10 mile shakedown with Hike Buddy (HB)

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I picked up Katherine at the train station at 8:55 sharp (go Amtrak!). We drove about 20 minutes to Rosedale Park in Pennington, NJ to hike Mercer Meadows, a wonderful complex of trails through preserved farmland, full of meadows that have been restored to their original, natural state (all invasives removed). It spans the old 812 acre AT&T pole farm, which transmitted calls from all over the U.S. to Europe. No more poles, but some interesting historical markers of the transmission center, which functioned from 1928 until 1963.

It was a cool day and we hiked 5 miles from Rosedale Park to Lawrenceville, where we broke for lunch and then hiked back. Both of us hiked with full packs (at about 15 pounds with water). We were pleasantly surprised at the end of the hike that all working parts felt fine!

We spent the evening going over the planned Camino Portugues stages, reviewing the mileage, amount of climb, availability of villages along the route for lunch stops and making reminder notes, particularly for those that looked remote with sparse resources.

Next day was bright and pleasant and HB's significant other picked her up en route from DC to the U.S. Open in NY. Just 17 days to go!

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Photos

Mercer meadows
Smooth path and open meadow