Our plan was to hike 13 miles starting from Millbrook – Blairstown Road back to the Visitor’s Center at the Delaware Water Gap making it the most enterprising NJ OWL backpacking endeavor to date. Not only would we be covering more distance, but there would be less water, no outhouses, and other challenges. We started planning for this trek back in April, when Evelyn and I met with the rest of the participants to go over trail do’s and don’ts, "Leave No Trace" principles, backpack weight and fit, how to purify water, tips for getting in shape and more. Even with this heightened level of planning the real education would unfold on the trail.

We couldn’t have asked for better weather for the trip. The sky was perfectly blue and there was a cool breeze when we started out. This helped to offset the challenges we faced climbing the hills and dales on the trail which were a bit steeper than I remember. We also maintained a slow pace and made frequent rest stops to make the trip more tolerable.

Our first rest stop was at the Catfish Fire Tower, where we noticed a variety of interesting flowers. A Pale Corydalis was blooming, which has a pink and yellow flower and is found in rocky places at higher elevations.

We also wondered how the yellow-flowered rattlesnake weed got its name. Was it because the plant provided an anti-venom to rattlesnake bites, or that the scent of the flower scared away rattlesnakes? We tried to convince ourselves that it was not named rattlesnake weed because it was found in rattlesnake habitat.

We continued hiking, yes I will admit, UP and down, while listening to the songs of the prairie warblers and Eastern towhees. We stopped for lunch on a rocky outcropping to leave the least impact on the land, thanks to Evelyn’s Leave No Trace guidance.

By 4pm, we found a lovely grassy hill on which to pitch our tents over-looking Lower Yard’s Creek Reservoir. It was hard to imagine an urbanized, over-developed New Jersey while looking at the expanses of green hills in front of us.

We spaced our tents far apart on the hill, so we wouldn’t crowd each other and trample the grass. We cooked dinner on some rocks that we designated as our kitchen. Just as Sharon and Pat were telling the group about the black bear they saw that morning before leaving for the trip, we heard some rustling in the bushes. We didn’t pay much attention to the noise, assuming that a squirrel was hopping about.

Evelyn’s perfect pitching arm got the rope over a tall branch, on which we hoisted up our food. Luckily, we had no midnight visitors. Or maybe we were so tired, that we didn’t hear any. In any case, our food and our packs were untouched in the morning so we were able to prepare our hearty breakfasts for the day’s journey.

We made it to Sunfish Pond by lunchtime on Sunday, despite a "scenic detour." Sue and Pat were tempted by the cool, clear water of the Pond and went for a swim (before seeing the "No Swimming" sign).