McAfee Hikes

Date Written: 9/29/2024 | AT Mile 875.1 | Day Total: 19.7 miles | Gain: 2692 ft

Woah, I didn’t start moving until 7am. I went to bed at 7pm last night, 12 hours of sleep. I slowing packed up in my tent. The rains still dripping off the trees and onto my tent. Once my I had everything ready to be put into my pack all compressed I went to grab my food bag from the bear box. It’s further away than usual a good 4min walk one way. It’s not fun in slick flip flops.

I don’t have too much elevation today. I’m beginning to get into a portion of the trail where it’s has small up and down along the ridge. I have no complaints.

I had about a mile walk to an observation deck. On a clear day you can see the monument on top of NJ’s High Point. Today it’s all fog/misted in. I did go up to the top of the observation deck just for fun.

Shortly after I passed the state park HQ. I didn’t go inside but there was a cool wooden AT marker in the grass field.

It continued to mist all day, the trees would drop more larger drops on me in tree cover. Shoes were wet all day and got soaked when I was walking through grasses that collected beads of water.

The wet weather seems to bring out all the Newts. They were all over the trail today. Some are darker and blend in better and others are bright orange. I probably unintentionally killed dozens of them today just walking…

Most of the morning was walking along flat ridges. They go up and down steadily but they are not steep enough to slow me down at all. I’m starting to see more and more sections of “sharp” rocks. The kind I’ve seen in Pennsylvania on previous trips. Makes sense because my next state is Pennsylvania.

I ate lunch on top of Sunrise Mountain. There a large stone pavilion with a few benches at the top. There were a few day hikers here and some weekend hikers with laying in their hammocks between the pillers.

After lunch I continued along the “ridge”. The rain picked up a few times after lunch, enough to soak my clothes and bag again.

I eventually walked to the Culver Fire Tower. Surprisingly it’s still in use and there are weather instruments all over the top of it. Because it’s still in use you’re not allowed to climb up it. There wouldn’t be any view up there on a foggy day like today anyway.

After the fire tower I hiked down to Branchville NJ. They’ve got some restaurants in town but I’m carrying sooooo much food that I continued on.

There was a climb out of the town but it was graded well. I did come across a neat, still living, hollow tree on the side of the trail.

At one point I came across a view and the fog had cleared a tiny bit. But still mostly viewless aside from the shadow of mountains in the near distance.

I’ve come across more and more log books on the trees. Usually there’s only log books in the shelters but there been multiple the past day screwed into a tree on trail. I’ve been filling them out with short notes.

I stopped pretty early today at 4pm because there’s only campsites after this shelter. My tent is wet from last night and I’d rather be dry than sleep in a damp tent.

There’s another couple in there doing a flipflop, once they are done with the AT they will have finished their Triple Crown (hiked the PCT, CDT and AT).

Just before I started cooking dinner I slipped down the stairs. I’m okay, but got a small cut on a few of my fingers. There’s a layer of mildew and the rain has turned the wood into an ice rink.

Right as the sun was setting we heard what seemed like a large branch fall but I saw something moving in the distance in front of the shelter. It turned out to be a deer, thankfully not a bear.

Tomorrow I’m hoping to get into Delaware water gap. It would make for a near 25 mile day but there’s hardly any elevation. I plan to wake up early tomorrow to get a head start.