The campsite in the woods kept the tent nice and dry in the morning, but the bottom side is always moist and picks up a lot of dirt from these tent pads. I would much rather have the bottom dirty and the top dry. The dead things stuck to the tent still smell pretty bad though.

I am up and out by 6:15 and the trail quickly turns into meadow walking. The grass has been cut recently but the weeds from the side overlap the trail and get me pretty wet pretty quickly. The shoes are soaked within 15 minutes.

The sun is just starting to rise and making interesting patterns of sunlight filtering through the trees into the fog. When I first emerged from the campsite I could see that the town was under cast. Thick fog blanketed the town but just above that layer it was crystal clear.

I ate a small breakfast this morning because I am only 3 mi from the next town of Lodi. As I enter town there is a diner which I’m planning to stop at. I am there in less than an hour eating a breakfast skillet with hash browns and corned beef hash. I stopped by a gas station next to pick up some Gatorade and M&M’s for the road walk today.

The trail doesn’t take a crazy route through town this time, but it does do something unusual that caught me off guard. I thought I was on a trail that was taking us out of town, but it turns out it’s just an out and back trail to the high school. I was confused when the trail ended but then I remembered this was another skinny lollipop trail.

At least I didn’t have to force myself to hike it. The first half was a really nice hike through some woods not far from houses, and the second half was mostly a meadow walk to the high school.

After making it back to the park where the lollipop trail started, it is down to real road walking again. It starts out as houses, then moves to light industrial, then it is rural again. It is only a few miles to the first trail section.

On this Trail section I run into a volunteer who is weed whacking the trail. We stopped and talked for 5 or 10 minutes and then we both moved on. The trail dropped me out on to another road where I resume road walking.

As I wander down one country road, I can see a Ridgeline to my right with some rock outcroppings. If this was the Appalachian Trail, I would be certain that the trail would be heading in that direction. After a quick look at the map zoomed out a little bit I realized that is indeed where I am headed.

When I get to the trail section there was a parking lot with several cars in it. I could hear voices from The cliffs as I pass below it so I imagine I am going to pass all of these people coming down as I am going up.

The climb is very gentle and changes between woods and Meadows all the way to the top. There are four or five places where you can cut out from the trail to the rocks and look at the valley below. I take a small break to drink some water and have a snack. It is still pretty early in the day. It is not even noon yet.

I hit another parking lot on the other side. So it is back to road walking for me again. The next excitement is passing a section of road that is being resurfaced. As I walk along it, I can see that they have been working on it, but there is no one doing anything today.

By 1:00 I make it down to the Merrimac ferry. There are bathrooms with a water fountain and an ice cream shop on the south side of the ferry. I partake of all three facilities. Just as I am finishing my ice cream the very arrives in the begin loading cars. I hustle up and walk on to the ferry with about 10 other pedestrians and maybe 10 cars.

The ferry ride is 7 minutes long and very peaceful. With all the barricades and bridges for the walkways in the up position you can’t really see anything so it’s a little boring. But once on the other side there is the same bathroom water and ice cream stand. It is now after 1:00 so I eat my lunch and then buy some popcorn and more ice cream. I don’t begin resuming my road walk until 2:00 p.m.. It was a nice fun break.

The road walk this time is only a few miles and enters another trail section that is again a mix of woods and meadows. Except for the Rocky outcrops all of the trails today are exactly like this. I estimate that I should make it to the park headquarters by 7:00 p.m. based on my current rate and distance.

It is about 5:00 p.m. by the time I hit the parks South entrance. From here I begin climbing a mountain that I know is going to have another set of Rock outcroppings. I can see them off in the distance but I can’t see the ones that I will hike after this set. I know that through the park I will go up over a mountain down to the lake and then up over another mountain to the headquarters.

The climb up is not bad and I don’t really slow my Pace at all. As it gets near the top of the trail actually becomes paved asphalt as it nears the rock outcroppings. On this mountain there are about 20 places you can peek out and see the view below. And as I look at a few of them I can see there are some mortared rocks. This must be the work of the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s.

Balanced Rock is the last landmark before going down to the lake. The trail is very Rocky now and hard to follow with twists and turns all over the place. There are signs pointing towards balanced Rock but they are hard to follow sometimes. Whenever I am unsure which direction to go next I just look for mortar around the rocks.

Once I get to balanced Rock it is a little bit of a letdown. I was expecting it to be much larger. It looks about 10 or 12 ft tall but balances on a base that is barely over a foot wide. More impressive than the rock is the rock work that is the trail. This is some of the steepest trail I have ever been on including the Appalachian Trail. Without all the rock work it would be nearly impossible for most people to scale up or down.

Once I make it down to the lake I had for the vending machine to grab a soda. Even though I have already had my caffeine and I would not normally drink caffeine this late I know I have one more big climb and will need the energy. The machine is out of every single item except for diet Pepsi, so a diet Pepsi is.

The climb on the other side of the lake isn’t nearly as steep as what I just came down. But it is still very slow going and I don’t reach the headquarters till after 7:30. I have already booked a room for two nights in a town only about four or five miles away but it is too far to walk before dark. My plan is to walk the exit road of the park to a business where I can catch an Uber as long as I have cell signal.

I have a very faint cell signal at the exit of the park but I am able to use the Uber app even though it is very very slow. I am able to get a car and he shows up in 10 minutes. It is well after 8:00 by the time I get to the hotel. I get quarters and soap for the laundry but for tonight it is nothing but shower and bed immediately. I don’t even bother to go out to eat. I just make some Ramen in the microwave and go to bed.

Emotion of the day, Surprise

Today was a day of surprises. The mix of road walking and trails all day was well balanced. I am used to the road walking being the dominant portion. So that was a nice surprise.

Having not one but three ridges to climb with rock outcroppings in good views was also a surprise. I expected at least one in the State Park but the first one was a bonus.

I was also surprised at how steep the trail down from the East ridge in the Park West. I was also surprised that the entire ridge was composed of pink quartzite. These rocks are pretty slippery, and if it was raining this would be downright treacherous. The texture of the rock is about like marble. But there is not a grainy structure like granite has to grip your shoes. Thank goodness it is sunny and dry today.