Date: 2008-05-18
From: palmerton, pa

To: leroy smith shelter
Miles today: 15.8
Weather: light rain

Slept in a little because the bunks were uncomfortably short. Hit up the diner again for breakfast before heading out. Talked to some people in there about the trip; a lot of people in this town stopped us and asked us about our trip. It gets annoying at times, though some people know a little about the trail and thus ask questions I don't mind answering. Other than that its the same three questions from every single person we meet: Where did you start, where are you going, where are you from.One our way out of the diner someone stopped us and we chatted briefly. He asked us if we needed a ride anywhere and we said back to the trail after we resupplied. He said he had to eat but could take us back afterwards.Resupplied and refilled my stash of super maximum strength Glucosamine/chlorititin. As we were packing up at the drug store, the guy we talked to earlier showed up and offered us a ride. He had tracked us down by asking people if they had seen us. Can't beat that. We piled in and headed back up to the trail. His name is Kurt, and he used to live in the area. He gave us some history of the area and the zinc mining is still apparent more than 20 years after it was stopped by the EPA. Very interesting to hear the story from a local. Back to the trail. Easiest hitches in and out ever; they would be hard to beat.The climb up from Lehigh Gap is one of those infamous stretches of trail we had been hearing about for hundreds of miles. The mountain pretty much goes straight up from the river. We went straight up the mountain. Simple as that. The climb was all rocks, and required lots of technical foot placement and some use of the hands. It was tough, but really fun. Part of the thrill was the fact that if you slipped you would fall 1000 feet straight down and die. Almost. Intense climb, and got some pretty cool action shots.Made it to the top and followed a path through the rocks. The area is recovering from the zinc mining and is just starting to grow some trees again. Areas were skeleton forests that were very old; the entire hill used to be barren. A stark contrast from the usual route the trail follows, though it was interesting.It started raining a couple miles in so we geared up and unfortunately put away the cameras.The rest of the day consisted of booking it through the rain. It was pouring and windy and cool too. Awesome weather. Trudged through it and didn't stop until 3 miles before the shelter because we were starved.After the break we were close and TB and Stovie caught a glimpse of another bobcat before it bounded into the woods. I didn't see it but I was right there. That was absolutely amazing; two bobcats a day apart. I can guarantee that will never happen the rest of my life.On to the shelter; it stopped raining about fifteen minutes before we got there. Great timing for arriving at a shelter. Oh well, at least it was done.The first spring was dry. We think this shouldn't be considered a spring since it has done nothing but rain for the last two weeks with 3 inches in the past 3 days.Saw a weird bird here. It was a vibrant red with black trim like a Baltimore Oriole {we saw one of those a few days ago}. Almost seemed like an exotic bird. Any ideas anyone?We had a conference call with Bad Hummus and got an update on trail news since he went to Trail Days. We are pretty far ahead of the crowd still and have some distance between us and some of the people I was hiking with at the beginning of the trail. We're currently around number 32 or so so we're pretty early yet.Not feeling too good, off to bed.