Date: 2007-06-14
From: Rte 248

To: Smith Gap
Miles today: 12.3

Thursday, June 14, 2007Rte 248 to Smith Gap, 12.3 milesShortly after daybreak, an auto horn blares 6 or 7 times. Later Brenda says to all of us, Did you hear my wake-up call?Purple Sherpa suggests ¢Siren¢ pronounced ¢Sirene¢ accenting the last syllable, as Brenda¢s trail name.Great suggestion! That name captures her beauty and the sound of her auto horn blasting us from sleep, plus it sounds French.I¢ll think about it, she says. Maybe my trail name will be Sirene Vignette.Start 9:15, temps around 60.Today is the big hike up Lehigh Gap. When I first hiked this in April 2003, I ascended on the blue-blaze winter trail because back then there was no way I could have hiked the white-blaze trail. In 2005 I hiked Lehigh again, this time with Mountain Goat. We ascended the white-blaze trail easily. I¢m looking forward to ascending it again. We¢ve opted to ascend because there¢s a threat of rain which might wet the rocks. Descending steep wet rocks on tired legs at the end of the day is too dangerous. Speaking of walking on PA rocks, I¢m loving doing it in Crocs. The balls of my feet are toughened and thick from walking in featherweight Crocs and thin worn-out Smartwools. My feet and ankles sense each angle and move to compensate for any deviation from perfectly flat. Which is to say, every rock in PA. In Crocs I feel more sure-footed than I ever did wearing foot and ankle-confining heavy thick-soled boots. One negative is that the soles of Crocs wear out fast on PA rocks. By the end of my PA hike, I¢ll have worn down the soles of 3 pairs of Crocs to the point where there¢s no grip at all and they¢re too slick to hike in.Also wearing Crocs you have to be careful where and how you set your feet, not to step directly on anything too sharply pointed, not to stub your toes.Crocs are great, but not perfect. Exhilarating climb. Flood of emotions, including fear and relief, after everyone¢s scrambled up a short but difficult part of the ascent over a steep rock face. Everyone¢s glad we chose to ascend, not descend.Another peak bagged, says Zig Zag.Ripe blueberries at the top. Isn¢t it early for blueberries? We sample a few. Then have second thoughts. This is a superfund cleanup site. Maybe they¢re contaminated.Sassafras trees with their mitten leaves and curly limbs.More vegetation than when I was here in 2003, but still a moonscape due to pollution sucked into the Gap by winds off the zinc smelting operations in nearby Palmerton.Remembering 2003, hiking with Early Riser from Ohio, and the kind-hearted way he ¢adopted¢ me, a novice hiker.Pink flower that looks a little like a stokesia.Easy walk over perhaps an old railroad bed, smooth gravel on the track, rock fields on either side.Meet Purple Sherpa at 12:30 at Little Gap, where we eat lunch.Climb the rock fall at Little Gap to the spot where, in 2003, Early Riser was lying under a tree, whistling. Saying, when I arrived at the tree 45 minutes after he got there, ¢We¢re advancing.¢Early Riser from Ohio, Mountain Goat and The Kid, fantastic people I was lucky to meet my first 2 days of solo-hiking in 2003. If it hadn¢t been for you, I think I would have given up.Eight or ten more chestnut sucker clusters.Everyone except me will stay tonight at a campground north of Palmerton, but I want to stay in the Jail, the Borough House. I haven¢t been there before.I call the police dept because it¢s after 4:30. An officer checks me in, asking for vital info and ID.Who is at the Borough but Hartly Houndog! We eat steak dinners at Bert¢s Steakhouse. Hartly¢s had an injury but he¢s back now. Hoping to catch Wile E Coyote, Road Runner and Missionary Mike, who he hiked with for a month farther south, and hoping maybe to summit Katahdin with them. Hartly is doing 30¢s to try to catch them. If he does, he¢ll fall back and hike at their pace.Everyone in Palmerton is friendly to me. The woman cashiering at the IGA asks me, Are you a hiker?Yes.Then please help yourself to a complimentary apple. Just go over there and pick out the one you want.Hartly and I spend the evening catching up. I tell him his picture and Guam Guy¢s are on Queen Diva¢s blog. Hartly¢s heading out tomorrow for Lehigh Gap, getting a ride from Duane.I see in the register that Johnny Mud (John Knee Mud) was here yesterday.I shower late, in the old-fashioned team shower room beyond the gym. Those hexagonal white tiles about 112 inches in diameter like we had in the bathrooms in the house where I grew up. A rut that channels water away from under the shower to the drain. No need for curtain, door or stall.Good night.