Day 34: Another wet one…

Summary 
May 29th

Pochuck Mtn Shelter to NJ Rte 94

NOBO mile# 1356.9

Tolmann’s daily mileage 6.5

Tolmann’s total mileage 333.2

No bothersome bear bluster. Woke up to rain. We “slept in” until 7-ish. Cheese and Coyote were up and off into the rain, but Tilly was comfortable with hanging out for a while, with an extra tea (and coffee for me) thrown in for good measure. As I was also reluctant to get wet, I didn’t finish up my packing, and listened to the chatting between Boss, Goddess, Bearbait’s Dad, and Tilly and Hops from the safety and relative dryness of the shelter. 

It was great connecting time, but the rain didn’t really let up much, so in the end, there wasn’t anything left but to launch for the day. 

I wonder if I’ll ever really be entirely one of the tribe until I can be comfortable with being uncomfortable, meaning accepting all of the glorious mess that is hiking in the rain. That feeling of no part of me bring dry. When your feet haven’t really been dry while hiking for three days straight. There’s this idea that you can hike your shoes dry simply by wearing them. I have yet to experience that. 

So, yeah, that was this morning. I left around 10:30, with the goal of eating lunch at the Heaven Hill Farm on RT 94, which my faulty research put at 5 miles (it was closer to 6.5).

So I rocked on out, trying for some speed, given the late start. Today was a lot of ups and downs, a fair amount of rocks and steps made out of rocks. I was having some trouble with my feet; yesterday’s road walk, etc., had done a number on my feet, and last night I found a significant blister on the sole of my right foot, on the pad behind my big toe. Today’s walking was aggravating that, and I was feeling a hot spot on my left foot in the same place, plus some thing was going on with my left heel. 

With the wet everything, and the sore feet, I was mulling over a text Meeko had sent to us as we sat in the shelter about a Retreat Center for $50 a night including breakfast, and free laundry. The idea of arriving at a shelter late-ish wet, cold and with foot issues was far less appealing than being clean and dry and warm. 

In the meantime, we’d be getting to the famed NJ Pochuck Boardwalk, a raised boardwalk that runs (in sections) for more than a mile. I caught up with Boss and Goddess just before reaching the boardwalks. 

T&H, then Bearbait and his dad showed up in short order. I decided I wanted to go get lunch, so I started down the boardwalk fairly quickly; there were 2.5 miles left to go. My feet were on fire those last miles. On the last section of raised boardwalk, I hit a down sloping set of boards and lost my footing coming down hard on my right wrist. 

I was trying to convince myself that if I raised the prospect of a stay at the conference center, that T&H would be amenable, but I wasn’t really successful. 

The right way to care for ones feet is to stop when one feels a hot spot, or any discomfort. That way one catches a problem early and with time to mitigate it. I am a mule-headed man, trying to bull through. When I reached Heaven Hill Farm, it would not have been a good idea to go the last 5 miles, especially with the climb up the “stairway to heaven”.

By the time T&H showed up, Boss, Goddess, Bearbait and his dad, and I had had a chance to shop and discover there was no lunch food at the Farm, and I had decided to get off trail for the night. T&H and Boss and Goddess were hiking on. 

We said good-bye to Bearbait and his dad, as they were finishing a section hike. 

Then I called the retreat center for a pick up. 

I hope to be able to catch back up to Tilly and Hops this week. 

Meanwhile, the retreat center folks have been very gracious and generous. I met up with Pancho and Idgie again here and also met a German hiker named Hippo. We were all invited to a Memorial Day dinner at the private residence of two of the workers here. They fed us London broil, new potatoes, corn on the cob, zucchini, and salad, with ice cream, cheese cake, and Boston cream pie for dessert. Any hikers coming through the Warwick area, I highly recommend the Warwick Retreat Center. Be aware, though, that the guidebooks have misinformation; everything is not “free”! The nightly fee is $50, which includes pickup and return to trail, laundry, and breakfast, which I consider very reasonable, especially as we move into the Northeast.  And if the timing is right, perhaps dinner!!

My plan is to get back on trail in the morning, to tackle the “Stairway to Heaven”. Then we’ll see whether I can make up for lost time and still protect my feet. It looks like it might not rain again until tomorrow night.