McSomething’s
Today is Friday, July 12, and I’m camping tonight in Unionville, New York, though I’m still technically hiking in New Jersey at the moment. Unionville sits right on the border between New York and New Jersey. It's a cute little town that offers camping space in its park for hikers. So I decided to pull over for the night and camp here.
I spent last night at the Erie hotel in Port Jervis. And the odd thing I noticed about Port Jervis is that when I was walking around last night, I noticed a few places that looked like they’d be good locations to grab breakfast this morning, but none of them were set to open until 9 o'clock. I'm not sure why that's the case. That seems late to me.
I had kind of assumed that Port Jervis would have a reasonably lively restaurant scene early in the mornings during the week, because the train station is right there. But obviously, I assumed incorrectly. I guess the people who take the train from Port Jervis to New York don’t care about having options for coffee in the morning. It appears that the only game in town is Burger King.
Actually, there’s also a bagel place somewhere in town, but it was too far from the hotel to try to find. So Burger King it was. I grabbed some breakfast there, and then I needed to figure out how to get myself to the trail. The AT is in High Point State Park, which is just over the border in New Jersey. It was maybe a little bit before 8:00 a.m., and I tried to get an Uber but failed miserably after several attempts. I saw that there was one Uber driver circling around on the map, but that driver apparently wasn’t interested in picking up my ride.
Normally, I would ask someone at the hotel where I’m staying to see if they could help me, but the Erie Hotel is more like a public house, so there’s no real lobby and no lobby staff, which meant there was no one there I could appeal to. So I started Googling some options, and I found a few phone numbers, but all the businesses had really terrible ratings. Still, I had no real choice but to try them. I called the two car services in the Port Jervis area, but both of their numbers were disconnected. So maybe the bad reviews had been effective after all.
I wasn't really sure what to do, so I just went out to the street, and just as I did, I saw a cab drive by. It was McCarthy's or McGilly’s or — I can't remember — McSomething’s cab service, so I immediately Googled it and found its Facebook page.
Thankfully, I was able to get a hold of a dispatcher, and after about 20 minutes, someone came to get me. But this company doesn't have very many cars, and apparently, business is pretty good, which is understandable, given the dearth of options. So when the driver picked me up, he asked whether I’d mind if he picked up some other passengers and took them to Planet Fitness first, and then he’d take me to High Point. I said that’d be fine and hopped in the front seat, and we went to pick up two ladies in a nearby neighborhood. And Port Jervis sits right between Pennsylvania and New Jersey. So the driver picked me up in New York, and the two ladies were in New York, and then he drove over to Planet Fitness in Pennsylvania, and then he took me to High Point Park in New Jersey. So that was kind of funny.
After all that, I finally got to the trail at a little bit past 9:30. I’d been hoping to do so by 8:00, but these things happen. And since I hadn't been on the trail for a little bit, I decided to make a short day of it. Plus, there was a very large storm forecast to come through the area by mid-afternoon. The town of Unionville was only about 8.5 miles down the trail, so that's where I set my sights.
My new backpack feels like it fits pretty well, and it seemed to be good today. I think I need to make some adjustments in the way I load it, though. I need to put more weight toward the bottom, but that's easy enough.
The hiking wasn’t bad, though at one point, the route got a little confusing where a swamp had flooded and kind of taken over the trail in a very low-lying area. It had encroached on the alternate route, too, so it took me a little bit to figure out where I was supposed to go.
Overall, it was a pretty warm day, so I got pretty sweaty, as usual. I made it here to Unionville by 2 o'clock. I checked in at the general store to get a permit to camp overnight in the park, and then I rushed to set everything up before it started to rain. Once I had, I went over to the Wit's End Tavern, which is about a five-minute walk from the park.
The Wits End Tavern was established, I think, only 13 or 14 years ago, but it looks like it's been there forever, or at least since the ’60s. It’s got that old, small town tavern feel. So it's kind of a hoot. I grabbed a seat at the bar, ordered some brisket, since that was the dinner special, and had a couple bottles of Labatt Blue. While I was there, I was listening to the enlightening conversation that some of the locals around me were having. And let's just say that if they had had any idea what my politics were, I probably would have been beaten up and thrown into the street.
There were some other hikers there, too — a bunch of young guys, eating and having a couple beers — and when they were done, they put their packs on and headed back to the trail. There's actually a shelter about 5 miles away, but that's just not in the cards for me tonight. I guess this is how some people are able to finish the trail in four months. They can have a big dinner and a few beers and get back to hiking. But I mean, if I sit down and have some brisket and a couple of beers, that's the end of hiking for me that day.
Anyway, after some interesting eavesdropping at the Wit's End, I started making my way back to my tent, and on the way, I noticed that there was an ice cream place across the street from the park. So I got myself a milkshake. Oddly enough, that one milkshake cost half as much as my entire dinner had at the tavern — and that had been a couple beers, some smoked brisket, and a couple of sides. So I have a feeling I probably got undercharged for dinner, and it feels like I got overcharged for a milkshake, but alas, it was good, and I took in a lot of delicious calories, so I’m happy.
Since then, I've just been sort of waiting around for the temperature to become bearable. It's still quite toasty out. My tent is like a sauna right now, or maybe I should say an oven, and the rains still haven’t come. I've been watching the radar, and the clouds and the storms look like they're on their way, but they've looked like they've been on their way for hours now. So who knows what's going to happen.
I hope that it rains a little bit overnight but also that the precipitation is gone by the time I get up so I don’t have to take my tent down in the rain. I've got a big day planned for tomorrow, so I want to get going as early as I can.
