Date: 2016-07-02
From: NJ 23

To: Liberty Corners Rd
Miles today: 13.6

I hope the rains are gone. It rained really hard for a while last night. We even lost power at the hotel for a short while. The forecast is for no rain and a high of 77 so it should be a good hiking day. Yvonne and I had a healthy (as in filling) breakfast at the hotel and drove to where we did trail magic yesterday. My plan was to hike up to the 220' High Point Monument atop the highest point in New Jersey which we could access via a 0.3 mile side trail off the AT, then Yvonne would hike back to the car while I continue on.We met up with a Ridge Runner before we started. He is one of the people hired by the State who takes care of the trail for a designated area. I had met him yesterday at one of the shelters I passed by. He gave us some good information about the hike up today. The rocks were on the trail right at the beginning and then there was a steep climb. That broke Yvonne in right away! We finally reached the side trail that goes to the High Point Monument. On the way up, we got a few great views of this miniature Washington Monument. It looked like it was out of the middle ages. When we arrived at the base we were able to see some clear views of the surrounding area. The Monument was actually open for anybody who wanted to climb the 291 steps to the top and since I am always up for a challenge and Yvonne is a good sport, off we went. The hardest part of the whole day's hike was climbing those stairs. The views would have been much better but the windows at the top were fogged over with condensation. That was a little disappointing but we were able to see where we came from and a few towns in the distance. When we got downstairs, Yvonne decided not to hike back to the car but continue on with me. I was happy for her company but I was concerned about her knee. She has been having problems with her knee for 10+ years, has bone on bone and in fact, she is going to get her knee replaced soon. We consulted the AT book to see where the next opportunity would be for her to leave the trail then we went on our way.We visited High Point Shelter just so that she could see an actual shelter. There wasn't anybody there but I decided to take a break and do my daily ritual of exercising, push ups and stretching. The trail went in and out of some farmlands, wheat fields and grazing land. There were fewer rocks on the trail which was a relief. We hiked a total of 6.4 miles, which included the side trails, before we called a shuttle service to take Yvonne back to the car. It was still early in the day and Yvonne wanted to be a trail angel again so she went to set up trail magic further up the trail and I hiked on so I could meet her there.It was nice having Yvonne with me. We talked about different things and just enjoyed the nature around us. The hiking was pretty flat this afternoon with some small ups and downs. There were a few foot bridges over some creeks and a couple of swampy areas full of vegetation. When I arrived to where Yvonne was set up, there were 4 hikers there, Legs, Verge, Blanco and Kactus. We stood around for a while and talked about the trail among other things. It was still early, 3pm. Dinner and a movie sounded great for tonight. Date night! Until tomorrow.