Day: 083
Date: Sunday, 16 July 2023
Start: Delaware Water Gap (AT Mile 1296.9)
Finish: Fairview Lake View (AT Mile 1313.6)
Daily Kilometres: 27.6 (Ascent 2657', Descent 1532')
GPX Track: Click here for Julie’s Strava & Photos
Total Kilometres: 2207.8
Weather: Very warm and humid, overcast and gloomy with occasional light rain.
Accommodation: Tent
Nutrition:
Breakfast: Breakfast sandwiches
Lunch: BLT sandwiches
Dinner: Rehydrated meals
Aches: Dave - the usual niggles and a couple of falls; Julie - nothing reported.
Highlight: Probably our wildlife sightings. While negotiating the rocks bordering Sunfish Pond we came on two different snakes very close to each other and beautifully marked. We think one was a Northern water snake and the other was a rattlesnake which was not in a hurry to get out of our way despite the rocks around him being banged repeatedly by Dave's trekking pole. In the end it got off to the side enough for us to get by and showed no hostility. The other sighting was a beaver patrolling his beaver pond quite close to shore though we could really only see the snout.
Lowlight: Still plenty of rocks on the trail today, and many of them exceptionally slippery, making progress slow and tedious for long stretches.
Pictures: Click here
Map and Position: Click here for Google Map
Journal:
We slept in until 7:00am then packed, checked out of our motel, and walked down to the town bakery arriving soon after it opened at 8:00. We bought some breakfast sandwiches to eat on the tables outside and some sandwiches to take with us for lunch. While we ate breakfast we chatted with the father and daughter thru-hikers we had met a few days ago on the trail. They hadn't enjoyed their stay at the crowded hostel in town.
Soon after 9:00am on a very gloomy morning we rejoined the trail at the eastern end of town and followed it onto the long bridge across the Delaware River which also carried the freeway and a lot of traffic noise.
Once across the bridge we entered the Delaware Gap National Recreation Area and a trail which followed Dunnfield Creek upstream. It had rained very heavily in the early morning hours and everywhere was wet and the stream was a loud torrent of white water. Tributaries were also overflowing and the trail was often a stream itself. It was impossible to dodge the water so Julie's feet were soon very wet while Dave, with his Goretex boots, remained relatively dry though the water was often almost deep enough to flow into his boots over the top.
The trail was also rocky again, so we haven't quite left the Pennsylvanian rocks behind us even though we crossed into New Jersey as we crossed the Delaware. The humidity was high and it was sweaty walking as well. We had hoped for easier walking today but it did become a bit of a slog.
After about six miles we reached the pretty Sunfish Pond and hiked along its very rocky and slippery northern shore encountering a couple of snakes along the way (see above). Shortly after we took our lunch break and then had a very slow rocky walk following a ridge to the north-east. It took us about four hours to cover seven miles, which was disappointing, though there were often good views eastwards over the rural valley below and more distant mountains from slippery rock ledges the trail followed.
We took our last break at a fire tower on the ridge which had an adjacent picnic table and then walked our last four miles collecting water for camping along the way. We found a nice spot on the ridge, marred only by prolific mosquitoes, at 7:00pm and camped. Didn't see many hikers at all today, which surprised us given the number who had been in town, but that's OK. It's nice to have the trail to ourselves. We also passed the 1300 Mile mark today, which gave us a boost.
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