Date: 2010-07-09
From: Church of the Mountain Hostel / Delaware Water Gap

To: Mohican Outdoor Center
Miles today: 10.5
Weather: light rain

~~~The Biggest Rattlesnake I'VE Ever Seen~~~There is a wonderful place for breakfast in town called the Village Farmer. Most everyone went there for really good coffee and baked goods; peach muffin and a Snapple for me. All of us were sitting around, sharing stories and war wounds. Boomer, this wonderful Aussie guy, has a serious staph infection on most of his left calf that he is taking serious antibiotics for and is hoping to get the go ahead to hike out tomorrow.As we went back to the hostel, everyone else was debating on leaving times and such; I just gathered up my pack, bid adieu and hit the road. The walk out of Deleware Water Gap leads you out of town and along a bridge that borders I-80. The trucks are going by so fast next to you, but walkers are protected by a waist high concrete wall. It crossed over the bridge of the Delaware River and the AT took you down and under I-80 over to a small park that started the trailhead. Unlike other cases of walking out of town, the trail for several miles was quite pleasant and not too hard at all. Fewer rocks and a low grade. Lovely. My walk today was about 10 miles with three liters of water which was unnecessary as I passed a great mountain stream at the start of the Trail head.Bisquits and Gravy were ahead of me and had stopped, looking into the side bushs. What they were doing was waiting for me to catch up to them so they could warn me about a rattlesnake that had crossed over the path in front of them. It was, no kidding, the largest rattlesnake > I < have ever seen; as big around as a man's arm, black with lots of rattles. In fact, it sounded like 8 baby rattles were being shaken, it was that loud and unnerving. Did I take a photo? Nope, nope, nope. It was plainly obvious that this snake wanted to be left alone and we all obliged. I only saw the back half and that was enough for me. In truth, I see far more garter snakes. This is only the second rattler I've seen. Thousands of chipmunks, though, roam the trail and boy are they wicked fast. They run and scamper through the leaves; you think its a much bigger animal than a dinky chipmunk. Other hikers call them snake food.Welcome to New Jersey. Did I mention I'm hiking in my fourth state? And it is such a pleasure after all the rocks in Pennsylvania. Not that NJ doesn't have some stones, but not nearly the same as PA.Stopped for lunch at this beautiful glacier pond called Sunfish Pond. Several hikers were swimming, but I was just not in the mood to undress this old flabby body in front of the young kids. Took a photo of Snoopy there and hope to have all my other photos up soon. Met this hiker named Griz, an older feller, who is going to leave a message for Snoopy up at the huts in New Hampshire when he's hiking there and I'm to do likewise, depending on who gets there first. Nice guy.Decided to end the day at the Mohican Outdoor Center, making for a relatively easy day to ease back into the hiking mode with better feet. This is part of the hut system that is run by the AMC, the Appalachian Mountain Club. They are also the same people that service all the huts up in the Presidential Range Mountains later up the trail.Got a lovely campsite for free, one that had two perfect trees for my hammock, got a free shower because, while it usually cost $3, I had no cash on me and the guy took pity on this poor stinky hiker. Hint: When doing a shower such as this, I also do my clothes so it was a twofer! Hung out in the main room and read really old back issues of National Geographic when it started to pour. After the rain let up, got back to the campsite (Freeman was sharing the site with me as there were a lot of hikers in and so many campsites), got out my book and headlamp and read before I went to sleep as I do each night. It rained all night, but this is good as it puts water back into the streams and my tarp completely covers my hammock and its kinda neat going to sleep with the rain pattering on the tarp and it cools things down and its very outdoorsey and hey, I'm tough ~~~ I'm a backpacker !! They have an active bear in the area, as there is in all of New Jersey, who knew, so they have dragged out to the site these old gym lockers with clips and we store our food there; pretty ingenious, actually. This was a good choice for the night.