Date: 2015-09-02
From: Delaware Water Gap, PA

To: Hamburg, PA
Miles today: 75.9
Weather: broken clouds

8/27 Day 86 13.5 miles M909.3Taking my time to get out of town, which has become my custom, a nice breakfast and then back on the trail and in generally good spirits. The climb out of Delaware Water Gap was nice affording a couple of views up to the top of Mount Minsi. Then the trail took me on a nice ridge walk along an old and smooth dirt road. I came to a shelter which had a water spigot tapped from a nearby water line running up to a private retreat center. I filled up with a little over a 1/2 gallon of water because the water levels are so low and I am not sure if I can make it to the next water spot tonight. Then, ROCKS! Amazing evidence of so many aspects of Geology and weathering put these rocks here. I had asked many NOBOs what exactly about the rocks in PA make them so tough? They couldn't really tell me, and now I understand why. I couldn't step on them and I couldn't step around them. These are big and small rocks (not boulders and not gravel or pebbles). There's hardly any soil, what looks to be small rocks are actually much bigger rocks, partially buried of which I am only seeing the tip. I can not get a good footing anywhere, every step is at an angle. At times the rocks roll as I (attempt to) step on them. If I wanted to start a fun-house business called "CRAZY ROCKS", this is what I'd put for people to walk through. The rocks started about 8 miles south of DWG and lasted the rest of the day slowing my progress significantly. I came to a feature called "Wolf Rocks". I'm not sure if wolves were seen here or if the name points to the sharpness of the rocks. They reminded me a bit of hiking in the white mountains, except without the elevation changes and we're mostly in the forests here. I want to avoid injury; so, I am not pushing speed here. These rocks are quite tiring on the lower legs and especially the feet. At about 6:30, I crossed a private gravel road and decided to camp at the next available site. About 100 yards up the trail, I found a potential site to set camp, then explored a bit further off the trail and found a relatively nice spot. Finding the exact spot to set camp was not so easy, given the rocks. I don't want to puncture the floor of my tent on the sharp rocks so a place is not easy. Once a tent pad is cleared, the next challenge is to set the tent stakes in almost no soil (even though under tree cover). I made / ate dinner and put in for the night.8/28 Day 87 12.7 miles M922.0THE ROCKS!! Hiking very slowly (about 1.25 miles per hour). Had lunch and a nap at Leroy A. Smith Shelter. Another hiker came in from a side trail to the shelter and wanted to talk. I had a terrible headache and wasn't able to converse much, plus he awakened me from my much needed nap. He did tell me though that, in his opinion, I had hiked the very worst of the rocks for a while. Turns out the rocks did get a bit better in the afternoon. I do marvel at the effects of glaciers. I suppose many of these rocks were cut by the glaciers from some of the rounded mountains and steep notches I'd hiked hundreds of miles earlier and left at the point where the glaciers reached their southern-most point. Since the Hudson River, the rocks had been significantly more present than what I'd seen in VT, MA, CT, and NY north of the Hudson River Valley. Since reaching the more rocky Mid-Atlantic region, my shoes have begun to wear faster. Since leaving Mount Minsi south of DWG, I've been hiking along the ridge of Blue Mountain, which has many more miles as a relatively flat ridge line. The forests are much thinner than most with very little under-growth, the soil is almost non-existent and very very rocky. Still very hard to set up my tent where I stopped for the day at the intersection of the AT and the Delps trail. The spring is dry here (actually .4 miles down the mountain). I'm glad I packed in water from lunch at the Leroy Smith Shelter, where I had to hike 0.6 miles down the mountain to find a spring. PA is a difficult hike for the rocks and lack of water this time of year. I'd put it third so far behind ME and then NH.8/29 Day 88 17.5 miles M939.5Very early start, began packing at 6:15 am, which is first light, and on the trail around 6:50. When I tent and string up my bear bag, I take about 1 hour to roll out and break camp... that's without eating breakfast or drinking my "green" drink. I wanted to eat breakfast at Danielsville, PA about 6 miles up the trail at a diner about a mile down hill on Little Gap Rd. Still a very rocky trail, but not as bad as the previous morning. I did arrive for breakfast at around 10:30am, enjoyed the eggs and pork chops special, ordered a burger to go for lunch and a chicken sub for dinner. I didn't get hungry until the evening so ate the burger and bear-bagged the sub and had it for breakfast the next morning.   After Little Gap, I walked the Palmerton "Superfund" detour trail. The trail itself was nice, not rocky much at all. I could see the HUGE zinc smelting plant that had operated from between 1898 and 1980. I could see the far ridges had been deforested as was Blue Mountain in this section due to the air-borne residue from the smelting operation. Amazing that 25 years later, so few (very short and young) trees have been able to get a foothold. I could also see the smelting ash still piled up in huge hills below.The water on this part of the mountain is still not fit to drink. Around 3:00 pm, I had made my way to the precipice over Lehigh Gap and made a significant descent. Very steep and rocky, difficult to climb down this part of the trail requiring some quadrupedal work and reminded me of some of the NE Mountains. I was so thrilled to find trail angels had left water, sodas, "Hostess" (brand) treats and a few other nice things. These trail angels left a journal book prefaced saying they are from Washington Township, PA. Lovely rest and refreshment and great timing for a SOBO. Next was to cross the Lehigh river via the bridge where below the bridge I could see people canoeing, tubing, and fishing. I made my way up the other side of the gap to the shelter where there was a lovely piped spring. I loaded up on water and at around 4:30 decided to hike on to the next shelter, Bake Oven Knob Shelter - a scary name in August. I arrived just as the sun was setting to find that a group of about a dozen people had taken the shelter and all the tent pads. So, I backtracked about a tenth of a mile to the top of Blue Mountain and set camp at a decent enough place.8/30 Day 89 17.4 miles M956.9Still rocky hike today, but manageable and I'm getting more used to the rocks and navigating them a bit faster. At around noon, I arrived at PA309 where I had lunch (on a Sunday) at the Blue Mountain Summit B&B restaurant and ordered dinner to go. Nice day then the summer shower deluge began for about an hour. I slipped twice on the same rock, landed on my forearm with only a superficial cut. Picked myself up and continued to hike slower, but also continued to slip on the rocks. Tough to get traction. Also, not much view at the few opportunities as the rain was so heavy the visibility was probably only 0.1 miles. Soaked, I made my way to the Eckville Shelter and put up for the night with 3 other SOBO's and oddly there were also 3 NOBO planning to complete their thru-hike this season (they are very very late for a NOBO).8/31 Day 90 14.8 miles M971.7Not much to say about today's hike other than a lot of rocky trail, tougher than the past few days in places, but also followed some nice roadbeds for long stretches that made for some faster hiking. I stopped for my first break after 11 miles at Minehaha spring. The draw was dinner and a bed at Port Clinton Hotel, plus I needed to pick up a resupply package from the PO that closed at 4:30. I made it to Port Clinton by 3:30 only to find out the Hotel was closed on Monday, and so was the B&B. Very tired, I bought jelly beans and downed Gatorade and Ginger Ale from the Peanut Shop, a local candy store which was about the only store open, and rested for a while to figure out my next move. Also, interestingly, my shoes had started to lose their resilience and were forming blisters on my right heel and left toe over the past two days. I also was almost out of provisions.   I carry with me an Appalachian Trail Guide, referred to by hikers as "The AWOL Guide". AWOL is the author's trail name. It is my lifeline and primary source for planning and decisions. In the AWOL Guide, I could see that Hamburg, PA was about 2.5 miles east of where I was, may not sound far for someone hiking 2000 miles, but it is a long way on a busy road after a long hard day of hiking. But after a rest, I made my way to Hanover and found a very nice Microtel, a Walmart Super Center, and a Cabella's outfitter. I could potentially get everything I need... also, this library has a computer for updating this journal. Yea! All is well by end of the day. The NOBO's tell me that the trail gradually starts to get easier all the way to Duncannon (about another 70 miles ahead) where it then stays better the rest of the way.9/1 & 9/2 & 9/3 Days 91, 92, 93. zero milesOn the morning of 9/1, I went to Cabella's for a new pair of shoes. It's mostly a hunting store but they did have some decent hiking shoes. I tried the best shoes, Salomon and New Balance, and couldn't get a good fit. So, I ordered another pair of Mammut from Base Camp Outfitters in Killington, VT where I had bought the pair I'd been wearing since I'd given up the Merrill's in Killington and had such drastic improvement in the condition of my feet. Since I wasn't happy with anything I could get here in Hamburg, and my feet have been the most sensitive and challenging physical adjustment I've made, I felt justified in waiting here a couple of days for the shoes to be delivered. So, three nice days to resupply, update this journal in the library in downtown Hamburg, PA. Life is good on this amazing journey.