Today's miles 14.7. AT miles 1348.7
We had a really pleasant day today. We took our time getting ready this morning but were still walking for 8:30. The trail this morning was almost rock free which made a lovely change. The trail passed in and out of woodland, through grassy meadows and by several pretty ponds. After a couple of hours walking we took a short 0.2 mile detour to the Murray property. A lovely grassy meadow setting with wooden huts/cabins and donkeys in the fields. The property has a private cabin which remains open for the use of long distance hikers plus there was an outdoor shower available on the side of another cabin. We both took advantage of the shower, it was so nice. Nigel stripped off but I kept my underwear on, any other hiker could have come past - they didn't! The water wasn't hot but warm enough, it was a warm day anyway. We felt very refreshed, shame we had to put sweaty clothes back on! We've got a longer stretch than normal between hotel stops, about six days, so the chance of an interim shower was very welcome.
A couple of miles after the Murray property we took another half mile detour into the small village of Unionville which is in New York State. We temporarily crossed the border from New Jersey into New York a couple of times today. We enter New York state proper tomorrow. We needed to do a food resupply for the next three days and there was a lovely village store, Horler's Store. A very friendly owner he gave us a couple of free snack bars and let us pack all our food and return the unwanted extra packaging to him for disposal. Just down the road from the store was Wits End Tavern. We called in there for some lunch, really nice, good value food - burger, Nigel and BBQ ribs, me. Very friendly staff once again.
Back onto the trail we walked through a few more grassy fields and woodland paths. There were also a lot of boardwalks today across swampy boggy ground, the mosquitoes were out but not too many. There was a short road walk to Wallkill Reserve, a large wetland reserve, we walked about two thirds around it. There wasn't much wildlife to be seen on the reserve though. Once we left the reserve it was uphill to Pochuck Mountain, with a few rocky climbs in places. There was a great view from the top looking back towards High Point Tower where we were last night.
We decided on an easier day and earlier finish today, we'd had two long days previously and have another long day planned for tomorrow so stopped at 5pm next to a stream just after Lovemma Lane and pitched our tent. Despite rain showers forecast, we managed a rain free day walking, it was humid and warm still with sunny spells. We had a quick light rain shower about 6:30pm but we were safe and dry in our tent by then. 7:30pm the heavens opened though and a massive thunderstorm passed by with torrential rain and hail. It only lasted about half an hour thankfully, our tent stood up well, there was a pile of hail stones outside it.
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