Gren Anderson Shelter 1328.5 to “Secret Shelter” 1346.8 (18.3 miles, 321.4 total miles)
I fell asleep around 11 or so last night, for the first time sleeping with both my vestibules drawn like curtains on my tent. I was tented so close to Jedi to be on a soft surface, that I couldn’t stake the second vestibule out, but figured I’d give it a try. It was nice and breezy, but the moon was a little bright overhead at first.
I slept well, but got up early, just after 5am. I was up before everyone, but I’m slow to break camp, so I was ready just before the rest of the Cult and on the trail by 7:30. I didn’t know how fast I would be hiking, so I wanted to get a head start. The plan was to hike 12 miles to High Point State Park HQ, go swimming in the lake ahead, and end at “Secret Shelter”.
I hiked by myself for the first couple miles, knowing they would catch up to me soon. I enjoyed the solo miles like I had yesterday, but looked forward to having company again. I listened to some music on my phone, and came across another momma deer and a fawn.
Just before the first view, Jedi, Nemo, and Quarter Tank caught up behind me. We hiked together a little bit further and found a large pavilion overlooking the view, and hung out for a few minutes. Gimp and Cobra were there as well, and an older hiker came through briefly.
We moved on and hiked along more pretty ridges, and quite a few spots that were rocky, but overall the terrain was nice, not much up and down for most of the day. It was sunny, but we knew it was going to rain around 3 or 4, so we wanted to get to the park for noon.
Neon and Quarter Tank hiked ahead, and Jedi stayed behind to hike with me, and we alternated back and forth who set the pace. We had a very interesting political discussion slash debate.
I’m from a largely liberal part of the country, and he’s from Wyoming, which is more conservative so we got to see some different points of view. Neither of us got too fired up about anything, but it was fun to look at things from other perspectives.
While we were still discussing, we arrived quicker than expected at Mashipacong Shelter for a little break. I was hungry, and ate all the snacks I had in my fanny pack. The shelter had a privy that was painted pink on the inside, and I thought it was cute. Piñata stopped in for a few before we hiked out. We had about 5 miles to the park to go.
Same as before, the other two hiked ahead after a bit, and Jedi and I did our thing. My shoes were confirmed to be probably just a half size too big at this point. On the uphills, my heels were lifting out, and on downhills my feet were sliding forward into the shoes.
I had skipped cooking dinner last night in favor of just eating a few bars because it was so late, but I was feeling it then. I didn’t have any more snacks readily accessible, and Jedi confirmed from his experience that skipping dinner leads to lethargy the next day.
So I was hungry, and my feet were starting to hurt, because I was over tying my shoes again, just like the Altras. I could still hike a lot faster in the Hokas, and the cushioning was amazing on the rocks, but by the time we were almost at the park I wasn’t the happiest in the world. Jedi kept telling me stories from his life to keep me distracted and make the miles go quicker, which helped.
When we got to the park, we saw a sign saying trail magic, and headed over to where a very nice couple had a whole table and cooler of goodies for us. Robyn and Jim were their names, and they said it was their first time doing a setup like that. They used to pack out things to give to hikers along the trail on day hikers, but now they were also setting up for the hikers just before and after the bubble, who often get overlooked.
It was my first time getting to this type of trail magic on this trip so far. There is a lot more of that for the traditional northbound hikers as trail magic follows the bubble, especially early on, so flip floppers and SOBOs don’t experience it as much. It still happens, but often in subtler or more unexpected ways, like the people Sandals and I met at Mohican the other day.
My morale was feeling low because of the shoe thing, but I enjoyed a Yoo-hoo, cherry turnover, pack of Fig Newtons, and an orange, and grabbed a few more snacks to take with me.
They were breaking down soon due to the rain, so they urged us to take everything they had, which we did between seven of us. It was like last call at the bar, everyone wanting to leave some for the others until we knew it was okay to finish off everything.
While I was there, I tried to figure out the logistics of getting yet another pair of shoes and how to return the ones I had just bought. REI has a great exchange program of up to a year, so the Hokas I just bought are not the immediate concern. However, I couldn’t get back there anyway, being an hour away from the trail, and Paul wasn’t on vacation anymore to drive me.
So I could either rent a car to go to REI, which is pricy and time consuming, or pay $26 to have Hoka ship new shoes directly to Paul’s apartment overnight, so I could pick them up when I can get there by being close enough on trail.
I bit the bullet and bought the new shoes to be shipped to Paul’s, and sincerely hoped these would be the last pair of shoes I would have to buy before I found the right shoes and size. Jedi joked that instead of the “Four State Challenge” I would be doing the “Four Shoe Challenge”.
Instead of touching my shoes on the ground of four states within 24 hours (VA/WV/MD/PA), it was a new made up challenge that I would have four different pairs of hiking shoes touch the trail in one state: New Jersey.
It was silly, but it honestly made me laugh and helped lighten up a frustrating situation. That’s just part of the journey of the trail, and I am not unique in footwear being one of the challenges a lot of hikers gave.
After many thank you’s and goodbyes to Robyn and Jim, we headed back out just before 2:00 to complete the last 7 miles to the “Secret Shelter”, so named because it is not an actual shelter on the AT. It is a small cabin on private land owned by a former thru hiker that is available to use. Because of the rain we didn’t have time to go for a swim anymore, or take the side trail to High Point Tower.
The hiking to the shelter was almost all downhill, and at trail magic I had put on two pairs of thick socks to try to fill out my shoes better, and it seemed to work somewhat. It made the hiking on the ascents and descents a little easier.
We hiked through some rocky areas and open forests, then through nice fields that reminded me of PA, then back into the woods. The rain came off and on, but it was nothing crazy or strong, and we hiked through it easily. I let Jedi set the pace for most of the time, till the end when my feet started to hurt and I wanted to slow down a little for the last mile or so.
The cabin was .2 off the trail, and as we walked up the gravel road and it came into view, we were greeted by the resident donkey, Jake. The trail angels from earlier had given us carrots to feed him, and I lost no time in feeding him the ones I had.
Quarter Tank and Neon were already there and Neon had swept out the little cabin for us. Piñata arrived shortly after, and it ended up being just the five of us, which was perfect. Piñata set up her hammock and the rest of us laid out on the cabin floor.
We ate dinner, including sharing a very large bag of tortilla chips that QT had found in a hiker box and packed out for the group. There was even a charging outlet with four plugs in the cabin that we were able to charge our devices on. I found two four leaf clovers in the field at the cabin, which I never find as an adult unless I’m near or about to hike the trail. I put them in my book to preserve them.
We will be out of the rain tonight, and Jedi and I are planning to go .3 past everyone else tomorrow to stay at Paul’s apartment that he generously offered for a night. I am very excited to sleep in a real bed and take a shower, but more excited than anything for the prospect that my new shoes will be there and maybe, just maybe, they will be the right ones this time.