Date: 2014-07-14
From: Wind Gap

To: Delaware Water Gap
Miles today: 15.0
Weather: few clouds

AT day 92 We woke up dry and in a bed today! That's always a great start to the day! It had stormed most of the night. Loud thunder, lots of rain and lightning. I was so thankful not to be in a tent! I got up extra early so I could take another shower before we left. There is no such thing as too many showers out here. It was awesome. I then warmed up my leftovers from dinner the night before and had the absolute best breakfast I've had in a very long time! Duke ate well too, as Kent's cousin Pammy had left the rest of her dinner: a steak! He happily wolfed it down. Jon had his remaining dinner too and Kent enjoyed a peach with his coffee and honey buns! June showed up promptly at 8:00am as she said she would. She drove around to our room which was nice since it was still sprinkling. We were back to the trail by 8:15 and ready to tackle the climb out of Wind Gap. It was a steep uphill with no switchbacks on rocks that were super slippery because of the rain. We took it slow and made it to the top where we were met with - you guessed it - more wet rocks! Luckily, we only had 15 miles to do so we plugged along trying not to slip and fall. There seemed to be a few more instances where there was a few less rocks at least! But overall it was still slow and painful walking. All day we were just thinking about how happy we'd be to get out of PA. It's always fun to reach a new state, but mostly we were going to be happy to get on better trail. PA had some of the best maintained trail and shelters we've seen in the beginning of the state but towards the end they went to crap. The trail was overgrown and messy. There were lots of trees that had blown down and were never moved. And tons of poison ivy and thorn bushes all over the place. Unfortunately, pairing that with more rocks than I knew existed, left a less than stellar impression of PA trail in our minds. However, the people in PA were incredibly nice! Even in our last mile as we came out of the woods, there was a lady getting ready to leave who said she had been doing trail magic for three weeks! She was leaving due to the rain coming in but offered us a cold drink and homemade cookies! She even gave Duke some cheese before she left, the whole time apologizing that she didn't have "real food" for us! The rain started as soon as we said our goodbyes and we hustled to the church where would be staying for the night. They provide a shelter in their basement complete with a shower and clean towels! It smelled like stinky wet hikers but it was a dry place to sleep so we settled in. They didn't have a washer or dryer, but they did have laundry detergent and buckets outside for us to wash our clothes in! While the boys went to get Kent some new shoes, I washed my clothes! When they got back we went to a local pizza place for dinner and the bakery for dessert! We got a huge chocolate peanut butter pie! It was amazing! We even shared with some other hikers and still have lots left. I think breakfast for tomorrow! It's looking like thunderstorms all day so we are considering staying here another day for a zero. Walking in rain isn't so bad but camping in it sucks. Especially with a wet dog. And the next shelter isn't for 24 miles. My next post may be about a zero day!