Date: 2017-08-14
From: High Point State Park HQ

To: Culver Fire Tower
Miles today: 12.3

A few hours into my truncated hike today, I walked up to Mashipacong shelter and saw an unfamiliar face but someone who was clearly a thru-hiker. "Are you a nobo?" I asked."Sobo," he replied. "I'm Grandpa."This was a name I'd been following in the trail registers since near the start of the trail. He was also no ordinary thru-hiker, because this was his fourth thru-hike of the AT. And his second sobo hike.I soon discovered that wasn't even the end of it. His goal was to hike the AT six -- SIX! -- more times.I remember thinking that I couldn't imagine hiking this trail even twice, let alone multiple times. This was both for reasons associated with this trail in particular but also the general principal that because there are so many other awesome trails around the world -- including the PCT and CDT -- redoing the AT would be like going into a restaurant and ordering the same meal again and again and again and again when there are other awesome options on the menu.He then pushed on, heading to the next shelter for the night, while I hung around reading the register at this one. As befits someone with close to 8,000 AT miles under his shoes, he rocketed away at a great pace and I didn't see him again that day.This meeting was purely serendipitous. If I hadn't taken the morning off the trail, I'd have been ahead of him because he'd returned to the trail after taking a few days off and, through his habit of walking fast but taking long breaks off the trail, it's unlikely our paths would have crossed again.My leisurely morning was its own reward even before that. Just having the opportunity to do my laundry was worth it, after last doing it back in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, which I was a little embarrassed to realize had been FOUR states ago. It had also been a sweaty while since my last shower.But as Mosey's sole guest for the day, there was no rush to get back to the trail so instead we could have an interesting morning chatting about our respective homes and lives. The heroin epidemic I'd been hearing so much about was no abstract problem for her, with several members of her extended family having become entangled in that particular web.When we headed to the trail, it was via a Walmart in Pennsylvania to resupply. After being dropped off back at the park HQ, I went into the park office, which had been closed the day before, and was rewarded with the cold Pepsi they give to every passing thru-hiker. Win! I delayed my already tardy departure yet further by eating a final heavyweight meal at a picnic table before dumping my trash and reluctantly donning my pack at 1.30pm.From here, the trail followed the crest of a long and gently undulating ridgeline that would take me eventually into Pennsylvania in two more days. My goal was more modest: depending on whether the rocks in southern New Jersey were as bad as the nobos had claimed (spoiler alert: they weren't), I'd hoped to reach either Gren Anderson shelter, where Grandpa had gone, or to the fire lookout tower a mile or so beyond.Thanks to the nobos' latest overblown warning, I reached the fire tower with an hour of light to spare. The picnic table facing the sunset was an added bonus.Life is good.AT fact of the day: Along the way today I met Treehouse, who proudly boosted that he'd taken 97 zero days so far as part of a hike that had already spanned about six months. Then I worked out that after starting in February, he'd stopped and worked at an AT hostel near Damascus for two months. That posed the question: when does a zero stop being a zero and become a job?