You'd think that crossing an invisible line between NJ & NY would be subtle.

You'd be wrong. Jersey had pleasant walks thru meadows and wetlong boardwalks. Almost as soon as we entered NY, we had to transform ourselfs from hikers to rock climbers. Almost immediately after entering the state, we encountered a 10 ft high, near-vertical rock wall with a wood ladder leaning against it. After we got to to the top rung, we traversed a toe-wide ledge, then had to find a finger hold to pull ourselves up. Next, the map showed a 4-mile flat ridge, but it featured so many 'technical' scrambles, we needed almost 4 hours to traverse it. That was a worthwhile exercise, because on the descent, we met C&N (Charles and Nancy, a 62-year-old couple who were much faster than us) and followed them to a creamery that had amazing home-made ice cream--but at NYC prices. The next day featured 7, 700-foot up-and-downs thar required even more rock climbing technique skills, we both fell on our butts once. But we rewarded ourselves with sandwiches at a deli on Lake Mombasha--with fresh bread trucked in from the Bronx daily and heaped with Boar's Head deli meat. We ate 1 there and took 1 for the road--making traversing the infamous 'lemon squeezer' somewhat more challenging. Now we're in Queens (NYC), healing our feet, waiting out the heat and gearing up for what sounds like even bigger challenges in New England. - billy goat