Appalachian Trail 2015- Journey Before Destination : NJ

26 May 2015: 20 miles to a backpacker campsite just over the NJ boarder

TURN AROUND NOW!!! I hated New Jersey

27 May 2015: 19.5 miles to Brink Shelter

Poring rain
The PA rocks never stopped until NY
MOC

Basically the only view in NJ

A dirty swamp in NJ that is marked as a water source in our guide book...ummmm NO. we are careful about the water we drink but NJ and NY are known for having bad water sources. This being a perfect example.

A random herd of about 50 children just ran by... also we think this is the spring we got sick from... read on

28 May 2015: 18.9 miles to Country Inn...

Sick: For the following story I am going to refer to the grosser bodily functions as children's art/materials. For example: "Frank threw up and blew chunks everywhere" would read "Frank colored penciled and play-doughed everywhere" Get it? Good, lets move on.

It was a typical day. We were aiming for Unionville, NJ to camp in the visitor center's front yard for free. It all started after lunch. We were just 8 miles away from our goal when Poppins confessed that she was feeling sick. She blamed the off brand gummy bears she had eaten for lunch, sounded probable and harmless enough. We arrived at the park station a few minutes later and Poppins went into the bathroom because she was still feeling a little nauseous. But upon reaching the bathroom she proceeds to finger paint violently, no more gummy bears to worry about now. We both thought that was the end of her finger painting when she has run back into the stall to continue magic marker-ing. I'm at a loss and just get her some water and paper towels. What can one do for a friend when they are busy doing macaroni art in a public bathroom. I just leave her to it and go wait outside with the packs.

I sit outside for about an hour while Poppins water colors. Once or twice she comes outside to say something to me but then has to turn right around and yarn again. Eventually Poppins insists that all the tye-dye is out of her system and we can leave. I go and tell the front desk woman we are heading out, she knows Poppins has been playing with chalk in the bathroom because I've been asking her for paper towels off and on for an hour. The woman leans across the desk and gives me the number of the park police "just in case" and tells me she will be here until 4:30... it is currently 4:00.

We start hiking and Poppins is feeling it. It is rocky but nothing strenuous, she eats bigger mountains than this for breakfast. We get a mile in and have had to stop about 5 times. Finally at 4:25 Poppins consents that I need to go stop the woman so maybe we can get a ride into a town as she is leaving. I left the packs and Poppins tissue papering and ran back down the mountain/hill really to try to catch this woman. Fortunately I catch her right as she is getting into her car. She offers to call a park ranger for us if we can just meet him back in the parking lot. I agree and run back up the mountain/hill to collect Poppins and the pack. Apparently Poppins has been playing with clay the entire time I've been gone and looks even worse. She put up a fight when I picked up both pack to carry down the mountain/hill but had about as much force as a gross little kitten so eventually she consented and we started down the mountain.

The ranger met us halfway down and took one of the packs. The worst part was we didn't know what was wrong with her so we didn't know if we should go to the hospital or not. The ranger thought it was heat exhaustion, since I wasn't showing symptoms it probably wasn't NOVO. He took us to the closest Inn and dropped us, where we paid a pretty penny for a nice little pink toilet for Poppins to gluestick into. It was for the best. We both still didn't think it was dehydration or heat exhaustion. She is in shape and drinks more water durning the day than I do. Either way it seemed like the playdough had gotten under control.

We knew for sure that Poppins sickness wasn't heat related when I added my own macaroni art to the little pink toilet. I had felt fine up until this point, I had about 10 seconds to get up and get my head in the toilet before all the thumbtacks came out. The odd part about it was that I only had two bouts of construction papering and then it was over, Poppins had hours of pain. We decided it was probably the water. Which makes sense. I use bottles, Poppins uses a Platypus; meaning I drink water from different sources at different times (I only fill up one bottle at each source but always have a full bottle that I rotate) and Poppins had been drinking on that water all day while I only had half a bottles worth in the afternoon. Also water being the culprit is likely because we had the same symptoms but at different times and different degrees, which wouldn't have happened if it was just a sickness that was contagious.

Anyway, our bodies got rid of the water quickly and effectively. Now we were just dehydrated and exhausted, but no more glitter to worry about.

29 May 2015: A sickly zero