Day 102: Bog Boards, Boardwalks and Bugs

Hiked 25.6 miles, tenting at Wawayanda shelter.

Kevin very kindly gave me an early car ride back to the trail so that I could get a respectably early start today.  We grabbed breakfast in town and then he dropped me back off at the High Point State Park Visitors Center.  Thank you once again to Kevin and his family for their hospitality over the holiday.  It was exactly the break I needed and it was awesome to see friends from home again after all this time.

Back at the High Point State Park Vistors Center

A view of the High Point Monument

A view of New Jersey from the viewing platform

Despite my early start, I made slow progress during the first part of my day.  There was a viewing platform about a mile into the day that I paused at, then .2 after that was the High Point monument. 

The monument is dedicated to veterans and marks the highest point in New Jersey at a whopping 1610 feet.  The monument is 220 feet tall and is a smaller version of the obelisk in Washington D.C.  Just like the one in D.C., you can go inside it and look out the top but this one has no elevator.  You must climb up 291 steps to get to the top.  I made the trek and it was a long climb up but the view was worth it.  The day was very sunny and clear, the first time since Lehigh Gap that it has been sunny all day.  As a result I could see a long way.  The climb up was interesting because it is very humid and stuffy inside and especially near the top the limestone walls were sweating profusely and the metal stairs were slippery.  Unfortunately I couldn't get many pictures from the top because the windows were so dirty.

View from the top of the High Point Monument

View from the top of the High Point Monument

Panorama from the base of the High Point Monument

From the monument I put my head down and got some miles in to make up for the long time I spent there.  The trail follows the NJ-NY border east and dipped in and out of both states all day.  The tough part about today was that almost the entire day after the monument was spent hiking through swampy areas.  I passed over miles and miles of bog boards all day.  What are bog boards?  Simply two planks laid across two by fours.  They exist partly to make crossing swampy areas easier, but mostly so that many people tromping through the area don't harm the delicate ecosystem. 

The High Point Monument

From the High Point Monument you can see the viewing platform from earlier

Crossing a hayfield

Like with any swampy area the mosquitos were atrocious. At almost any point during the day I could run my hand over the opposite forearm and kill 5 or 6 at a time.  Bog boards are also usually laid out with a gap between each set requiring you to constantly change your stride to hop between them and they aren't always stable and can tip unexpectedly requiring constant adjustment of balance.  It makes for slow miles and with the mosquitos pestering me the whole way it made for some solid frustration. 

Bog boards

Just after passing through the outskirts of Unionville a short road walk takes you to Wallkill nature reserve.  The trail then leaves the road, spends almost two miles walking around the reserve and ends up almost back to the same road showing once again that the trail frequently takes the most obscure path between two points.  If it had stayed on the road it would have been a half mile or less, instead of hiking two miles around the edge of a huge marsh.

Climbing Pochuck Mountain

On top of Pochuck Mountain (you can see the High Point Monument on the right)

Upgraded for a short while from bog board to boardwalk

Finally after hiking up and over Pochuck Mountain, the bog boards gave way to a solidly constructed and new looking boardwalk.  The boardwalk runs for almost a mile and allowed for much quicker travel.  Shortly after I reached NJ 94 I hiked .1 off the trail to get to Heaven Hill Farm where there is a farmstand.  I sat and relaxed there and ate a fresh peach and some homemade ice cream.  It was the pick me up that I needed.

A view of the valley from Wawayanda Mountain

Looking to the right from the above picture

I spent enough time at the farmstand that by the time I up the steep rocky climb that is Wawayanda mountain, the sun was close to setting.  The view was great so I decided to pause for a half hour or so to catch the sunset.  You could see Culver fire tower and the High Point monument in the distance and the sun set directly in between them, a very cool sunset.  There were a few locals there that had the same idea and I chatted with them for a bit.  They left before the actual sunset though, so I got to enjoy it in solitude which was great.

If you look carefully in the next few photos you can see Culver
firetower on the left and the High Point Monument on the right

After the sun set I still had about five miles to go to get to the shelter, so I strapped on my headlamp and off I went.  The first half of my night hike was a pain because it was very rocky and with a lot of downed trees very difficult sometimes to figure out where the trail went.  The second half was on what looked like an old roadbed, so it was a little easier going.  I came very close to missing the side trail to the shelter as there was no sign that I could see.  Luckily I knew generally where I was and that I must be close, so when I saw a blue blaze side trail I hoped it was the shelter and not something else and took it.  I set up my tent, crawled inside and passed out.