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| About Downunda | Trail
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1st July 2002 From:
Culver's Gap I took it really easy today, not wanting to stress my leg in the slightest. It felt surreal to be hiking - my feet felt numb and the rest of me felt like I wasn't there…..hard to explain. My leg gave a few twinges throughout the day and has a slight soreness now that I have stopped for the day. I guess tomorrow will tell whether it will improve or worsen. I came across two large groups of teenagers on the trail today. I think they were groups from summer camps. There were about 30 in each group; however, they were only out for a day-hike. It's a small world, as one of the Camp Coordinators for the first group I came across, was a young girl from Melbourne, who is working at one of the camps for the summer. It was a little difficult to get water today as many of the springs have dried up. This will make it hard to plan ahead if springs called out in the guidebook are dry. It looks like I'll always need to get extra water each time I can. Even the spring here near the shelter is down to a trickle. Today was pretty hot. It was forecast to get into the 90's and tomorrow is supposed to be hotter. I am back in New Jersey and will be for another 40 miles or so, and then I will cross into New York, which I will be hiking in for about another 70 miles. There's no one else at the shelter with me tonight. This will be the first time this trip that I have been solo at a shelter. The New Jersey trail clubs have installed steel bear-proof food lockers in the vicinity of the shelter for us to store our food in. The lockers measure about three feet across x 2' x 2' and are bolted to a concrete base. We have been warned numerous times over the last week that the bears can be a problem in NJ. Apparently the bears are restricted to a fairly small green corridor and that forces them into close proximity to the hikers. We were told that one had to be shot last week. Poor food management by thoughtless hikers teaches bears bad habits. I had to get in the tent as soon as I got to this shelter area as the mosquitoes are in squadrons again. So it was a quick cold dinner, store the food in the bear-proof locker, then into the tent. That's it for today, goodnight all.
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