Date: 2021-06-11
From: Stealth campsite 

To: Palmerton, PA
Miles today: 3.3
Weather: overcast clouds

Woke to cloudy skies even though the forecast yesterday was for sunny skies and no rain for the next 10 days. Ha! We¢re in Pennsylvania. What did we expect?Squeak texted us to let her know when we passed the George Outerbridge Shelter. Can¢t wait to get clean and have clean clothes! Everything we have is dirty, as far as clothes go. Last night we hung our socks far from the tent to air them out and wiped our feet as always, but the smell was still pretty horrible.Started hiking about 10 minutes and David realized that he had left one of his shirts drying on the tree. He left his pack and ran back to get it.We hiked on, anxious to get to the trailhead and our ride into Squeak¢s. One thing about being the lead walker in the morning is you are also the ¢web walker¢. This is the person that clears all those little invisible webs from across the trail by getting them across their face. I spent my time walking with my kerchief in my hand, wiping my face.We got to the shelter and just before leaving, a hiker came in. Her name was Snapshot and she told us how she had started her thru-hike last year and had to get off for COVID-19 and was now finishing it. She was done at Delaware Water Gap! About 27 miles to go!! We were so happy for her and also envious!And, of course, just as we were leaving the shelter it started to sprinkle so we had to stop and put on our pack covers! The heaviest rain of the day was supposed to be at 9am so we hoped to get picked up by Squeak before it hit. We hiked down to the Lehigh River and crossed the bridge. We texted Squeak and she said not to cross the bridge so we had to cross back. :)Squeak¢s husband, Dave, came and picked us up and took us back to their house. They had 2 pictures on the lawn of their sons who were graduating from high school. We met Squeak and took right to her! She was so friendly and welcoming. She plays the bagpipes! She played in high school and in country-wide competitions, then stopped playing because it was stressful and she wasn¢t enjoying it. Now as an adult, she decided to pick it back and said she practiced at 5pm so maybe we would get to hear a concert. I love the bagpipes!! I couldn¢t wait. Squeak is involved in so many things. She is a disaster relief volunteer for the Red Cross, she works with the Girl Scouts, she teaches hiking and overnight backpacking to all age groups, even a group for over 40 who would like to try hiking for the first time.We took showers and put in several loads of laundry. Then walked behind their house. Their house was just one street over from Main Street and we could cut through the backyard to Main. Palmerton is a little town and has some cute shops in it. We resupplied at the Country Harvest grocery and they offered us a free apple or orange because we were thru-hikers. We went back to Squeak¢s and set up our tent in the backyard. It had started sprinkling. We had Palmerton pizza for dinner (thin crust and not very good) then came back and went to bed. Before bed we had to sign Squeak¢s log book and then the giant framed AT symbol on the back of the house.Surprise, surprise it started to rain. We did a NERO today and hiked 3.3 miles into Palmerton.