Courage is doing what you are afraid to do. There can be no courage unless you are scared.
~Eddie Rickenbacker
AT miles: 20.7
Ascent: 2331’
Descent: 2121’
Weather: sunny, hot, and humid (high 80’s)
Sightings: noisy squirrels that scared the daylights out of me!
High points: walking the extended ridge line in the morning and drinking cold lemonade at a restaurant
Today is the hundredth day that I have been hiking on the AT!
Given how dry it has been this summer and how hot today was, my primary goal today was to stay hydrated. Normally that isn’t too difficult, but because of the drought most/all of the usual water sources are dry. Additionally, unlike Massachusetts, New Jersey Trail Angel‘s seem to be failing at their job. I bumped into three water caches, but all of them were empty. This lack of water leaves a hiker in a bit of a pickle.
I started off today from the Mohican Outdoor Center with nearly 4 liters — 7 pounds of water! I knew my next guaranteed water was 16.4 miles away! Thankfully the trail was fairly easy and there wasn’t that much up and down today, so I didn’t mind carrying all the extra water. Despite the heat, today felt like fall. The trail was multicolored, sometimes red from maple leaves and sometimes yellow from beach leaves and sometimes brown from anonymous dead leaves. The air had that musky fall smell.
Most of the morning was spent walking along a beautiful ridge line.
After the lengthy ridge, the trail alternated between being on dirt roads and being on challenging rocky paths that seemed to connect the dirt roads. At one point there was a bit of a rock scramble and of course no white blazes. Why do the trail maintainers tend to not put blazes in the places where they are most needed?
I walked by a beautiful beaver pond that was absolutely smothered in water lilies. The beaver lodge was huge!
I had originally planned on only hiking 14 miles today, but the spring for my shelter destination was a half mile off the trail and Guthooks didn’t have any recent information about whether or not the spring has any water. Since it was only about 1:00 when I passed the trail leading to the shelter, I decided to not bother checking out the spring there but instead to continue on to the next shelter. The next shelter is dry, but on the way I’ll pass a lovely restaurant that allows hikers to refill their water bottles.
On the way to the restaurant I hiked up Rattlesnake Mountain (1492’). Thankfully I didn’t see any!
After a fairly gentle but rocky descent I walked into the lovely air-conditioned restaurant and had lemonade and ice cream. For whatever reason, when I’m hiking I always crave lemonade. Stuffed and happy and with full water bottles, I was ready for the last ascent. I lugged the 7 pounds of water up to the shelter.
The shelter may look quiet, but a group of Yale students is camping behind the shelter. They are hiking a section of the AT as part of freshman orientation! The leader came to caution me that they might make a little noise. I told him that they could make as much noise as the wanted, and as a thank you I received donuts and permission to use their water stash! I’m actually really glad they are here. I don’t like staying in a shelter with nobody else around.
Just before dark a late NOBO hiker from Tennessee showed up. Given the rumors of bears near the shelter and mice in the shelter, he chivalrously drawled that I could wake him up if I needed help dealing with the local residents!
Today is a great day for a long walk in the woods!