the bear
We woke up the next morning feeling well rested. Having Turkenna to snuggle with the night before was amazing and the new sleeping pad wasn’t bad either. After putting on my contacts, I jumped out of the store to go get the Ursack and was surprised. It looked like a bear had gotten into our bag of food the night before. There were small holes all over the Ursack, but it was still mostly intact. The bag was not opened and all the food was still in it. Although the food remained in the bag, it was as if someone had rolled a rolling pin over it. There were also holes in many of the sealed bags, so we had to throw out a ton of food.
Overall, we were very impressed that our Ursack held up to a bear. At the end of the day we can replace our food, but the bear not being rewarded with food is more important for its survival. It is a sobering reality to be in this area of the trail so densely populated with bears. Something tells me this won’t be the last bear interaction we’ll have.
Mohawk Outdoor Center
Once we packed up camp, we only had a short 0.3 mile hike to the Mohican Outdoor Center. We were only planning to hike 11 miles today, so we were going to relax at the MOC in the morning. This would also allow the predicted rain to pass us before we had to walk. We set up shop in a MOC pavilion, wrote blog posts and relaxed. While we were there, we started planning the next few days on the road and ran into a problem.
One of our Turkish food packages was sent to the Unionville Post Office. And we were going to pass through Unionville on Sunday, when the post office would be closed. We did some math, counted Turk’s meals, and found we had enough to get us to our next square beyond Unionville. So we decided to leave the box and Unionville and walk past it.
After discovering Turk’s food, we had lunch and got back on the road. We walked a few miles along the trail and finally arrived at Crater Lake. This was another place we had planned to spend some time. We take off our shoes, put on the sanitary pads and sunbathe. As the day progressed, our friends Jerzy, Bird and Tagalong showed up. We talked to them for a while and had dinner together with them. 
They told us they were planning to camp at Crater Lake. It didn’t take much convincing before we decided to do the same. And boy am I glad we stayed! We had one of the most beautiful sunsets on the trail so far!
Walk to lunch
The next day we packed up and were looking forward to lunch. There was a road junction a few kilometers away and we had planned to take our midday break at a restaurant there.
We started walking and quickly reached the Rattlesnake Mountain overlook. The views in New Jersey have already been incredible! Getting these views helps us reflect on our time on the road and how blessed we are to be able to do something like this.
We continued walking until we reached Branchville, New Jersey, where we had to walk along a busy road to get to the restaurant for lunch. As the cars sped by, I made sure to keep a Turk close to me on the shoulder. A car sped by and yelled some obscenities at me…something about being weird. Maybe it was my very short, colorful Chicken Legs shorts, or maybe it was my long hillbilly hair that made him come to that conclusion. Anyway, I didn’t let that bother me. It’s a shame that random people feel the need to insert themselves so negatively into other people’s lives. Not the warmest welcome to New Jersey. But fortunately we would have many wonderful interactions with other people from New Jersey.
A midday nap and finding a campsite
We arrived at the restaurant and met Jerzey, Bird and Tagalong again. The restaurant had an amazing outdoor area located next to a lake. 
We found a good table and ordered some food. The Avalanche wanted to take a nap that afternoon and I wanted to watch the USA game. After lunch, Avalanche found a shady spot to sleep and I met some very nice locals who offered to buy me a drink. I ended up sitting with them for an hour or two. We talked about how the hike was going and what we expected. They were lovely people and I’m glad I was able to spend some time talking to them.
Once the Avalanche finished their nap and the USA game was over, we got back on track. We only have a few more kilometers until we reach our shelter for the night. When we arrived at the shelter we split up to do our usual tasks. I finished setting up the tent just as Avalanche finished preparing dinner.
We sat down with some hikers from the section and talked about the trail. Most of the time I find that the section hikers know more about the upcoming trail than we do. They usually have very good recommendations for challenging trails and side quests. After dinner we headed to bed for the night.
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