The Thruhiker's Wife: Adventures on the Paumanok Path

Saturday, June 3, 2017

Adventures on the Paumanok Path

Anyone who knows me and my family, knows, that I am "The Thruhiker's Wife". I blog about Scarecrow's adventures: more specifically his thruhiking and Triple Crown achievement. People also know that I am not the camping/hiking person that Scarecrow is... I LOVE supporting from the sidelines. I love walking, being outdoors, mostly on my hammock, or at the beach, but not hiking/camping in the woods. My family was planning a 250+ mile hike this summer, for the 4 of us to see what the hype is for Scarecrow. Yes, you read it correctly, but before you get too crazy, we are not going this year. Scarecrow's work schedule has put a block on us being able to take that trip.

But what you won't see coming, is that my friend Rosa Drell and I, from a suggestion from Scarecrow, are walking 125 miles over the course of the next 12 weeks along the Paumanok Path here on Long Island. You can click HERE to read about where this is. We bought ourselves some day packs, matching shirts with the trail logo, and decided this weekend we would attempt to begin this hike.

We began our journey today ~ we were not sure of what we were in for... would we walk for the day and never want to go back? Would we walk our daily 3-4 miles and hate that it wasn't on the road? Would we even know where to go once in the dense woods?

None of that happened. We were dropped off at the trail head in Rocky Point by our first trail angel, Scarecrow, and headed on our way. We still were not sure how far we would make it, but Scarecrow said he would be in the area if we needed an emergency pick up. We headed out, knowing we must follow the white blaze marks for the entire trail. We had the best time, chatting it up, repeating many times, that we could not believe that WE were out hiking on this Saturday morning, and that my thruhiker hubby dropped us off. He really wanted to be out there, hiking with us, but was mapping out our possible exit points for the day.

3 miles in and feeling great

Rosa and I walk daily, anywhere between 3-6 miles. It is always on a road, so the distance and time usually fly by and we are happy to be done with an amazing walk workout. However, when we hit 3 miles today, we couldn't believe how different and wonderful this workout was. We both agreed that we felt like we could just walk all day, so we continued on.

We walked across fire roads, in the rain, through spider webs, under hanging caterpillars, and still continued to feel great. I have heard Scarecrow talk of this trail for years now, and thought, yeah, that sounds like fun, FOR HIM. I am in awe of how peaceful and beautiful the woods were, even with the rain, bugs, etc. As we continued on, logging 4 and then 5 miles, we agreed, that we were hooked. We were going to continue walking this trail, and not give up until we have reached Montauk. This goal will take us for most weekends throughout the summer, and maybe even a few week days once I am finished with work for the year, in order to walk the 125 miles of the Paumanok Path.

5 miles and counting!

Trekking along, we could hear cars going by on a road we were about to approach. Rosa looks up and says, "Isn't that your jeep?" Yes, it was. Scarecrow was parked in an exit point that would have taken us 5.87 miles into our first day of hiking. He was looking ahead in a hiking book about our upcoming mileage. He was doing the next best thing to hiking ~ being a trail angel to hikers. Looking through his findings, we were confident that we could continue on for another 3+ miles to the next exit point. The idea of us doing close to 9 miles was very exciting for ALL OF US!

crossing William Floyd Pkwy

We hiked on, excited to approach familiar territory as we crossed William Floyd Parkway. As we entered the trail on the other side, Rosa yelled out, "Hey, there's Ted" - and sure enough, Scarecrow was walking towards us from the trail we were about to enter. In true thruhiker form, probably chomping at the bit to get some hiking in, he parked at our next exit point and decided to meet us to walk the last 15-20 minutes of our day. That part was awesome, as we were able to tell him how excited we were for this adventure to begin, and how happy we were to have taken him up on this suggestion.

We walked on, chatting, and ended up at Route 25, where my jeep was parked, waiting to scoop us up from our first day of hiking.

We completed 9.05 miles in just a minute under 3 hours. Not bad for beginners! A map of our progress can be found here.

Stay tuned for posts about our journey... two beginner hikers, walking from Rocky Point to Montauk Point. A huge shout out to my thruhiker hubby, Scarecrow, for all of your help and guidance today.