My dad was in the military with Frank Jones. Frank’s wife Ruth’s family owned the Jersey side of the Delaware Water Gap. The family had created a small resort with a beach, swimming attractions, a restaurant and bar. They also had some cabins for rent. The also had canoes for rent, later becoming Kittitany Canoe Company. Ruth eventually became the matriarch of the Delaware.
The Jones lent or gave us a small plot of land right at the intersection of the Delaware river and the bank of Dunnfield creek. We built a small (probably 600 sq foot) cabin from the remains of a cabin previously destroyed in the flood of ’55 on that spot.
I was born in ’59 and our family would frequently travel to the “Gap” about an hour from our home. I lived an idealic life there swimming, fishing, adventuring and generally having an amazing childhood that left a permanent impression on me.
Some highlights include: Being inside a forest fire when I was like 7 years old, rowing myself across the Delaware river alone. Catching dozens of fish and feeding them to the Jones cats, being stunned with the water temperature of the Dunnfield Creek, Being present when a drowned Boy Scout was recovered from the river, Sledding down the big hill on cardboard (which when I look at the location now, I would never do and never let my kids too it, it’s crazy steep, but that was the 60’s). So as you may imagine, the land of 1,000 adventures.
Fom the front door of our cabin, to the access road, was probably 75 feet. It turns out, that that access road is part of the A.T. I’m sure that as soon as I could walk, I was technically on the AT. In the years that followed and as I got more mobile, we would hike up the trail, to Catfish pond, and to swim in Dunnfield. It’s this fact that I claim credit for walking my first section of the AT at 2 years old, in 1961.
As I grew up and after the Federal government took our home from us, I spent less time there and probably a decade or two went by with no visits. The Jone’s moved to Dingmans Falls PA and we would visit them there.
In my early 30’s I took up carrying a backpack as my primary form of exercise. I previously was a runner but my knees were not too happy about running, so instead I carried weight up hills.
This eventually led to occasional visits to the Gap, a hike to Catfish pond, a visit to the top of Mt. Tammany. Just revisiting the beloved site of my 1,000 adventures. I visited the top of Mt. Tammany on Jan 1st, 2,000 to usher in the new millennium.
The AT was gently calling me though. In ’99 and with 2 friends, we decided to hike all of Connecticut. We did about 80 Miles over a week or so and I was back in the game. Over the next decade or so, more small hikes, one by the Washington Monument in (I think) Md, one up the PA side of the Gap, one in the shennendoa mountains, one close to gettysburg.
Wind forward to today and now I’m retired and want to section hike the whole thing. I currently have most of eastern Pa, through southern Mass. I did all of Jersey with my College roommates, much of New York when on a business assignment in Danbury Ct. So here and there.
This spring I had a medical incident that lit a match under me. It’s time to get serious.
I met “Obsessed” randomly in my local hiking “fix” and we’ve became hiking buddies.
In August, I went to new Hampshire and Hiked a section starting at the top of Mt. Washington. This summer, we are looking at 100 miles in NH and southern Maine. This past fall, I did about 25 Miles with “obsessed”, Sal, who is at 1,800 miles. Sal has been rewalking parts he has already completed in Eastern Pa, to help me finish. I plan on returning the favor and finishing Maine with him probably next year and being the camera man when he climbs Katadin to finish the AT.