Date: 2006-10-20
From: Palmerton, Pa

To: S of Rt 309, Pa
Miles today: 13.6

I went to bed early last night in the Jailhouse House and I slept great all night. Yolanda and I were the only hikers there, so it was nice and quiet with no snoring. :-))) I woke up this morning about 6am. I knew that Bert's Steakhouse opened for breakfast at 6:30 and I planned on being there with coffee cup in hand. I couldn't believe how much better my heel felt this morning. The girl scouts leave a goody bag for the hikers and it includes a toothbrush, toothpaste, stamped post card, toilet paper, a 15 minute phone card and some Advil. I haven't taken anything for pain ever on any of my walks, but the way my heel was feeling last night, I took two Advil. I also did some lite stretching, so I'm not sure if the Advil really helped, or my heel was just getting used to walking again. I walked across the street to the restaurant and ate two breakfasts and had lots of coffee. Yolanda even ate two breakfasts, so I didn't feel too bad. :-))) Yolanda had called a number posted in the hostel for a ride back to the Trail. It was arranged for 8:45 this morning, so we had time to resupply at the IGA and repack our packs before the ride showed up. The IGA gives out a free apple to thru hikers...nice!! We walked out front of the hostel and waited on our ride. It had rained overnight and was raining lightly this morning. Duane of Solo Pest Control showed up right on time. He said he's given about 50 rides to hikers going back out to the Trail this year. He is one of the reasons why I have always said that Palmerton, Pa is the friendliest town along the whole Trail to me. Thanks Duane!!!! Yolanda and I started climbing about 9am. It was 1,000 feet up to the ridge. It was still raining and very foggy out. We got to George W Outerbridge Shelter and stopped long enough for me to sign the register and use some of my smiley face stickers. :-))) Yolanda took the time to put another layer of clothes on. We walked on up the rest of the way to the ridge. The trees are really beautiful in the fog...the color shows through nicely. I had to keep stopping to take pictures even in the rain. The temperature was about 60 degrees, but with the rain and the wind, it felt cooler. This was also supposed to be the high temperature of the day. There were two things that I forgot to mention in yesterday's journal. The first was that we are finding ticks, lots of ticks. Yolanda had four on her yesterday and I had two on me. The second thing was that when I got ready to take my shower last night at the hostel, Yolanda was going to take our dirty clothes across the street to the laundry and wash them. That would have worked out well if I would have had some kind of other pants to wear, but I'm only carrying the pants that I'm wearing...nothing else, no tights, no underwear, no rain pants...nothing. :-))) My legs don't get cold unless it gets down into the 20's and is real windy, so I don't carry another layer for my legs until later into the winter I was trying to figure out what to do about my predicament when Yolanda said that I could try her running shorts. I didn't think there was a chance that they would fit because Yolanda looks like she has a smaller butt than I have, BUT....they fit!!! Not only did they fit, they felt great!!! Yolanda walked around the rest of the night murmuring something about having to go on a diet. ;-))) Oh yeah, there was three things I forgot in yesterday's journal. When we were just getting ready to descend to Lehigh Gap, we saw about half a dozen turkeys running away from us. OK, back to today...we descended to Lehigh Furnace Gap, then walked on a trail re-lo heading back up to the ridge on the other side. The re-lo was full of rocks, big rocks. The old Trail went along an old dirt road for a short while, then headed up to the ridge. That old trail was nice, the new trail was nothing but rocks. I can just hear the guy that discovered those rocks. He probably called up the Pa Trail Club and told them that he found rocks, big rocks, lots of big rocks and they should relocate the Trail off that nice country road walk to all those rocks, those big rocks because after all this is Pa. It had been raining all morning. We got to Bake Oven Knob Shelter and stopped for a bite to eat. I looked for a register, but there wasn't one. While we were there, the wind got really strong and it started pouring. Leaves were blowing all over the place and it was dark out. We waited for about 15 minutes for that front to pass by before we started walking again. The Trail was really wet from the heavy rain and the wind had turned cold. I was moving faster just to warm up and Yolanda was all wrapped up and was still cold. We got to Bake Oven Knob after climbing some big rocks. I took a couple pictures and walked on. We came to Bear Rocks next...again climbing over big rocks, but not over the summit of that pile of rocks. We then came to Knifes Edge and had to be very careful on all the slanted boulders....at least they had started to dry some, so they weren't as slippery. I was having lots of fun with the rocks today because my heel wasn't bothering me too much. Boy, what a difference a day makes sometimes. :-))) We walked past the side trail to New Tripoli Campsite, then on to Rt 309. We knew the restaurant near the Trail was going to be open today, so we headed right for that. It was cold as we took our packs off on the front porch, but it really felt nice and warm inside. D Rad, John and Molasses were sitting at the bar when we went in. I thought they were behind us, but we found out they night hiked last night and skipped by Palmerton without stopping. Yolanda and I had prime rib dinners along with mashed potatoes and steamed vegetables and a bowl of clam chowder. It was chilly out when we went and put our packs on again. Yolanda never did get warmed up from being wet, but I felt pretty good. We walked on and found a spot for our tents and set up for the night. It didn't take Yolanda long to crawl inside her tent and get in her sleeping bag. I'm up to 127 leaves now. There were leaves flying all over the place today, but they were whipping by so fast in the high winds that I couldn't catch any. I should use a contraption like Amoeba has made to compete with me in the Leaf Catching Game....an extra large butterfly net. (She didn't think I knew, but news travels fast on the Trail!!) Oh yeah, Yolanda was walking along today and a leaf fell on her rain coat and stuck. She grabbed it and said; "I got one!!! I got one!!!" She was so happy, then a little while later a small branch fell on her and she grabbed that. It had 8 leaves.