June 4, 2022

Waywayanda State Park
Appalachian Trail

foot traffic only

June was a BUSY month: my son was graduating high school so he had prom, awards dinners, school celebration events, we had family visiting, had to visit Legoland NY (PLEASE!) and then there was the graduation itself. And, as if all that wasn’t enough… I was in a play! But despite the hustle and bustle of the month, I did manage to get in some hiking. Slowly ticking away at the list of new hikes with the introduction of the updated map set from NY/NJ Trail Conference!

This particular day was pretty fantastic because I was on a prep hike for my big climb up and over Stairway to Heaven. I had a small section to complete between the Waywayanda Park Office and Barrett Road. So on June 4, 2022 (which happened to be a gorgeous summer day) I made time for myself to get out there and explore.

I met a thru hiker (who was hilarious), a section hiker, a day hiker: very friendly all. I heard tale of an obstinate bear who sat in the trail, caught a guy smoking weed before jumping into Double Kill creek, was captivated by a red spotted purple Admiral butterfly for nearly 5 minutes, let the sun warm my skin and basically just took a hot second to feel free.

There wasn’t much new to the AT: same muddy sections as always, same boardwalk sections as always, same roots and rocks and trees that I’d seen before. Coming to the road was, as always, a pleasure: you feel like you get to poke your head out and wave hello at the civilized world. I had to rein in the temptation to continue further SOBO down the AT, as I was planning that, for years, to be the very last hike to complete all of the trails on the map.

But I had lines to study and kids to nurture and parties to plan for so while this hike was just what I needed, it was a quick, delightful moment in the hectic month that was June 2022.