Date: 2004-11-20
From: Secret Shelter, NJ....shhhhhh!!

To: Gren Anderson Shelter, NJ
Miles today: 18.3
Weather: light rain

18.3 miles todaySleeping in a shelterGren Anderson Shelter, NJToday started at 5am when I got up and started my coffee. I guess I was laying in my sleeping bag and I started thinking about the donuts I had in my food bag and one thing led to another. Rainbow Slick got up shortly after that and he made his breakfast. I really enjoyed the Secret Shelter last night. A former thru hiker lets long distance hikers come onto his private property and stay there for free. You even get serenaded by a couple of donkeys...hee haw, hee haw. We started hiking as soon as we could see which was at 6:25am. There was rain in the forcast and cool temperatures, but it was dry and mild this morning. The weather man got this one right because within an hour the temperature started falling and it started raining. It ended up raining all day and the temperature was right at 40 degrees when we got finished hiking at 2pm. We hiked to Highpoint Shelter first and took a short break away from the shelter because there were actually two people still sleeping in there. That was a surprise because it's been a long time since I've seen anyone in a shelter overnight. I hiked on up to the Observation Platform and took a few pictures, but didn't stay too long because it was windy up there. We hiked on down to the visitors center at Highpoint State Park and I sent in my journal entry and got my email. We went inside to warm up and ate an early lunch there because it was warm inside. I filled up with water and we hiked on after about a 40 minute break. The next stop was Mashipacong Shelter where we sat for about 10 minutes just to get out of the rain and grab a bite of food. We passed a group of about 10 boyscouts that were walking along in the rain...not sure if they were happy or not. I thought at first that I was going to have to blaze a trail around them, but they finally let me walk on by. They were all lumbering under way too heavy backpacks that were about a foot over the tops of their heads. It's too bad someone doesn't teach them about liteweight backpacking. I have a friend that's a boyscout by the trailname of Goldilocks and he's doing a nobo thru hike next year with a pack that weighs between 10 and 15 pounds and he can make easy miles on the trail. When we got to the top of Sunset Mtn, there was a photo shoot going on under a pavilion with about six mighty fine looking young ladies. I kept on hiking so I didn't disturb them although it would have been nice to watch. I was walking along nicely when I went down on the ground fast. It happened so fast that I'm not sure if I just fell or if my Leki broke...anyway, my Leki is snapped in two right where it gets all the wear from the shock absorber. I cinched it to my pack and found a stick to use for the rest of the hike to Culver's Gap. I'll get it fixed at an outfitter. We got to Gren Anderson Shelter at 2pm and I got into dry stuff right away and ate an early dinner. It feels great to be warm and dry and in my sleeping bag for the night. Rainbow Slick did fantastic walking 18 miles today, but when you put yesterday's 2 miles and today's 18 miles, he's only averaging 10 miles a day. Still, that's not bad for a weekend warrior. Ha!!Another great day on the A.T.Oh yeah, two more things I wanted to say;1; Thanks alot Dotty from Maine for reading my journal. It's always nice when I hear from someone I don't know who has been following along this crazy hike. I would have thanked you through email, but you didn't leave a return email address.2; Poor ol' Jan Liteshoe, my beloved, but rude transcriber, must be feeling depressed because my counter is catching up to hers fast, so I thought I would give her the opportunity to put a link to her old, out-of-date journal right here----->(Transciber's reminder:http://www.trailjournals.com/liteshoe/)Did she write it in?? Yeah, I thought so!!(http://michaelmoorethefathead.com/)