Date: 2009-06-21
From: Brinks Road Shelter NJ

To: HIgh Point Shelter NJ
Miles today: 20.0
Weather: few clouds

**WARNING** THERE MAY BE SOME SURPRISING EVENTS IN THIS ENTRY!!! PLEASE READ WITH CAUTION, thank you.So today was a special day... it was the summer soltice, which also happends to be, "national hike naked day" yup, thats right, you heard me. so we had all known about this day for the past 2 months or so and everything wasnt quite sure if they would participate. and the weather was sopposed to be be rainy cold and crappy pretty much all day. so we woke up and hiked to the first shelter that was 6 miles away. we had to pass a huge main rd so we didnt want to get started quite yet...gnarwhale and i were at the shelter and we decided that since it wasnt raining and was kinda warm out, we'd hike in the nude. so we said, "alright are you realy doing this?" and then shed it all. i kept my gaiters, boots and then the pack on and that was it. at first it was strange to be hiking naked, but after about 10 minutes of it, gnarwhale and i were completly comfortable. it was aweomse! when we headed out he said "so whos ganna go first in the front?" luckily he did, cause i was still a little shy.so things were going great and then we saw someone coming from the other direction. it was our first southbound hiker we would pass is the nude. so as we were passing we said "happy solstice" and the old man had a huuuge smile on his face and said "oh the beauty of nature" laughed and we went on. it was awesome! he was soo accepting of it, very cool. we passed a coupld other people and they were all very amused and down with it. we actually passed an AT volenteer and we werent sure how he's respond, but he said "so now ive seen my 4th bear this yr" gnarwhale and i didnt get it at first but then we realized that we were his 4th naked hiker he had seen that day, soo funny!so we came up to the next shelter and skip and truckin were there, clothed cuase they were eating lunch, but we walked in on them saying 'happy solstice' and it was awesome! they had slept at the shelter ahead of us the night before so thsi was the first time we'd seen them all day. it was great.so we ate lunch and then hiked passed the next raod which was just ahead and then hi-c, truckin, skip, gnarwhale and i stripped again and did the next 6miles naked. man it felt awesome. i mean the breeze and everything, it was so free. i felt like all the other animals out in the woods. and the pack didnt rub or anything it was great.at one point gnarwhales boot was untied so he bent over and said "well this is ockward" it was hilarious! it was awesome to be naked and not have it a sexual thing. like it wasnt about that, it was about being liberated and free. it was awesome and felt amazing. and the bugs werent out and it never rained and there was actually some blue skies you could see. so all in all, it was a great day.we had to pass a state park headquarters so we decided to put our clothes on for that cause we didnt wanna get arrested, and good thing we did cause two park police passed us in their trucks. and when i put my clothes back on, it felt aweful. i mean constricting, stuffy and hot, i hated it. i just wanted to be naked again!so all in all, i think we hiked about 10 miles naked. we didnt pass any kids so that was good and everyone we did pass was so great about it. and everyone i hiked naked with was awesome about it.i cant believe i did that, but after you hiked for a while, it felt completly normal. infact, it felt weird hiking in clothes again!the scary thing was, the rocks were all wet and muddy from all the rain, so we were all terrified of falling being ass naked. that would have been horrible! i guess skip and truckin had both fallen, i tripped and slipped a bunch but never took a fall, thank god.but yeah, national hike naked day.... i almost wish every day was hike naked day, it was amazing. on top of a mountain with the breeze, i really did feel like every other animal out there. i didnt see any other hikers naked though, just us 5. thanks guys! i loved hiked naked with you all!