Date: 2010-04-26
From: Kirkridge Shelter

To: 10 Mile River Shelter
Miles today: 9.2
Weather: moderate rain

6.5 in PA, 2.7 in Conn = 9.2 miles I got up and got ready to go. Yo Yo woke up and stirred just before I left to wish me a good day of hiking. It was another rainy day. I had to rearrange how I carried the umbrella under my chest strap as my chest was getting sore from the pressure. I need a dry day but that was not to be this day. I traveled along as fast as I could go, which isn't very fast but it was as fast as I could go. I got over the top of Mt Minsi and as I headed down a bit I see the smiling face of Tramper coming up to meet me. Cool! Tramper, BTW for those who have not read last year's journal, is a hiker I met last year in New York near Anthony's Nose. He trail angeled me with transportation at one point in my hike last year too and he is a BIG piece of why this hike is working out this year with transportation. As we walked down the trail to Delaware Water Gap we passed 2 section hikers coming up the trail, Slow Motion, who had done the whole AT before, an older hiker and Mix-A-Lot, a young hiker who did the whole thing last year. BTW, I forgot to mention that YO YO of the shelter last night had done the whole AT last year. We hiked on down to the Deer Head Inn, where I stayed last year and Tramper had spent the night. I got to use his shower!!! Yeah!!! Their towels are the best. And he even had spare clean shirts for me to wear which I did and I washed my socks and undies and one of my shirts. Wonderful and unexpected. Probably good for him too as I would be sitting in the same car for a few hours. We had lunch at the Apple Pie place - huge roast beef sandwiches smothered in onions and mushrooms. Yum! but messy. I had a cream puff too. Then it was off to drive across New Jersey and New York as I did them last year. We yakked trail talk all the way. And I called my daughter as we drove not too far from her. Thank you so much, Tramper!! You are a great trail angel!!! He dropped me at Hoyt Road at 4:30 and I walked into the shelter in 2.7. There was a 500 ft climb on the way and I discovered that, although it was still raining, it was hotter in Conn. I was soon drenched in sweat and all my nice cleanliness gone. And, oh, yes, it was raining here too. The first obvious thing in Conn was that there was real trail and not just a pile of rocks. Yeah!! A bit muddy but real trail. I saw some red columbine and a pinwheel sort of flower and then some red trillium behind the shelter. The shelter was a mess. From the shelter log and visual observation it appeared that some locals had been there earlier drinking a lot and smoking pot. They had dumped out a trail dinner that had been left in the shelter for emergencies. That was sitting in a puddle in front of the shelter. The perpetrator even signed in the log as Mike. There was trash around and in the morning I discovered that they had knocked over the privy too. That is real vandalism and will take a lot of work from trail maintainers to fix. I have never seen that on the trail before. The shelters are the bedrooms of thru and section hikers. It is a shame to see them destroyed by vandals! It really made me angry! The shelter did serve its purpose though and I was glad once again to have the shelter as it again stormed. I settled in and listened while the rain on the metal roof changed from music to a drum solo and back to gentle music. And even if there are jerks who do vandalism, I was dry and warm and life was good.