2013 New Jersey Muzzle Loader Deer Camp Report

Made the trip down to New Jersey for our annual Muzzle Loader deer camp at Mohican Outdoor center in the Delaware Water Gap.  After missing last years camp, I was excited to be back and this year I brought my daughter.  Yup, I broke the no girls in deer camp rule and I am proud of it.  My daughter and I were the only ones from Connecticut this year and My brother Steve couldn't make it but the rest of the characters where all present including my dad.

Sunday morning found us delaying our departure due to icy roads in our area of Connecticut but we were on the road by 9am.  Made the stop at Stokes Forest Sport Shop to get my daughter her NJ licenses.  This used to be a tradition for our trip, but since they went to the online purchases we only have to stop for first time licenses or when someone forgot to do it online.  As tradition holds, there was a line of other hunters doing the same thing.  We left the sport shop and headed down in to the Gap but made a quick stop fore a warm delicious Taylor Ham, cheese and Egg sandwich.  We can't get Taylor Ham here in CT, so I always take the opportunity to get some when available.  We arrived at the Mohican Outdoor Center where the Blueberry Hill cabin becomes our home base for deer camp.  The cabin sleeps 16, has heat, fireplace, 3 bathrooms with two showers, a full kitchen and no TV or phone or even phone service!  Sure beats when we used to stay in hotel rooms

Once we said hello to everyone, my dad, bill, my daughter and myself decided to do a quick scouting trip to check out the areas we were thinking about hunting in the morning.  We started down a short section of the Appalachian trail that connected to the Copper Mine trail and continued down to kaiser trail and then cut back through the woods to our starting point.  We didn't bump any deer but we did see plenty of fresh sign and some really good buck sign.  With our plans confirmed we headed back to the cabin to unpack and settle in for our first evening.  Raymond was busy manning the smoker as he was smoking some pork ribs which would be the main dish for dinner that night and they were delicious!

We got an early start on Monday morning and were headed down the trail just after 5am and there were not to many other hunters around which is not a good sign.  The woods are big and the hiding spots for deer many so you need hunters in the woods to help move them around a bit.  As legal shooting light approached I always sit in anticipation of the first shots and with Pennsylvania being just across the river and Monday being their firearms opener as well it didn't take long to hear the first shots of the season.   It was a pretty quiet morning with the sound of distance shots breaking the silence every so often, but none that suggested the shots were close or from any of our 11 man crew which was spread out over 8 miles.  About 8am we heard a close shot coming from the direction of where Bill and his son Eric had setup and withing a minute or two of the shot the radio cracked and it was Bill letting us know he just dropped a deer.  That definitely got the attention of my daughter he she was scanning the woods hoping to see one for herself.   About 9:30 my daughter was ready for a little walk to warm up and we headed off our perch and to the trail to head down to my dad and check in with him and then we heard another shot which sounded like it came from where Billy and Bob where setup just off the top of the mountain on the river side.  It wasn't long before the radio went off and we confirmed that Billy shot a nice doe. We made it over to my dad and he had seen one nice deer to far off and we looked the area over and decided to build a hide for my daughter and I to sit on Tuesday.  The rest of the day was pretty uneventful and we headed back to camp a little before the end of legal shooting.

We spent some time getting dinner ready, while everyone cycled through the showers and participated in many discussions about what everyone saw and gave thoughts on their plans for Tuesday.  Plenty of laughs to be had over dinner as well and then it was time to cleanup, sit back and watch Jeremiah Johnson on the computer before heading to the sack for a good nights rest.

Tuesday found us once again heading down the Coppermine Trail and into our blinds well before legal light.  My dad had a spike sneak into him early and it headed our way but stayed low and we never did see it.  We had two come by our setup but too far for a shot and they didn't stick around long.  About 7:30 I get a text message and it was from Raymond who had just shot a 8 pointer about 5 miles down river from us.  Turns out Raymond's deer would be the biggest buck and he would win the big buck pin and have bragging rights for the year!   Billy missed twice that morning as well and young James also had a swing and a miss.  My daughter and had had another encounter with 4 more deer in the brush but never did get a shot at them.  We poked around the woods until about noon and then headed back to the cabin to get packed up and see what everyone wanted to do.

The Muzzle Loader season in the zone we hunt is a 15 day season, but the days are spread over a full month so we only had Monday and Tuesday to hunt.  The other 13 days would occur after the 6 day firearm season ended.  Kaleigh was tired and ready for a nap, so we decided to pack it up and head back to Connecticut which allowed me to beat all the dang traffic.  No deer for us, but we will get back down for another hunt or two and hopefully get lucky.

So final count was 3 deer taken and 3 misses which makes for plenty of ribbing and a little bragging.  as always time spent with family and friends is what really matters at our camp so it was a success for sure.

Connecticut Wildlife Officials Consider First Bear Hunt Since 1840

Link to Hartford Courant Article

Connecticut Wildlife Officials Consider First Bear Hunt Since 1840

From the Hartford Courant Article linked above

Recently there was a Black Bear encounter in a neighboring town that resulted in the shooting of an adult female black bear and the homeowner being charged for killing the bear. This is the second time in almost 5 years where a black bear has been killed by a homeowner and it has once again stirred up the debate on how to deal with Connecticut's ever growing black bear population.

Paul Rego, a wildlife biologist with 25 years' experience at the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection's wildlife division stated :

"I would say the population will continue an upward swing and the costs associated with dealing with bears will increase," Rego said. "It will spread over a bigger part of the state. There will be more frequent property damage and more frequent public safety threats. … The only feasible alternative is to control the population somehow, and I think the most efficient way to do that is through regulated hunting. "

I have been hunting the Delaware Water Gap in New Jersey for 34 years now and I have personally seen the Black Bear population explode in this section of New Jersey.  Now this area of New Jersey that I am hunting is not very populated and consist of hundreds of acres of state and federal land and it is a place you would expect a black bear encounter or two but not 19 of them in a 5 day stretch which is what I had a few years ago during a spring turkey hunt.  One of these encounters included an adult black bear with a younger bear running straight at Busch Pilot and I as we sat at the base of two trees.  Both of these bears passed within feet of the tree that Busch Pilot was sitting up against and was by far the closet I have been to a black bear and I have been close to many.  I must admit that I felt the need to change my shorts after that one.  So encountering one in a tree in my yard would not send me into a panic, but I can see how those with less time around black bears could be sent into panic mode.  It is easy for those to comment how harmless they are or that they are more afraid of you then you are of the, let me know of clam and carefree you are when an adult black bear is just feet from you.



I have the ultimate respect for black bears and love to see them out  in the woods and I have had many encounters and opportunity to see and photograph bears in the wild, including the video above.  I also understand that they need to live as well, but there is also a need to keep their population in check and I agree with Mr Rego about the use of regulated hunting to do so.  New Jersey has done many hours of research on their bear population and problems, which I can only assume costs thousands of dollars to complete and the most cost effective wildlife management method they came up with was regulated hunting.  For those of us that reside in Connecticut, a black bear hunting season is coming and the fight about this is just starting to brew and will be filled with statements, stats views from the heart from both sides of the room.  We must keep an open mind and understand the basics of wildlife management and that is for a healthy population of animals to survive their carrying capacity - which is the number of animals that can be sustained by the environment - must be determined and their population keep inside those acceptable numbers.  The problem is great then just keepign them inside their carrying capacity and moves to more of a social equation in that what is the real number of animals the residents of Connecticut are willing to put up with.  Educating everyone on the habits of black bears and how to deter them from looking for food at your bird feeder or trash cans will only go so far and hunting will be needed to keep the population in check.

For me this is the same movie only with a different cast of characters and a new setting.  One thing for sure, it will be interesting to see how this one turns out.


Additional information on dealing with Black Bears

Black Bears in New Jersey
Black Bears in Massachussets
Avoiding Bears in your Back Yard

Muzzle Loader Camp 2011

What a difference a year makes.  Last year we had great cold and clear weather and a full meat tree, while this year we had warm weather for two days along with Rain and fog and a damn near empty meat tree. 

This is our annual after Thanksgiving Muzzle Loader hunt down in the Delaware Water Gap area of New Jersey and it is always greeted with great anticipation and excitement.  Much of this excitement and anticipation is the fact that we have almost 30 miles of state and federal land to hunt and with that much land to hunt you never know what is going to happen.  The trip starts out early on Sunday as members of our Connecticut crew pile into the trucks and head south to our camp which is a cabin at the Mohegan Outdoor Center where we meet up with friends and family from New Jersey, Pennsylvania and New York. 

Once our gear is unloaded in our rooms, some guys will sit around telling stories, others tart preparing some snacks and dinner while the rest will usually take to the woods for a last minute scouting trip.  Once it gets dark, it is time for a great dinner and then time to prepare out packs and lunches for the next day's hunt.  Of course a little night cap is always in order to help fight through the restless night that we all face.

Wake up Monday was 4am and about 4:05am, someone heads out side to see what the weather is like and the report was not good.  It was already in the 50s and temps were expected to get to the mid 60s.  The first of the crew that are hunting off the mountain head out at 5am and the rest of us are out the door by 5:30am.  It was a short hike to my perch for the morning, same spot that i shot my 8 pointer last year.  I was all snuggled in and anxiously awaiting shooting light a good 25 minutes before it arrived.  As the sun started to rise I was already greeted with bugs buzzing around me.  This was not going to be good.  Pennsylvania has their deer season opener on the same day and this usually makes for plenty of shots heard through the morning, but this morning things were usually quiet.  I should have known then that this was going to be one of those trips.  Few deer were sighted that morning, of course none by me.  Chuck scored a nice 5 little 5 pointer and we joked about this being the big buck pin winner, little did we know it would end up to be not only the pin winner, but the only deer taken in two days.  Some of us met back at the cabin for lunch and after getting Chuck's deer to the check station and hung up on the meat pole, we headed off the mountain to meet up with the rest of the crew so we could make a push or two.  We setup for our long pond push which seldom lets us down, but it did on this day.  As one of our standers was walking in he jumped a lone doe and took a shoot and missed.  That would be the only deer seen on this drive.  By the end of this driver, most of use were soaked and picking thorns out of our clothes and body so with about an hour left many of us just head back to camp to get an early shower.  Chuck, James and Myself decided to butcher Chuck's buck and get it in a cooler as temps were not excepted to drop below the high 40s.  We had a good dinner, some more laughs and a night cap and then off to bed.

Tuesday morning's weather report was warm and damp.  According the to radar we had about 4 hours before it started raining so out the door we headed.  The rain started around 8:30am but it was light and mostly a mist, but the fog was heavy at times and visibility was down to 40 yards at times.  About 10:30 the chatter on the radio was to head back to the cabin because according to the radar, the skies were about to open up.  Well, some of us didn't make it back in time and we got soaked.  It looked like the rain was going to hold on through the majority of the afternoon so guys started to head home.  Busch Pilot and James decided to do a little walk about and ran into nothing but black bears.  We decided to pack it in and head back to CT around 3pm. 

We had one deer to show for the trip and only two shots taken in two days which is a far cry from our usual trips.  The weather didn't cooperate, most of the hunters that stayed through the mid day heat or rain, sat tight and so did the deer.  In terms of deer, camp was a letdown, but as always we had good food and lots of laughs with family and friends and that is truly what makes camp so special.

Two firsts - Guest Blog about First Buck

A while back OBN had a writing prompt suggestion about a blog post from a kids perspective and I have asked both my son and daughter to write a blog post for me so below is the first ever guest blog post, actually it's more like a short story, as written by my Son Brendan who currently is a Sophomore in College.

My First Buck

When my father asked me write about a hunting experience, my mind ran wild with the memories that I’ve acquired in the past 8 years of being able to hunt.  Should I talk about the turkey hunts in Connecticut (two doubles) or the harvest of my first ever deer while my father and his best friend watched.  It is tough to pick one specific hunt because they all have so much meaning.  The one I decided to write about was the 8 pointer I took in the Delaware Water Gap, New Jersey.  For those who don’t know much about this area, it’s something you need to go explore.  A place in New Jersey that is full of wildlife is hard to come by, but this place doesn’t lack excitement.  My grandfather, uncle, father, and I have grown up hunting the mountains of “the Gap” and chasing big whitetails.  

            My big buck was taken during the muzzleloader trip in 2007 that our hunting group goes on after Thanksgiving every year for the first two days of the NJ muzzleloader season.  We travel down the Sunday after Thanksgiving to hunt Monday and Tuesday.  We head down on Sunday to unpack and do some scouting before the two fun filled days ahead of us.  The food and company never seizes to disappoint and the atmosphere of a good camp is present.  As we sit down and eat we discuss where we are all going to sit in the morning.  I wasn’t able to hunt the archery season so I was depending on my father and others who were there to give me advice on where to sit for muzzleloader.  They decided to give me a spot overlooking a laurel area near the power lines we normally hunt.  I would sit behind a big tree that had fallen the previous year and watch out towards the pines that surround the power lines.

  As I lay in bed that night, deer fever got to me as it was hard to fall asleep.   The excitement of the hunt kept my mind racing all night.  As all hunters know waking up in the morning for a hunt isn’t hard at all and that’s what happened.  I jumped out of bed and got packed, ate breakfast, and we were off for a cold day in the woods.  My father dropped me off at my spot as he continued on his way to reach his spot down towards the power lines before sunrise.  It was a slow morning as the sun came up over the mountain and began to warm the air slightly.  I have to say one of the most amazing views is watching a sunrise light up the woods slowly.  There is nothing better than to sit and watch nature at its finest moments such as that.  The morning showed no activity so we decided to all meet up for lunch and discusses our plan for the afternoon.  I couldn’t walk away from my spot just yet; so I decided to go there again in the afternoon and wait it out for some deer to pass by my spot.

  As the afternoon rolled on, my hopes for anything coming by were diminishing.  Suddenly, a nice 8 pointer comes walking through the pine trees a little over 100 yards away.  My heart instantly started racing as my moment to take down a trophy buck has come.  I pull up my Thompson Center Muzzleloader and fire a shot.  After the smoke clears I lose sight of the buck.  I get a call on the radio about the shot and the situation.  My uncle Steve was the closest to me so he came and helped calm me down and prepare to look for a blood trail.  As we were talking about our approach of tracking this deer, the big buck appears on the hill about 75 yards away.  He seemed very much alive so my shot clearly missed.  Now it was my uncle’s turn as he slowly walked around the tree that I sat next to and set up for a shot.  Again smoke fills the air from my uncle’s muzzleloader.  The deer runs off and seems untouched as we sit in disbelief that this trophy has escaped two shots in the matter of 20 minutes.  

  As the day came to an end, we head back to camp for a big dinner and start swapping stories about our day in the woods.  Of course, I get a little heckling from the guys about missing a big buck, but it’s just part of being the young guy in the group.  I decided that I would go back to that same spot tomorrow regardless of the previous day’s events.  I had a feeling that my spot was in a prime location of the big buck’s path.

  The second and last day of muzzleloader camp came all too quickly as we all got up bright and early and headed out to our spots.  I was determined to sit in the same spot and hope for just one more chance at this beautiful buck.  Soon after we all settled down we get a heads up on the radio from Jimmy K about him spooking a couple deer as he was walking into his spot by the power lines and they were heading our way.  Thoughts raced through my mind about the buck coming by again.  My father sat with me on this day which made this hunt even more exciting.  He made the decision to walk to the bottom of the deadfall to get a better look at the deer that could be approaching from the hill below us.

  Sure enough, the big buck starts walking the same path he did before just 50 yards closer this time.  My father started using the grunt call to bring him to a closer range for a nice shot.  The buck decided to give me another chance as he walked 60 yards away and stood broadside.  Everything slowed down and got quiet as I looked into the scope and fired a shot at this buck once again.  As the smoke cleared, I could see the buck running directly away from me.  The difference between this shot and the other one was that the deer was running differently than before.  With the tail up this time, I was sure I had to of made contact, but was a little skeptical after the previous day.  My father came back up to meet up with me and had me retell what happened from the shot to where I last saw him.  After a couple minutes we decided to go to the spot of the shot and start to look for a blood trail.  Our first sign of blood trail was 50 yards after the shot and we knew we had a good chance of harvesting this deer.  As we were tracking the sign, we hear another shot that came from Ernie, one of our CT hunting buddies that was with us.  We hear from him that he put a second shot in my deer that was on a death run at this point.  As we were tracking our shot, Ernie and Bobby were tracking Ernie’s shot.

  Finally, my father and I get the call on the radio that the big buck is down and I have harvested my first buck.  As soon as we heard that, my father and I yelled with joy and hugged each other.  That moment we had is something I will always remember and cherish.  To have my father with me to witness the harvesting of my first buck made me feel proud and I felt that I made him proud.  He taught me everything I know about hunting and that moment made it all come full circle for me.  He always says that he gets more enjoyment from watching me hunt than him hunting by himself.  For me to see the smile on his face was all I could ask for because I knew that I was becoming the hunter he wanted me to be.  Once we finally got to the trophy, I sat back with awe at the beautiful creature.

After taking pictures and gutting it (thanks Ernie), the mile long drag was left.  I’m thankful the road was an old logging trail that was flat because the deer got heavier and heavier with every step.  As we made it back to the cars, I was congratulated by everyone on my kill.  I was the king of the woods that day and nobody could have brought me down. 

I want to thank my father for giving me the opportunity to write this story.  I always want to thank him for being a great teacher, role model, friend, hunting partner, but most importantly, being a Dad that has been there for me with the ups and downs.  Being at college, I have little time to get out in the woods due to my stacks of homework and extracurricular activities.  Having been away from hunting for a couple years, it has made me cherish the moments I had with my friends and family out in the woods.  Like my father and grandfather have told me though, “Get an education, have your fun, because hunting will always be waiting for you when you return.”  I think that is something that not many people realize is that the woods are accepting of hunters that care about it.  It’s a place to get away from everything and enjoy the beauty that is Mother Nature. 

 

New Jersey Spring Turkey Opener

Well my original goal was to spend 5 or 6 days hunting turkey and fishing for shad down in the Delaware Water Gap but as things go something came up and I had to change my plans to a two day trip.  Stinks for sure, but still fun and relaxing, just way too short.  A couple of my friends were lucky enough to spend the entire first week of the season chasing the birds and the daily updates I got from them just seemed to make it hurt more, well except for the rain and cold weather they had at the beginning of the week which made me glad I was inside at my desk.

Jimmy (aka "I have a loaf of bread") and Billy (aka "Busch Pilot") fought through the rain and cold for the first 3 days of the season as they worked the stubborn birds.  One afternoon they had to call it quits due to hunting hours ending just as they were working a longbeard into their position.  Man I hate when that happens.   Busch Pilot was fortunate enough to get a nice Jake into range earlier in the week with about 4 minutes to spare so he decided with the weather forecast what it was he better take the opportunity that presented him and he harvested his bird.  Not the longbeard he was after but definitely a trophy on heavily hunted public land.

Busch Pilots Spring 2010 New Jersey Bird

My friend Jim (aka "Bubba") and I headed out for NJ Thursday afternoon to meet up with the rest of the crew and get a few days of hunting and relaxing in.  Bubba is recovering from surgery so he wasn't planning on hunting, but instead catching up on his sleep and some sightseeing.  We arrived in the Gap Thursday afternoon to find the guys at the river doing some shad fishing.  My dad was down there as were a few of his pals and the only one that was having any type of consistency with the shad was my Dad's friend Paul.  I think the weird thing about Paul's success was that it was somehow tied into his weird choice of tackle or maybe it was his choice of women's waders.  Anyway, it really doesn't matter how he chooses to dress or what he was using for tackle, because he was kicking everyones butt.  Paul was using a Cabela's Wobble Jig with a small plastic tail on it and he did really well with it.  As a matter of fact, the shad in the "Shad fishing the Delaware 4/29/10" blog post was caught on a Pink Wobble jig.

Cabela's Wobbler Jig

Friday I decided to hunt a section of the mountain were Busch Pilot and I had a previous encounter 2 years ago with a big Tom and instead of getting him we almost got run over by two black bears. As i started heading into the woods I heard a gobble, good sign but I couldn't pinpoint the bird but I had a good idea of where he was so I slowly and quietly worked my way into the woods to try and get closer and as I was doing so I heard a hen cackle as she flew down off her roost.  I decided not to try and get closer but to rush a setup so as to not spook her.  Well it started out as if my decision and plan was coming together because that hen stayed put about 80 yards from me just clucking, yelping and cutting and ofcourse that big old tom was talking back and coming her way so I basically let nature take it's course but chimed in with some of my own love calls on occasion. It wasn't long before i started seeing other birds coming from the direction of the gobbler and as both that hen and I continued to call he came strutting into view at 80 yards.  I knew with all the hens around that I would be hard pressed to call him away so I concentrated on the hens.  Well that plan sure looked like it was going to work as I was able to get the hens to come up the little knob I was on and look me over but when the Tom gobbled, they just turned and went back down.  I watched them work their way out the direction I had come in.  The only good part was Busch Pilot was out there and I knew he had to hear them and ofcourse he did because i received a text asking why I haven't shot yet.  Well we continued to work this old bird and he stayed within a couple hundred yards of his roost and never left.  He just hung out strutting back and forth while his girls fed away.  The noon quitting time comes a lot quicker than you think when you have a big old longbeard just hanging out and there is nothing you can do about it.

Saturday started off way different but ended up the same way.  I decided to sneak back into the same area to see if the gobbler I left there yesterday was still around.  It was quiet up until about 7:30 when I heard the first gobble and it was below me and close to the same area we left that Tome the day before.  We never could not get this bird to gobble at us at all but he gobbled 4 times in total between the first one at 7:30 and the last one at 9:15.  He was pretty much doing the same thing that was going on yesterday.  Back and forth along a strut line but uninterested in our calls.  What was interesting is that about 9:30 I hear something crunching through the woods behind these deadfalls and then all of a sudden....there it is....  nope not the gobbler but one big black bear who came right up from where that gobbler was.  The bear stayed for just a little bit and I just couldn't get any pictures or video it thanks to the brush.  The bear started heading out towards Busch Pilot's position and I know how much he loves bears, not really, so being the good friend that i am,  I hit him on the radio so he could pack up and run away.  He let me know that about 10 minutes before I called him that a hen came cruising by him up from where the gobbler was so my thought was that this bear split them up and forced the gobbler the other direction.  I worked my way further out the bench to see if I could raise him, but nothing.  So around 11:15 I decide to start my way back to the car and work the lower benches to see if that gobbler got pushed down some, but no luck.  For two days of turkey hunting I had seen birds and heard gobbles so I can't complain.  No other birds were shot and there was no shooting near us.  Jimmy and his nephew James worked a bird along the fields but it kept putting the slip on them and they had to reposition a couple of times but just couldn't close the deal.  My dad spent Saturday morning working the PA side for birds as that was the PA opener but he too went home empty.

Bubba and I spent the afternoon doing some sightseeing  while the rest of the crew decided to work the shad over again.  There were loads of bird watchers out and about and we actually saw two Baltimore Orioles but couldn't get a picture of them.  The Bear count was down for us this trip as I only saw two, one of which we got a picture of and 5 were seen before I arrived.  Compared to the 14 I saw last year I was bummed.

Delaware Water Gap Black Bear

This one is for my buddy Ray.  He has a passion for barn pictures and has taken many himself.  Hope he enjoys it.

Old Red Barn on Old Mine Rd - Depew

Bubba and I did some exploring into a section of the gap where neither of us had spent much time and we ran across Buttermilk Falls which was just an incredible little falls that offered some cool refreshing air to tame the 90 degree heat we were in.  There is a hiking trail with some stairs to hike to the top but with Bubba's arm still in a sling and the stitches just having been removed we thought it was smarter to stay on flat ground.

 Buttermilk Falls 

Delaware Water Gap - New Jersey

This is the 3rd year of this spring trip and hopefully we have many more to come and it continues to grow as large as our fall trips. I can't think of any better time to visit the gap then in the spring and fall. All in all a great trip, great weather, great friends, family and loads of laughs.

A Little Walk in the Woods

I just finished reading “A Walk in the Woods” by Bill Bryson and what an enjoyable read it was.   Mr. Bryson’s book is his tale of his goal to reacquaint himself with his “native country” by hiking the Appalachian Trail (AT) from Georgia to Maine.  Not only does Mr. Bryson detail his trip along the AT but he also interjects humor, amazing facts about the AT and the towns surrounding it along with environmental information and editorial comments.  Mr Bryson spends time sharing all the interesting things and people he has encountered along the trail, enlightens you to the trials and tribulations of trying to accomplish something as simple as walking the entire 2,200 plus miles of the AT and how it affects him both physically, emotionally and mentally.  Ofcourse I am joking about it being a “SIMPLE” task because it is in no way shape or form SIMPLE.  From behind my desk 2,200 miles doesn’t seem like much right, heck I can drive 2,200 miles in about 29 hours so what’s the big deal.  Now consider an average daily mileage for a hiker of say 15 miles a day and that means it takes 146 straight days to cover the same distance.  Almost 4 months, now add breaks into the trip for rest and restocking, bad weather, etc and it could easily take someone up to 6 months to complete on a thru hike.  Who the heck in their right mind would spend 6 months walking a trail through the mountains?  Good question but you have to read the book to understand why people choose to do so.

This book has been on my reading list for some time ever since my son Brendan had to read it for school.  Brendan was excited to read a chapter on a familiar section of the AT that runs through the Delaware Water Gap (DWG) along the Kittatinny Mountain range in New Jersey as this was a place where we had and still have personal experience with.  This is where we spend many hours during our many hunting and fishing trips and we have actually spent time on this section of the AT as well as many of the side trails like Douglas, Garvey Springs and the Copper Mine.  You can’t talk about this section of the AT without mentioning Sunfish Pond.   Sunfish Pond is a 44 acre breathtaking glacial lake found on top of the Kitattinny Mountain inside the Worthington State Forest where the AT runs right into the beginning of the lake and then up and around the East side of the lake.   Mr. Bryson never did get to see a bear during his time on the trail, but this part of NJ has plenty.  As a matter of fact, the picture at the top of this page was taken in Oct 2006 by me during a walk in the woods just off Old Mine Rd near the Depew area.

My first introduction to this area was 32 years ago when I was 12 during my first trip to hunting camp and it was just 7 years ago when Brendan was 12 that I took Brendan on his first trip to this area.  Reading this chapter in the book took Brendan back to the day when he first hit the top of the mountain and had his first experience with Sunfish Pond and the AT.   So as I set off to read this book, I too couldn’t wait to read that same chapter.  Well sure enough as I was reading this chapter I struggled to stay focused on the book, because  I couldn’t stop my mind from wandering and thinking back to Brendan’s first trip and then on to my first trip here.   I remember sitting along Sunfish Pond with Brendan and my friend Ray and watching Brendan taking in all this area had to offer and I couldn’t help but wonder if he was thinking and feeling exactly what I had some 37 years ago.  As I began to think back to my first encounter with the AT and Sunfish pond I couldn’t help but realize what  role that day and this place had in building my love and passion for the outdoors and what a part of my life the outdoors has become.

Hunting camp for us back then was a tent filled with as many of us as we could fit on a wooded campsite along the Delaware River in the Worthington State Forest.  My dad and his friends had been hunting here and participating in this yearly hunting trip for years prior to my starting and it should come as no surprise that being the new guy I was filled with so much excitement that I couldn’t sleep, while everyone else slept soundly.  Our daily routine started off with a 3:30am wake up to prepare for our daily walk up the mountain so we could reach the top before sunrise.  Once at the top, we would work our way across the top along Sunfish Pond and stop on the AT only long enough to change into our hunting clothes and drop off the other side and into a hollow that we affectionately called “The Hole”.  The Hole is basically a long drawn out V between two tops of the mountain.  The start of the hole where the two mountains tops come together is just north of Sunfish pond and this is where Dunnfield Creek and The Hole start their 4+ mile trip down to the Delaware River and the Dunnfield Creek Parking area along Interstate 80.  According to my father, the fastest way to the hole was straight up the mountain from Old Mine road.  At age 12, who was I to question this so called fact, 32 years later we still go the same way – start at the bottom on old mine road where  the elevation is about 350 feet and proceed to crest the top at an elevation of over 1400 feet.  I don’t remember questioning it back then, but today we often ask ourselves “why do we do this?”.  Mr. Bryson answers this exact question in his book when reflecting on why you keep trudging on when hiking the AT....He said we walk because that is what we do on the AT.  So we start from the bottom and walk up because that is what we do.  Doesn’t matter if there is an easier way, that’s what we do, Right Dad?

I’ve never gave much thought about the amazing history of this trail or the people who participate in hiking the AT until a few years ago when we started staying at a local AMC (Appalachian Mount Club) camp  called The Mohegan Outdoors Center.  During one our trips to the DWG for some spring turkey hunting and shad fishing a few years back.  Billy, one of my friends from CT, and I had rented some bunk space for our 5 night stay where we would use the cabin as our home base of operations, but we would also be sharing this space with many of the hikers that would call this place home for a night.  The cabins offer all the amenities that we take for granted like hot showers, toilets, refrigerators, stoves, comfy chairs, heat and oh yeah, a roof over your head.  For those folks hiking the trail this was a treat.  No sleeping in a tent on the ground and by themselves, as well as an opportunity for a shower and a good night’s rest.  On this trip we met a few hikers that were working their way along the AT, but one hiker will forever be etched in our memories.  It was midday and Billy and I had just woken up from a little nap after being out all morning turkey hunting when we noticed we had company.  We politely introduced ourselves to our new bunkmate who would be joining us for the evening.  She was from British Columbia and was working on a 400+ section of the AT that would give her the accomplishment of hiking every inch of the AT.  Her hike started in Virginia and would take her to Connecticut where should was planning on celebrating her 70th birthday with her Daughter.  Make sure you read that correctly, her 70th Birthday….  oh and hiking by herself.  We sat for hours asking her questions and listening to her tales from her AT hikes as well as her other trips which also included hiking the entire Pacific Coast Trail.  At one point we offered to drive her to CT and she declined saying she wouldn’t know what to do with herself with all that free time in CT.  So we just sat there and continued to ask her questions which she politely and enthusiastically answered.  She was even showing us pictures of her family and was extremely proud to show us one of her son with a caribou he had taken on a recent hunting trip.  We were so engrossed with her that we hadn’t realized that we were late and that we had left my dad waiting for us down by the river.  In the years since this trip we have had the pleasure of meeting many more hikers during our stays at Mohegan and with everyone we meet, we learn more and more about the AT and why people want to hike it….  The answer is simple really….It’s because that’s what they do.