Gren Anderson Shelter
Today I just couldn't get going. First we all woke up late bt then I just seemed to have endless taskes to do. First it was finishing up my journal. Then I needed to clean out my pot from a cooking experiment last night. Lets just say it didn't turn out. Next I needed to wash my dirty socks and undies. Finally I was ready to go at 10:20AM. All that and I was shooting for a 20 mile day.
My smoother trail hopes of yesterday were filled to my delight. The ridgeline frequently mounted smooth treeless summits or rocky outcroppings that provied no barrier to seeing the NJ landscape. 
I always imagined NJ as being built up. Along the AT around here minus the roads or powerlines that has proven false. All I can generally see are rolling mountains covered in trees with rivers and ponds in the depressions in between.
I hiked alone much of the day due to my late start but I met a ridge runner, Augie and fellow Thru-Hiker, Gopher, so I did make some friends and had company part of the time. The sky was bright and sunny but around lunch one could hear the thunder of a distant storm. At first I thought the storm would miss us but after two hours it rolled in. The storm wasn't violent and the weather was nice enough that I put on my pack cover but took off my t-shirt and still stayed warm. I was a little nervous though since the AT follows the ridge and at times the lightning was less than a mile away but I was lucky entering exposed trail segments only when the lightning had moved over a couple miles. The rain had stopped by the time I reached Rattle Snake Mountain. 
There I got a real treat seeing a timber rattler sunning itself on a boulder in the trail. I took a break to watch the snake for a while. It was fascinating to see it search and sniff with it's tongue looking for prey but at the !
same time staying in the sun to stay warm. Timber rattlers are very tame and at no point did it rattle or even coil up even as I passed within three feet or so while on the trail.
In addition to seeing the namesake of Ratle Snake Mountain I saw a couple frogs in ponds along the way, a deer, and cute chipmonks scurring off at the sight of me.
I passed two fire towers, one early when the weather was clear, blue, and sunny with exspansive views and the other after the rain storms of the day with overcast clouds giving a very dramatic sky with streaks of light and a red glow along the horizon.
When I reached Brink Shelter I caught up McGyver who was waiting for Caps. At my arrival we realized Caps must be ahead since I never saw him. Catus Jim, a sectional yo-yo hiker came in and joined us. He was from Tucson and gave me much advice on where to look for houseing. McGyver and I decided we wanted to get dinner at the next road crossing so we said our good byes and started our run with sunset. The trail was mostly dowhill but the rain started once again. At the road it was really coming down with nothing to protect us. We ran to Gyp's for dinner, just about 100 yards from the trail. It was a comfy looking bar and grill and they were very nice in letting us bring in our packs from the rain. The food, however was rather disappointing. The serving sizes were small for the price and we were left hungry when done. With all the time we spent at the Brinks Shelter and at Gyp's we ran low on daylight. As a result we couldn't wait out the rain. We stayed pretty warm on the up!
hill out of town even though our clothes got soaked and the rain let up so that when we arrived here we weren't wet through, only moist. Caps is here so also managed to catch back up with him. I am still hungry but too tired to make dinner so I ate a handful of gorp before outting the food bag into the bear box.
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