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Hello, folks! Cane asked me to summarize about what happened for past few days. After getting lost for 3 hours on Monday 16-April in low 90’s degrees F weather, we hiked to Wawayanda shelter – the last shelter in the state of New Jersey – to spend a night there. We got to meet up and chat with a sectional hiker named Track-R – the one we met on the AT back in July 2010 in Virginia. Track-R is the brother of sectional hiker named Downhill Donna – the one we hope to meet up this year. 😎 We enjoyed our chat. Track-R called Cane – “Amazing Cane” which lit up on Cane’s face.
Next day, we were about to leave the Garden State and enter into the Empire State and was told by Track-R that there were some challenging trails in the state of the New York. When we entered into Greenwood Lake region, we encountered four obstacles that required us to do some hand climbing to get around or over the massive rocks – some of them were few feet drop (around 10 to 30 feet!). It was a bit hair raising situation. Not only that, the trail maintenance was so bad enough that we had to hike through swampy, buggy, and overgrown area with fading white markers from time to time. At one area, Cane came down by stepping down the rocks and the trail was curved to left. He was a bit off-balanced and went off-trail due to his balance challenge and the heavy weight of his backpack. The fallen tree with its branch sticking out was on his right side. He struck its branch right on center of his chest at mid-level which left him some bruises and broken skin. Lucky, the end of the branch was blunt, so it was not sharp enough to stab him. It left him in shock for a bit while not expecting to be “poked” hard that way as he was accustomed to being beaten up, scratched, tripped over or poked by the fallen logs or live trees. After climbing and hiking for 9.5 hours on the 10 miles stretch (ideally, it was supposed to be 5 hours for 10 miles of hiking), we decided to call our lifeline just right before the sunset – RamSham’s parents to pluck us from the forest to go home to rest and get some treatment for Cane instead of going to the next shelter which was two more miles away.
We are slackpacking for a few days with support of our mobile Trail Angel Paul E. and RamSham’s family – it helps that Cane doesn’t have to carry heavy backpack which easily throw him off on top of his balance challenge. We plan to continue slackpacking for a few more days before we will be on our own hiking toward Williamstown, Massachusetts.
We started hiking from the foothill of Pochuck Mountain going north. We enjoyed the scenic view from top of the Pochuck Mountain – view of High Point and Fire Tower to the south of High Point. We thought of our favorite stalkers – Bear Jew and Rockpuncher. They got engaged at that spot last June 2011. 😎 The temperature kept rising from 60’s deg F to low 90’s deg F by around 1 pm. It was extreme hot day even for Spring and mid-April. UGH!
The problem came up after crossing Rt. 565 and before Rt. 517. I indicated to Cane that the trail turned right at top of the hill and Cane took the wrong fork in the trail and kept hiking for a while. After waiting at next fork of the trail for 10 minutes, I tried to backtrack on the trail to find him for around half an hour, but it was challenging since I am Deaf – for me to not able to hear where he may went or listen his whistles to find him. As for Cane, it is double challenging for him as Deafblind – he doesn’t see well to figure out where he is and he cannot hear me using whistle or shout to find his way back to the right trail. It is not first time it happened like that. However, Cane just mentioned to me that his vision changed this year from last year. It is hard for me think about how he is dealing with his changing vision. I am going to leave that to him to share how he is dealing with this. All I know that he said that he doesn’t let it to stop him from achieving his goal – finishing AT even though at expense of his vision. It left me speechless and admiration for his determination.
The good news is that I found him after 3 hours of figuring out where Cane could be via texting. He blew the whistle from time to time and the hikers found him. They guided him back to AT trail and Cane texted me letting me know he is back on the trail. I backtracked and found him a bit further south on the trail. I asked my father to pick us up and go home tonight since I last saw Cane at around 1:45 pm and I knew after 3 hours of searching and hiking around, we will be exhausted on top of heat and physical exertion and it was too late to hike to shelter which was around 8 miles away by time we arrived at Rt. 517 at 5:15 pm. We are resting tonight and plan to get back on trail tomorrow to hike toward Wawayanda Shelter – around 8 miles to hike by taking it easy after today’s episode and hot weather. Cane fell fast asleep at around 8:00 pm tonight. 😉 Good to have him in safe place tonight.
We resume our hiking today from Pochuck Mountain in New Jersey toward Bear Mountain in New York this week. The boots saga continues: Cane is now on his 9 th pair of his boots as he bought a new pair last week. He ought to be a good quality test candidate for boots company. O:-) Anyhow, have a good week, folks.
Hello folks! We stopped at foothill of Pochuck Mountain in NJ (Lake Wallkill Road) to take a couple of zero days. We plan to return on the trail this Sunday 15-April to hike into New York – around less than 20 miles left in NJ.
JV, my nephew, has no school today due to Good Friday. He joins with us to hike for around 6 miles from Rt. 206 in Branchville, NJ toward Sunrise Mountain. It is wonderful to have him with us for few miles.
Our hiking from yesterday went well – a bit sunburned and sore. We are ready to hike around 8 miles today. The weather is nice – in high 50’s degrees F and partly cloud. I am going to dedicate this hiking for our dear friend, Patrick M., since his mother died few days ago.
Have a good day, folks!
We are back! We are resuming our journey from Delaware Water Gap in NJ next to PA. Our mobile trail angel is back with us once again – Paul E. We plan to hike 10 miles today toward Mohican Outdoor Center. Today comes with good weather – sunny in 60’s degrees F. We decided to do day hike this week since the temperature drops to high 20s degrees F to high 30s degrees F – way too cold to relax and rest at evenings and sleep at nights. We aim to hike north toward Williamstown, MA.
Hello folks. My car has been out of commission, so I was car-less pedestrian for a long while. Thanks to my dear friend’s help, my car is all fixed up and in good shape again. I just got it back a few days ago. Cane’s health is ok now. He just needs to watch how he eats to avoid recurring heartburn. He needs to cut down on fatty food and desserts. Anyhow, since our break from the Appalachian Trail expedition in New Hampshire, there is a new development – Aftermath of Hurricane Irene. Irene came ashore on last weekend of August which left many areas in the Northeast (between New Jersey and Maine) flooded and/or destroyed. Many trees fell along the trail. Even there was a 3-inch hole in one of shelters. The famous boardwalk over the swamp in New Jersey is closed due to flooding. Here is the link to trail updates complied by ATC.
Cane and I discussed today and made a decision to hold off our AT expedition to between March or April. That way, we can start off from Delaware Water Gap in New Jersey and walk north toward North Adams, Massachusetts. That way, we can start to build up our endurance and stamina and get ready to conquer the White Mountains in New Hampshire and Katahdin in Maine. It also gives the trail maintainers some time to work on restoring and cleaning up the trails.
Yyyyyyaaaaaayyyyyy!!!!!!! We made it to DWG (Delaware Water Gap)!!! We crossed the bridge into New Jersey – Kittatinny Visitor’s Center. It concluded our hiking in Penn-rocky/muddy-va!!!! As of today, we hiked through 8 states (GA, NC, TN, VA, WV, MD, PA, & VT). For 45 days (started on 18-April thru 2-June), we logged 432 miles on foot!!! Woo-hoo!
We are going on hiatus until early August. We plan to hike in NH and ME in August (from Glencliff, NH to East Flagstaff Lake, ME – around 229 miles). After that, we plan to hike from North Adams, MA toward DWG, NJ (Kittatinny Visitor’s Center) until mid-October.
We heartily thank everyone for their support and help.
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Today is the big day for Cane and me. We are going to hike from Wind Gap, PA to Delaware Water Gap, PA then cross the bridge into NJ to make a first stop at Kittatinny Visitor’s Center in Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area with Paul E. cheering on us. It is around 16.8 miles left for us to hike….. Sweet 16! Oh, heat wave finally broke up yesterday afternoon. Today is gorgeous day – in 70’s and sunny! Such a good day to end our leg and journey from Waynesboro, VA to Columbia, NJ!
Today is also special day for me. It is my Dad’s birthday. Happy Birthday, Dad!!!! Cannot wait to see u, Mom, JV, Tim, Janice, Dorothy, and their families!
DWG or bust!!!! 😉
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AT DeafBlind Dream 