Trip report for NJ/AT section hike

“AT section hike High Point to Milbrook/Blairstown Rd

Jerry and I met up after 5pm in Stroudsburg and started off for the trail. We left my truck at the southern terminus and then drove up to high point. We got into the woods at 8:15pm. The trail was cool for night hiking, after a short climb we were walking on the ridgeline with a clear open view to the east.

We walked for about an hour when we saw the blue blaze down off the ridge to the shelter. We cruised down and found a little oasis, we were the only ones there and it had just been spruced up. Half split logs for benches and a new paint job made this shelter very inviting. Friday nights walk in the woods, 2.5 miles.

Saturday morning, up around 7. We had some coffee and breakfast and started to pack up. I went down to where the spring was suppose to be and despite a tough drought we are going through there was still a puddle to pump from. I came back up and finished packing when we saw another hiker coming in. He came up and said, ?is one of you guys Pete??
Here it was Pennsy hiker. A strong hiker at that!

We started out together but soon Jerry and Pennsy left me in their wake. We were together from time to time along the way but for the most part the out strided me 2-1. We caught up together when we stopped to talk to a group when we saw this little kid lugging a pack twice his size. We asked them if they had seen a guy in purple shorts. He said, no they hadn?t passed anyone like that just a Boy Scout troop. Then the one guy said, ?hey is that Barney there? He pointed behind us and sure enough there was Jerry. Seems as though he stopped to take in a view and we just passed on by. We then hiked a little further and had lunch above Culvers Lake, We sat below the fire tower, were Jerry fired up the stove and had some soup and the rest of us just had cold stuff.

From there we had about 7 miles to go to the brinks shelter.
On the way we passed a hiker, who reminded me of Nigel (though we have never met, fit the description to a T) His trail name was Detour and he was from Philly. We were able to get by without much pain and hiked out to the next cross road (206) where we were happy to find the Bakery was open! We waited for a good 10-15 minutes before Jerry showed up. It seems as though Jerry was held up by detour for a while.

We had some confections at the bakery, got some water and started our hike up over the hill towards the shelter. Half way up the hill we passed the scout troop. Didn?t seem that they were either physically fit or mentally awake by that point. We hiked on and got to the shelter around 4pm. This shelter wasn?t very inviting so we decided to set up camp.

Pennsy and I went down to thew spring to find less of a puddle than at the last site. We pumped as much as we could and then we left and went back to camp. By that time all the scouts were there and so were a ½ dozen others. We sat down to a well deserved dinner and crashed for the evening to be awaken at 4am to rain and scrabbling by the guys who were sleeping out under the stars. By the time we got up at 6:30 the rain had stopped and we had a warm breakfast on a cool 35-degree morning.

We packed up and headed out up over Rattlesnake mt. And down over the other side where we let Jerry talk up into a ?short cut? down and around a couple of beaver ponds. That short cut added 2 miles to our day probably! The rest of the day was smooth walking after Flatbrookville road. I would like to point out at this time that Pennsy is sporting some maps with bad info!!!! His map calls Flatbrookville rd. skyline drive, LOL. From Flatbrookville road to Millbrook road is about 4 miles and we did that in about 1:15 min. We got done around 1:15pm, all in all about 12-13 miles.

Good trip and great people!”

“Sounds like it was a good time pete!”

“Hey Pete, if you scroll down a bit you'll see my report that I posted last night. I like yours better but you forgot to mention one thing.... what about Sir Mooch?? haha

I forgot to mention Detour. God help us all if he finds his way to TT.
Gotta hit the road.. Great weekend!!”

“I forgot to mention that Jerry is a magician with ramen noodles. Just don't ask what else he puts in the pot. I ate first, asked questions later. One hint... goose jerky.”