Day 3, Northern NJ

Our first stop today was at the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area. A daunting 3 mile hike that took us up 700 feet in elevation to the summit of Mount Tammany, which overlooked the the Water Gap and Pennsylvania. At the beginning of the trail we noticed a sign saying black bears were active in this area. On our way down the mountain we were lucky enough to see one a couple hundred feet off the trail as it casually ate blackberries.

After spending a couple hours at the Gap we headed out to Wawayanda State Park. We were originally suppose to reach the park in an hour, but when we were a mile or so away from the entrance we hit a detour which took us on a 1.5 hour search for a way in. Twice we called the park office to ask for directions, but their advice only took us back and forth between both ends of the detour. Our next plan was to ask the locals, but those we talked to couldn't remember the street names, and one old man kept refering to us as "foriegn explorers." Determined to get to the trail (it had now become our mission) we decided to go around the barriers we had come across on our first attempt through. It was just our luck that the hours spent searching for Wawayanda were all for nothing; the road that was supposidly "under construction" didn't have a single traffic cone on it past the initial barrier. Sick of having to drive around town for so long, we were all reluctant to go hiking, but since we were already there we decided to give it a try. The trail was by no means worth it. The poorly marked, difficult trail led us through swamp-like conditions and made this stop fun for no one. When we finally got to our destination, a lake at the top of the mountain, we were so tired that the only thing we did was take a couple of pictures before returning done the mountian. We hurried back to the car and immediatly drove to our hotel.

As I'm writing this entry I can look out our window and see New York City with the impressive Empire State Building dominating the skyline. I can't wait until tomorrow, when we finallly get to travel to the Big Apple.