Date: 2005-07-03
From: Allentown Hiking Club Shelter

To: Jail House Hostel, Palmerton, PA
Miles today: 17.4

Today is a day that we'll have to look back and laugh about. We know that again it would be shorter milage, so we allowed ourselves to get a late stat. Also, we knew that there was a restaurant that serves Sunday brunch only 4 miles away at a road crossing. So, we ate a small breakfast and got going, with high hopes for a good meal soon. Our info told us that the restaurant opened at 10 AM, and we were there at 9:30, ready for opening. As we approached, we saw a sign out stating that they didn't open until 11 AM. We were willing to wait. We sat out back with Patch, read and played horse shoes and basically avoided moving until Hopeful went looking for a phone to make some calls. When she passed the front door, she saw a sign that said they were closed for the weekend. That's the second restaurant (the other was in Port Clinton) that was closed during peak tourist season. So, we had been there an hour and a half, with no food to reward us. Once town food was on my mind, though, I couldn't get it out of my thoughts. We noticed that we'd be near a town at the end of the day, so we decided to get a hotel room and find some town food later on. First, we'd have to hike 13 more miles.    Back on the trail, we again felt the impact of the rocks through tis section. My feet have never been folded in half so many times, in so many ways. About 1/2 way through the afternoon, Hopeful took a bad spill and scraped her elbow and wrist on the rocks. She has been such a tough hiker. Nobody else seems to get knicked, bruised, burned, or infected as much as she does. And she's still so Hopeful! With muddly/bloody wounds, we were now even more sure that we "deserved" a motel, at the least for the sake of a shower. After we took a break and regrouped for a few minutes, we got going again. Within a few minutes of starting, I got stung in he back of my leg by something big and nasty. Like I said, someday we'll laugh about it, but today we are calling it the "series of unfortunate events".   Following the sting, we actually had a good hour. There were great views and lots of wild blueberries. I think the Lord realized that we needed some berries to redeem our day a little. About a mile before our hike ended, we came to a shelter where we met some day hikers (Sundays seem to be the most popular day for day hikes, especially on the holiday weekends). While they clearly had consumed far too much alcohol, they were a colorful, and very caring threesome. As we continued on I thought about what a diverse community we meet along the Trail and I'm continually amazed at how everyone looks out for one another with real concern. Coming off the ridge into Lehigh Gap, we came to a road. Right was to Slatington, and according to our guide book, a hotel called "Fine Lodging". Left was to Palmerton and a free "jailhouse" hostel in the basement of the old police station. We chose to go right, thinking that this would be a good night for better accommodations. Well, we never got picked up from hitching (the first time ever), but a man and his two children came out of the woods and agreed to give us the ride that we needed. Fine Lodging, it turns out, is not a hotel, it is a boarding house for low or no income individuals in a very old house. The manager keeps one room available for hikers. Our amenities would be one single bed, community bathrooms, community phone in a common area, and air conditioning for an extra $4. Ira Fine, the manager (thus, "Fine" Lodging" was a great guy who could read the disappointment on our faces and offered us a ride to the jail hostel in Palmerton for $5. Someday we'll laugh about it, not yet, though.   We got out of Ira's car in Palmerton, and as we watched him pull away, we realized that the hostel was locked and there weren't any police in the office where we were supposed to register (after all, it was Sunday evening of the July 4th weekend). The day was not going well for us. I looked at my watch, realized that I was running on a light breakfast and a few snacks, that we were hurting all over, had no where to stay, didn't know where we were, we stunk so bad that we didn't want to be with ourselves, and it was about 7 PM and would be dark soon. So, we did what any hiker would do, we looked for the nearest restaurant and ate some town food. Bert's steakhouse is not a steakhouse, it's a 50's diner. We didn't care, it could have been vegetarian cuisine and we would have been happy. Between the two of us, we ate a large pizza, a cheese steak sandwich, a cheeseburger, a full plate of fries, a side salad and ice cream (Hopeful wants you to know that I ate the majority of those items). The good news was that we were full. The bad news was that as we were finishing up, Hopeful saw a sign that said "Credit Cards Not Accepted". My thought is, if you hang that sign from the cash register, by the time someone reads it, it is too late. Not only did we not have cash, but we had just eaten A LOT of food! Hopeful slid out of Bert's while I finished up and found an ATM. While she was out, she ran into Leviathan who had caught a ride from the friendly a day hikers at the last shelter. He was able to find a police officer who let him into the hostel. How his driver made it by the police undetected, I don't know. We paid our bill, were able to get checked in, take showers and are now able to at least admit that some day we'll be able to laugh about this day.