Date: 2017-08-10
From: Wolf Rocks

To: Just north of Little Gap
Miles today: 20.2
Weather: scattered clouds

The spring has sprung. A leak, that is. Because it is dry. A bit of damp earth is all there is to show for what I thought would be my morning¢s water source. We¢ve been seeing some of this the past weeks, but rarely so blatantly. Wolf Rock Spring is dry. And so am I.A bit later I ran into the warning sign and saw this wasp nest, which I gave a wide berth:  http://www.trailjournals.com/j...Since I entered Pennsylvania I have been hiking gap to gap. Yesterday we left the Appalachian spine to drop to Delaware Water Gap. Today in 8 miles I¢ll drop into Wind Gap, then 8 miles later into Smith Gap and 8 miles after that, Little Gap. I hope to camp just before Little Gap after 20 miles. But at Smith Gap, 14 miles ahead, I am being met by Rich, the brother of a dear friend and uncle of one of the three boys our son was practically raised with. Rich¢s wife has their car, so he is renting one to rendezvous with me on dirt-road-served Smith Gap.But I¢m getting ahead of myself. Let¢s talk Rocksylvania. Sure enough, the trail at times feels like a cobblestone street unearthed, each stone a crazily-tilted ankle biter. But, and I¢ll get to the bottom line first, it¢s not so bad. At least if the first 30 miles is any indication. The hard parts are rarely that long and any time I can average over two miles per hour on the AT, keeping the effort in the ¢reasonable¢ range, is okay by me. Maybe Rocksylvania is setting me up, like a pool hall hustler. ¢You just wait, Scout. Double down and make your 20-mile-a-day plans.¢ To be continued¢¦We never know when we¢re saying good-bye for a long time or, for that matter, unexpectedly saying hello. A mile along this morning, ¢Wait a minute, who¢s that hiker finishing packing up? It¢s Franky!¢ He and Dot dropped the 20-20-10 plan and reduced their mileage before they pick up their concert-bound rental car. And, voila! They¢d camped a mile in front of me.  The two of us made short work of the five miles to Wind Gap. (Frodo: Okay, I¢ve been figuratively biting my tongue, but I can¢t take it any longer. Your math today has been TERRIBLE! 8+8+8 make a little over 20 miles??? 8+8 = 14?? And now 1+5 = 8?? You said it was 8 miles from where you started to Wind Gap!! And you were a math major at UCLA!!) Again we gave hugs good-bye. Dot (Frodo: You didn¢t even tell us about her ¢ was she with Franky?? Did you catch up to her later? I must be having a grumpy day.) promises to send me photos of them on the concert ground¢s ¢Lazy River,¢ the two of them slowly floating on inner tubes.At my Smith Gap meeting time, 1:30, I am a few hundred yards away, and here¢s Rich striding up the trail. This man knows his birds and his plants. So many times we could have used him on the trail.  Here we are:  http://www.trailjournals.com/j...Over lunch at a classic small town diner, Rich says my bird population collapse concerns are both real and not. This time of year for the birds in the highlands is a ¢quiet time.¢ After nesting, many are getting ready to migrate, and many have dropped down to the lowland fields to rob farmers of ripening corn.Rich asked great questions about SOBO hiking and at the end said, ¢I think the thing I admire most is that you survived the blackflies.¢ Rich feels that either blackflies should go extinct, or we should. I was back on trail by 4:15 with 3.5 days¢ worth of food and my first Italian water ice.  It was root beer flavor and got me 1.5 miles along:  http://www.trailjournals.com/j...Now, 6 miles later, I¢m in my tent near Little Gap. A rock concert a mile away wafts its beat into the wilderness, including the song ¢I would walk 500 miles.¢ I¢m eating Knorr stroganoff noodles chased down with a Canada Dry ginger ale and when I finish this I¢m going to pick up today¢s New York Times.It¢s all good in Rocksylvania.