July 10 1973 - near Suprise Lake - 11.5 miles

(this daily journal was kept and rewritten by my sister Laurie and presented to me as a gift - I now rewrite it here for you)

Decided to make the most of the $19 we spent for the motel - what a ripoff. We slept late, took another shower, ate and finally left. Walked 1/2 m. to pick up the trail. Missed it. Then found it but it disappeared in a cornfield and we didn't find it until 1 hour later when I decided to crash through the woods. N.J. is very poorly blazed. Went through Wawayona State Park - not too impressed. Met Mr. Doyle parked on the side of the road, waiting for his son Warren, who is trying to set a new trail record for time. He gave us orange juice, milk and snack packs. Warren came in - he really moves. Sat down ate and talked. We found out that Dan and John weren't far in front of us so we moved out. Soon after, Warren came whizzing by. We kept trucking to Surprise Lake side trail. We were real surprised when it led us to the bottom of the mountain and no shelter. We crashed at the bottom, very tired.

(many times throughout New Jersey we would hike along and realize we hadn't seen trail markers for a while, then second guess if we missed a turn or were still on the trail. Sometimes a marker - a white rectangle painted on a tree or a rock - would finally appear, sometimes it never would and we would have to backtrack until we found one and then where the trail actually went)