Date: 2006-06-30
From: Branchville, NJ

To: The Secret Shelter
Miles today: 22.7

Writing at first light. Spent most of the night on the porch of The Secret Shelter. Raining when I went to sleep but stars out later as leaves dripped.Did a big mile day after the 3 small ones. New Jersey is so pretty and terrain friendly enough that the miles didn't feel like much of a strain. Nothing like a 22 mile North Carolina day. I wonder of I could still do one of those. Been a long time since I've had to do that kind of climbing. Big mountains, steep climbs, and giant boulders are coming again but I hope I'm not doing 22 mile days over them. I'll see the last three states soon enough and don't plan to rush through them.I started out this morning on my own. It was nice to hike alone for a while and know I'd have company later. I like the hiking here. It's more like the wandering in the woods that I'm used to. It's still work, but it's pleasant and familiar and pretty.I stopped at Gren Anderson Shelter for water and found Texas, just waking up. He told me about porcupines in the shelter last night. He's also doing the bigger miles to the Secret Shelter.I spent the rest of my morning walking in New Jersey. I wanted to put in 11 miles before lunch, always good practice on a 20+ day. It was a ridge walk starting at Sunrise Mountain. Walking on lots of bare granite, lots of views of towns and farms on a hazy but clear day.For lunch I stopped at Rutherford Shelter to eat, write until the others catch up. I sat in soft grass and then by a stream in the sun, a huge change from all the rainy days. The shelter is below a bare granite slope of the ridge. The climb down reminds me of spots on North and South Baldface without the dramatic elevation gains and losses. 40 minutes later I heard Ice Tea calling from the top of the ridge. THey had caught up and were moving on to the High Point State Park visitor center for water.High point is a beautiful park and well maintained. As you're hiking up a bare incline a high monument takes you by surprise. It look like a shorter version of the Washington Monument, but it's still plenty tall enough to be sitting on a low peak in New Jersey. I passed a large group of kids from an Outward Bound program. They were all very friendly and having a great time. I'll say the same for the groups of summer campers I met yesterday. They could teach all the Boy Scouts I've met a few lessons.Nice visitor center. Cool and dim inside, nice lawns outside, great for badminton. Took an hour or so off to relax and play. Uber's getting pretty competitive, funny to watch. He's pretty mild mannered otherwise. He's a Berkeley graduate heading back to school in the fall. Mild mannered, yes, but sly & dry sense of humor. Very proud to be getting off trail for a booty call. We played a couple of games of badminton on the lawn and generally acted like hiker trash. John, Lilly and Uber have a new game. They pretend to be weekend hikers and ask the usual set of questions that all the thru hikers get. Fun to watch. They also tell lies to local folks and tourists about the hike and they make up breed names for the mutts they hike with. After the game and stumping the tourists the 3 of them, 2 dogs, Texas and I headed out again, this time for the Secret Shelter.The day was mostly sunny but I still can't get my boots dry. The trail is covered with lake sized puddles and thick mud. More of scenic New Jersey kept me happy and miles melted. Ridge, rock, grassy meadow, wetlands, raspberry bushes, they have it all here.The Secret Shelter is for thru hikers only. It's marked on the trail only by a sign pointing to water. Past thru hiker Jim Murray set it up on his property. A sweet 2 story shelter with electricity, sink, running water an outside and inside shower. It's in a big meadow. Two loud mules are fenced in behind the shelter. Perfect for the end of a long day. A thunder storm started as soon as we stepped on to the porch. Three of us, me, Texas, and Enduro slept in the shelter. When it got hot and stuffy in there I moved out to the porch and cool night air.Perfect ending. Perfect day.