Date: 2003-06-23
From: Palmerton in Lehigh Gap

To: Kirkridge Shelter
Miles today: 29.8
Weather: clear sky

Monday, June 23   29.8 miles. From Palmerton¢¦a town named Palmerton in Lehigh Gap to Kirkridge Shelter. This was a long, rough day. Started up early. I got up at 5 and got all my stuff packed and Draftrunner had asked me to wake her up when I got up because she wanted to get out of town with me because she wasn¢t sure how to get to the trail from where we were. So, I went in at 5:30 to check on her and she wasn¢t out of bed yet but she was awake. So, I just told her I was ready to leave so she got up and started packing her stuff. I went down to the gas station to get some coffee and while I was getting coffee she finished packing and was waiting at the stairs for me. We proceeded to walk out of town. We walked about a mile out to 248 and here¢s where I screwed up because ¢¦I had been told and I had thought that the way to the trail was to make a right at 248. When in fact it was a left. So, I led us out onto the highway and we proceeded to go right and hitchhike and somebody finally stopped and picked us up. It took us a couple of miles before we figured out that we were going the wrong way. The guy turned around and came back and dropped us off where he had picked us up. Now we were going in the right direction but it was a very busy highway with a very thin shoulder. Really not a good place for a car to pull over. We hiked for about a mile on the road trying to hitch a ride. We finally gave up and jumped over onto the railroad tracks and finished walking on the railroad tracks the rest of the way to the trail which was about a total of 2 miles from the road going into Palmerton. So, that was a three mile hike before we even hit the trail this morning. Once we figured out how to go and got on the trail we started climbing and climbing steeply. We ended up climbing about a 1000 feet on just this tremendously huge pile of jagged rocks and boulders. Big boulders. The kind that you had to use your hands and feet to crawl up. Basically rock climbing. You had to look for hand holds in places. That path crawling up those piles of rocks was completely exposed. Not a single tree on the pile. As you walked up you got the sensation that you could fall off and you could tumble all the way down to the bottom. But it¢s a magnificent view. 270 degree unobstructed view. You could see Palmerton which was now about 4 miles away and then a neighboring city as well (I can¢t remember the name) and this big, lone mountain that was in between them. It was a very incredible sight. The pile of rocks went on for about 45 minutes or so¢¦so we kept climbing and climbing and climbing. Some of it leveled out and it leveled out to an area of total devastation. You could tell that the area had burned down completely at one time but also the area had been a zinc mine at the turn of the century. The whole community had mined on it but in the meantime the whole area had just been completely devastated. They were trying to make efforts to re-plant and revive it but it was a wreck. The first few miles of that section were actually a nice walk¢¦the way a lot of walks are on the trail. A couple of potholes but it was basically level. That¢s basically the end of that story. The rest of the day was just going through rocks. Rocks that were sticking out on the trail, rocks that you stepped on, rocks that you turn your ankle on, one¢s that you couldn¢t step between because they were too close together so you stepped on top of them and you could feel the sharp, jagged edges through your boots. That continued for me.¢¦for the entire day. I¢m sitting here right now with massive blisters on my heels. Draftrunner was also running with me at this point although she was a couple minutes behind. By the time we got to Leroy Smith¢s shelter I had gotten water and she came walking in behind me and said that she was basically not willing to walk 29 or 30 miles today. She was hurting and didn¢t think she could make it and was going to go in to Wind Gap instead which would have made it a 20 mile day for her. That¢s what she did and I kept on going. I wish I hadn¢t because it was just a continuation of the rocks that you had to step on. Just forever. The best you could do was about 2 miles an hour which is way down from the pace that I¢ve gotten up to. The normal pace I¢ve gotten up to is very close to 3 12 miles an hour and I was fighting and sweating to make 2 miles an hour. It took forever. I finally pulled into the Kirkridge Shelter to find it completely full. No space at all. I briefly considered just going ahead and running the rest of the way down to Delaware Water Gap and the hostel there.   But I was wiped out. I was beat and I was hungry. So, I looked around and found that there was a radio tower complex very close to the shelter. I am now laying down on the concrete slab under a tower. I brushed away the dirt and the branches and just laid my therma rest down here. I cooked dinner and pumped water and now I getting ready to get some sleep so I can get up early and get into town tomorrow because I have some important things coming in the mail that I have to get. It¢s been a long, long day. The official mileage is 29.8. The actual mileage is probably closer to 34.