May 1, 2010 New Jersey Section 1 from 0.0 to 5.7 South to North. [AT: 5.7 miles]
With Sona. We got started hiking about 11 am it was a beautiful day, sunny and warm, finished about 4:30. From Rt. 94 we hiked up Waywayanda Mountain in Waywayanda State Park and followed the AT east to Warwick Turnpike. The hike up the mountain took over an hour, and we stopped at a nice lookout spot almost at the top to eat lunch (and rest 
. We saw many different wildflowers in bloom all along the hike today.
The major sighting today were two snakes. The first one we saw was about 20 minutes into the walk at the western foot of the mountain. It was a rattlesnake moving across the trail.
Female Timber Rattlesnake
Then not too much further along the trail we saw a black snake moving across the trail in the same direction as the rattlesnake was heading. We think it was either aBlack Rat Snake or a Black Racer (although not moving too fast if it was a racer).
We also found this gem…
Morrel mushroom
Here are just some of the wildflowers we saw:
Wood Anemone (Anemone quinquefolia)
Perfoliate-leaf Bellwort (Uvularia perfoliata)
Wild Bleeding Heart (Dicentra eximia)
Trout Lily (Erythronium americanum)
We also saw many different species of violet. Several different blues, a white, and a yellow.
Also the first time I encountered mountain elder (Sambucus racemosa) – a relative of elderberry but definitely growing in a different habitat.
End of a nice day hiking. We got ice cream again (this is starting to become a tradition!)
Me with a nice patch of golden alexanders in bloom near a creek
lindasnature
