Date: 2013-07-11
From: Rattlesnake Ridge Campsite

To: 2 miles beyond Culvers Gap
Miles today: 17.8
Weather: moderate rain

I usually think of the whole North-South part of the trail in New Jersey as Kittatinny Ridge but apparently part of it is also known as Rattlesnake Mtn., and then comes Kittatinny Mountain. That's the area I was doing today. There isn't so much view from up on top as there was yesterday because the ridge is more wooded. Still, the Trail wasn't too bad.I reached the side trail to Buttermilk Falls. A few years ago, at this point, I celebrated my completion of the AT by sections; so it's an important place in my memory. I didn't go down to the falls ¢ it's a pretty falls, but a rather difficult couple miles down. I continued on and stopped at Brink Road shelter for water.Susan & I stayed there in 2011, when a large area in front of the shelter was flooded [You had to wade to get to the bear box!]. Now it was fairly firm mud, with a group of women camped on it. They were focussed on their own stuff, so I headed right for the spring. It's a nice spring, but the whole area was flooded with mosquitos. I got out of there as quickly as possible, but the mosquitos followed me for several miles.There are only about five businesses at Culvers Gap. There's a coffee shop very close to the trail, which claims to be hiker friendly. It even has benches for hikers. I don't know anything about it because I always come after 5:00, when they're closed. Then there's a nice looking steakhouse that maybe appear a little too expensive for hikers. The next thing is an old-time gas station that does mechanical work & pumps gas, but no convenience store. Then there is Gyp's Tavern and then an outfitting store that specializes in hunting and fishing, not backpacking. I stopped there because I thought they might possibly have a plug for my iPhone, but they didn't . Coming back, I saw Jabberwocky at Gyp's Tavern ¢ at least outside in the yard. The sign on the gate says it's the hiker entrance. He had walked in the door and gotten in trouble for that because they don't want smelly hikers in their place. He had bought something to drink anyway, and maybe a hamburger. He didn't seem very happy there; so I decided I'd go try the other place: Stout's Steakhouse. I found it to be very hiker friendly I walked right in the front door; they welcomed me and asked me to sign a register for hikers; and they even tried to help me with my phone by plugging the USB cord into their computer [I didn't have a plug for the wall]. I had a very good steak too! So I would highly recommend Stout's. Every other hiker I talked with did not have a good experience with Gyp's.By this time it was getting darker, but I wanted to get in a couple more miles up the hill out of the gap. I found a place to cowboy camp. It was probably only another mile to Gren Anderson shelter but I had the impression that it was some distance off the trail [one of the difficulties with not having maps!], so I didn't didn't even think of going there. Actually it isn't, but I found a nice place on a rock ledge that worked quite well. It had a nice view of the sunset [it wasn't even dark by the time I started getting to sleep].                                 EXCURSUS ON MOSQUITOSOver the past few weeks, I've had occasional encounters with mosquitos. Generally, they would attack my face & head, so wearing a head net helped, & I didn't feel much need for DEET. As long as I kept moving, they didn't bother my arms & legs much. Especially at night, there seemed to be a definite pecking order. The most active mosquito, who also made the most noise, focussed on my ears. There must be something attractive about the smell of earwax. Occasionally, another mosquito would try for the same territory & get buzzed off by the Alpha female. Of course, the noise made it easy to know when they were coming & [sometimes] to successfully swat them. That was especially true with what I call "Kamikaze mosquitos". After being brushed off a few times they would raise their noise level & zero in to the same target, making them easy targets themselves.   But I noticed that, if I got the leader, there was always another ready to take over. The lower-ranking, probably smaller, definitely quieter, mosquitos were left with the less-desirable targets, like arms & legs ¢ moving targets, often partly covered with clothing. Another thing I learned about mosquito tactics is they work in parallel. If you swat one on your elbow, you'd better check the other elbow ¢ there is probably one biting there too!Today's mosquitos were different from my previous experience. They all seemed to be arm & leg specialists, regardless of my movements. They also bit thru my shirt to my back & shoulders. This definitely called for DEET (which I usually avoid, if possible). That enabled me to get back up on the ridge while I still had some blood left.