It was cold last night. For the first time since I’ve been on the AT this year, I wore my puffy jacket to bed. The biggest concern other than cold is the fires in the north. Being I am without mis-information or news, I depend on trail talk and what I’m observing. Right now it’s smoke, haze and ash filled skies. Not pretty.

Me and the girl gang were on trail close to 7am, which I was quite happy about. We moved out and hiked relatively quickly. Before long we made it to Beaver Pond. It was perfectly named for the amazing work these big rodents do. I can understand building dams with sticks and stems and maybe some smaller trees. But these beavers are on steroids! The size of the trees they fell is remarkable. I’m just wondering at what point did they realize that they are gonna be hard pressed to move that hunk of lumber?

Braveheart took the lead. Me and C2T met Braveheart at Delaware Water Gap yesterday. She’s 22yo from Switzerland and has been going to school in Upper State New York. We were talking at the Bakery when she asked if she could hike with us? Heck yes, she’s adorable. She tells us it’s like hiking with two Moms. I’ll accept that. She has a bear canister, bear spray, and wears leather boots. She had read all sorts of stories about snakes and bears and knew there was no way that she could hike solo.

As we are getting to know her better, the name Braveheart came to C2T because she is attacking her fears. We were walking the trail after the beaver pond, and she’s leading the way. She screams! What is it? A Black Rat Snake slithered across the trail in front of her and you’d think it attacked her. We all stop and both me and C2T are taking pictures and videotaping this behemoth of a snake. Braveheart doesn’t even want to look at it. We explain to her it’s not poisonous, and it really is a fine snake. She’s not buying it. At this point, she’s not leading anymore.

We head up the hill and meet these two locals. They have something in a plastic bag. I asked them what it was? They found the shedded skin of a rattlesnake. I think Braveheart is going to lose it! The guy takes the skin out of the bag and they stretch it across. It’s close to 3-4 feet long. That is a healthy sized snake skin. Hey Braveheart, you want to touch it? She’s not too keen on the idea but reluctantly agrees and gives it a quick pet. We are going to get Braveheart over her many fears before this hike it done.

Ends up there’s Mountain House Bar & Grill not too far away. We decide that we are going to have lunch and dinner there and beat feet. What a great idea. Real food, French fries for all and cold sodas. I admit I had a local IPA. It was pretty darn tasty. We stayed for a couple of hours but needed to head to camp.

In New Jersey they are pretty restrictive as to where you can and cannot camp. The closest place was two miles up the hill. We crept up the trail and arrived at Culvert Fire Tower. We were the only ones there and pitched our tents quickly. Tonight is going to be another cold night. We all got comfortable in our snug little tents, laughed about the day and were asleep by Hiker Midnight. That’s 9pm…