Hike #44; Portland to Washington

 Hike #44

Jake and I at the beginning in Colombia NJ

Hike 44

 

1/25/2

 

Jake in the underside of the Delaware Trestle

With the beginning of a new year, I was ready and raring to lead another hike. With the

cold weather, no one was willing to join, unfortunitely. The fact that this was a weekday

also played in.

I had become good friends with Jake Watters while working at the Mansfield A&P, and

found him to be a much better person than what was generally thought of him, with a

much deeper thought and personality than anyone seemed to know.

One day at work I told Jake of the time Conrad and I had walked from Portland to

Washington in 5.5 hours, to which Jake immediatley thought he could beat. Plans

developed to complete the hike in record time.

Climbing up from the underside of the Delaware Trestle

Inside Manunka Chunk Tunnel

In Manunka Chunk Tunnel

My grandmother dropped us off in Portland as always, and we proceeded as usual, only

picking up the pace to high speed. Consequently, we also began this hike later than any

previously, in the early afternoon. We still took time out to climb on the trestle, and pass

through Manunka Chunk Tunnel, though we did not take the time for the Bush of Might

activity, partially because I knew Jake would be able to do it with little or no problem.

South side of the Manunka Chunk Tunnel

When we reached the sandpit, to my great surprise the entire section that had been piled

high with dirt in 1997 was cleared and leveled off! The pit itself was also somewhat easier

to cross. This led me to believe that possibly it was being prepared for use as a rail trail,

though for some time nothing happened so was probably not the case.

Leveled off railroad right of way near the sand quarry, Bridgevile NJ

We continued southbound through Oxford, passing over rather than through the tunnel

here, keeping a firm striding pace, almost a shuffle at times, reaching my front doorstep in

exaclty four hours and fifty minutes, a new record. We both collapsed to my hallway floor

inside my front door, but Jake was surprisingly unphased in the following days as well. As

of this writing in 2006 the record time for this hike has not been beaten.