Old'n'Slow was out of Pochuk Mountain shelter before me, but I caught up with him. Our plan was to reach Vernon NJ, where Old'n'Slow was going to take two zero (mileage) days in a motel to rest and resupply. I was hiking on to the next shelter.
Low-lying clouds enshrouded the mountains (pictured), and the trail crossed a variety of environments (pictures). I wondered how anyone could lose this (pictured) colorful shirt on the trail. One of the thruhikers I met at the beginning of my hike wore similar clothing and I wondered if it was his.
Crossing a road, we followed the trail over a long boardwalk above a marsh (pictures), meeting some locals walking their dogs, and donned our raingear when it started to rain as forecast. The boardwalk finished up with a stream crossing on a pedestrian suspension bridge (pictures).
We crossed railroad tracks and entered a muddy pasture on a boardwalk, providing some entertainment for the bored cows there (pictured). Then we saw our objective up the road, Heaven Hill Farm market (pictured, https://heavenhillfarm.com) and ice cream! Old'n'Slow treated me to a large chocolate cone, while he had a cup of mint chocolate chip and later purchased apple cider donuts to take with him to the motel. I bought some huckleberry (!) licorice sticks and lemon and blueberry candy sticks for the trail.
Old'n'Slow has a YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCL1J-p9Ep0PWSz1-yakxkOg where he is posting his AT hike videos. I may have cameos in the most recent ones!
After saying our goodbyes, I stayed behind charging my phone at the outside outlet provided for hikers, called my mom, and chatted with a young hiker (Big Man Small Steps, if I recall correctly) who was hammock camping the night before at Pochuk. He was doing a short section hike, stopping at Wawayanda shelter where I was headed.
I finally decided to face the 900 foot climb up Wawayanda Mountain in the rain, including the "Stairway to Heaven" (pictured), a wet but thankfully not slippery rock staircase. Along the way was a collection of rock cairns, then a large rock pile at a side trail to a nice viewpoint (pictures) where I could just make out roofs below through the clouds.
Along the trail, I spotted this curious rock arrangement (pictured) that qualified as sculpture, and there was another arrangement a few feet away.
I was tired when I reached Wawayanda shelter and my shoes were soaked after passing through some flooded trail (pictured). I found Dory, Cinnamon Girl, Wilderness Hawk and Wingit at the shelter already trying to dry out their equipment, but they were able to find room for me (thankfully!). It appears my poncho/tarp is more effective than some of the others raingear that soaked through, while I was relatively dry.
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