was in full bloom around the pond and surrounding trail. It was absolutely stunning.

The section of trail around Sunfish pond was super rocky!

This time around there is absolutely no mountain laurel blooming yet at all. That’s the only thing I feel like we’re really missing out on. Aside from actually seeing a lot of thru hikers! Mountain laurel are some of my favorite flowers of all time. They are absolutely stunning and look like a perfect work of art. I would hope that we get to catch at least some in bloom before we wrap up the east coast. But it’s hard to say for sure. It looks like we’ll only be on the AT for another 5 weeks! Maybe 30-35 days depending on how things work out with Katahdin opening. That timing only requires us averaging about 26 miles a day. Which is definitely quite attainable I think.

Walking along the rock covered trail surrounding the pond.

Once we got past the pond things really calmed down. For the rest of the day the trail was super wide and pretty flat and easy. And it was all downhill from there! I was able to do a bunch of stuff on my phone as I walked. And I even got to catch up on the phone with my mom. That was lovely as we haven’t had a chance to talk in a little while. We’ve been pretty busy the last 10 days getting in big miles. And haven’t taken a zero in about 22 days. The shortest days we’ve done in those 3 weeks were two separate days around 15 miles. If we’re going to take a day off though I want it to be for bad weather and nothing else, ideally.

Approaching the bridge where you cross over between Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

By around 3PM we got down to the base of the descent and got out onto a road. Then it was all road walking the rest of the way to town. That made things nice and easy. We crossed over the bridge which separates Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Then officially crossed the next state line! It was so funny walking from New Jersey into Pennsylvania. Going southbound is a real trip.

Entering the 10th state of the year!

Even though it never wound up raining I was still glad that we did the slack pack. If it had poured rain today it would have been frigid. The temperature was around 34 degrees all day long. Which would have been brutally cold in conjunction with rain. Hindsight is 20/20, so of course I wished we had just hiked out and done a 30 mile day. We easily could have done it and wouldn’t have experienced any rain. But it is supposed to pour for most of the evening and the temperature is going to drop.

The New Jersey state line!

After we crossed the state line we didn’t have far to go to get back into town. And on our way through town we stopped off at the iconic pie shop. That place has all kinds of goodies! I got a piece of key lime pie, tiramisu, and root beer float! The best part about the float was that they just sold me a cup of ice cream and a glass bottle of root beer. So I just took it all back to the room to make it for myself there. That was way less messy than walking back to the hotel with a float.

The gorgeous pastries at the pie shop in town.

Back at the room I put some of my gear and things way. Then switched into my alpha layers to get comfortable. I can’t believe it never rained on us today. The forecast called for rain, all day! And we hardly got even a few drops on us all day. I’m just glad we didn’t zero. I would have had a lot of regrets if we had. Hopefully the weather is in our favor tomorrow too. And I’m so excited to see Road Soda! My thru hiker friend and Philly roommate.

I laid in bed after that and ate my root beer float. The ice cream was so sweet and delicious. Then I got some writing and other work done. And for the rest of the day I did a whole lot of nothing. I ate my desserts and some leftover Chinese food from last night. Then talked to Sparkle on the phone for a long time. We’ve been talking on the phone alot recently and it makes me so happy. I miss her! I don’t know if I’ve ever hiked with someone before who I jive with so much. We’re hiking soul sisters. I hope we’re able to hike another trail together some day.

It’s always a happy day when it’s supposed to pour rain, and it doesn’t!

Over the course of the day I coordinated plans for tomorrow with Soda. He’s going to meet us here in the morning and bring us back to the Crater Lake parking area. Then is going to hang out and support us for the day. If things turn ugly with the weather we’ll be able to get a ride to a motel or some place to get dry. Which is a great option to have in our back pocket.

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