Day 95 – AMC Mohican Center and Gyp’s Tavern

I hit the trail around 7am this morning, there were a couple of late rain showers last night but nothing too substantial, although my rain fly was still wet in the morning. However, none of the other tents were, so I may have to reapply a waterproof coating to mine. The trail started with a rocky mile or so until we reached a ridge with some beautiful views of the surrounding countryside.

AMC Mohican Center

The views would continue off and on for the rest of the next two miles as I walked along a sparsely forested ridge.

There was rain and storms in the area, so it was cloudy and quite windy up there. Fortunately, they only sprayed me, although the humidity was terribly high. At about 3 miles I had a short but rocky descent to a gravel road that led to the AMC Mohican Center.

The Mohican Center Lodge Fireplace

There I met up with Shooter, Queso and Big Stick, where we had breakfast and filled up on drinking water. I got a nice breakfast sandwich with sausage, egg and cheese and a couple cups of coffee, which was pretty good. After spending too long there we continued on our way. The next few miles went by fairly quickly, buoyed by our good breakfast and moderate terrain. It was still quite difficult in some parts, but they gave us a little respite from time to time.

Smooth as silk

So soft…

Later at the top of the ridge I had a beautiful stretch of miles that was very flat and very smooth trail. This was great for making good time and not making my ankle hurt more. Some of the sections this morning were a little irritating, but this section was pretty smooth and enjoyable. This ended up being the theme for a good portion of the afternoon, although it was interrupted at times, such as a rock climb on Crater Lake and some really rocky sections on Rattlesnake Mountain.

Rock scramble next to Crater Lake

But overall, the late morning and early afternoon went pretty well. The afternoon went by pretty quickly and I only took two short breaks, one at Crater Lake with Queso after climbing over the rocks and the second to look for water in a stream with Big Stick and Queso. As the afternoon progressed, my pace quickened as I approached our intermediate goal for the day, Gyp’s Tavern. As motivation to put in some good miles today, we’ll stop at a tavern for dinner and maybe a few drinks along 21 miles today.

Gyp’s Tavern

Gyp’s Tavern

The last few miles passed quickly and I reached the road junction and took a short walk to Gyp’s Tavern. Waiting for me there were Blueberry Turtle, Shooter and Birdie. I quickly ordered a Miller Lite and some mozzarella sticks, taking advantage of the happy hour deals before they ended at 6 pm Shortly after Queso and Big Stick also arrived and our party was complete. We spent the next two hours lounging outside, as the back of the tavern led to a lake, and enjoyed some chairs by the lake, putting our feet up.

View from the rear of Gyp’s Tavern

We also made sure to fuel up with some food and cold drinks. It was a great time to hang out and we could have stayed much longer, but unfortunately we had plans to go another 3 miles to the Gren Anderson Shelter. So we took off a little before 8:30 pm and walked quickly trying to take advantage of the waning daylight. Just before dark we saw a black figure in front of us and sure enough it was a young black bear, probably a yearling. While we were very excited to see him before he left, we were a little worried thinking that Mom might also be lurking in the shadows. But we had no problems and arrived at the shelter area a little after dark, where we quickly set up our tents and went to bed.

Day 95 Statistics:

24.6 miles

3,310′ ascent, 3,438′ descent

Gren Anderson Shelter Stealth Site

3DSLC…

Stove use times: 14

Snakes seen on the trail: 19

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