I slept well last night and was a bit groggy this morning when I got up. I wanted to move slowly through my morning chores and breakfast, but I didn’t have that luxury. The mosquitoes which had so rudely chased us to bed early last night, were up before us today and they seemed to want nothing more than to bite. 

So after rushing through a very quick peanut butter and bagel breakfast, dad and I made plans to meet for a late second breakfast / early lunch at a local farm outpost and hit the road.  

The walk was nice at first. There weren’t rocks everywhere and the air was still fairly cool. It was quite pleasant. But within a mile or two, we hit what New Jersey calls a creek but should really be referred to by what it actually was – a mosquito sanctuary. 

As I walked across a boardwalk through the sanctuary, Mosquitos the size of jimmy Hoffa (before he died) buzzed around me everywhere. They buzzed under my hat lid and landed on my back. They bit me through pants and shirt and left me smacking myself trying to get them off of me. I stopped once to read a sign to see where I was but after stopping for a second or two, I started walking again. Remaining stationary in this blitzkrieg wasn’t an option. 

I fought through the masses of bugs and ignored the ever growing collection of welts all over my body and pushed through to breakfast. 

When I got to the barn, I saw they had the ultimate cure to the itchiness – a frozen apple cider drink layered in with ice cream, whipped cream and a donut. I ordered a large, then grabbed a homemade soda, some sausage and cheese for later, and reluctantly an apple as well. To make it healthy. Dad joined and got the same cider concoction but seemed to think a Gatorade was a better idea than soda to have on the side. 

Leaving breakfast we climbed up “the stairway to heaven.” On most days the name would have been pretty accurate as it was a mile long, quite steep climb towards the stars. However, given the heat and humidity that had settled in, it felt much more like a stairway to hell. While I was no longer swarmed by mosquitoes, New Jersey found a new way to annoy me. I was dripping in sweat. 

And when I say dripping in sweat, I mean that with no exaggeration. I don’t think I’ve ever sweat this much in my life. At one point I looked down and noticed that not only was my shirt completely saturated with sweat but, for the first time in my life, my pants were as well. They were dripping into my shoes. It almost looked like I had peed myself. The only saving grace was that no human could have peed that much. It was disgusting.  

But I didn’t have a choice, so I kept on walking. Through the heat and pea soup consistency air I went until I saw a black shape on the trail in front of me. A bear! He wasn’t big but wasn’t small. Not a menace of a bear but also not a baby that would’ve had a mama around to protect him. So I just stood there watching the bear. He did the same. I took a step forward to get a bit closer and the bear must have been scared by the man in such wet pants. He took off into the woods never to be seen again. 

I walked my sweaty legs further until finally I saw what I had been waiting for so long to see, the New York, New Jersey border! Most state crossings are exciting but this one was special to me. It announced that I had walked from Georgia to my home state. As I crossed into NY, the weather suddenly dropped to a delightful 75 degrees and the trail turned to a soft pine covered path with undulating hills and beautiful views. 

Ok, none of that happened. But I still felt pretty great walking into NY. 

The rest of the walk was hot and under threat of rain. I couldn’t decide if I wanted it to pour on me because it was so hot or if the slippery trail would not be worth it. But I had no say in the matter. As I climbed over boulders and got lost atop NY mountains, the sky decided to not rain. 

I sat in the parking lot at the end of the day waiting for a taxi to pick me up and take me to the Grosman’s house. Hannah’s parents had so kindly offered up their weekend house to my father and I and, after such a sweaty day, I could not have been happier to take advantage of their cold shower and air conditioning. 

I felt great after cleaning and cooling and it wasn’t until half way through a Thai food dinner that I crashed and lost the ability to keep my eyes open. Heading back now to a bed and a day off tomorrow! 

Key stats:

Miles: 19

Elevation gained: 3200 ft

Mile marker: 1376

New political platform: death to mosquitoes (and maybe New Jersey as well)