Date: 2008-05-17
From: Eckville Shelter

To: Palmerton, Pa
Miles today: 25.1

Slept well last night, didn't hear any mice. Pop tarts and cereal bars for breakfast. We got out of there on the early side because we had a 25 mile day planned. The sun was shining and it seemed to be warming up. Less than a mile up the trail Toddy Bear was taking lead and as he came up on this tree with a hollow base a bobcat ran out of it and scared the pooh out of Toddy Bear. The bobcat looked like a large house cat but twice as fast. It was a two tone gray bobcat and I had no time to get out my camera, it was to fast. Yeti said that it's rare to see a bobcat in the wild because they can hear you coming and they are long going before you get to them. I guess we're just stealth hikers. We had a snack at Allentown shelter and some some weekend hikers. On the way to the next shelter I stopped to talk to some weekend hikers. They were interested in how I was doing hiking the whole trail. I think one of the ladies was thinking if doing a thru hike or at least section hiking. We had lunch a few miles down the trail at a campsite. The fire pit was still smoldering so someone must of stayed there last night. We pushed on to the next shelter to get water. On the way there we were passing through Bake Oven Knob and we heard someone say Hey! We looked back and saw some people but Toddy Bear said I think there yelling for those kids. So we started hiking again and then we heard Hey we have food for you. Well that got our attention. As we walked back to the overlook they were at I realized that they were the same people I was talking to earlier that day. They had drove over to this lookout to give us some of there snacks. We thanked them, and talked about hiking the trail. I took a picture of the four of them and I'll put it under Trail Magic. I didn't catch there names so if you guys read my journal please sign the guestbook with your names. We got them to take our picture together, thanked them again and went to the next shelter. We took a quick break at Easy Bake Oven and I got some water. We left out of there at 315pm. I took the lead out and pushed hard to the next shelter. There were allot of weekends out with allot of dogs. At one point there were two guy with two German shepherds coming towards us and all of a sudden the two dog started running at us really fast. I think it scared Toddy bear and Yeti but I saw that there tales were wagging so I figured they just wanted to play. So the dogs just ran by us while the owner threw a Frisbee. The dogs could care less that we were there, they just wanted that Frisbee. We got to the next shelter in 2 hours at a 3.4 mph pace. We took a pack off break and then headed down the hill 1 mile to to road into town. It didn't take long to hitch a ride. We just stuck our thumbs out and the first truck pulled over. He gave us a ride into town and also showed us all the places to eat and resupply. He dropped us off at the police station because we planned on staying in the basement of the old police station. It was a free hostel and it had a shower so we couldn't pass it up. The officer had to take down our names and social security number before we were aloud in. It was a nice open basement with bunk beds and up stairs next to the gym the had locker showers. We ate at Bert's diner and they were playing Beatles greatest hits on the radio. The diner had a oldies style to it. After dinner I did our laundry while the other guys took showers. I talked to Liz and we planned out how I was going to get home. My best bet is, in Delaware Water Gap I'll catch the MARTZ bus to New York City then take the Long Island Rail Road to Freeport were she works. This way I can get the car to drive home. Sounds like fun.