KITTATINNY MOUNTAIN--The weather has been quite frigid here in New Jersey--as it's been elsewhere in the country over the last week or so--but those (-) figures on the "live chill map" notwithstanding, I decided to start the year right by returning to the Appalachian Trail and Kittatinny Ridge today for my first solo hike since early autumn. It was surely the most challenging outdoor experience I've had since a snowstorm forced us off Mt. Rainier above 11,000' in 1997, although the hike definitely got easier as the day progressed. I arrived at Worthington State Park to find myself to completely alone. The temperature was 2 degrees F / -16 degrees C when I accessed the Appalachian Trail at Dunnfield Creek and 16 degrees F / -8 degrees C four and a half hours later when I descended the Red Dot Trail from the summit of Mt. Tammany--i.e., Gap Summit in the photograph--back to Dunnfield Creek. I saw no one at all--not a soul--for the first 10.0 miles of the 11.6-mile hike, but exactly 25 people between the intersection of the Blue Trail @ Mt. Tammany Fire Trail and Route 80--almost twice as many people as my friend Chandler and I had seen four days earlier. A few of those I encountered expressed a desire to complete the loop; however, most said they were just going up Mt. Tammany, then descending the Blue Trail to Dunnfield Creek / Route 80. Once again, I saw no bears--more on bears presently--and, in fact, saw little in the way of fauna at all, except for a squirrel, three deer--a buck and a doe together, and a desperate and solitary 100-lb. doe foraging for grass beneath several inches of snow that surprised me by allowing me to get within about 8' of it; some more black-capped chickadees, some wood ducks, some blue jays, and two woodpeckers. About 3" of new snow blanketed the ridge and trail complex, so the tracks that Chandler and I had left in the light snow last Thursday were long gone. Two people had gone up the Appalachian Trail yesterday and their tracks were still sharp. I walked in these on and off until Sunfish Pond--the 44-acre glacial lake atop the northern portion of Kittatinny Ridge--after which I did something I'd never done during the four and a half decades I've been taking this hike--i.e., I walked on thick ice across almost the entire length of the pond, staying at all times within 10m of its northern edge. Someone had done the same thing yesterday, only farther out, but I was already taking a chance with the frigid weather and decided to play it safe. One thing that struck me was that the sky was cloudless and soundless until almost the last hour of the hike. Despite the fact that bitter cold was the order of the day, I have a wicked sunburn from the bright sun reflecting off the ice and snow. One of the great advantages of hiking in snow is that it becomes easy to track the comings-and-goings of the various animals that live and move in the same places where I hike. I saw literally thousands of tracks in the new snow today, mostly deer and bird tracks but also coyote and (probably) bobcat tracks as well as large bear tracks. Of course, the latter tracks surprised me most, since it's the dead of winter and it's extremely cold on the ridge. I've seen bears up there in the winter--and even in several inches of snow--but never when it was colder than 30 degrees F or so. The bears whose tracks I saw were apparently going off the southside of the ridge to raid the snowbound cornfields and pumpkin patches in the valley. The red acorns the bears can scarcely wait to gorge on in autumn--after having consumed many thousands of blackberries and blueberries all summer--are by now a distant memory; and, if a bear's hungry enough and if frozen kernels of corn and pumpkin pulp are all that's out there for them, they will arise and go,no matter how cold it is. The vast majority of bears den above ground in winter and are more sensitive to the weather than most people presume. I guess survival trumps a good night's sleep every time. As I walked in the snow, I couldn't but think about the hundreds of animals I've seen on the ridge down the years--the eagles I saw up there; the bears I saw here and there and just about everywhere else; the eastern timber rattlesnake that Valerie and I saw right there--not to mention all of those five-lined skinks and copperheads and northern water snakes that are either underground or elsewhere or now a part of the earth.
So, this year is my 45th year of hiking the Appalachian Trail and Kittatinny Ridge and I want say to all who are still reading this missive that I'm more grateful than words could ever convey that, despite the many physical challenges I've had--and still do have--I'm still able to experience nature and the outdoors as I have over the past year, in general, and over the past week, in particular. I do not now, nor will I ever, take my ability to do so for granted. I know that the time will come soon enough when I will be unable to get about and that all I will have at my disposal are the many and diverse memories of the hundreds of outdoor experiences, both near and far, I've had down the years. I still have many dreams and many goals pertaining to the outdoors--places to visit and mountains to climb and trails to hike--and hope to share them with you as I realize them. In an exclusive email interview to www.NJnewsjersey.com this explorer/adventurer asked to remain anonymous.
An aerial photograph in which our hike is outlined in blue. The only exception is that we skirted the northside of Sunfish Pond, not the southside as shown.