(High Point Observation Tower (mile 1,340.1) - NJ Route 94 (mile 1359.6) *overnight at Warwick Drive-In*)

I slept well on the observation platform. Although the platform views were nice, I opted to eat breakfast a half mile away at the NJ High Point Monument, which as you might expect, offered even nicer views of the surrounding hills. As had been my M.O. for a while, I had no real idea where I wanted to end up tonight.

The morning hiking was all gradual downhill from the high point, with the trail routing me through a couple pastures and past a couple small ponds. The coolest landmark of the morning was the “Secret Shelter,” which is an unofficial shelter about 0.2 miles north of the AT. The shelter is situated on private land owned by a former thru-hiker and features a medium sized, barn-like shelter, two spigots, a pit privy, another small locked building, and a mini barn shelter about the size of a play house, which I believe is home to the Secret Shelter’s only native resident: Jake the donkey.

When I arrived, Jake didn’t seem too keen on letting me getting close, so I investigated the spigots and found that one was not working and the other offered only a slow trickle. I filled my water bottles and noticed that there was a bucket of nasty water below the spigot, presumably for Jake. I dumped the bucket and left the spigot running to fill it while I checked out the shelter. Inside, I found a power strip and a box fan, but I did not stay inside long as the shelter was beginning to feel like a sauna in the late morning sun. When I returned to the spigot, I noticed an old wire hair brush on the ground. When I picked it up Jake seemed to perk up. I guess his desire to be brushed outweighed his distrust of strangers because he let me brush him. I was happy to make a new friend.

After eating lunch at the Secret Shelter, I bid farewell to Jake the donkey and continued northward. The trail was easy going, but the afternoon had really heated up. After 1.5 miles, I stopped at the Lott Road bridge over a damned stream. Guthook did not have the spot marked as a water source, but I stopped to refill my bottles and take a bird bath to cool off. Hopefully there is not some really good reason the stream is not marked as a water source. Like a nuclear waste dumping facility just upstream. The water tasted fine, but I might be glowing tonight 😬

After another 1.5 miles, I began a short road walk, crossed over the Wallkill River, and routed into the Wallkill River National Wildlife Refuge. The Refuge was made up of a network of ponds and marshes in a large field, offering a habitat for migratory birds. The trail skirted around the edge of this field for about two miles. As I completed the partially rectangular circuit around the refuge, the skies began to darken. Light rain started as the trail routed away from the big field and over a board walk through a semi-forested marsh. I crossed another small road and stopped at an abandoned house for water. Guthook explained that the house is on property owned by the National Park Service and is managed by the NJ State Parks system. The park rangers leave water running to a spigot on the outside of the house so hikers can fill water, which is useful in this section of trail with no alternative (marked) water sources.

Despite the sign’s promise, I didn’t see any turtles

After filling water at the abandoned house, I began the first short climb of the day towards Pochuck Mountain Shelter, where I sheltered briefly from the rain. I checked my phone for any messages and discovered a cryptic text from Katie: “WARWICK DRIVE IN TONIGHT!!!” This seemed vaguely familiar, so I checked Guthook, and sure enough there is a drive in movie theater outside Warwick NY that lets thru hikers tent camp for free. I think Katie had mentioned the Warwick Drive In a few days back, but I didn’t realize it was coming up so soon. The road into Warwick was only 6.6 miles away.

When the rain eased up a bit, I continued on. After a little over 4 miles, I crossed County Road 517 and reached the Pochuck Boardwalk, a roughly mile-long raised path through a wetland that is one of the few wheelchair accessible AT sections. As I made my way along the boardwalk, the rain slowed and eventually stopped, but everything (myself included) was already soaked. This left the wetland particularly vibrant, with grasses that seemed to glow as they soaked in the excess moisture.

About 2 miles after the Pochuck Boardwalk ended, I crossed a railroad track and found myself in a field full of cows. One of them even seemed mildly curious. The cow field ended at NJ Route 94, which was the road into Warwick. I was able to quickly hitch a ride into town, where I got dropped off at the ShopRite just in front of the drive in. I did a partial resupply, grabbed some snacks for the movie tonight, then made my way to the drive in.

When I got to the drive in, I discovered that Delta, Puddin, Katie, and Jasmine were already there, along with a few other thru hikers I vaguely knew like the cousins Camel and Kibbles. The drive in staff had us set up our tents on a grassy hill at the back of the lot. From there, we had our pick of three screens, each of were showing a double feature. Screen one was A Quiet Place: Part II plus Spiral: From the Book of Saw, screen two was Cruella plus Tom & Jerry, and screen 3 was Spirit Untamed and Scoob!. Viewing the screens from our hill would be free, but if we wanted sound, we would need to pay $5 to rent a handheld radio, which we then had to tune to the proper channel corresponding with the screen we were watching. I had seen the first Quiet Place and thought it was pretty good, so I opted for screen one.

This was my first time at a drive in movie theater, so I was pretty excited, but my excitement soon turned to disappointment as I struggled to hear anything from the crappy radio. As you might expect, A Quiet Place: Part II has a lot of very quiet scenes and whispered dialog. So I would crank the volume to try and hear, then a monster would appear and the movie would suddenly get very loud and the speaker would distort terribly. The experience made me really appreciate the importance of good sound in a film viewing experience. Having a big image is obviously important, but I think good sound is underappreciated. I gave up watching the movie in my frustration, which was fine, because no one seemed all that invested in the movies. Katie and Jasmine even surprised me with a birthday cake!

Jake was a pony

although he was very shy

we became good friends