Date: 2009-06-25
From: George W. Outerbridge Shelter

To: Leroy A. Smith Shelter
Miles today: 16.5
Weather: light rain

June 25 --It was a nice morning start, downhill to Lehigh Gap and across the Lehigh River, warm, sunny, windless, and if the 4 day old forecast held, another raninless day. The rockpile, ~800' or so, straight up, loomed waiting, and, after a brief woods ascent, the poles were held as the free hand took over, balancing, guiding and pulling me, and pack, higher to a spectacular view of the south, then north, sides of the ridge. The exposed ridge, however damaged and destroyed by the zinc mining of old, provided excellent views on this clear morning. Near the summit I caught up to T-Suds, who I had seen last night near the shelter and back as far as Port Clinton. We walked and talked on the rerouted, free milage lower elevation grassy trail in the now hot sun. I use the term free milage to describe an easy path, flat, free of rocks/roots, perhaps a road or farm pasture, that requires little attention and therefore frees your eyes to wander and observe. I stopped for a pack-off break and saw in the Companion that Danielsville, accessible by the next road crossing at Blue Mtn Rd, offered groceries and meals, and the strong suggestion of Ice Cream entered my mind. There I found T-Suds on break and I shared my crave, we didn't need a discussion, she was up with her thumb out, and the second candidate, a 4 door pickup pulled over. Bob was out on lunch break and recommended that we go with him to the town deli about 1.5m, no question except, "Do they have ice cream?" Arriving at the parking lot, we jumped out and as I dropped the tailgate to grab the packs he turned and shouted, "Leave 'em there, I'll take ya back!" Inside the store I felt the familiar uneasiness of holding back my "kid-in-a-candy-store" urges to grab one of everything, like coordinated tourettes syndrome of the hand, wrist and forearm. The damage was moderate, a box of strawberry pop tarts, a ham and cheese sandwich, a pint of ice tea, 0.89# of homemade cherry cream cheese dessert with graham cracker crust, a 99c bag of Fritos, a saran wrapped homemade brownie and, oh yeah, 2 ice cream sandwichs that never made it into the bag, or the return ride. Bob took us back and got out with us continuing our discussion about the Blue Mtn Ski Resort, where he worked, and trail business where we worked. He was yet another amazing person along this journey, a trail steward, who took time out of his day to make us feel special, lucky and lift our spirits high enough to continue the journey smiling, a feeling that will take us through darker times. The remainder of the day was continued rocky offerings taken in boots that fought breaking. The 0.25m, ~300' side trail down to Delps Spring for water was a long break, the cold spring source nearly negating the effort. Just before 19:00 I arrived at the extremely large tenting area near Leroy A. Smith Shelter where T-Suds was already set up, no one else. My stakes had just spilled to the ground when entering the campsite was a noisy, rather excited tall guy vocally addressing me by a name I hadn't heard in months, it was Kevin J. Campbell, and directly behind him, Mike Murray and son Alex! I had forwarded my itinerary from Days Inn, Swatara Gap, last weekend so my position was known, and although the thought had crossed my mind, when walking solo all combinations and possibilities of everything enter the mind, some stick, most disappear like the spark of a campfire, the sight of them overly packed with overnight gear was overwhelming. Elated, I called to T-Suds to share my joy and introduce the Unexpected Party. Darkness brought a nice campfire which broguht conversation that could've lasted until dawn, but we all knew better, as Mike provided s'mores like I had never seen, gramham crackers on aluminum foil topped with mini marshmellows and chocolate chips, placed at the edge of the fire. The result was melted, then burnt aluminum foil ash with a small amount of gooey stuf on the edge. He modified the procedure by skipping the crackers, melting the sweets and scraping them off the foil with the cracker. Later inside my tent I saw that I had chocolate smears all over my hands.