Date: 2016-05-27
From: Gren Anderson Shelter

To: St. Thomas Episcopal Church Hostel
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: overcast clouds

As always, I've neglected to update this journal on a regular basis, page back a bit if you want some more updates!After the visit from the bear the night before, I was feeling sleep deprived, yet determined to reach a place with 4 walls and a door before nightfall.The day started with a climb up to Sunrise Mountain, which was lovely. Coming down the other side, I encountered my fourth rattlesnake. He was a big sucker, who couldn't give a flying fart in space that I was nearby. He slithered along beside me, about a foot off the trail for a few yards, not even bothering to rattle. Because I'm not a moron, I gave him as wide a berth in possible and slipped past him. When I turned back to take a picture, he continued his trajectory without pause. His trajectory was coming right towards me. I settled for one blurry picture, then took off. The trail that day was nice enough. Sufficiently winding and climb-y to be considered interesting. But it was spectacularly hot, especially in the dense rhododendron forests. I listened to music some, sang along-aloud- with a Macklemore song in which the line "Brad Pitt, that's my cousin," is repeated about 100 times.My first objective that day was to reach High Point State Park, home to-you guessed it- the highest point in New Jersey. I didn't really care about that, though. Their air-conditioned Ranger Station hands out free sodas to thruhikers. It was about 85 degrees by the time I reached the park and I about went into shock when I hit the climate controlled haven. KT caught up as I gulped soda and recharged my phone. We had 6 more miles until our stopping point, up over the high point and down into a beautiful, pastoral valley. We wove up over stiles, through fields of alfalfa and wild flowers, and through shallow creeks. I came around a bend and heard a large animal galloping through the underbrush. It was bear number four, who thankfully spotted me long before I saw him and was running fast in the opposite direction. His buddy, bear number five, was slightly less fearful and watched me with vague curiosity from a distance before following his buddy up the hillside. I arrived at the famous Secret Shelter, a privately owned cabin on former thruhiker and trail angel extraordinaire Jim Murray's property. It was dusk and the cabin sat prettily in a meadow, where a donkey grazed. KT and I were the only ones there, so I showered luxuriously in the piping hot outdoor shower that overlooked the valley, then ate dinner and second dinner on the porch. KT and I ended up talking until 11, the latest night I've had on the trail by far. It was a beautiful night, with the moon and stars lighting the valley, and I slept surprisingly well on the floor of the cabin.The morning dawned sunny and warm. I journaled and read for a bit on the front porch, then sipped on a cup of coffee for a bit. Then another, because it was a relatively flat and easy 14 miles to Vernon, NJ where a donation based hostel was waiting. The first two miles flew by and we were in Unionville, where I had a Snickers ice cream bar for breakfast. The front porch of Horler's Grocery was comfortable and inviting, so we lingered for a while and chatted with three ATC Ridgerunners who happened to drop by. The trail out of Unionville wandered around marshy wildlife refuges which were baking hot in the direct sun. It was nearly 90 degrees and I was struggling. The water sources were few and far between, so I was feeling dehydrated. We climbed over Pochuck Mountain, then down into another wildlife refuge. For the last three miles into Vernon, the AT followed popular boardwalks through grasslands. Wawayanda Mountain, the next morning's climb, towered in the distance. It was beautiful and SO hot. I climbed over the final stile, trekked through a cow pasture, and gratefully found a seat in the shade with KT outside a farm store. I bought a lemonade, watermelon, and strawberry ice cream inside and was just digging in when an older man in overalls stopped in front of us."You girls headed to Vernon?" He asked."Yessir.""Well you better hop on in that truck there," pointing at his definitely air conditioned pickup. "Hurry up, now, an opportunity like this doesn't come along everyday."We dropped our packs in the bed, then climbed in the backseat. The old couple was charming and friendly, apparently making it a habit to pick up hikers when they stumble upon them. They'd clearly lived in the area forever and waved hello to everyone we passed for two and a half miles to the hostel."It's a good thing you girls are pretty, I don't normally drop you at the door," he said as we pulled up to a beautiful old white church. We thanked them repeatedly and followed the AT signs to the basement hostel.All the lights were off, but two men were watching Titanic in the common room. Weird.We said hello, no response.Weirder.The older man was fast asleep and looked vaguely dead.Weirdest.So we went to the grocery store to resupply.Titanic was still on when we got back, but the younger man had perked up a bit and really taken a shine to KT. I suspect he wasn't a hiker, based on his bizarre behavior, but who knows. He wasn't totally with it and my single-girl-alone-in-the-woods radar began alarming.We went to Dunkin Donuts instead.When we got back to the hostel, a few others had turned up, southbound section hikers. The younger man was asleep in the other room, the older outside on the phone. I snuggled up on a futon, KT took a rollaway bed and I looked forward to a nice night of sleep on a real mattress. But it was not to be. First, the younger man wandered in and settled on the floor not far from me. He'd occasionally get up and wander around, then go back to his spot on the floor, making just enough noise to wake me up. The older man came in after I had fallen asleep. I woke a few hours later to find that he was sleeping up against, actually mostly underneath, the futon where I slept. He rolled over and kicked and shook my futon every few minutes. This was a huge room, a community room the size of a church sanctuary, and he was sleeping on the floor. There were literally hundreds of other places he could have slept, but, there he was. We asked him if he planned to sleep on the futon or bed before we went to bed and he said no, so who knows what was happening here.After a few hours of this, I dragged the heavy piece of furniture four feet across the room so that he couldn't kick it in his sleep, at least. Exhausted, I fell back asleep.Only to be awoken shortly thereafter by the younger guy, who was noisily packing his bag at 5 am. That in itself wasn't totally unusual, and I could've slept through it, if not for the flashlight he was shining directly into my eyes."You gotta be kidding me," I groaned. Thankfully, he took his bag outside eventually and I got about an hour more sleep before everyone else was up and packing their packs.Exhausted, frustrated, and not ready to be back on the trail, I wandered over to the local breakfast joint. Sitting at the counter, I slurped coffee and ate blueberry pancakes. I chatted with the man to my right who was in town for a weekend of mountain biking. He was from South Jersey, a union tradesmen and I enjoyed the relative normalcy of our conversation.Finally, I decided to take a zero day at the hostel, since everyone had cleared out. The last week of heat and lack of sleep was wearing me down and my feet are still in rough shape after the Pennsylvania rocks. So far this afternoon, I have the place to myself and am loving it. I watched Almost Famous on VHS because I've only seen it thirty times. I'm sad to now be a day behind KT and two days behind Roller, but I definitely needed a day to myself and am optimistic I'll be able to sleep through the night and tackle a nice little climb in the morning.