Posted by rmorris on 12. April 2009 13:34
The first backpacking trip of the season is always exciting. Living in the Northeast and not being a winter camper (I have a deep aversion to cold), I hadn’t been out backpacking since November. So on the last weekend in March I set out for a short trip on the Appalachian Trail.
The weather forecast a few days before was for rain and cold, dropping to the low thirties at night. But by Friday the forecast for the temperature was much warmer and the chance of rain dropped to 50 percent. We left from the ranger station at High Point, New Jersey headed to route 94 near the New York border. This would be a two day hike of about 21 miles or so. For one of the people in our small band, this would complete his last section of the AT in New Jersey.
Just before leaving I took a quick look at the map and was pleasantly surprised to see the route we had chosen was almost all down hill! (except for a sharp climb up Pochuck mountain). Having done only a handful of hikes and some running over the past winter, this was a bit of a relief.
The trail here starts out quite rocky, with some stretches of basketball size rocks, but after a few miles that fades into a very pleasant gradual decent in the woods. The trail is a comfortable and peaceful walk in the woods for a long ways. For a time the trail is on an abandoned railroad grade, we found old coal from the trains actually still scattered about. The trail passes through many farmlands along stone walls and pastures an interesting change from hiking in the woods.
As we approach Pochuck Mountain, the AT runs through the Wallkill River National Wildlife Refuge. This was an unexpected treat. We found here very large turtles, many muskrats and an abundance of beautiful red-winged black birds. This is an area well worth returning too. We then passed through Pochuck Swamp. Here the New Jersey Trail Conference and the Appalachian Trail Conservancy have constructed nearly a mile of boardwalk and bridge the enabled us to pass through the swamp without getting our feet wet!
We spent the night near the AT Pochuck Shelter. A group of boy scouts had reached the shelter before us. We were still able to setup our tents an hour or two before the rain started. The boy scouts were generally quiet except for a 7 am singing wake-up song. On a rainy morning we had planned to sleep in a bit. But since we were up, we skipped breakfast, packed up and set out on the 7 mile hike out. The rain soon stopped and we found ourselves enjoying a nice morning walk out of the woods. Overall, a great start to this years upcoming backpacking trips.
Section Trivia:
- The way the trail is oriented along the NY/NJ border, the “northern end” of the section is actually compass south of the “southern end”.
- High Point is the highest elevation in NJ 1,803 feet.
- Wallkill River National Wildlife Refuge is the only federal wildlife refuge on the AT.
- Some of the exposed rock on Pochuck Mountain is over a billion years old.
http://www.backpackbasecamp.com