Day 32: What would YOU do for a hot dog?

Summary 
May 27th

Gren Anderson to High Point Shelter

NOBO mile # 1338.0 

Tolmann’s daily mileage 13.0 

Tolmann’s total mileage 314.3

I have to say that NJ has really been a pleasure to hike through. The ridge walks have actual views. The terrain has been pretty forgiving. Elevation gains and trail grades are modest, with some exceptions. And I can actually move at a decent pace, for the most part. Unless it rains…

Today’s special event was hiking through High Point State Park. Thru-hikers get a free can of soda when we put our names in the park headquarters log book.  

And we read that there is a concession stand in the park, and Hops was psyched for the opportunity to get a hot dog. 

T&H were up, fed and packed up earlier than me. It’s sometimes difficult to see them share the camp chores, moving twice as fast as I can, of course. But I took my time and had my Mountain House breakfast of eggs, ham, and peppers. They headed out as I was finishing breakfast, with just getting water and caring for my feet left. But as usual, it was nearly an hour later when I saddled up and got out on the trail.  

Today’s hike pretty easily split into 4 segments of 3 miles each; to the summit of Sunrise Mountain, then to Mashipacong Shelter (and lunch), then the turn off for Rutherford Shelter (an easy landmark), then the park HQ (and a soda!); then what we assumed would be a shortish walk to concessionaire (and HOT DOGS), and, finally, 2 last miles to the shelter.

 It was a beautiful sunny morning, and I was moving fairly strongly and quickly. I stopped for a few minutes at the pavilion on Sunrise Mountain for the view, and to clean my feet and bandage my toe.

By 11:30 or so, I was at the shelter, finding T&H finishing their morning snack/lunch. They hiked ahead, I ate a pepperoni and cheese sandwich, and then I took out the guitar for a little while…

Back to hiking. That’s what I do. I hike.

I was making great time and was into the State Park by 2-ish. I came across a trail volunteer painting the white blazes. I asked to take her picture, and she asked to take mine. She said that she had seen T&H and got their picture, too. A few minutes later, I met Stan the Man coming south, dispensing trail magic in the form of Snickers bars! He too had talked to T&H, and Tilly had refused a candy bar so he’d have one for me! I was very moved! 

After that point, though, my pace and the terrain started to take me down. It was only a short distance to go, but it was up and down, over and over. I crawled into the headquarters, to find Hops at a picnic table with an empty soda can. Soda! I went in to the HQ, signed in and got a can of Pepsi, took it back to the picnic table, and tried not to drain it in a single guzzle-slurp. 

I have not had soda for a number of years, but it is nectar of the gods out here. Especially root beer. <sigh> This was a Pepsi, and it tasted pretty darn good!

So then it was time to go find the hot dogs! We were told to follow the AT north from the headquarters to the observation platform, then take the blue-blazed trail to the beach on the lake. Everything went according plan, until the side trail hit the road. Then there were three divergent ideas about what to do. We ended up on a “trail” along the shore of the lake, climbing over rocks and roots, stumbling and tumbling and grumbling, packs getting caught in the overhanging bushes, and wondering if it was all worth it. After a considerable struggle, we emerged onto the beach, surrounded by the normal people celebrating their Memorial Day weekend with picnics/grills. 

The concession stand was at the top of a stone platform, in the building with the restrooms and showers. We climbed the stairs like pilgrims approaching a shrine. There was sandwich board on the patio. It showed hot dogs, cheese fries, all kinds of concessiony goodness! But no prices… hmmm…

We created a line at the window, and Tilly began ordering. The woman was a tad disorganized and confused, but they had Hagen-Daz ice cream bars! Score!

It took far too long a time for the order to be taken. I was getting concerned. Then she told Tilly that her order would be $37! I was tempted to walk away, but I by this time I really wanted the dang hot dog! And the cheese fries. And the ice cream. My order came to $18. 

Then the orders came out incomplete. <sigh>

By the time we actually got everything straight and sat down to eat, we were pretty much totally flummoxed. It was fair food, at best. 

But, by god, we got our hot dogs!!

We still had our trek to the shelter to do, all with hot dogs and cheese fries in a lump in our stomachs. But finally we rolled into camp, set up fairly quickly, chatted with the other campers (Pancho and Idgie, then Engineer and Red Fox(?)) there for a while, then called it a night. 

The High Point shelter is situated among a couple of streams that converge, then flow down into the valley below. The sound of running water is very soothing. I hope I don’t dream of concession stands and hot dogs…