He made an attempt at imitating a bear
NJ is a state that is renewing my spirits and raising my morale once more. This state is also making me feel like I'm almost home. It's and odd sensation.
I was up at 5:30AM this morning. After eating five packets of oatmeal and packing up I was on trail at 6:15AM.
The climb out of the MOC was fairly easy, although there were some rocks that needed to be scrambled over.
The ridge this climb leads one to had some nice rock ledges with simplistic views of the NJ valley below.
Although there's a "No Trespassing" sign on the fire tower, I went ahead and broke NJ state law and climbed up a couple flights of stairs to have a nice view.
North of Blue Mountain Road the weather proceeded to go downhill as I was going up. This consisted of light rain, wind, and one rumble of thunder that kicked me into high gear.
A lot of the ridge today had exposure. The trees were in full bloom, but they were barely taller than me. There were also patches of land with no trees, which raised the hair on the back of my neck seeing as a storm was chasing me.
At some point Cookie caught me along the ridge. He made an attempt at imitating a bear, but for some reason it did not work all that well.
At Brink Road Shelter I had some lunch, which was a nice break from the persistent drizzle blanketing northern NJ.
The climb out of the shelter was easy, and the ridge had some nice views.
At Culver's Gap I bopped into a convenience store near the rail and purchased a soda and Gatorade. This is where Terry was due to leave trail, so we exchanged contact information. Cookie and I then continued north.
Three miles later we came to Gren Anderson Shelter, my home for tonight. The shelter is full and there are some tenters about.
Onward and upward tomorrow.
Good night, and good luck.
Kirby
Ga>ME 2008.
