Not sure if it’s the right terminology, but by tri-state we mean NJ, NY, and CT. The tri-state area of the AT starts at mile 1295 and covers 212 miles and bookends with the Delaware Water Gap to the south and Sage’s Ravine to the north, two of the most beautiful parts of the trail.

New Jersey

Jersey was a variety show for us. New Jersey is made of a lot of beautiful spaces if you can get past your preconceptions of Jersey Shore and the Sopranos. In a single day, we saw equal part marshes, rocks, climbs, Taylor ham sandwiches, and board walks. I’ll try to upload a recording of the marshes later, because all the chatter was just mind boggling.

We also played hookey from the trail one day and water parked it with a couple of great friends. Yes, Courtney, you’re invited to the wedding 🙂

New York

So when you’re a state with only a few rocks, what do you do? Apparently, you make hikers climb over all of them. “See, we have rocks!” Jess referred to New York as the “rock zoo” due to the isolated nature of so many large boulders.

The trail also brought us back to Harriman park, where I swam the swim section of a tri-relay while in business school.

Ever sleep at a drive-in movie theater? We did in Warwick, NY. The owner lets hikers watch movies and tent for free on a hill there. So cool! I tried to teach a Bentley owner how to turn off his blinding lights that were pointed directly at us to no avail, but we still enjoyed Toy Story 4, and got some sleep when all the cats left around 2am.

Best part of New York hands down was the area around Bear Mountain. So many (very cold) vending machines! A pool! And a zoo!

Connecticut

The bugs were everywhere during our time in CT, so we tried to race through the state.

We spent an amazing day off with our good trail friends Betsy and John. They brought us to their lake cottage outside of Kent, where we got to meet their grandson Sam and took a couple of dips in the lake.

Sage’s Ravine, wow! Walking through an old growth hemlock forest next to an icy stream was such a treat, and one of our favorite spots on the trail so far.

Sorry Salisbury, you’re no better than Bland, Virginia. Your population is wealthy and your unused library is beautiful, but the way your average citizen treats outsiders is sad. So much fear of that which is different, with only pockets of acceptance.

Quest for the trail’s best lemonade

Have you ever wanted something so bad you couldn’t taste it?!? That’s the best I can do to describe our relationship to lemonade right now. Over the course of fifteen hundred miles or so, our cravings for lemonade have gone from “oh look, there’s some homemade lemonade. Hmmm. Maybe next time.” to “.01% lemon juice. YES!!!!!”

Next year, trail hostels/restaurants please hold a best lemonade contest. We’ll come back and volunteer as judges. But as such a contest is currently only a figment of my imagination, Turbo and I have used the last 212 miles of NJ, NY, and CT (also some of PA) to search for the best lemonade the tri-state area trail has to offer. Here’s what we found:

Ratings (1-5; 5 is best) based on the following criteria:

Taste: perfection is the balance between sweet and sour here.

Temperature: 32.1 degrees please!

Taster mental readiness at time of discovery: lemonade tastes best when it’s 95 degrees and we’re 18 miles into a day.

Our rankings (to date):

1. Humankind Strawberry Lemonade @ Mutzabaughs Market in Duncannon, PA

–Taste: 4, tart with a a good sweetness

–Temperature: 4, 40ish degrees

–Mental readiness: 5, One of the hottest days of the hike; Duncannon is a mini concrete jungle

–Other notes: skeptical of the company, but the lemonade was so good on a hot day!

2. Pitcher of Minute Maid Lemonade @ Mountain Tavern in Branchville, NJ

–Taste: 2, sweet without the tartness

–Temperature: 5, so many ice cubes!

–Mental readiness: 5, exhaustion never felt so quenched

–Other notes: arrived here by pure chance, but the trail provides

3. Joe’s Lemonade @ numerous gas stations

–Taste: 4, tart with a a good sweetness

–Temperature: 4, 40ish degrees

–Mental readiness: 3, post-hike, but not totally spent

–Other notes: top gas station lemonade

4. Plastic bottle of Minute Maid @ Harriman vending machine

–Taste: 2, sweet without the tartness

–Temperature: 5, oh so cold. So good!

–Mental readiness: 3, it was a chilly morning, but we were coming off a hardcore craving the night before

–Other notes: this kicked off an epic day of vending machines. First of seven machines!

5. Wyler’s Light packets on the trail (thanks, Fastball)

–Taste: 2, sweet without the tartness

–Temperature: 1, trail temp

–Mental readiness: 5, nothing is more desired while hiking. Nothing!

–Other notes: never would have imagined that we’d delve into artificial sweeteners, but sometimes you have to scratch the lemonade itch

6. Quart of Natalie’s strawberry lemonade @ Salisbury Market

–Taste: 4, tart with good sweetness

–Temperature: 4, 40ish degrees

–Mental readiness: -1, Everything’s worse in Salisbury 🙂

–Other notes: Anywhere else, and this could have been a winner