Date: 2004-07-04
From: Leroy A Smith Shelter

To: Delaware Water Gap
Miles today: 20.2
Weather: scattered clouds

Happy Independence Day! OK, so Buick is Canadian. It must be time to walk some more. In fact by 7:30am we were back on the trail. Parts of the day we hiked together and parts of the day we didn't but once again we had an appointment with civilization. My good friend Rick Y was meeting us at the Delaware Water Gap. Rick and I used to work together back stage during high school. We went hiking in the White Mountains of NH several times and have stayed in touch from time to time all these years.It was a pleasant hiking day. There were several nice outlooks throughout the day. The views of the Delaware and wilderness faded in and out of civilization. The Rhododendron was in bloom. There were sections of trail on big boulders. There were sections of flat old road on ridges. Pennsylvania was home to lots of pipeline crossings and power line crossings. These accounted for a large number of the views. At one of these pipelines there was a bunch of folks sitting on the edge of a hill looking out over the lowlands. Behind them on the grass was the surprise. There were a pair of hang gliders. These folks were waiting for the wind to come up. One guy was sleeping under his glider. We had a brief exchange of mutual awe at our activities.They stayed. The hiker hiked on.Not only was this day the 4th of July and the reunion with an long time friend but this was the last day in Pennsylvania. That was New Jersey on the other side of the Delaware River. That was tomorrow. That was amazing. It's hard to put into words the exhilarated feeling of crossing a state border.By 4pm Buick and I were hiking together again as we began our descent off the ridge down into the Delaware Water Gap. Suddenly there were lots of people on the trail. The trail showed lots of signs of heavy use but that was OK some how. We flew down the trail and met up with Rick at Lake Lenape at about 4:30pm. So we were a half hour late. Not bad after a 20.2 mile day. This was a time & date determined way back in Duncannon a week ago. Rick and I had a great reunion. The three of us piled into Ricks car and we headed for his place in Washington's Crossing about an hour away. This night off the trail also needed to be a resupply. Rick was thinking we could go shopping after dinner or perhaps in the morning. Though it was great to hang with a friend of old, manifest destiny dictated an early start tomorrow none the less. Then there was the question of whether stores were open on the 4th. On top of that, my good old food anxiety was kicking in. As luck would have it the road went right past a supermarket. I asked Rick to pull in and thank goodness he did. I'd hate to have to kill him. I had to fight the urge to just grab the wheel, well, not really. The store was huge of course and had everything we could possibly want and more than everything we didn't.At Rick's place we met up with his wife Joan and the boys, Alex and Adam both in their early teens. We got showers and our clothes got washed. Thanks guys. This was probably more for their benefit than ours but we appreciated it too. Questions about the trail and life on the trail were plentiful as were the answers and stories. Of course the boys being hockey players appreciated having a Canadian to talk with. There was lots of good talk and good food too. The hour got to be too late and we needed to go to sleep. First though we had to deal with email. It was time for AT Update 8.