30 Miles and Rain

It was the second weekend of September and Carla and I were ready for an adventure. The Appalachian Trail was calling and we were prepared. It was going to our longest trip yet. We prepared to hike from the Delaware Water Gap to Culver’s Lake. 

According Exploring the Appalachian Trail it would be 26.9 miles. Our plan was to hike up 3.1 miles to the backpacker’s campsite near Sunfish Pond on Friday after work, hike 14.4 miles Saturday and stay at the Harding Lake Rock Shelter, and finally hike the last 9.4 miles to the car on Sunday. 

It didn’t quite go as planned. 

We started a steep ascent at around 6 on Friday evening. 

   
  
The sunset views were spectacular. 

 
Unfortunately, we were on the wrong trail. We were on the Mt Tammany trail instead of the AT. If you are not familiar with it, the Mt. Tammany trail climbs 1250′ in 1.5 miles. We were at the end of the trail before we realized our error… Our sunset decision was to follow the blue trail to the AT and hope for the best. We hiked by headlamp until we found a “flat” spot to pitch our tent.

The next day we were determined to make up the difference in distance. It turned what should have been our 14.4 mile day into about 17 miles. Around 1 p.m., with only another 5 miles to go it started to rain. We trudged along anyway. With only a mile left to the “shelter”, we picked up the pace. Carla and I once ran a 5 mike race in a nor’easter and she never had a faster time! Clearly weather is a motivator for her. The incentive of drying off and warming up had us moving faster than we had all day long. An hour later we were soaked through and frustrated. I referred back to the guidebook description to learn that there was no actual shelter. Instead we should have found an overhang in a rock face! We had clearly blown right past any hopes of finding it, perhaps I should say rain clouds blocked our view… Once more we pitched a tent after dark, this time soaked to the bone. Carla and I barely slept, as we were dripped on as the rain steadily fell in our $30 tent with a rain fly smaller than my shirt. When the sun rose we saw we had a beautiful view of a lake.  

With a renewed spirit, and finally dry, we set our for our final 11 miles. Each time SOBO through hikers passed me, I felt myself more and more encouraged and energized. At the end our our journey, I asked Carla what she thought of the distance. She said, “The distance was fine, the weather was the problem.”

   
   
While the weather may have been less than ideal, I wouldn’t have changed it for a minute. I am more determined now than ever before, and I learned a valuable lesson: get rid of that tent!