The AT!

My first venture onto the emerald trail of the Appalachian Trail.

11:15 - to the trail, leaving the roar of I-80 behind, pass a couple on the bridge just off the parking lot and exchange hellos. They smell of the trail, of days walking in the woods. In a quarter of a mile, the sound of the creek drowns out the trucks -- but it comes back when I move deeper, away from the water.

Noon - In 45 minutes, I'm 2 miles in, at the Holly Springs Trail intersection. It's been almost all uphill and lots of sweat. Still three miles to go to Sunfish Pond, my intended turning point.

12:35 - I pass the second person on the trail, a man walking south (I'm going north) at the four-mile mark.

12:45 - I reach the backpackers' site, just after scaring three white tailed deer across the path. I also saw the third person (well, fourth, but third counting the two at the bridge as one) with little more than a light pack and a walking cane. I figure he might be a volunteer, a trail worker (and I find out later I'm right). At the backpackers' site, I read the notices and look at all the photographs of bears, wondering what it would be like ... And what it would be like to spend the night there, beneath the trees, up on the ridge, so far off the roads.

1:05 - I reach Sunfish Pond and silence, except for teh wind, the crickets and the bugs. I sit for the first time, take off my pack for the second and sit on the bench looking out at the pond. It's a long walk back -- though mostly downhill -- and the mosquitos and gnats may very well send me that way soon.

1:40 - I'm back at the backpackers' rest.

1:55 - Off to the side, just off the trail, a lone deer grazing. She watches me pass within 10 or 15 feet, then continues with her lunch, crossing the path after I pass and walking off into the forest.

2:10 - Back at the overlook, seeing the Kittatinny Ridge off to the East. 2.6 miles down to go. The bugs are maddening.

2:25 - Back at the Holly Springs intersection.

2:51 - Back at the Blue Dot Trail intersection, and soon the parking lot and my car, just in time to beat the New York rush hour traffic home on 287 and the Parkway.