Date: 2021-06-10
From: Allentown Hiker Club Shelter

To: Stealth campsite 
Miles today: 14.5
Weather: overcast clouds

Today was a great day! Probably the only great day that we have had in Rocksylvannia! We woke up to beautiful weather at the Allentown Hiking Club Shelter. Temperature in the 70¢s and a nice breeze. After the torrential rain last evening it hadn¢t rained anymore. Those that pitched their tents after the rain (like Swamp, Red, and Roadrunner) had dry tents this morning. I always feel self-conscious sleeping in a shelter because our sleeping pads are so noisy when we turn over and David is like a rotisserie chicken all night (his words, not mine). I turn from side to side too. It just seemed to echo throughout the shelter.We got on trail by 7:05am and the initial trail wasn¢t bad. Lots of places with soft pine needles (and that smelled so good!) We got to a big rock scramble called the Knife¢s Edge. The rocks were straight down on one side and a little jagged on the other. We climbed the jagged side. (I don¢t know how anyone could have climbed the straight side with a pack on.) And that was a blast!! We super enjoyed that and then .2 miles later were the Bear Rocks. Not as much fun as Knife¢s Edge but still big boulders to climb. We crossed Bake Oven Road 1.4 miles later and were looking for the white blaze in the parking lot there when a woman called over to David. He wasn¢t sure what she wanted when she waved him over, but then he saw the table full of food and knew we had hit trail magic! Peach and Jameson had a table covered with bread and meats and cheese, chips, cookies, fruits and coolers of drinks. And even better, real chairs to sit in! We made ourselves ham sandwiches with cheese and they had Duke¢s mayo. (David snd Jameson got into a discussion on the finer points of Duke¢s mayo.) We had soda and cookies for dessert. Peach did the AT in 2018 so we swapped stories on favorite places and experiences. It was so much fun. We hated to leave but those miles don¢t hike themselves. We started up Bake Oven Knob and were appalled and furious at the graffiti sprayed painted on the rocks. It was everywhere! So disgraceful! We climbed over the rocks there and finally got to the Bake Oven Knob Shelter. It was an older shelter and only a half dot as far as water, but David made the .4 miles trek down and back to report no water. We were starting to get concerned about water. We got a text from Whipperpoorwill that there was a water cache at Ashfield Rd crossing. We hiked as quickly as we could but by the time we got there the 20 gallon jugs of water were empty. David walked down the dirt road for half a mile there and half a mile back. He came back with great water and we filtered it into all our bottles and kept the remaining.I had texted Squeak, a trail angel in Palmerton, about coming to their place for a shower, laundry, and resupply. Then we were going to hike out the same day. She said to let her know when we hit the George Outerbridge Shelter and they would meet us at the trailhead.We wanted to get as close to Palmerton as possible so we didn¢t have as far to hike in the morning. We found a stealth site that was covered in pine needles with pretty ferns all around and had a small stone campfire ring. If you walked down a little path you could see the valley below. The sun was setting and it was a beautiful, serene spot. We hiked 14.5 miles today.