secret shelter to wayawanda shelter

rocket and i got on trail pretty late. we waited for the sun to dry out our tents before we packed them up.

since we did extra miles yesterday, we only had 18 to do today, so took it pretty leisurely. we had a brief road walk on which there was some trail magic, a cooler with a couple benches. we each had a beer and a soda even though it was only 09:30 and chatted about potential post trail plans.

from there we hiked around a wildlife preserve, which looked like a flooded overgrown field to me. we walked 2 and 1/2 sides. there were some birds, one of which was a heron, but otherwise we didn’t see much.

we hiked through the forest for a bit before hitting a boardwalk through a bog. it was smooth sailing except for the copious number of muggles.

a few miles later we arrived at heaven hill farm and garden center where there was also a farmer’s market. we each bought some cider donuts, and rocket spied a woman at the farmer’s market selling empanadas, which we each bought for lunch. we sat in the shade, and took our time. eventually went back inside for ice cream. finally enough time passed that we had to get going, i think it was around 14:30.

the climb following heaven hill was the biggest and steepest climb we’ve had in weeks. it was hot and we sweat our way to the top, passing muggles every few minutes. the view at the top was a blue blaze that we opted to skip. i wasn’t interested in dealing with that many humans.

the last few miles into camp were across rolling terrain. climb a bit, descend, climb back up, descend. it went pretty quickly, and we arrived at camp near 17:00.

we both set up tents, and headed down to the wayawanda visitor’s center for water. they had a spigot, so we didn’t have to filter. on our way back to the shelter we ran into mixed up who was just arriving.

tomorrow is rocket’s last day on trail. he’s got less than 10 miles to go, and is camping at the drive in theater in warwick until his folks arrive the next day to pick him up. i’ve got a huge 26 mile day, so i’ll be leaving early.

some additional images from today: