Date: 2014-06-30
From: Palmerton via Lehigh Gap

To: Wind Gap
Miles today: 20.1
Weather: overcast clouds

The beds at the Jail House Hostel were a bit like sandboxes in that they had four walls surrounding the sleeping area, which was exactly 6'3" in length. How do I know this? Because I measured it with my body, which is also exactly 6'3" in length. So in lying down in the bed, my head was grazing one wall and my feet the other. However, by orienting myself diagonally, I managed to get a decent sleep. I'm pretty sure Skywalker, the 6'10" 2005 thru-hiker, didn't sleep in a Jail House bed.By this morning, Thor the Red and I still hadn't worked out how to get from Palmerton back to the trail. Yesterday afternoon, we'd hiked the mile into town along the narrow breakdown lane of the four-lane highway between Lehigh Gap and town, easily the most dangerous half-hour of my thru-hike so far, and we were hoping not to repeat that experience. So during breakfast at Bert's Steak House, I yogied a ride from the waitress. Yogi is a term derived from the Yogi the Bear cartoon, and it involves asking someone for something without actually asking for it. When yogiing for food, a thru-hiker might comment to a tourist how good his cookies looks and mention that all he has in his backpack is trail mix, thereby guilting the tourist into offering up one of his cookies. In my case, I asked the waitress if she knew how thru-hikers could get back to the trail. Ten minutes later, Thor and I were riding the mile in her white Yukon to the trailhead at Lehigh Gap.The climb out of the gap to the ridge was one of the steepest ascents of the trip so far. Near the top it was also a true rock scramble that required the use of both arms to haul yourself up rock ledges in several places. It was one of the few times when hiking on Pennsylvania's rocks was thoroughly enjoyable.At the top of the ridge, we reached a section of trail where the AT had been relocated to avoid a Superfund restoration site. A zinc smelting plant in the valley below had for decades spewed toxic gas, which had killed the vegetation on the ridge, leaving it with a moonscape-like appearance. Since the plant shut down a decade of two ago, the vegetation has made a partial recovery, though we walked through areas today that are still decades away from being fully restored.Just after lunch, I stopped to talk to a trail runner, who asked me my name and how my hike was going. I was sure I'd seen him before and soon remembered the circumstances. I'd originally met Blue Eyes at Neels Gap on April 11, my third day on the trail and his first as a trail runner. He was still waiting for his uniform to arrive at the time. Later today I realized why I was able to remember him so easily yet have had trouble placing others I'd crossed paths with a second time. At Neels Gap, everything was so new and exciting, and I was therefore more impressionable at that time.Late in the day, Thor and I ran into Lotus and Zero at the Leroy Smith Shelter and hiked with them the last five miles to Wind Gap, a mile from the town with the same name. A day hiking couple was departing in two vehicles, so I asked the guy if he was headed to town and, if so, whether he could give us a lift in his pickup. Five minutes later, Alex had deposited us in the parking lot of the Beer Stein, a hiker-friendly restaurant and bar that offers showers, laundry, and free tenting in the field behind it. After partaking in the Monday night chicken wing special and a few beers, I'm getting ready to go down for the night.