Date: 2011-06-28
From: Delaware Water Gap, PA

To: Blue Mtn Lakes Rd/Delaware Water Gap, PA
Miles today: 17.6
Weather: overcast clouds

I woke up with the posse around 6:00am and was excited to get some miles in without the extra pack weight. We were fairly tired from going on so late last night. No surprise to see that Oompa had not stirred at all. When I started getting ready I noticed that the bunk next to me was never filled. The ground pad was blown up, but no one slept on it. There was also a pile of gear on the bunk below the ground pad bunk that was never disturbed and no one slept there either. I was a bit puzzled by this since obviously someone owned this stuff, and we all thought the hostel was full and some of our friends were forced to tent in the hostel garden. I walked out into the common area to find Whisper (who we were now calling Power Strip because he is carrying a full sized power strip) laying on the couch watching some garbage on a laptop he said that he was also carrying. I asked him about the gear and sleep mat and he said that the gear was his and he found the sleep pad in the hostel and inflated it for someone to use. I flipped out. Not only did he claim two bunks that would have been gladly used by other "real" hikers, he also claimed a third sleeping area on the couch. I was mad and let him know how disrespectful he was. We left the hostel after 7:00am. The weather was nice and the first climb was gradual and simple. We crossed the Delaware River into New Jersey! We came upon Sunfish pond which was a gorgeous lake with very strange rock sculptures on one of the banks. These were stacks of rocks, very much like cairns. It was a bit Blair Witchy to be honest. Some people (or witches) had obviously taken their time to assemble these structures. The terrain was still super rocky. We were told that the rocks would continue for a day into Jersey, so hopefully tomorrow will be better. We all had a pretty solid pace, even the kids were doing 3+ mph. We were all still planning the full 28 miles and Freight Train would pick us up at the end. We would have to however, pay a shuttle in the morning to run us back out to the same location since we had to go back to DWG fo the evening. Havoc wanted to stop at the Mohican Outdoor Center which was only 0.3 off the trail. We opted to eat lunch there since they had deli sandwiches! The deli hike begins. It was while we were eating lunch that the kids brought up that they weren't feeling up to doing the full 28. I felt bad that we changed their initial plans anyway, so we called Freight Train and asked her to meet us earlier around 18 miles. We bumped into Lynn on the trail. This was a very nice lady that Glide had helped out in Virginia many moons ago. We pushed on with a new found spring in our step since we weren't doing a beastly 28 anymore. At the end point road crossing we ran into Lynn again who was shuttling her friend to her car. She offered us a ride to simplify Freight Train's trip. Lynn also offered to pick us up in the morning so we wouldn't have to arrange the shuttle. Great news! When we got back to the hostel we were not surprised to see that Powerstrip was still there mooching what he could from unsuspecting thru hikers. I ran down to the gas station and grabbed a few snack items. I also swung by the local bakery and picked up a delightful shepards pie. I went back to the hostel where mooch master Powerstrip wanted to taste my shepherds pie. I'm getting tired of this guy. He's spent five or six days in the hostel already which is well past the two night maximum. He's just taking advantage of the system. A few of us went to the local diner where we met Mingo and his wife. The food was disapointing. I hit the bakery and got some sweets and we stopped at the local pub for a quick beer before heading back to the hostel. I did a bit of journaling before bed. A fairly tame evening in comparison to last night.