Postal Service – 2 / Low Branch – 0

I got up at 4:30 to hike the 13 miles to Glenwood Lake NY to pick up my food resupply package. It was fun getting out early and the Trail started with a steep climb up over the rocky hillside that ran along side the valley where we spent the night. When I crossed the NJ/NY border there was a long series of boulders to hike that would have been a blast except that they were slick as ice in the light rain that fell all day. I slipped a half a dozen times but nothing serious. Just really slow going. I jammed out to Taylor Swift’s “Welcome to New York” as I navigated the boulders. It was taking much longer than I expected and I jogged up to the post office just before it closed.

Yikes! No package. This is super frustrating but not unexpected. The postal worker that sent the package for me in Delaware Water Gap explained that everything is a “hot mess” at their main distribution center in New Jersey and even showed me a picture of a huge postal warehouse backlogged with thousands of packages. I would have been a lot cooler about it all but this particular package had all of my food for the next week. Fortunately, there was a CVS next door and I’ve gotten pretty darn good at learning how to cobble together meals from drug stores and gas stations. I’ll be eating traditional hiker trash meals like Mac n Cheese, tuna packets and trail mix until I get to Connecticut. The real pain is trying to get this box bounced to another post office down the Trail. It is still spinning around somewhere in Jersey City. Wish me luck.

The good news about the trip into Glenwood Lake was the pizza. Just barely over the border and I am officially in pizza heaven. No one knows how to bake huge thin crust slices like New Yorkers. I scarfed down a huge beautiful salad and three slices on the steps outside of the pizza joint in the rain. A woman walked by and asked “Dining al fresco?” That sounds way classier when you put it that way. I smiled and took another huge bite of pizza and then headed next door to a French bakery for a huge chocolate chip cookie and a coffee. I am really going to miss eating like this when I finish. It really is a blast to eat so much delicious food and not gain any weight.

The cute orange geckos are back. These guys are my favorite and there were dozens on the Trail today. They look like the same ones that I saw in Virginia but a lot smaller. I was kneeling down on the Trail talking to one for a while when a woman came by and admired them with me. She said “Oh, these guys are my favorite – it’s like Christmas out here for me today.” I agreed. They are so sweet and seem to like to be held.

I finished the day at just over 25 miles and pretty worn out. We are stealth camping tonight near a pond. Stealth camping is my favorite. It is so fun to make a little home for myself out of nothing. I just need a relatively flat space and a water source. It feels like a real back country adventure. It’s super quiet at this spot tonight and I had some nice down time before bedtime to watch a movie and enjoy the warm weather.