When I bring my attention back to the trail, I discover that I have strayed from the white blazes. This is clearly a footpath, but it is not the AT. Backtracking, I learn that once again I had stepped over a pile of twigs that was meant to deter hikers from continuing along the ridgeline. The AT dips off the ridge and descends to Culvers Gap. I would repeat this frustrating error half a dozen times in New Jersey and New York, more than on any other section of trail.
