Date: 2004-06-24
From: Campsite at Bake Oven Knob

To: campsite near Metallica Spring (Rock on!)
Miles today: 12.0

Had a nice night sleeping in my hammock. Flora & Fauna, Phil and I were all very low on water having elected to camp before reaching the shelter. I used my last drop making breakfast. We packed up more quickly than usual and headed out, I was last, of course. I caught up to them less than a mile away at the shelter. Flora & Fauna were making breakfast but I had already eaten, so I got my water out of the pathetic trickle of a spring and headed out. I wanted to get some distance covered. I hiked a pretty good pace and some parts were very rocky and in no time I found myself at the George W. Outerbridge Shelter. There was a single occupant there with his dog just waiting out the heat of the day. When I approched he asked "Are you Patrick?" It seems that Crazypace, a local hiker that I met the other day, had left a beer at the shelter for me. Wow! What a nice guy! He also left a map that showed a great campsite that he found up ahead a few days. He must have also met up with Dragonslayer & Wicked Lobstah too because he left a beer and note for them as well. Thanks Crazypace for the overwhelming kindness.As I was enjoying the beer, the girls and Phil showed up. I shared my beer with the girls (the only takers) and ate a few snacks that had also been left by Crazypace. I used their cellphone to call my friend, Darrell. He informed me that Sam and he had decided to come up early and be out here Friday evening. Cool. We made plans to meet at Wind Gap. That meant I would have to still put in some miles tonight after Palmerton. So, we headed on down to Lehigh Gap. We got to the road and crossed the Lehigh River. We were not having much luck hitching a ride where we set up, so Fauna suggested we try a different location by the traffic light since the cars had to stop there anyway, and they would trapped. So we split up and Fauna and I went over, we figured two would be easier to pick up than four. The first car that stopped at the light called over and offered us a ride! We jumped in and the nice lady gave is a ride right to the police station where we were supposed to check in. W! hile we checked in and they took our names Flora and Phil, The New Guy, showed up. Phil and I went over to Borough Hall and the nice people at the clerks office gave us our welcome package and showed us around. What a welcome for us hikers by the borough of Palmerton! There was a bunk room in the basement of the old jail with bathroom, locker room showers and everything we could want. Our welcome kit was a great touch, with items donated by local businesses, organized by Girl Scout Troop #112. Thanks girls, you are the best! It included great hiker items. Toilet paper (which I had just run out of!), toothpaste (also needed), Toothbrush (printed with a nice msg from Palmerton), a phone card, Tylenol, Band Aids, a stamped postcard with picture of Borough Hall, A granola bar (the good crunchy kind!), and a nice note from the girls of Troop #112. I was touched. It was a shame I couldn't stay. I took a shower and went out to get some food with Phil. Afterwards we stopped off to get some alcohol at the hardware store. I needed some fuel and he was going to try and make an alcohol stove tonight! , so he needed some to play with. Good Luck!I finally headed out and it took a while, but I got a hitch to the trail head. The trail headed straight up a huge rock field. It was pretty cool. The whole mountainside was bare rock. A lot of this area was barren due to the Zinc smelting plant located here many years ago. When I got to the top of the ridge, it was a strange landscape of dead trees with bushes pushing to make a comeback. The dead trees standing and lying all around, bleached white by the sun, exposed rock, and thriving grasses and bushes made for an surreal african-like terrain. It was a long flat ridge so walking was easy. Before long I ran into Slim, Biscuit, and Fitz. They had a camp set up complete with hammocks and a fire. I sat down with them for a snack and accepted their invitation to spend the night hanging out with them. I should be able to make it into Wind Gap in time tomorrow, but I will have to hike hard. We had a great night swapping rockclimbing stories around the fire. It was a great end to! a full day.