Date: 2008-07-09
From: AT Parking Lot on NJ side of the Delaware River

To: Mohican Outdoor Center, NJ
Miles today: 8.7
Weather: light rain

I need to talk about those "whiney" '03 nobo thru hikers because a lot of you may not know what I was talking about yesterday when I mentioned "the whiney bunch". They were the '03 nobo thru hikers who thought they had it soooo bad on the Trail, that they refer to it as "The Wet Year".Most of the whiney bunch were the ones that were hiking around Liteshoe....and she was one of the whiniest! I guess when they were getting ready for their hike and they bought their foofoo backpacks and all their microfiber clothes that it didn't cross their minds that when they actually got in the woods that it might actually rain a little bit. They probably envisioned themselves laying on soft leaves, eating blackberries, watching deer feeding out of bowls of deer food just 10 yards away, birds chirping, butterflies fluttering around and real nice comfortable temperatures with low humidity and sunny skies, but noooo...they whined because it rained a little that year. In reality, if you laid in a bunch of leaves, you would get chiggers, spider bit, maybe some poison ivy, mosquito bit, biting black flies, the deer would snort at you and run off and there's no way a bunny rabbit would ever show it's face in front of a hungry thru hiker! I remember not seeing sun till I got to NH on my sobo thru hike that year. It rained 26 out of the first 30 days...almost a full month of rain in Maine.....and I ENJOYED it! It was actually nice! The springs were flowing great, there was no problem getting water, the rain kept the bugs down and it was cooler....I LOVED IT! :-) One of the best parts of all that rain was that you didn't have to waste your time drying anything out. You knew it wouldn't dry, it was going to stay wet, so you just walked...you didn't whine about "The Wet Year".It was probably the easiest year I've ever seen to hike the Trail. It was so easy to hike the Trail in '03 that even an "OrdinaryAdventurer" could do it. ;-) Three Stooges from '03 Christmas, Liteshoe and Chief Okay...on to today. I slept great last night and woke up about 5am. I got dressed and walked down to the lobby and got me two cups of freshly brewed coffee then went back to my room. I packed all my stuff after figuring out what I needed for food for the next few days. I met Mother Nature and Smokestack in the lobby and we had a good breakfast of cereal, toasted bagel and cream cheese, two eggs and some biscuits and sausage gravy....and more coffee! :-) I checked out and we went to Wal-Mart where I resupplied. We drove to the parking area in NJ and said our goodbyes and I started walking north on the Appalachian Trail at 9:05am. Snow Plow had walked up and started talking just before I left. She and Mother Nature and Smokestack were trying to pump water out of a hand pump when I started climbing the hill. I had about a 1,100 foot climb this morning...and it wasn't long with the high humidity till I was pretty wet from sweat. I climbed next to a nice noisy stream for about half a mile. It was noisy enough to drown out all the noise from the interstate, but I could still hear the birds singing. Dunfield Creek I started getting those pesky little gnats dive bombing my eyes and two deer flies bit me on the back on my neck, so I got out my defense! My snap on neck cape which I already knew worked great to keep the little buggers from annoying me and I had bought a $5.00 pair of sunglasses at Wal-Mart today because Gator had told me that the gnats didn't bother his eyes as much because of his glasses. They are the lighter colored sunglasses and when I tried them, they worked great! I made that whole climb after that without one annoying bug buggin' me.....and I thought I looked pretty cool too! :-) I kept climbing and passed Holly Springs Trail, then Backpacker's Campsite 1 1/2 miles later. I started getting a little breeze as I neared the top and it felt great! I started thinking about the smile on Mother Nature's face when she dumped me off at the trailhead and reminded me that it was going to be very humid today and an 80% chance of thunderstorms. Why do some people take such pleasure in that? I'll never forget the day Frogcaller dumped me out of her car in Maine to walk into the wilderness. It was pouring down rain. Frogcaller cracked her window just enough to snap a picture of me....already soaking wet, then she smiled and drove off. :-( I kept walking and got to Sunfish Pond and took a couple pictures of that. I thought of Mother Nature when I was walking over all those big rocks around the pond. She's going to just love them! ;-) The rocky Trail around Sunfish Pond I took a couple picture of a water snake curled up on a rock about half way around the pond. Snake on the rock at the shoreline I was climbing Mt Mohican and saw about a 6 foot black snake that took off when he saw me. I finished climbing Mt Mohican, then walked a few more miles to the gravel road that leads to Mohican Outdoor Center. I had been debating on whether or not to walk the 1/3 mile to get an ice cold Coke at the center. I decided I had plenty of time and a Coke sounded really good, so I turned up the gravel road and saw Neon and CC Rider coming down the road. They were slacking 26 miles today to Culver's Gap. I don't want to get to that gap till tomorrow just before dinner because there's a nice little pub that makes great burgers....and that's my planned dinner for tomorrow night. :-) I walked in and ordered two Cokes and saw they even made fresh deli sandwiches to order, so I ordered one. Ha! Liberty was there and I started talking to him. He said he was staying the night because they have a really nice lodge with a full kitchen and bunks and a shower. I looked at my map and saw that I could stay and still get to tomorrow's planned mileage by walking a 21 miler...it was a no brainer with severe thunderstorms predicted and the last day of the high humidity for a while. I checked in, ate, got a shower and washed my clothes, then sat around the lodge like I owned the place. :-) I didn't have real good data service, but I sat out at a picnic table and sent today's journal entry and a bunch of pictures in. I ate a hoagie I packed out of town for dinner and watched some hikers come in. I hadn't seen Mike in quite a while...he's here now. HiLo and Steadfast came in and are tenting. Chopsticks is here and a few other hikers I haven't met yet. I'm glad I made the decision to stay here. I'm done journaling and going to read my book till I fall asleep. Another great day on the Appalachian Trail. :-)