Date: 2015-06-27
From: Camp site 1315.6

To: High Point state park headquarters 
Miles today: 20.5
Weather: overcast clouds

Where do we start about today's hiking?   One word, RAIN, WIND, RAIN! Okay, three words. But, what can we say? We went to sleep last night with the moon shining brightly and then just a few hours later when we were fast asleep, it started to rain. We closed up the flaps on the tent and then listened to the rain while we tried to go back to sleep. We woke around 06:00 and we didn't hear any rain. So, we quickly ate breakfast and got everything ready for our hike. We wiped the tent down as much as we could. Hopefully we will have have a dry tent tonight. Outlier stopped by and we were soon started on our day's hike.    Ut was only raining a bit so we didn't even put our ponchos on at first.   The trail wasn't too bad the first few hours. Lots of rocks but that seems to be the norm anymore. We arrived at a road crossing around 10:00. We walked up the road .2 miles to Gyp's Tavern. What at great place! The lady working there was so nice. She let us put our packs and other gear around back under the awning. It was out of the rain. Then, we got something to eat. Count had a cheeseburger and Lavender and Outlier both had toasted cheese sandwiches. We also were able to charge our phones while we ate which is always nice. By the time we left, about an hour later, the rain had picked up considerably. So, we put our ponchos on to help keep dry. We had a big climb to start off with which finished at the Culver fire tower. Unlike yesterday, there was no view. We didn't climb up the tower. We stopped at a covered pavilion. Thankfully, we were out of the rain. We set up the tent to allow it to dry. There was a breeze. We thought the tent would dry. But, almost as soon as we had it to up, the fog rolled in. It became moist and cold.    The rest of the afternoon was kind of a blur due to the constant rain. We stopped by the Mashipocong shelter to get out of the rain and to try and decide where we were going to finish hiking for the day.    We hiked in the rain to the trail for the next shelter. Outlier decided to go to the shelter and we decided to continue on hiking to the next road crossing which was another 3 miles.    Just after leaving Outlier, the rain became a downpour along with strong winds. We were so cold. What were we thinking going on in this weather?? By this time, we were completely soaked and water was squishing between our toes in our boots. The rain became even heavier and we were now walking on trails that were more like small streams than trails. Huge puddles were on the trail. Waterfalls were flowing down the rocks we climbed. By this time we didn't worry about where we stepped. We walked right through them since we couldn't get much wetter. The animals were smarter than us. They were hiding except the newts. To keep our minds sane, we couneed them. We saw 36. Well, once the downpour started, they even hid.   We trudge on in the rain and wind hoping to soon be at the road crossing. We finally arrived at the road crossing and went into the bathrooms at the High Point park to try to dry off. Already there was Joker, Fozzie and Electric. They were all trying to dry out from the storm. Joker had already called the Days Inn Hotel booking a room. He had also called for a cab. Joker was gracious enough to let all of us piggyback in his cab ride to the hotel. While we were waiting for the cab, we were given free hot chocolate from the very nice lady at the visitor center. The cab arrived and 5 wet, tired hikers piled into one car along with all their gear. It was quite comical trying to fit us all in one small car. But we made it work. We found out it was 55. Ugh. We finally made it to the hotel and then it was time to dry out. Now let's all pray real hard for no rain tomorrow! We were so exhausted from pushing through in the terrible weather and terrible trail.