Boardwalk to ice cream.

Day 79 - 7/5/10
Got woken up again by old man Bill yelling down at us from atop the
stairs. Breakfast! Wake up you lazy bums! Had the same thing, but
again it was delicious. I left around 7:40, trying to make some good
miles before it got too hot out. I knew it was going to be at least
90's, and that would be really tough to hike in. I miss the cold
weather!

So I was doing great, feeling really good, when I came to a road and
saw Seeker, an older lady hiker (60's maybe), standing there looking
confused. She's nice enough, but I find her a little odd as well. She
wasn't sure which way the double blaze markers were telling her to go,
so she wanted to wait for someone else to show up. That may sound
crazy that she hasn't figured out which way to go by now, but I only
recently realized how to read the double blazes myself. So I helped
her and we hiked together for a while, going along the road and then
back into some fields that went along the edge of a wilderness refuge
pond for a long time.

That's when the blaze marks started to get shady, then disappeared
completely. I thought I was still going the right way because there
was really only one path, but then when it came to this place where
the trail forked I didn't see blazes anywhere, and neither did Seeker.
So then we started thinking maybe we missed a double blaze,
backtracked at least a 1/2 mile, but didn't see any trail that turned
off. So we went back to the fork, decided to take a right, did that
about 15 minutes, then realized it probably was also the wrong way. By
the time we got back to the fork we saw Shakes, and he had a map, so
we were able to see where to go. But there was no blaze to signify a
left turn at the fork, we thoroughly searched, so that peeved me a
lot. We wasted close to an hour, which means I did at least 2 extra
miles of walking, and it was all in the sun.

When I was back on the right trail I made it to the first shelter,
Pochuck, within a 1/2 hour. Refilled my water at a nearby house with a
spigot, and had some lunch, my last flatbreads with Nutella and PB. By
the time I left the heat had really picked up, so I knew I'd be
stopping in 6 or 7 miles at Heaven Hill Farm for ice cream, which was
only .1 miles down a road the trail crosses. Through that section
there were some interesting parts, like a really long boardwalk that
went through a marshy type area. It would have been better if it
wasn't directly in the sun though.

When I made it to the road where the ice cream was it was around 2, so
it was scorching. I almost ran over to that place to get out of it. I
dropped my pack in the spot by a fish pond reserved for hikers, then
went in and got myself a Dr. Pepper and a large ice cream. Cotton
candy and chocolate chip cookie dough. It was so good, and I sat in
the shade enjoying my selections with other hikers. I ended up going
back in for seconds, this time a chocolate milk and a muffin. So that
was like a second lunch. I ended up staying there for almost 2 hours
because the heat was just brutal.

When I left around 4 I had a big 1000 ft. climb that sucked my body
dry of all liquids. I was drenched in sweat. At the top I took a 10
minute break, enough time to cool off and get a little bit dry. Did
another 4 miles to Wawayanda shelter where I decided to call it a day
because I'd had enough hiking in the heat. Even though it was cooling
off I was just too depleted to go on. I made dinner after setting up
my tent, then crawled in so I could finish this earlier then usual to
get to bed. I want to wake up super early (3:30...maybe?) so I can
hike in cooler weather early on. It's supposed to be the same, only
hotter, so I hope I can actually get up early for those cooler temps.

I do know one thing. There's another ice cream stop I can make
tomorrow, so I may be indulging once again. When it's this hot nothing
is better than a cool treat.

Total miles: 1352.7