Date: 2003-07-20
From: Mashipacong camping

To: Secret Shelter
Miles today: 0.0

It was a pretty warm day today. We weren't hiking very fast, though. Jimmy has been feeling really bad. Andrea and I have taunted him about having worms. When we reach Vernon, we may even have to buy some raw meat to hold in front of his face so the worms can leave his body through his eyeballs. His energy is low and seems to dip even lower after eating.I had a wonderful day today. During our hike we were on this ridge with a beautiful lake below. It was totally isolated, and judging from the map, fairly easy to get to. We backtracked a bit to the blue blaze that would take us down to the Rutherford Shelter. Then we walked an old roadbed, hung a left and bushwhacked over to the lake. We enjoyed the serenity of a quiet, unpopulated lake all afternoon. Andrea, Jimmy, Clack and I swam, slipped on the algae covered rocks and sat beneath the shade to read books and write letters. I could have spent the entire afternoon there (and it beat the hell out of going to the swimming area at High Point State Park that would have been over crowded and dirty). Eventually we hiked on - stopping often for breaks. We passed by the high point monument and walked on. At a road crossing we ran in to Rubberbandman. He walked with us now, too.When we reached Gemmer Rd. the companion said there was a man who sells honey about .3 of a mile. We decided to truck on up there and check it out. After deliberating outside his home for a while as to whether or not we were at the right house, we knocked, he answered. I think we may have interupted dinner. But he was very kind. He locked his (loud and vicious - I have to assume) dogs downstairs in the basement and invited us in. The hall was a narrow display of honey and jams. We sampled honey, then he gave us a big plastic container of it to take in addition to some honeycombs in plastic bags that were seathing with honey. We bought some jams and left after an hour or so of talking, getting detailed descriptions of how bee hives work, and observing all kinds of trinket-like wax candles in various religious or animal shapes. When we started walking back to the trail from our honey stop, it was like the fields were laced with golden electric christmas lights. The fireflies in the fields were abundant, random and beautiful. It was the perfect accent to the dusk colored sky. We ducked in to the woods and immediately had to pull out our headlamps to see. Rubberbandman led the way for a while. Then I took over. There were no acceptable places to camp and where there were ok spots, the trees were plastered with Private Property signs from the local gaming groups. We pushed on. Finally we found the road that would lead us to the obscure shelter and water. We arrived in the middle of the night, weaved our way through some other tents and found a nice spot to set up camp. After only nibbling a bit, we popped inside our tents and settled down. Within minutes we had the scare of a lifetime! A screeching, screeching, screeching - so loud it was just outside the tent! Then the screeching turned to EEEh-AWWWW, EEEEh-AAAWWW - a freakin' donkey! After we realized what it was we could laugh about it...but what a disquieting sound just as you're about to hit that zone of deep sleep.