Day 155 - Part 2 - High Point State Park, NJ

We arrived at High Point State Park just as the weather started to get worse. It had been drizzling all day but up until now, we had mostly been in the car so hadn't got too wet. It was now pouring down and we needed to pitch a tent and cook some dinner.

We parked up outside the visitors center and ran inside to check in and pick up some trail maps. We were given a number of warnings about bears and ticks. The bears were getting ready for hibernation and there had been a number of sightings of them around the campsites where they were trying to cram in the last few calories but it was the ticks that worried me more. The number of ticks in this park was very high and there had been several cases of Lyme disease already this year. We were told to wear long trousers, avoid walking through long grass, stay to the trails and check ourselves for ticks, they apparently likes particularly hairy parts of the bodies.

We left the rangers station and headed off to our campsite. We were in luck, just as we arrived, the rain stopped just long enough for us to put up the tent and cook some food on the fire, even if it did take Lee a while to get it going in a wet fire pit.

We had a lovely premium campsite located right next to Sawmill Pond and as you will see from the video, it was a very secluded site although by the time it went dark, we were the only ones left camping in the park anyway.

We decided to put our hiking plans on hold as it was a little too wet and instead watched the sun set through the fog and our fire slowly die out in the rain.

Despite the weather, it was nice to be camping again.