Date: 2003-06-10
From: Unmarked Campsite 

To: Mashipacong Shelter 
Miles today: 15.1
Weather: broken clouds

Aloha! This has been such an awesome day. Surprises around almost every corner. Such a great day. Let's talk.   The walk was the walk. There's nothing really exciting to tell you about on that subject. I walked. I walked through woods, over ridgelines, along mountain laurel thickets, and across big stumbling rocks. I walked to vista after vista while watching hawks, vultures and eagles soar above and below me.   I walked from one lake view to another. I did what I love doing - I walked.   Part of my walking today was supposed to include walking to Worthington's Bakery. It's a tradition and favorite stop for thru-hikers for more than 45 years. The bakery has pastries, pies, cinnamon rolls, coffee, groceries, fresh fruit, and a deli. Or at least we understand that to be the case.   In our particular case the store is closed on Tuesdays. Just our luck. Heavy with disappointment, ChuckLuck and I wandered a bit further to... Gyp's Tavern. Yep, we've hit the skids and had to resort to hitting bars in the middle of the morning.   And boy are we glad we did!   As we entered this dark and somewhat dank looking local pub we weren't exactly sure what kind of greeting would we get. We were pleasantly surprised to be greeted by the bartender telling us to make ourselves at home. It took no time at all to call for a couple of hamburgers, french fries and a beer.   Even I ordered a beer, a Yuengling. (At this point I had given up ordering Bloody Mary¢s.) It was all so tasty that ChuckLuck had two burgers, two fries and 5 beers!   The nicest part about this lunch was that the bar had an outside sitting area right on Kittatinny Lake. It was a picture perfect early summer day. Pleasant breezes coming off the lake, puffy white clouds floating by and excellent outdoor food to go with them.   It was perfect at that given moment on this particular day. If it wasn't for my desire to walk on such a gorgeous day I could have sat there forever.   It was time to walk again though. As I went to pay my lunch tab I see something interesting sitting in front of one of the local customers. Could that possibly be? No, a Bloody Mary here? Can't be. Upon interrogating the customer I found that our bartendress was the best Bloody Mary maker in NJ.   Yeah, I thought, we'll see. I'll be damned if John the Harley man local wasn't absolutely correct. It was not only the best Bloody Mary I've had on the AT but one of the best I've ever had! Wonderful! It took great restraint not to sit there through the day sipping Bloody Marys and letting my feet dangle from the dock.   Great restraint. Especially since Larry the other Harley man bought it for me for walking to Maine! Pretty cool, huh. No, pretty damned tasty.   With a Bloody Mary under my belt and six beers under ChuckLuck's we finally headed back to the trail. It's phenomenal what a couple of good drinks and greasy food will do to get you UP a mountain. Totally surprising!   Along the way we found She-Ra napping in a hammock, Bono and Chaos's bags in the woods but no sign of them, and played leap frog with Dean Machine and his sister Lindsey. Dean Machine and Lindsey are also sheltering with us this evening. I'm glad they are because it's fun to have them around.   Lindsey, the 13 year old, is quite entertaining in a 13 year olds way, and Dean and I turn out to have common interests and acquaintances outside of hiking. It truly is a small small world.   On our excursion to find water this evening we found more than what we had originally bargained for. We found the Desperado! He was just leaving containers of water trailside for the thru-hikers when we were returning from giving up hiking the mile to water.   Desperado has been famous with the thru-hiking community for many years. During the hiking season he spends inordinate amounts of time and money slowly driving from Georgia to Massachusetts doing various acts of kindness. He can pop up anywhere. Lucky for us he popped up here. Besides the water he was handing out peanut butter sandwich cookies, candy, tea, first aid supplies if needed, and who knows what else. His timing was perfect. The cookies made a perfect appetizer and the tea washed it all down wonderfully.   Beware of the Desperado, there's no telling where you'll see him next! Mahalo Desperado!   To top off the evening, the group of "camp counselors to be" tenting off from the shelter brought us dessert - carrot, chocolate and apple walnut cake. Yum! Trail angels galore! (For those future gal hikers out there here's a hot tip - keep a male thru-hiker close.   They look like they're starving and people tend to want to give them food. Works every time!)   Anyway, that was my day. A gorgeous blue-sky day with acts of kindness scattered throughout. As it's been said before "I've often relied upon the kindness of strangers." by Blanche DuBois, Streetcar Named Desire.   Bedtime. I'm sure there's another exciting day in store for tomorrow. You sleep well. See ya later.BSandTs: sweat, getting sweatier with each passing dayAandPs: feet are tired and a bit stiffMandGs: too nice a day to whine about anything!Critter count: 2x chipmunks