new jersey: not just refineries and teased hair

we have been pleasantly surprised to discover that new jersey is indeed deserving of its "garden state" moniker. we're hiking through sussex county (northern nj) on the kittatinny mountain range and enjoying it very much. scenic views, great forests and many lakes. the only pests are the ticks - turns out they love billy goats hairy legs. our new afternoon and evening ritual is "the tick check" which usually results in me pulling off 1-2 ticks off of billy gaot's legs (mark chan: your article was very timely - thank you for that and all the amazing treats).

the other reality is that we are very much in bear country which means being vigilant and tidy with food and cooking. every shelter is equipped with bear boxes where we store our food, cooking utencils and anything that otherwise emits odor (no: I have not locked billy goat into the bear box...yet...tomorrow we are promised showers so i'll keep him for now).

Tony: thanks for your words of enxouragement re:bears. when hiking, we are careful to make a good bit of noise, which usually consists of billy goat and me singing made up songs (imagine adam sandler during the red hooded sweatshirt and opera man snl days). if that doesn't scare the bears I don't know what will..of course we do run the risk of simply annoying the bears.

we have yet to have a bear siting but many of our fellow hikers have. my favorite story was about an AT hiker who foolishly put her food bag at the foot of her tent. bear came for it, woke hiker, who freaked out - started screaming - and proceded to scare bear. bear was so startled that he took off, but had his paw hooked into her tent and proceeded to drag her for about 100 ft. before she was able to free herself. in this instance, I feel bad for the bear.