Date: 2007-06-18
From: Allentown Hiking Club Shelter

To: Jail house Hostel - Palmerton, PA
Miles today: 17.7

It thundered last night, but never rained. A trail maintainer showed up when I was packing up my gear. He was running a weedwacker cleaning up the brush along the trails at the shelter. I talked to him for a little while and then started to hike around 8:00. The trail has been getting progressively more rocky the past few days and was even rockier today. There were a couple of challenging rock scrambles including an area called knife edge. I slipped and fell once today, but fortunately didn't get any injuries. It was also another hot day with temperatures around 90 degrees.While hiking today I figured out a way to get pictures uploaded to my journal. My phone has a camera. It is not a very good camera, but I can upload direct from the phone. I am going to try to take one picture each day with the phone. I will have to see what affect this has on the battery life.I passed a few day hikers and a class of about 20 kids and a few adults that are starting a week long outdoor camp. They were discussing lichen when I approached. They had some questions for me about thru-hiking. I talked them for about ten minutes.I finally reached Bake Oven Shelter around 1:00 and found Ninja, Golden Boy, and Flick already there eating lunch. I fixed some stove stop stuffing with peas and carrots for lunch. I only took 45 minutes for lunch and left the shelter a few minutes after Ninja. Flick and Golden Boy left later.I hiked abut 4 miles and was feeling exhausted. It was hot and my feet hurt. I found a small grassy clearing and dropped my pack. I took my shoes off and stretched out on the ground for about 30 minutes. Flick and Golden Boy hiked by while I was there. I got up and headed down the trail. The trail was not as rocky for the rest of the way. I headed down the hill into Lehigh Gap. Just before the trail crossed the road, I found Ninja, Golden Boy, and Flick sitting by a cooler. They had saved a couple cold beverages for me. We walked across the bridge to highway 248 and tried to hitch a ride to Palmerton. Len stopped in his pickup truck and we piled in the back. He dropped us at a public building where the Police Dept runs a hostel. We had to provide drivers licenses and social security numbers to register to stay. We have a 10:00 curfew.Len invited us to dinner, so we showered and he came back and took us to a local diner. It was great. I had a cheese steak sandwich and fries. After dinner he took us to his house for homemade strawberry pie made with strawberries from his garden. He gave us a tour of his place. He has a large garden and had a cool wood burning furnace.Tomorrow we climb a 1,000 foot high rock pile. It is suppose to be one of the toughest climbs outside of the white mountains in New Hampshire. It is also part of a Superfund site. A zinc plant dumped pollution in the air for years that killed all the vegetation on the mountain. The site has been going though clean up and repair for about 10 years. There is a 16 mile section to hike tomorrow where you can't drink the water. The forecast is for 90 degrees. I am going to try to get started early.