Tuesday, July 25, 2017
Crocs at West Mountain Shelter NY 1396 Miles
July 13 Anton's/Greenwood Lake, NY 1371 Miles
Today we would cross for good into New York. No weaving in and out of the New Jersey/New York border.
Ravi, the motel owner, gave Chili Dog and Persistent and I a ride up to the trailhead this morning after we had walked down to Burger King and ate a pancake breakfast.
It was supposed to thunderstorm that day and I was a little anxious to get going but the two guys were taking their time. Persistent, was 62 years old and looked tired. He said that he had thought of quitting a number of times and was looking forward to putting his feet up and watching TV for a week. He said he was bored with the views and the climbs were too rough.
I felt a little of the same way but I just needed rest and I'd be ready to go on. Dreaming of TV and movies and such seemed as distant as political news and other society and media events. They just seem illusory and a waste of time, a way for the "owners" to keep the "consumers" busy. But I understand being tired and feeling beat up as Persistent felt.
We got to the trailhead around 10AM.
It was a two mile climb up the "stairway to heaven" but I felt pretty good about it. Then about two miles out I heard Chilli dog say stop and I stopped as a large 6 foot black rat snake slittered a few inches away from my foot and began climbing up a tree on the other side of the trail.
That was close.
Of course I took pictures. It was an amazingly beautiful beast.
For the first six miles it was moderate trail walking and we stopped for lunch around 2PM at the state park.
The headquarters had rusty water from the outside spigot for hikers and so I went into the headquarters and used their water fountain to fill up my Smart Water bottles. Most hikers use Smart Water bottles because their size is perfect for using a water filter and the bottle itself is slim for carrying in a backpack.
Chili and Persistent were taking their time eating and after a half an hour I said I was going on and would meet them down the trail. They said ok.
It was getting dark and looked like rain. I couldn't understand why they were lollygagging about as if they were on a summer stroll.
About 30 minutes later it started to rain and then about 45 minutes later it started to thunder and pour.
I had given up my poncho long ago and covered my bag and hightailed it up the hills and skipping over and around the rocks. And it became rockier and the trail turned into little rivers that I straddled up. My clothes and my shoes were drenched but at least it was not cold.
It had been a few weeks since I had walked in a storm. I had to admit it was kinda fun and exciting as long as I didn't slip and break my ass.
Then it became as challenging as it was exciting. I came to some rock and saw that the trail went up a wall and step bars were hammered into the side that I had to climb up. I put my poles in my bag and climbed up the "steps" up to a ridge and over it in the rain and then I was jumping from huge rock to huge rock for the next hour. Slowly. The rocks were very slick and I sure didn't need another accident. I felt as if I was back in Pennsylvania.
Then about after an hour and half the rain began to let up. I stopped at the top of a hill on a rocky ledge and ate some power bars and checked my backpack. My stuff was dry amazingly enough.
I walked about a mile more and saw some tents. How is it going I shouted out.
Fine. Who's that?
Crocs.
Oh hey Crocs. It's Marigold. It's supposed to rain more in about a half an hour.
Ok thanks. I better get going then. Have a good one.
You too. Be safe.
It didn't look like more rain so I slowed down. I needed a break.
About 20 minutes later Chili Dog and Persistent came up a hill and we walked together for the next 10 miles. Along the way I slipped backwards onto my ass coming down a huge wet mossy rock and me poles went flying off the rock and down into the forest below. Oh well.
After seventeen miles of walking that day, we landed at the ridge above Greenwood Lake, NY and came down a rocky mile trail into town. They couldn't have given us a normal trail after all that crap I thought.
We were beat. I called "Anton's on the Lake" and told this gruff New Yorker guy that we were coming in.
Keep your expectations low I told Persistence who was hoping that Anton's was nice. Anton's on the Lake sounds nice he said.
I doubt you'll get breakfast in bed.
Upon arrival we saw that Anton's was just another budget inn with Goodwill furniture and door handles that were coming off for 90 a night and 120 on weekends.
I shared a room with Persistent and Chili took his own room.
If the place was shabby, the lake view was pretty with bridges and boats and kayaks and geese. And after we got settled in, we went to a local restaurant and sat at the bar outside eating pizza and drinking beer and swatting mosquitoes until almost 10PM.
July 14 Antons 1371 Miles
Everyone, including myself, wanted a zero day. So we did the usual resupply and laundry and walked around Greenwood Lake some. Not much though. My feet were aching.
We had lunch at a nice cozy coffee shop. I drank a number of cups of coffee and talked Bernie Sanders with the owner who was a supporter. Then went outside and saw I saw 38 year old Marigold sitting at an outside table.
You made it down I said.
Crocs?
Yeah.
Well, I called my sister. I'm off the trail. I can't do this anymore. It is too rough and its no fun anymore.
I understand that I said.
Sitting in that tent in the rain, climbing over those rocks.
They were a bitch, I said.
I've got things to do that are more productive back home. I'm looking forward to some relaxing time. Seeing my family and friends.
I hope you have a good one Marigold.
You too. Be safe.
I was looking forward to going back to my bed. But two hikers that Chili and Persistent had been hanging with were coming back in and they got my bed. I was back on the floor again.
That night the old group of friends went out and drank some. I lay down on the floor and was asleep by nine-thirty.
July 15 Fingerboard Shelter, NY 1387 Miles
I skipped breakfast with Persistent who was going to zero another day with his two new companions. He acted guilty for taking another day but I told him to enjoy it. Get off your feet.
Me, I couldn't afford it and I couldn't afford to get too comfortable. Although that group was about my age, and I enjoyed the company, I felt that they would slow me down. And I couldn't afford any negativity. It was hard enough as it was without the reinforcement.
I took an Uber back to the trailhead. I was not going to take that bastard of a trail up to the AT again. When I got to the trailhead however and took out my pack, I realized that I had left my hiker poles back at the coffee shop.
Damn. I didn't want to go back, spending more money and wasting more time. So I went on without them. I had done it before and I would do it again.
The trail was a lot of PUDs, pointless ups and downs, but all at the same elevation, around 1000 feet. Yet it still was as rough as it was the other day going into Greenwood Lake. But it wasn't raining thank God.
Then the trail started smoothing out and then the trail began to go through woody dark fields that looked like pictures I'd seen of Ireland, with huge rocks jutting out of green fields and small cliffs beside small running brooks. It was very pretty.
There were many day hikers out and they all had questions about my through hike it seemed.
Then I came across Hiker Man and Susan putting out thirty or so gallons of water on the trail. They were doing trail magic and I helped them unload their stash from the car. They weren't hikers they said, they just wanted to feed their good Karma. Nice folks. And the water is in short supply up North so it is definitely appreciated.
After about 10 miles I crossed over NY Thruway 87 and ran into some trail magic in a parking lot at the local Park. It was nice to relax and drink some Mtn. Dew and eat a couple of hamburgers.
Leaving the parking lot, I walked a few miles and went through the Lemon Squeezer, two gigantic boulders thrown together so that it was a tight squeeze to get through it with or without a pack. It was fun.
I came into the Shelter around 6 PM and having walked 16 miles. I let a group of young people go on another 5 miles. One of the group had no poles and she said she thought poles were just a crutch.
I had to agree. Moreover, I enjoyed the freedom of not having to mind where my poles went or having to carry them up and over ridges where they did no good anyway.
The Fingerboard Shelter sat on a rock and was made of rock. Much of the tent space was gone so I settled into the shelter and looked out into the rocky pastureland.
And as it went dark, I felt like was in the old country, and wouldn't have been surprised to see a stocking-capped Leprechaun walking by smoking his pipe.
July16 West Mountain Shelter, NY 1396 Miles
I could only muster nine miles today. I was tired and my feet were aching mightily.
I took it easy, and walked as if I were strolling in the park at home, taking pictures and talking to day hikers. The terrain was just the same as yesterday and I took the time to enjoy it.
I crossed Palisades Parkway a busy 4-lane divided highway. The cars zoomed by at about eighty miles an hour. I looked in the guidebook and saw that New York City was just 34 miles away. How cool is that? The guidebook also says the West Mountain Shelter had NY views. Cool.
From the Expressway I went uphill and met Doppler going South. Doppler drives his truck to a place and motorbikes up the trail and hikes back to his truck slack packing and then sleeping in his truck. Must be nice.
It was a long ridge around to the shelter trail and then 80 yards to the shelter itself. It was an eight person shelter and I settled in at 4PM and enjoyed the view of the Hudson River and the docks and extremely far in the hazy distance I saw the NY skyline. I took out my hiker box Jack Reacher novel and read some.
A couple of hours later Compass and Pipes and his girlfriend, Fiddle and the German, Illegal, came in to tent. We sat around the shelter and watched the sun go down and the twinkling of the NY skyline come up.
Then Compass came back from his tent and said there was a snake curled up near him. All the guys got up and ran to see it. I could tell it was a Rattle Snake by its marking. We all took pictures and we poked it a little (isn't that what boys do?) to see if it was alive. It was. It raised it's head and just stared at us, not moving.
We left it there. Later, Compass poked it some more so as to get it away from his tent. But he said it went into some bushes closer to his tent. We all got a good laugh about that and told him to sleep well.
After watching some more of the view and watching an insouciant bullfrog lazily hop by our feet, we all went to bed.
It had been a good restful day.
I needed to hike less, more often.
Monday, July 17, 2017
Crocs at Vernon, NJ 1356 Miles
July 9 Gren Anderson 1324 Miles
Whiskers had gone off to be with his girlfriend the night before and I had parked next to Crater Lake, near the trail.
I left my tenting spot at Crater Lake about 7 AM and proceeded up the hill that I wanted to avoid the night before when I was tired. It wasn't too bad after a good night's sleep.
After a few miles, I climbed the short Rattlesnake Mountain and heard some loud thumping off to the right in the brush. I instinctively crouched down and turned and saw a bear cub running away from me through the bush and then further on I saw mama bear angling to meet her cub. Then they disappeared into the forest.
Shatterproof told me there were many bears in New Jersey and that I would most likely see a few. But that was last year. Since that time, Governor Christie signed off to the hunting and killing of 636 bears. There have been 3000 bears killed since 2010 in New Jersey when hunting bear season was reopened.
Now, there are approximately 3000 bears remaining in New Jersey today according to the Wildlife Commission.
Apparently the bears are trapped in New Jersey, surrounded by massive freeways and neighborhoods, and they continue to grow in population until they are shot and arrowed during hunting season.
At US 206, Culvers Gap, I walked to a diner a half mile away for lunch but it was closed. So I went to a tavern a short distance from it, a biker's bar, and met Whiskers and a number of other hikers, eating sandwiches and drinking beer by a lake.
I played some pool and had a burger and had a nice time.
I learned that Whiskers had met his girlfriend last night at the lake and camped out near a parking lot and was fined $80 this morning.
I'm glad I tented near the trail and away from the roads.
Many were reluctant to leave but I knew that I had a climb to the next shelter.
I arrived at Gren Anderson Shelter, an older one, and saw that it was full of mosquitos. I tented out instead.
July 10 High Point Shelter 1337 Miles
Lil cub and Dundee come in this morning to Gren Anderson as I was eating a peanut butter sandwich breakfast alongside twenty or so high school kids out hiking and camping.
Lil Cub is slower than I, so Dundee and I walked together up to the top of Sunrise Mountain and had a snack at the pavilion with the Kids. Then we descended down to Mashipacong Shelter where we stopped for lunch and a nap. Some kind soul and left some water jugs.
The high school kids came in and lied down and napped too.
I walked with Lil Cub out of the shelter and stayed with him until I had to press on at my pace. We expected to meet up at High Point State Park Headquarters for a lake swim and concessions.
But I was tired by the time I arrived there when, lo and behold, there was a tent full of trail magic and Dundee was eating a Jersey popular Taylor pork roll and egg sandwich and a pancake.
Mom and Dad said they were doing Trail Magic for their hiker-son Iron Man.
A half and hour later Lil Cub rolled in and we ate and left together to the wooden
tower where one could see 3 States: New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania.
We walked another mile to High Point Shelter and tented out near a flowing stream. It was a nice campsite. I'm glad I put up the whole tent. It rained some around 1 AM.
July 11 Unionville Memorial Park 1344 miles
If Northern Pennsylvania feels like the trails are 90% rocks and 10% ground, than southern New Jersey is about 40% rocks and northern New Jersey is about 75% rocks. My soles of my feet feel like they have been beaten with a hammer. The left heel is particularly bothersome. But at least the trail is not too hilly.
I left the Shelter with Lil Cub and Dundee and we walked five miles to the Murray property, the so-called secret shelter. It is an old cabin and some other little cabins on an 80 acre pastureland. Very scenic and bucolic rolling hills. I took a quick sponge bath with my shirt under a pump from an artesian well.
We had a 11 AM lunch together and old Mr. Murray came up in his pickup, drinking liquor out of a foam cup, as we sat there eating.
He was trying to sell the land to the Appalachian Trail Conservancy. They offered 420K for 17 acres and he wanted 500K. He was holding out he said and drove off. Seemed like a nice guy and I hope the ATC can acquire some of it for hikers.
Lil Cub and Dundee were going past Unionville and I was going in to the Post Office to pick up some shoes. I walked across some swampy areas on footboards and then walked down the paved road into a flag waving, church-populated Unionville. A town with no stoplights that I observed. It had one restaurant, an Italian restaurant run be Mexican-Americans, two convenience stores, and a bar.
I went by the Post Office and one package, my blowup sleeping pillow, had arrived. I put up my tent under a tree behind the basketball court in the park with a number of other hikers. Then I went and had a Panini and some Cokes at the restaurant with Giggles and Blue Deer (and his dog) and then resupplied with some bagels and peanut butter from the store.
July 12 Appalachian Motel, Vernon NJ 1356 Miles
Today I walked out of Unionville, New Jersey and into New York, walking along the border for a number of miles and down some paved roads and around the perimeter of the Wallkill Reserve, a swampy area that is being renovated by the Forestry Commission.
I think swamps are beautiful and took a number of pictures of the marshy grasses and glistening water and then entered into the forest and almost ran headlong into a deer. We were both surprised and then he decided to move a few yards into the brush. I guess there is not much hunting there or he would have really hightailed it away from me.
After five or six miles and a number of footbridges over streams and rivulets, I came into a long swampy meadow with almost a mile of two by four boards to walk on. I was behind another hiker and at the end of our walk we came onto a road.
He said his name was Chili Dog and we were both hungry and decided to walk over to Heavenly Farm, a nice farm supply store, a few yards down the road.
It was closing time there, 6PM, and so I hurriedly bought some watermelon, chocolate milk, ice cream, and a roast beef sandwich. We ate our food and charged our phones outside while deciding what to do.
It was a long climb up the hill known as "the stairway to heaven" and we were both tired. I was going to tent behind the store, behind the farm tractors, and leave before 6AM in the morning.
Chili Dog called a hiking partner, Persistent, who was staying at a nearby hotel and the partner said I could share a room with the two of them. I agreed to that. A shower sounded good.
Then, providently, a car by to pick up a backpack hidden at the store, and the hiker agreed to take us the few miles to the Appalachian Hotel.
The Indian owner was upset that there were three of us in a one bed room. We gave him some extra money and then he stopped shouting. Apparently hikers were always taking advantage of him.
I got some laundry done and got a shower and put my mattress and bag to the floor.
Friday, July 14, 2017
July 8 Crocs at Carter Lake, New Jersey 1313 Miles
June 29 Bear Creek Mountain Resort, PA 1257 Miles
After spending two pleasant days with hikers in the bunkroom behind Bert's Restaurant in Palmerton, I took an Uber through Allentown, NJ to Bear Creek Mountain Resort, NJ.
The resort was a number of metal buildings with a pool, a couple of bars and eating areas, and a deck in the back looking out onto the ski lifts.
Outside my third story window, a wedding rehearsal was being held in the courtyard. It appears there is a wedding held at the resort almost everyday.
Since Terrie told me her plane would be late, probably around 10PM I assumed, I ate a sandwich at the bar and took a pitcher of beer out on the patio to listen to the band.
She arrived early, at 9PM, and she looked wonderful. I was very happy to see her.
June 30 Bear Creek Mountain Resort, PA 1257 Miles
The resort was a number of metal buildings with a pool, a couple of bars and eating areas, and a deck in the back looking out onto the ski lifts.
Outside my third story window, a wedding rehearsal was being held in the courtyard. It appears there is a wedding held at the resort almost everyday.
Since Terrie told me her plane would be late, probably around 10PM I assumed, I ate a sandwich at the bar and took a pitcher of beer out on the patio to listen to the band.
She arrived early, at 9PM, and she looked wonderful. I was very happy to see her.
June 30 Bear Creek Mountain Resort, PA 1257 Miles
Terrie and I relaxed today and spent the day walking around eating, drinking and doing laundry.
We had a delicious steak dinner that night and on the way back to our room we heard Twist and Shout coming out of a wedding banquet room; so we crashed the party and danced a couple of numbers until we slopped our wine on our clothes and figured it was time to slip out.
It was nice being clean and wearing regular pants and a shirt again.
It was nice being clean and wearing regular pants and a shirt again.
July 1 Bear Creek 1270 Miles
Terrie and I went to Hamburg, Pa to pick up a portable water filter; I had been going a long time without one. But Pennsylvania had few springs on the trail and available water could be dirty). Along the way we enjoyed the Pennsylvania countryside of small villages and farmhouses.
On the way back to the resort, we got caught in a long downpour that flooded the flat narrow roads and stopped us frequently. It was quite fun and exciting actually.
Back at the ski resort, we hung out at the pool and had too much sun and too many Moscow mules and I barely defeated Terrie in a number of rounds of gin rummy.
Terrie wanted to hike with me some.
Well, Pennsylvania is rocky and this area is especially rocky I told her. It could be difficult.
I have been doing Crossfit a while so I am in pretty good shape she said.
Do you have good shoes I said.
These are great shoes my confident wife said.
So I contacted a shuttle driver and arranged for a hike the next day, Sunday.
Terrie wanted to hike with me some.
Well, Pennsylvania is rocky and this area is especially rocky I told her. It could be difficult.
I have been doing Crossfit a while so I am in pretty good shape she said.
Do you have good shoes I said.
These are great shoes my confident wife said.
So I contacted a shuttle driver and arranged for a hike the next day, Sunday.
July 2 Bear Creek 1269 miles
We packed some snacks, tortillas, peanut butter, bananas and after meeting the shuttle driver we drove to Smith Gap Road, 12 miles north of Palmerton, PA, and about 1500 feet elevation. We planned to slack pack South into Palmerton and to our car.
We climbed the mountain and arrived at the trailhead around 10:30AM. There was a group doing trail magic. But we were just starting and so we continued to venture down the trail.
Terrie hiked adeptly over miles of easy to moderately rocky trail.
This is not too bad she said.
At this rate we could be done by five I said.
But we didn't get in Palmerton until seven-thirty.
We climbed the mountain and arrived at the trailhead around 10:30AM. There was a group doing trail magic. But we were just starting and so we continued to venture down the trail.
Terrie hiked adeptly over miles of easy to moderately rocky trail.
This is not too bad she said.
At this rate we could be done by five I said.
But we didn't get in Palmerton until seven-thirty.
The trail became rougher around four o'clock and her feet and legs were getting sore and shaky. We stopped for lunch.
Around 2 PM we stopped at some water jug trail magic left beside the trail and looking on my GPS I noted a gravel trail that would bypass the AT for four or five miles.
We took the old gravel trail uphill for a mile or so, much to Terrie's dismay. It takes a while to get hiker's legs and she was looking weary. But she was a trooper and pushed up the hill and over it .
I pointed out a bear's paw in a pool of mud and we saw a nice view as well.
After five miles, the gravel road stopped and a little grassy trail took us back to the AT, which, unfortunately, was all pointy rocks. I felt sorry for Terrie. She was over this.
How much longer she said.
Only about a mile I replied.
Isn't that what you said last time?
I wish I had looked at the AWOL Guidebook a little more closely. I had overlooked the part where it said that the trail into Palmerton that we were crossing was a rocky steep trail due to zinc smelting from 1896 to 1980.
And it was a rocky steep trail. In fact, there was no "trail," just a field of huge boulders piled up and resting on each other down the mountain.
Terrie was dismayed and then happy to get through it and onto the dirt trail fifty yards onward.
My legs are shaking she said. I can barely stand up.
But the trail was no more than a minute walk and we came out onto another field of boulders.
Let's rest I suggested.
I'm going to kill you she suggested.
We rested and then I guided her through another section of the "quarry." I was hoping that was all of it but it wasn't.
We went through a number of these chaotic rock fields, punctuated by a few yards of trail. Terrie learned the technique of walking sideways, hands on boulders.
This is your fault she said.
Yeah, you are right. It is, I replied.
And it was my fault. I should have done more research. I felt very guilty but I had to get her up and out of there.
You may need to call a helicopter to get me off.
I crawled over to her. You can do this I said. You can do it.
I don't know she said looking tired, sweaty, exhausted.
.
Let's get off this stupid mountain and this stupid ass trail. Who designed this crap? I said.
This f.... up mountain I said.
Yeah, it sure is. This is way too dangerous she said.
Screw these people. Come on let's get out of here. Let's do it.
I scrambled over to a ridge where there was an American flag painted on a rock. Please, I thought, let this be the end of it.
Look, an American flag, I yelled back to her and climbing to the ridge. It's like they planted a flag at the top!
On the top of the ridge I could see a mile or two down to the river, the bridge, and the parking lot where our car was. Looking down over the ridge I saw a steep cliff, and then bushes and a piece of trail. Thank God.
Our car she said, I see our car.
Yeah. We are almost there.
We had to climb down on a half foot ledge, pressing our stomachs to the wall face. I guided Terrie's feet along the places to put her feet and the cracks in the rock to grab. She performed like a trooper. Her trainer later told her that she should have been roped.
Forty-five minutes later we were down the trail, having met a hiker coming up. He was a German thru-hiker and planned to go over those rocks as the sun went down and then camp somewhere.
He smiled upon hearing our story. He would not go down any gravel road he said. Just the AT.
There is no place to put up a tent on the trail, Terrie said later.
He'll find one, I said. He'll walk into the night until he does.
We finally came down to the highway and across the bridge and to our rental car. Then on the way out, we both yelled out "F.... You Mountain!!!" Giving it some major middle fingers.
You know it was dangerous, she said later, and I worry about you hiking these rocks, but at the same time it was
kinda exciting.
See the kind of girl I married?
Around 2 PM we stopped at some water jug trail magic left beside the trail and looking on my GPS I noted a gravel trail that would bypass the AT for four or five miles.
We took the old gravel trail uphill for a mile or so, much to Terrie's dismay. It takes a while to get hiker's legs and she was looking weary. But she was a trooper and pushed up the hill and over it .
I pointed out a bear's paw in a pool of mud and we saw a nice view as well.
After five miles, the gravel road stopped and a little grassy trail took us back to the AT, which, unfortunately, was all pointy rocks. I felt sorry for Terrie. She was over this.
How much longer she said.
Only about a mile I replied.
Isn't that what you said last time?
I wish I had looked at the AWOL Guidebook a little more closely. I had overlooked the part where it said that the trail into Palmerton that we were crossing was a rocky steep trail due to zinc smelting from 1896 to 1980.
And it was a rocky steep trail. In fact, there was no "trail," just a field of huge boulders piled up and resting on each other down the mountain.
Terrie was dismayed and then happy to get through it and onto the dirt trail fifty yards onward.
My legs are shaking she said. I can barely stand up.
But the trail was no more than a minute walk and we came out onto another field of boulders.
Let's rest I suggested.
I'm going to kill you she suggested.
We rested and then I guided her through another section of the "quarry." I was hoping that was all of it but it wasn't.
We went through a number of these chaotic rock fields, punctuated by a few yards of trail. Terrie learned the technique of walking sideways, hands on boulders.
This is your fault she said.
Yeah, you are right. It is, I replied.
And it was my fault. I should have done more research. I felt very guilty but I had to get her up and out of there.
You may need to call a helicopter to get me off.
I crawled over to her. You can do this I said. You can do it.
I don't know she said looking tired, sweaty, exhausted.
.
Let's get off this stupid mountain and this stupid ass trail. Who designed this crap? I said.
This f.... up mountain I said.
Yeah, it sure is. This is way too dangerous she said.
Screw these people. Come on let's get out of here. Let's do it.
I scrambled over to a ridge where there was an American flag painted on a rock. Please, I thought, let this be the end of it.
Look, an American flag, I yelled back to her and climbing to the ridge. It's like they planted a flag at the top!
On the top of the ridge I could see a mile or two down to the river, the bridge, and the parking lot where our car was. Looking down over the ridge I saw a steep cliff, and then bushes and a piece of trail. Thank God.
Our car she said, I see our car.
Yeah. We are almost there.
We had to climb down on a half foot ledge, pressing our stomachs to the wall face. I guided Terrie's feet along the places to put her feet and the cracks in the rock to grab. She performed like a trooper. Her trainer later told her that she should have been roped.
Forty-five minutes later we were down the trail, having met a hiker coming up. He was a German thru-hiker and planned to go over those rocks as the sun went down and then camp somewhere.
He smiled upon hearing our story. He would not go down any gravel road he said. Just the AT.
There is no place to put up a tent on the trail, Terrie said later.
He'll find one, I said. He'll walk into the night until he does.
We finally came down to the highway and across the bridge and to our rental car. Then on the way out, we both yelled out "F.... You Mountain!!!" Giving it some major middle fingers.
You know it was dangerous, she said later, and I worry about you hiking these rocks, but at the same time it was
kinda exciting.
See the kind of girl I married?
July 3 Bear Creek 1269 miles
We hobbled around the resort and rested all day.
We hobbled around the resort and rested all day.
July 4 Bert's Restaurant 1282 miles
In the morning, Terrie drove me in the rental car to Palmerton where I was to meet the holiday overtime employee at nine-fifteen and pick up my pair of size 13 sport Crocs.
I was looking forward to trying a larger size in the shoes that I had worn for the first 110 miles.
But the employee didn't show. I had missed him according to the gas station attendant across the street. They came at 7:30.
So I spent another night at Bert's with a few young people sitting around the telly eating chips and drinking beer.
I was looking forward to trying a larger size in the shoes that I had worn for the first 110 miles.
But the employee didn't show. I had missed him according to the gas station attendant across the street. They came at 7:30.
So I spent another night at Bert's with a few young people sitting around the telly eating chips and drinking beer.
July 5 tent site 1277 miles
Well, I got my shoes and after all that waiting around for them, I saw that they were too big and so sent them back. I went to the library where I spent some frustrating time trying to put photo's on my blog from my phone. It's screwed up.
Then I Ubered to Smith Gap where I had left off with Terrie a couple of days ago and then walked 7 miles North to a two tent campsite alongside the trail. It was five o'clock. It felt good to be on the trail and in the open air again.
Then I Ubered to Smith Gap where I had left off with Terrie a couple of days ago and then walked 7 miles North to a two tent campsite alongside the trail. It was five o'clock. It felt good to be on the trail and in the open air again.
July 6 Delaware Water Gap 1293 miles
Looking forward to getting to Delaware Water Gap because it was the last town before entering New Jersey. I know Jersey would not be a piece of cake but I and many others were more than over Pennsylvania rocks.
I packed up my tent and left at 7:00 AM and walked a few miles down into Wind Gap where I met Laura sitting at the trailhead eating a sandwich.
We walked up the trail but I had lost some of my legs and she went ahead easily.
About twelve miles into it I began to tire and got careless and tripped over a root. I fell on my side and then onto my face and onto some rocks.
I looked at my left leg and saw that there was going to be a big bruise there. I felt my face and noted that I had a cut on my cheekbone.
But my glasses were intact perhaps because I had gotten my hand over them when I hit the rock.
I walked into the town of Delaware Water Gap over some moderately rocky trail and taking a side road into town. Delaware Water Gap is a small town that, like so many others, seemed to have suffered when the expressway was opened next to it.
I found the Presbyterian Church of the Mountain Hiker which provided bunk beds and shuttles just for donations.
I got a bunk and went for some ice cream and a hot dog at a shop across the street. Then the church provided there weekly Thursday potluck to hikers and friends. It was an amazing feast of chicken, salads, pies, and homemade ice cream, and I enjoyed talking with the church folks.
I packed up my tent and left at 7:00 AM and walked a few miles down into Wind Gap where I met Laura sitting at the trailhead eating a sandwich.
We walked up the trail but I had lost some of my legs and she went ahead easily.
About twelve miles into it I began to tire and got careless and tripped over a root. I fell on my side and then onto my face and onto some rocks.
I looked at my left leg and saw that there was going to be a big bruise there. I felt my face and noted that I had a cut on my cheekbone.
But my glasses were intact perhaps because I had gotten my hand over them when I hit the rock.
I walked into the town of Delaware Water Gap over some moderately rocky trail and taking a side road into town. Delaware Water Gap is a small town that, like so many others, seemed to have suffered when the expressway was opened next to it.
I found the Presbyterian Church of the Mountain Hiker which provided bunk beds and shuttles just for donations.
I got a bunk and went for some ice cream and a hot dog at a shop across the street. Then the church provided there weekly Thursday potluck to hikers and friends. It was an amazing feast of chicken, salads, pies, and homemade ice cream, and I enjoyed talking with the church folks.
July 7 Delaware water Gap 1293 Miles
Going into the toilet room this morning, I saw that I had a black eye to go along with the yellow and black bruise on my side. Also I noted that my ankles were swollen round.
I met a couple of guys, short and slender Dundee and tall and gangly Lil Cub in the bunkroom taking turns at the shower.
I have been looking for you, Dundee said.
Looking for me? Why?
Because you are Crocs and I am Dundee.
Well what do you know I said.
The three of us went for a hiker's breakfast and I settled in on a ruben instead.
Then, we took a shuttle to Walmart for a resupply with a road raging, wheel-to-the-floor Church fellow named Kenny.
Kenny didn't like the idea of people coming onto the expressway ahead of him and gunned it like mad to prevent that happening. Lil Cub and I were holding our breath the whole way to Walmart and back.
Back at the bunkhouse basement, I took a little nap, talked with Cowgirl about books, and in the evening went to listen to some jazz next door at the Deer Head Inn.
At the bar I met a fellow through hiker, Persistent, around my age, in his sixties. I also met 65 year old Blueberry again. I had met her walking in a meadow a couple of weeks ago.
They were staying at the Inn which I could not afford.
I love jazz and it was a very professional uplifting band playing at seven o'clock.
I listened to it out on the porch of the Inn with Blueberry but I was tired and very reluctantly went back to the church around 8PM, hiker's midnight.
I met a couple of guys, short and slender Dundee and tall and gangly Lil Cub in the bunkroom taking turns at the shower.
I have been looking for you, Dundee said.
Looking for me? Why?
Because you are Crocs and I am Dundee.
Well what do you know I said.
The three of us went for a hiker's breakfast and I settled in on a ruben instead.
Then, we took a shuttle to Walmart for a resupply with a road raging, wheel-to-the-floor Church fellow named Kenny.
Kenny didn't like the idea of people coming onto the expressway ahead of him and gunned it like mad to prevent that happening. Lil Cub and I were holding our breath the whole way to Walmart and back.
Back at the bunkhouse basement, I took a little nap, talked with Cowgirl about books, and in the evening went to listen to some jazz next door at the Deer Head Inn.
At the bar I met a fellow through hiker, Persistent, around my age, in his sixties. I also met 65 year old Blueberry again. I had met her walking in a meadow a couple of weeks ago.
They were staying at the Inn which I could not afford.
I love jazz and it was a very professional uplifting band playing at seven o'clock.
I listened to it out on the porch of the Inn with Blueberry but I was tired and very reluctantly went back to the church around 8PM, hiker's midnight.
July 8 tented near Carter Lake 1313 miles
Walked twenty miles today.
A wonderful guy at the church brought a number of our packs up the trail 10 miles from the church and I slack packed alone out of Delaware Water Gap around 8:00AM. Crossing under the expressways and uphill onto a moderate trail terrain for the most part.
At the end of ten miles there was a hiker's feast put on by Tom Kennedy and sponsored by supporters for mental health. It was quite a feast of watermelon and hamburgers, potato salad and cake, and blue ribbon beer. There were about twenty hikers there including Lil Cub and Dundee.
We left there together with full packs, and I ended up separating from them, checking out a side trail. I didn't want to just hike. I wanted to explore some.
It was a nice trail with many wild dogwoods flowering along side a stream. I didn't know there were any. In Georgia I was told the original dogwood had died out.
Then I met twenty-two year old Cowgirl along the way, we have a love of books together, and we hiked together for a while but she was anxious to get to a water source and to put in her long miles so she could reach New York City in time to see a friend. She left this slow guy behind.
But I passed her about four miles later, as she sat with some guys at a campsite, and continued walking an easy grassy road, walking past probable campsites and into the setting sun, meeting twenty-nine year old Whiskers along the way, thinking that we would camp together, and then I, pushing ahead as it was getting dark, and seeing a big climb up ahead, decided to camp at Crater Lake near the trail around 8PM, seeing no sign of Whiskers.
You are not supposed to camp there but I did anyway, close to the trail.
Whiskers, on the phone, walked past me, saying he wouldn't be camping with me, his girlfriend was going to pick him up
.
I fell asleep to the insistent sound of frogs and whippoorwills and hoot owls.
It had been a long twenty mile day but a good one.
A wonderful guy at the church brought a number of our packs up the trail 10 miles from the church and I slack packed alone out of Delaware Water Gap around 8:00AM. Crossing under the expressways and uphill onto a moderate trail terrain for the most part.
At the end of ten miles there was a hiker's feast put on by Tom Kennedy and sponsored by supporters for mental health. It was quite a feast of watermelon and hamburgers, potato salad and cake, and blue ribbon beer. There were about twenty hikers there including Lil Cub and Dundee.
We left there together with full packs, and I ended up separating from them, checking out a side trail. I didn't want to just hike. I wanted to explore some.
It was a nice trail with many wild dogwoods flowering along side a stream. I didn't know there were any. In Georgia I was told the original dogwood had died out.
Then I met twenty-two year old Cowgirl along the way, we have a love of books together, and we hiked together for a while but she was anxious to get to a water source and to put in her long miles so she could reach New York City in time to see a friend. She left this slow guy behind.
But I passed her about four miles later, as she sat with some guys at a campsite, and continued walking an easy grassy road, walking past probable campsites and into the setting sun, meeting twenty-nine year old Whiskers along the way, thinking that we would camp together, and then I, pushing ahead as it was getting dark, and seeing a big climb up ahead, decided to camp at Crater Lake near the trail around 8PM, seeing no sign of Whiskers.
You are not supposed to camp there but I did anyway, close to the trail.
Whiskers, on the phone, walked past me, saying he wouldn't be camping with me, his girlfriend was going to pick him up
.
I fell asleep to the insistent sound of frogs and whippoorwills and hoot owls.
It had been a long twenty mile day but a good one.
Wednesday, July 5, 2017
Waynesboro to Palmerton Pictures
Harper's Ferry, Va.
registering as a thru-hiker
hike with
AT section hikers
on the half-gallon ice cream
challenge.
new hat.
PA Dutch countryside.
old farmhouses are to the
road.
Pics from Waynesboro to Palmerton, PA
Harper's Ferry
The Bahamian Uber driver wears my
pack to show his friends that I am real .
encouragement and advice on my upcoming
hike
and take a quick dip.
Monday, July 3, 2017
Crocs at Palmerton Pa. 1257 miles
June 21 Rattling Run tent space 1168 miles
I planned to meet my wife, Terrie, on 5/30 for about five days of off the trail fun at Palmerton, PA. She wanted to hike so I tried to find a place where the terrain would not to be too rough. She is a gym rat and not hiker trash. I figured I needed to slow down for a few days.
I left the Clarks Ferry Shelter with Momentum on a nice clear morning. It was a nice smooth path for a about five miles and then it became boulder rocky and we stopped for lunch at a pretty view.
The sharp rocks were hurting my feet and after lunch Momentum left me behind easily. But I met up with her later, being about 25 minutes behind she said, at PA 325, where there was a nice big stream, Clarks Creek, and I dunked my swollen feet into the cold water. We had walked about 14 miles so far.
Momentum went ahead because she wanted to get the big 1000 foot hill over with.
It wasn't supposed to rain that day, but the weather app is correct about 50% of the time I have come to realize, and it began to thunder and pour as I was about halfway up.
Soon, I was soaked but it actually felt good after the long hot day.
When I came to the top of the hill, there were some nice tenting areas and I thought to park there. Then I noticed a thin girl in a blue rain suit sitting on a rock and smoking a cigarette.
She told me her name was Hooks, that she was twenty years old, and she had been walking the trail for about a month and had another week to go before she ran out of money.
Now, she couldn't decide whether to camp here or go. I told her that I had the same problem and so I suggested we walk a little further.
We walked together about 3 miles and I learned that Hooks got the name Hooks because she enjoys hooking up her skin and hanging from the hooks for a period of time. She showed me the scars on her arm.
Sounds like fun I said.
I thought it was strange at first, she said, but I decided to try it and I like it. I do it every few months or so. It feels very relieving. It helps relieve stress. It's like meditation.
Is it painful, I asked.
It is at first. But not if you relax into it. After you have done it you feel very good.
We walked about 3 more miles and we were both tired and settled for a little clearing alongside the trail near Rattling Run. While setting up my tent, one of the tension poles cracked and I had to duck tape it in order to keep my tent up.
I needed to call REI. REI has the best return policy in the hiking/camping world. But it could be a few days before I could get phone service.
I would have to sleep in shelters if this pole didn't hold.
I know Hooks wanted to stay up and talk but I was tired after a 17 mile day, and crawled into my bag around five o'clock.
June 22 Pine Grove Pa. 1193 miles
This was my longest day up to now. A 25 mile day.
I had had a good long sleep and the day broke clear and ground was not too wet.
At Yellow Springs, a little clearing alongside the trail, Hooks and I saw a deer eating grass. It turned and looked at me and then went back to eating grass. Wow. That deer is confident I said to Hooks.
Later I learned that a deer had torn into Amazon's tent and had almost come up to her to lick the salt from her skin. That is domesticated.
It was nice relatively smooth path for Pennsylvania and I was feeling wonderful. At about 8 miles into the hike, as we were going up a hill, Hooks said she needed a break and a cigarette. I didn't and realized I was in better shape than she and so left her.
About 5 miles later, I came to a road crossing Swatara Gap where Amazon and her gang of about eight hikers were getting trail magic from Amazon's mother. I took some water and some apples and thanked Momazon and headed out. I was still feeling good and knew that I had a small hill to climb. The goal was William Penn Shelter which was 8 miles away.
Around noon, after crossing some pretty fields, I had lunch under an overpass where 54 year old Avalanche in his Scottish kilt was eating his lunch on a bench. Strange to see a bench under an overpass but someone was thinking of hikers and it was welcome.
Then it was a rocky climb up and over large suitcase size rocks and then 3 miles over smooth trail through the woods and ferns as far as the eye could see. The nats had come out and enjoyed hanging on my eyelashes for miles, and I found that my sweaty washrag made a good flyswatter.
After walking 21 miles I ran into Momentum at Weilliam Penn Shelter. She was surprised I wanted to go on but I thought that I was just four miles away from a town hitchhike so I pressed on.
Avalanche had mentioned there was trail magic at the 501 Shelter and indeed there was. I drank some Gatorade and ate some oranges and the nice folks even took me into Pine Grove, Pa. and the Comfort Inn near where they were staying. They had come six hours from Ohio to give hikers some food and were going back tomorrow.
Love these guys.
June 23 Pine Grove, Pa. Comfort Inn 1193 miles
I decided to take a zero at the Inn and write some (I was weeks behind) but frustratingly, the Comfort Inn had a computer that only caught the Internet periodically.
I am so surprised the Internet is not working good said the hotel manager.
You work here. I'm sure you are totally shocked, I thought.
So I showered a few times, took a couple of naps and resupplied.
I did get some writing done however, and there was a Dollar General nearby where I resupplied with some tuna and some honeybuns and a McDonalds where I packed out 7 McDoubles.
June 24 Eagles Nest Shelter 1208 miles
I paid for a shuttle back to the trail about noon after trying to navigate the Internet all morning.
At the start of the trail a local hiker told me I could take a gravel road later and skip the rocky AT. I thanked him and took off.
It was a really rocky Pa. trail but I was getting into a rhythm of rock, step, rock, ground, step rock, rock. Trying to avoid the pointy rocks but land on the more flat ones. Miles of landing on pointy rocks is a killer on the bottoms of the feet.
Then I came to a part of the trail that was fooded like a swamp and had to navigate through the meadow jumping over fern drenched rivulets.
Then another fall. After about nine miles I tripped over a root and fell down on my side hitting rocks and leaving a nice big bruise near my hip and a red welt of a stigmata on my palm. Great. I just sat there for ten minutes breathing and resting. Enough is enough.
A mile later, I ran into a tent of trail magic with loads of snacks and drinks and hot dogs. This was a group from the psychology dept from the local Pa. college. They were doing research on the positives of hiking the AT and handing out surveys.
After my fall, the positives of the AT was too ironical.
I was tired and hurt and refused to do the survey but I told them that the Trail was like a marriage (where I got this from I have no clue): it starts off ecstatically and happily and then reality hits and it becomes challenging and then later one has to decide if they want to continue the marriage or move on.
Moreover, the trail has its positives but it has its challenges too and the Trail at the beginning is a different animal than in the middle of it, where I was, and where over 60% of the people I started with had gotten a divorce from the AT.
I should have recorded that the happy researcher said.
I think you should get serious about your job I thought, instead of taking a University paid leave to do trail magic and doing stupid research on a stupid idea with just a stupid survey.
I was a little grumpy and my stigmata was aching.
But one lady saw that I couldn't open a coke bottle with my sore hand and plied me with Little Debbies and oranges before I left.
She must have not been a psychologist.
I decided to take the gravel road that ran alongside the AT that the local hiker had suggested hours ago.
When I got to where the AT crossed the road, I walked a mile or so to the next shelter.
Googling, I later learned that the gravel road I had walked used to be called the AT and deduced that the State had taken it over and pushed the trail more into the woods. The Pa. Game Commission now used the old AT for snowmobiles and hunters.
I began to understand why trail-founder Benton MacKaye was so adamant about keeping the State and roads and highways away from the AT. I began to feel that I was missing out on some nice things as a result of the trail compromises that had been made years ago with the State.
When I got to the shelter Hooks and Momentum were set up with about thirty other local campers from Port Clinton and Philly. I managed to set up my broken tent and fell asleep to the sound of loud music and teenagers gabbing away into the night.
June 25 Eckville Shelter PA 1232 Miles
Talked to Terrie and we changed the date and are to meet up on the 29th, Thursday night. I will Uber to the resort from Palmerton and meet her there. She didn't like the place I found in AWOL, a cabin with shared bathroom. Not this girl! she said. I'm on vacation.
So she booked the Bear Creek Mtn. Resort. A Ski Resort. Fancy-shmancy place with all the amenities. More than fine by me.
I left Eagles Nest at 7:15 and instead of turning left onto the trail I turned right and walked to the gravel road that I had walked the day before. I must have walked about six miles and though no animals, I some nice pastures that I wouldn't have seen from the woods.
I looked at Guthook, my AT app, and found where the AT crossed the gravel road and got back on the trail.
After seven miles I dropped down into Port Clinton. My plan was to sleep at a Pavilion outside of town for a couple of days so that I could be in Palmerton on time.
Port Clinton is a very small passed-by looking town alongside a busy highway. It is a trail town however. The AT crossed a number of rusty railroad tracks and across a bridge and along the way there were huge blocks of carbon in the grass illustrating why the town is or was illustrious.
I went to the Port Clinton Hotel, the only hotel in Port Clinton for the renowned covered french fries and they were an enormous amount that almost filled me up. Talked to a bunch of guys at the bar about the AT. The guy next to me gave me half his to go philly steak (I'm a hiker so who I to refuse food?)
I visited the other Port Clinton site, the Peanut Shop, which is a candy store, and bought some chocolate and then went to the Pavillion, a large umbrellaed picnic shelter with tables and benches. I lay out my air mattress and sleeping bag and took an hour nap listening to the busy highway next door. through the trees.
I had planned on staying there a couple of days. But the traffic and a guy calling himself Preacher walking around greeting hikers was annoying and so I got me up, packed my gear, and headed down through town toward the trail.
I stopped at a Church that was giving out inexpensive food and met a guy in a truck hanging around and asked him if he would take me to Hawk Mountain Road. On my Google Maps I noted the road takes me up to the AT and passes through a wildlife sanctuary. I would still be walking almost the same number of miles as on the AT and perhaps see some interesting sights.
The guy agreed to do it for five bucks which is all the cash I had. He dropped me off at the bottom of the road and I began walking straight up the hill road: cars and motorcycles passing by every so often.
About an hour and two miles up, I saw my first Bear. It came out of the woods and onto the street about 75 yards up, and then turned and started walking uphill on the yellow line.
My phone was dead so I couldn't get a pic, and I didn't want some driver to round a curve and hit the guy, so I shouted, "hey Bear, hey Bear, hey!" and the bear turned its head around as if to say "now what do you want, can't you see I'm walking a yellow line?" and then he took off into the woods.
Along the way I saw a couple of falcons and a couple of hawks. Very cool.
After a few more hours of walking I reached the top and the official gated Sanctuary, and began walking downhill a few miles to the AT Eckhart Shelter which was, unusually, off this paved road. It was also different in that it had a flush toilet in the privy. Fancy dancy.
While there I saw very tall cello-player Amazon, with her long curly hair down her back, leading her pack of six or seven guys to a tent site nearby. They are part of the ten by ten idea, which is walking ten miles by ten AM. That's not me.
I'm more like a part of the six miles by ten group.
I took a platform in the shelter and planned to leave early the next morning and continue walking on this paved road and down into the countryside and then back up to the AT.
June 26 Bake Oven Knob Shelter 1249 miles
Left at six-thirty AM and Avalanche was fixing coffee and Amazon was presiding around a table off in the field with the boys as if they were conducting The First Breakfast.
The sun rose over Mountain Road as I checked my GPS and began walking in the flat rolling Pennsylvania Dutch countryside. I passed fields of grain and corn and cows gazing at me as if I was some alien from another planet, guarding their calves and mooing at me.
I passed old nineteenth century built farms and small lumber shops sitting right next to the streets. I could imagine wagons and horses passing their neighbors on this road over a hundred years ago.
Crossing a pond, I heard a hundred a voiced chorus of bull frogs creating a symphony of music. I recorded that for posterity and then a few miles down the road I turned off on a small street toward the hills in the distance and toward the Appalachian Trail.
After a few hundred yards, I saw a heavyset man sitting on a deck in a small country house a few yards away. I said Good Morning and he said "Are you a hiker?" And I said I was a Thru-hiker and he invited me up to have "breakfast cake."
Sure I said and walked over and unloaded my pack and then two middle-age daughters and the German-American mother came out and we had a nice meal of apple cake and berry tarts and nice fresh coffee out of a blue pot.
After forty-five minutes of pleasant conversation, I headed back up the road and toward the AT, arriving two hours later and dipping into the Green Tunnel once again.
The mosquitoes and nats were out when I arrived at the shelter. I was the only one there and the shelter was an old dirty one. I cleaned it out as much as I could and went to bed.
I woke up around twelve and heard some scratching in the corner of the shelter. I turned on my headlight and spotted a mouse on my food sack hanging in the corner
I moved the sack and hung it in front of the shelter.
Then about two o'clock I woke up and turned on the headlight and saw a mouse, its little beady eyes and nervous little hands, staring into the blinding light.
After a number of seconds it scampered out of the shelter and as I settled back into my sack I had to smile: that little guy was so nervous it would not return that night: it had seen the blinding light of the "Mouse-God."
June 27 Palmerton Pa/ Bert's Restaurant 1257 miles
I walked a nice mix of smooth and very large rocked trail into town: seven miles. And around noon I got a bunkbed in the room behind Bert's Restaurant. The owner had turned her office into a hiker TV room and a two bunk room. She also took the oily-smelling garage and put beds in it as well. The city council didn't like the idea but she, being the nice lady that she was, ignored them.
I settled in on some strawberry milkshakes and a burger and informed the PO that I was looking for my tent and shoes. The REI tent had arrived! I was tired. I'd pick it up tomorrow.
Little Bad Ass and BAM, Bad Ass' Mom, were bunking with me. Good to see them. Like me they were getting off the trail for a number of days. They had a funeral to attend to and I, on the other hand, had cocktails by the pool to be attended to. Yeah!
June 28 Palmerton Pa Bert's 1257 miles
My shoes were coming in next week. Bummer. I had put my hiking shoes, the Altras, in the dryer and shrunk the insoles so they didn't fit well. Oh well, I walked to the PO and got my new tent and sent back the broken one.
Palmerton is a charming town with little businesses sprouting like flowers everywhere: Walmart had not destroyed the village and the town council would not allow the monster to stalk its land.
That night I had Banana Foster ice cream with thirty or so other folks watching a family movie on the screen on the outside porch. I had a slice of pizza from the Salvadorian owners next door and then went and watched the local orchestra play John Phillip Souza 4th of July marching music at the little pavilion. Very nice.
Tomorrow I see my wife, Terrie, and will be whisked off to La La Land! Yeah!
I planned to meet my wife, Terrie, on 5/30 for about five days of off the trail fun at Palmerton, PA. She wanted to hike so I tried to find a place where the terrain would not to be too rough. She is a gym rat and not hiker trash. I figured I needed to slow down for a few days.
I left the Clarks Ferry Shelter with Momentum on a nice clear morning. It was a nice smooth path for a about five miles and then it became boulder rocky and we stopped for lunch at a pretty view.
The sharp rocks were hurting my feet and after lunch Momentum left me behind easily. But I met up with her later, being about 25 minutes behind she said, at PA 325, where there was a nice big stream, Clarks Creek, and I dunked my swollen feet into the cold water. We had walked about 14 miles so far.
Momentum went ahead because she wanted to get the big 1000 foot hill over with.
It wasn't supposed to rain that day, but the weather app is correct about 50% of the time I have come to realize, and it began to thunder and pour as I was about halfway up.
Soon, I was soaked but it actually felt good after the long hot day.
When I came to the top of the hill, there were some nice tenting areas and I thought to park there. Then I noticed a thin girl in a blue rain suit sitting on a rock and smoking a cigarette.
She told me her name was Hooks, that she was twenty years old, and she had been walking the trail for about a month and had another week to go before she ran out of money.
Now, she couldn't decide whether to camp here or go. I told her that I had the same problem and so I suggested we walk a little further.
We walked together about 3 miles and I learned that Hooks got the name Hooks because she enjoys hooking up her skin and hanging from the hooks for a period of time. She showed me the scars on her arm.
Sounds like fun I said.
I thought it was strange at first, she said, but I decided to try it and I like it. I do it every few months or so. It feels very relieving. It helps relieve stress. It's like meditation.
Is it painful, I asked.
It is at first. But not if you relax into it. After you have done it you feel very good.
We walked about 3 more miles and we were both tired and settled for a little clearing alongside the trail near Rattling Run. While setting up my tent, one of the tension poles cracked and I had to duck tape it in order to keep my tent up.
I needed to call REI. REI has the best return policy in the hiking/camping world. But it could be a few days before I could get phone service.
I would have to sleep in shelters if this pole didn't hold.
I know Hooks wanted to stay up and talk but I was tired after a 17 mile day, and crawled into my bag around five o'clock.
June 22 Pine Grove Pa. 1193 miles
This was my longest day up to now. A 25 mile day.
I had had a good long sleep and the day broke clear and ground was not too wet.
At Yellow Springs, a little clearing alongside the trail, Hooks and I saw a deer eating grass. It turned and looked at me and then went back to eating grass. Wow. That deer is confident I said to Hooks.
Later I learned that a deer had torn into Amazon's tent and had almost come up to her to lick the salt from her skin. That is domesticated.
It was nice relatively smooth path for Pennsylvania and I was feeling wonderful. At about 8 miles into the hike, as we were going up a hill, Hooks said she needed a break and a cigarette. I didn't and realized I was in better shape than she and so left her.
About 5 miles later, I came to a road crossing Swatara Gap where Amazon and her gang of about eight hikers were getting trail magic from Amazon's mother. I took some water and some apples and thanked Momazon and headed out. I was still feeling good and knew that I had a small hill to climb. The goal was William Penn Shelter which was 8 miles away.
Around noon, after crossing some pretty fields, I had lunch under an overpass where 54 year old Avalanche in his Scottish kilt was eating his lunch on a bench. Strange to see a bench under an overpass but someone was thinking of hikers and it was welcome.
Then it was a rocky climb up and over large suitcase size rocks and then 3 miles over smooth trail through the woods and ferns as far as the eye could see. The nats had come out and enjoyed hanging on my eyelashes for miles, and I found that my sweaty washrag made a good flyswatter.
After walking 21 miles I ran into Momentum at Weilliam Penn Shelter. She was surprised I wanted to go on but I thought that I was just four miles away from a town hitchhike so I pressed on.
Avalanche had mentioned there was trail magic at the 501 Shelter and indeed there was. I drank some Gatorade and ate some oranges and the nice folks even took me into Pine Grove, Pa. and the Comfort Inn near where they were staying. They had come six hours from Ohio to give hikers some food and were going back tomorrow.
Love these guys.
June 23 Pine Grove, Pa. Comfort Inn 1193 miles
I decided to take a zero at the Inn and write some (I was weeks behind) but frustratingly, the Comfort Inn had a computer that only caught the Internet periodically.
I am so surprised the Internet is not working good said the hotel manager.
You work here. I'm sure you are totally shocked, I thought.
So I showered a few times, took a couple of naps and resupplied.
I did get some writing done however, and there was a Dollar General nearby where I resupplied with some tuna and some honeybuns and a McDonalds where I packed out 7 McDoubles.
June 24 Eagles Nest Shelter 1208 miles
I paid for a shuttle back to the trail about noon after trying to navigate the Internet all morning.
At the start of the trail a local hiker told me I could take a gravel road later and skip the rocky AT. I thanked him and took off.
It was a really rocky Pa. trail but I was getting into a rhythm of rock, step, rock, ground, step rock, rock. Trying to avoid the pointy rocks but land on the more flat ones. Miles of landing on pointy rocks is a killer on the bottoms of the feet.
Then I came to a part of the trail that was fooded like a swamp and had to navigate through the meadow jumping over fern drenched rivulets.
Then another fall. After about nine miles I tripped over a root and fell down on my side hitting rocks and leaving a nice big bruise near my hip and a red welt of a stigmata on my palm. Great. I just sat there for ten minutes breathing and resting. Enough is enough.
A mile later, I ran into a tent of trail magic with loads of snacks and drinks and hot dogs. This was a group from the psychology dept from the local Pa. college. They were doing research on the positives of hiking the AT and handing out surveys.
After my fall, the positives of the AT was too ironical.
I was tired and hurt and refused to do the survey but I told them that the Trail was like a marriage (where I got this from I have no clue): it starts off ecstatically and happily and then reality hits and it becomes challenging and then later one has to decide if they want to continue the marriage or move on.
Moreover, the trail has its positives but it has its challenges too and the Trail at the beginning is a different animal than in the middle of it, where I was, and where over 60% of the people I started with had gotten a divorce from the AT.
I should have recorded that the happy researcher said.
I think you should get serious about your job I thought, instead of taking a University paid leave to do trail magic and doing stupid research on a stupid idea with just a stupid survey.
I was a little grumpy and my stigmata was aching.
But one lady saw that I couldn't open a coke bottle with my sore hand and plied me with Little Debbies and oranges before I left.
She must have not been a psychologist.
I decided to take the gravel road that ran alongside the AT that the local hiker had suggested hours ago.
It turned out to be a wonderful hike: I saw three deer jump across the road ahead of me and many different species of birds flitting across the road. In the dark of the woods of the AT it is hard to see such things much of the time.
When I got to where the AT crossed the road, I walked a mile or so to the next shelter.
Googling, I later learned that the gravel road I had walked used to be called the AT and deduced that the State had taken it over and pushed the trail more into the woods. The Pa. Game Commission now used the old AT for snowmobiles and hunters.
I began to understand why trail-founder Benton MacKaye was so adamant about keeping the State and roads and highways away from the AT. I began to feel that I was missing out on some nice things as a result of the trail compromises that had been made years ago with the State.
When I got to the shelter Hooks and Momentum were set up with about thirty other local campers from Port Clinton and Philly. I managed to set up my broken tent and fell asleep to the sound of loud music and teenagers gabbing away into the night.
June 25 Eckville Shelter PA 1232 Miles
Talked to Terrie and we changed the date and are to meet up on the 29th, Thursday night. I will Uber to the resort from Palmerton and meet her there. She didn't like the place I found in AWOL, a cabin with shared bathroom. Not this girl! she said. I'm on vacation.
So she booked the Bear Creek Mtn. Resort. A Ski Resort. Fancy-shmancy place with all the amenities. More than fine by me.
I left Eagles Nest at 7:15 and instead of turning left onto the trail I turned right and walked to the gravel road that I had walked the day before. I must have walked about six miles and though no animals, I some nice pastures that I wouldn't have seen from the woods.
I looked at Guthook, my AT app, and found where the AT crossed the gravel road and got back on the trail.
After seven miles I dropped down into Port Clinton. My plan was to sleep at a Pavilion outside of town for a couple of days so that I could be in Palmerton on time.
Port Clinton is a very small passed-by looking town alongside a busy highway. It is a trail town however. The AT crossed a number of rusty railroad tracks and across a bridge and along the way there were huge blocks of carbon in the grass illustrating why the town is or was illustrious.
I went to the Port Clinton Hotel, the only hotel in Port Clinton for the renowned covered french fries and they were an enormous amount that almost filled me up. Talked to a bunch of guys at the bar about the AT. The guy next to me gave me half his to go philly steak (I'm a hiker so who I to refuse food?)
I visited the other Port Clinton site, the Peanut Shop, which is a candy store, and bought some chocolate and then went to the Pavillion, a large umbrellaed picnic shelter with tables and benches. I lay out my air mattress and sleeping bag and took an hour nap listening to the busy highway next door. through the trees.
I had planned on staying there a couple of days. But the traffic and a guy calling himself Preacher walking around greeting hikers was annoying and so I got me up, packed my gear, and headed down through town toward the trail.
I stopped at a Church that was giving out inexpensive food and met a guy in a truck hanging around and asked him if he would take me to Hawk Mountain Road. On my Google Maps I noted the road takes me up to the AT and passes through a wildlife sanctuary. I would still be walking almost the same number of miles as on the AT and perhaps see some interesting sights.
The guy agreed to do it for five bucks which is all the cash I had. He dropped me off at the bottom of the road and I began walking straight up the hill road: cars and motorcycles passing by every so often.
About an hour and two miles up, I saw my first Bear. It came out of the woods and onto the street about 75 yards up, and then turned and started walking uphill on the yellow line.
My phone was dead so I couldn't get a pic, and I didn't want some driver to round a curve and hit the guy, so I shouted, "hey Bear, hey Bear, hey!" and the bear turned its head around as if to say "now what do you want, can't you see I'm walking a yellow line?" and then he took off into the woods.
Along the way I saw a couple of falcons and a couple of hawks. Very cool.
After a few more hours of walking I reached the top and the official gated Sanctuary, and began walking downhill a few miles to the AT Eckhart Shelter which was, unusually, off this paved road. It was also different in that it had a flush toilet in the privy. Fancy dancy.
While there I saw very tall cello-player Amazon, with her long curly hair down her back, leading her pack of six or seven guys to a tent site nearby. They are part of the ten by ten idea, which is walking ten miles by ten AM. That's not me.
I'm more like a part of the six miles by ten group.
I took a platform in the shelter and planned to leave early the next morning and continue walking on this paved road and down into the countryside and then back up to the AT.
June 26 Bake Oven Knob Shelter 1249 miles
Left at six-thirty AM and Avalanche was fixing coffee and Amazon was presiding around a table off in the field with the boys as if they were conducting The First Breakfast.
The sun rose over Mountain Road as I checked my GPS and began walking in the flat rolling Pennsylvania Dutch countryside. I passed fields of grain and corn and cows gazing at me as if I was some alien from another planet, guarding their calves and mooing at me.
I passed old nineteenth century built farms and small lumber shops sitting right next to the streets. I could imagine wagons and horses passing their neighbors on this road over a hundred years ago.
Crossing a pond, I heard a hundred a voiced chorus of bull frogs creating a symphony of music. I recorded that for posterity and then a few miles down the road I turned off on a small street toward the hills in the distance and toward the Appalachian Trail.
After a few hundred yards, I saw a heavyset man sitting on a deck in a small country house a few yards away. I said Good Morning and he said "Are you a hiker?" And I said I was a Thru-hiker and he invited me up to have "breakfast cake."
Sure I said and walked over and unloaded my pack and then two middle-age daughters and the German-American mother came out and we had a nice meal of apple cake and berry tarts and nice fresh coffee out of a blue pot.
After forty-five minutes of pleasant conversation, I headed back up the road and toward the AT, arriving two hours later and dipping into the Green Tunnel once again.
The mosquitoes and nats were out when I arrived at the shelter. I was the only one there and the shelter was an old dirty one. I cleaned it out as much as I could and went to bed.
I woke up around twelve and heard some scratching in the corner of the shelter. I turned on my headlight and spotted a mouse on my food sack hanging in the corner
I moved the sack and hung it in front of the shelter.
Then about two o'clock I woke up and turned on the headlight and saw a mouse, its little beady eyes and nervous little hands, staring into the blinding light.
After a number of seconds it scampered out of the shelter and as I settled back into my sack I had to smile: that little guy was so nervous it would not return that night: it had seen the blinding light of the "Mouse-God."
June 27 Palmerton Pa/ Bert's Restaurant 1257 miles
I walked a nice mix of smooth and very large rocked trail into town: seven miles. And around noon I got a bunkbed in the room behind Bert's Restaurant. The owner had turned her office into a hiker TV room and a two bunk room. She also took the oily-smelling garage and put beds in it as well. The city council didn't like the idea but she, being the nice lady that she was, ignored them.
I settled in on some strawberry milkshakes and a burger and informed the PO that I was looking for my tent and shoes. The REI tent had arrived! I was tired. I'd pick it up tomorrow.
Little Bad Ass and BAM, Bad Ass' Mom, were bunking with me. Good to see them. Like me they were getting off the trail for a number of days. They had a funeral to attend to and I, on the other hand, had cocktails by the pool to be attended to. Yeah!
June 28 Palmerton Pa Bert's 1257 miles
My shoes were coming in next week. Bummer. I had put my hiking shoes, the Altras, in the dryer and shrunk the insoles so they didn't fit well. Oh well, I walked to the PO and got my new tent and sent back the broken one.
Palmerton is a charming town with little businesses sprouting like flowers everywhere: Walmart had not destroyed the village and the town council would not allow the monster to stalk its land.
That night I had Banana Foster ice cream with thirty or so other folks watching a family movie on the screen on the outside porch. I had a slice of pizza from the Salvadorian owners next door and then went and watched the local orchestra play John Phillip Souza 4th of July marching music at the little pavilion. Very nice.
Tomorrow I see my wife, Terrie, and will be whisked off to La La Land! Yeah!
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