Date: 2016-05-27
From: Stealth Camp, past Wind Gap, PA

To: Delaware Water Gap, PA
Miles today: 14.1
Weather: overcast clouds

Day 3714.1 miles in 7.5 hoursStealth camp, 1.5 miles from Wind Gap (1279.3) to Delaware Water Gap (1293.4)Weather: Sunny, high 70s/low 80sDinner: Crabcakes at the Sycamore GrillWildlife: One small ring necked black snake Hikers: Members of the same north hiking group as yesterday, LL RetroSo let's start off with an update about my night. In a word: Disrupted.Yesterday, after hiking until 6:30 p.m., and after a 700¢ climb out of Wind Gap, I was interested in finding anything resembling a stealth site, sooner than later. Typically stealth camps are not all that hidden, more like unofficial campsites. What they have going are flat pieces of ground and maybe a fireplace where the rocks have found a more suitable purpose. I had passed many all day yesterday. The next shelter was still more than seven miles away and the next established campsite was three. I think I may have mentioned rocks before? Finding a flat, rock-free surface was hard, but I finally did find a little chunk totally acceptable. Set up my tent, heated a little water to reconstitute my delicious beef curry noodle bowl, sponged off as best I could, wrote, read and¢¦was almost asleep when I hear clicking trekking poles announcing the approach of another hiker. Turned out to be one of the young ones I was attempting to distance myself from. And the one with a 5-month old puppy. That's right. A dog that would be the equivalent of a six-year-old. There have been more than one of us who believe this hiker is making it walk much too far because she has her own mileage goals. When she passed me last night at 8:45, it was dark and she said she was headed to the shelter. The one seven miles away. I later found out she arrived after 1 a.m. That made her day¢s hike well above 20 miles. Know any six-year-olds that could do that? She¢s gonna make a great mom someday. We used to have a landline with a phone in our bedroom that didn't reach a bedside table. Whenever it would ring in the middle of the night, I¢d bolt over to it, almost before the second ring, and answer while practically still asleep. After the not-making-good-choices girl left, I fell back asleep, but was reawakened by the sound of a nearby animal. I bolted up before I was fully awake yelling Hey! Hey! Hey! Get out of here! And something big went crashing away. Fumbled for my light and flashed it all over the now still woods. Only the quiet raining of frass was heard. My phone said it was 10:55 p.m. Could have been a deer, could have been a bear. I don't think it was a toad, the usual culprit. Although, come to think of it, I'm not very far from the toxic Superfund site.Now typically, something like that would keep my heart racing and I'd find it hard to go back to sleep. But not tonight. I was beat. I fell back asleep clutching my headlamp in case I'd be reawakened. Which I was again. This time, exactly an hour later by headlamp.I was close to the trail and people do night-hike, especially when it's hot and the days are long, so it didn't freak me out to see a light shining on my tent. I assumed the hiker saw my campsiteand was scoping out the flat land opportunity. And because of an unknown large animal whereabouts, I was more than open to sharing my space. So I helpfully flashed the light I had been clutching. In spite of the late hour and questionable judgement, the hiker appeared normal and I talked him about the potential flat areas. He flashed his powerful beam around some more. I asked him where he had hiked in from, and I thought he said he had been visiting friends in Wind Gap. Wind Gap? That was just at the bottom of the hill¢less than two miles away. He mumbled something about hiking this section before or going back and forth or hiking ten miles. I'm not sure. He was doing a lot of mumbling. And talking to himself. At least that is what I think he was doing. After flattening some nearby ferns (so, he wasn't into the ¢leave no trace¢ ethic), and smoking two cigarettes, Billy-Bob finally settled into his half-pitched solo tent. Likely on a pile of rocks.Still dead tired and still sticky, I settled back down into my sleeping bag. Five hours later, I woke up wee-rested, uneaten and unmolested, but still sticky. My eye was now firmly fixed on Delaware Water Gap¢home to ice cream, beer, food, air conditioned hotels and the state border. One of my guidebooks indicated that this last stretch would take longer than expected, but I didn't find it any more¢or less¢maddening than the rest of northern Pennsylvania thus far. About an hour into my hike, LLRetro caught up to me. He was the ¢unfortunate¢ soul who I perceived had been stuck in that shelter two days ago with Beavis and Butthead. Turns out most people ended up hiking on that night, but yeah, I seem to be currently hiking in a bubble with kids mostly the age of my own. Or younger. Hiked with LLRetro the rest of the day. The trail went over one more viewpoint, Wolf Rocks, where two people warned of having seen Copperheads, stopped at the Kirkridge Shelter to finally replenish my now-empty water bottles with water right from a tap, up a less rocky road to Mt. Minis, where a communications tower had replaced the former fire tower and started the descent into Delaware Water Gap.We arrived in mid-afternoon, where the first thing I did was to eat two scoops of ice cream at the conveniently placed trail side ice cream shoppe, then went back and got a third one. Am staying the night at an Inn which several people had warned was ¢not very nice,¢ but I am finding it fine. It's seen better days, but so have other hotels along the trail. At least this one has an acceptably clean unshared bathroom, even if the TP dispenser is falling off the wall and the bedside light lamp shades are in various degrees of crumbling. And for the win, the sheets appear to have been changed.