Mile 895.5 - New Jersey is DONE - Wandering La Vignes

Guess what we have been doing the last few days?? NOT HIKING!! I’m excited to tell you all that we are enjoying a few zeros at my parents’ house in NJ! We had this planned in our heads for a long time and actually, we haven’t taken a full day off since Hanover, NH, just about 500 miles ago!! So it feels so, so good. In fact, we banged out a 24-mile day to get here earlier and have an extra zero day instead of a nero (near-zero) day. Anyways, we have a lot of “real life” stuff to take care of, so we have been busy bees to say the least!

As for hiking, we are now at mile 895.5, the Delaware Water Gap in PA, which means we completed New Jersey!

New Jersey was pretty good to us … It rained quite a few times at night and was hot and humid during the day. Once again, keeping hydrated and finding water sources was an issue. When it is as humid as it was, we tend to drink upwards of 100 ounces daily!! The terrain in NJ was very nice and flat; there was even a 1-mile boardwalk section! We especially enjoyed the last 30 miles. You walk along a ridgeline and who knew that NJ had ridges?? But it does and there are some incredible views!

Anyways, here’s our summary of good ‘ol Jersey:
72.2 miles
4 days
4 nights in a tent plus we are spending 4 nights at my parents’
10 NOBOs (definitely slowing down), but we’ve seen more of “our kind” lately (SOBOs) – 2 caught up to us and we caught up to 2 others! One, “Woolie,” is pictured below eating a SoyJoy bar!

6 dig-a-hole poops in the woods for Deal (might I add that is a record for him in any state … I think he is just really grasping nature … Or there is something in Jersey water?)
By the way, I only dug a hole once!
Wildlife was kind of exciting, as we saw at least 6 deer, 1 snake, 1 porcupine an 1 bear along the trail! But the most exciting thing was that some kind of possum or raccoon tried to get in our tent one night and I woke up to Deal yelling at something and he ended up punching it in the nose through the tent wall to get it to go away!

NO trail magic! There was no trail tragic either, but still! Jersey doesn’t love hikers??
We did get trail magic from people we know though, so we can’t complain too much. Fire Marshall’s girlfriend picked him up one day for some zero days and gave us sodas and home-baked cookies!

Also, Deal’s friend Todd, the lead singer of Railroad Earth/From Good Homes lives near the trail and told us to call when we came through. So we did and he treated us to lunch! Not to mention, it rained the entire time we were at lunch … An extra bonus!
And then of course, there are my parents … Big trail angels as they are dealing with our craziness and trying hard to fatten us up!! We weighed in again and right now, our weight loss is 27 lbs for Deal and 22 lbs for me! Believe me, we are eating as much as we can carry! And we will gain this weight back once we stop hiking. The sad thing is, I am wearing shorts that were at my parents’ house that i haven’t worn since high school! And, Deal went and got measured for his tux to be worn at his sister’s wedding and they sent him to the boys’ department because of his 29-inch waist!

Anyways, we are planning to get back on the trail either Sat afternoon or Sunday morning, but I will try to blog again in between town chores and seeing friends/family!