Date: 2020-08-17
From: Tentsite at 1248.6

To: Tentsite at Delps Trail
Miles today: 21.3

Change of plans. Snickers and I decided we won't make 20 miles in this rocky terrain. Snickers will do a local hike back home on more manageable terrain. She'll hike three miles to Bake Oven Road today and get picked up. She was a real trooper yesterday enduring one of the quintessential Rocksylvania stretches of the trail, but today looks at least as challenging and no one except a thruhiker needs that kind of grief.Snickers didn't get off easy though because that three miles started with rocks and crescendoed in the Knife Edge - a long, difficult ledge outcropping with layers at an angle. We picked our way across it very slowly. There was a good view, but we weren't in the mood to stop. Snickers was perplexed why anyone would put a trail through here. I remember feeling the same way the first time I came through.We arrived at the Bake Oven parking lot just seconds before Sara. I gave Snickers and her a big hug as I won't see them in person until likely October. Then they were off in a cloud of dust and I was alone again. I should be getting used to this. I hiked off to Bake Oven Knob lost in my thoughts about the family.A mile over the graffitied rocks, another Knife Edge-like boulder field, I was still lost in my thoughts and just following the rocks on automatic pilot when suddenly I heard a blood-chilling rattle that ended my reverie. A rattlesnake was right in front of me sunning on the rocks! I had been about to step right next to him. I retreated to a safe distance, then took out my camera. He gave me another rattle, this time not of warning but of annoyance. He began to slither away, not appreciating my presence. After a few seconds I moved on, and he rattled one last time as if to say "Good riddance!"A couple of miles later at Ashfield Road, after another large boulder field, I came upon a large cache of water - two dozen gallon jugs. A trail angel named Mun has been maintaining these at several road crossings. The water in this stretch is little and far between. And always requires a long walk downhill and back again. So far I've avoided any of these side errands by filling up in town, at the 309 restaurant, and generally by acting like a camel. The cooler weather has helped. These caches ensure I will have easy water to the state line. Once again I got lost in my thoughts walking along the ridge over the Pennsylvania turnpike's Lehigh tunnel. Here the trail was somewhat pleasant with few rocks and open to the sky, but hemmed in tightly by thick understory. Suddenly movement caught my eye. It was the shaggy black hindquarters of a very large bear! He, and it had to be a he, was walking along the trail twenty yards ahead and disappearing around a bend. My mind went in four directions at once. What do I do? Turn back? Bushwhack around him? Yell for help? Charge? I decided to make a lot of noise so he'd know I was here, and hopefully he would decide he didn't want anything to do with me. I clacked my poles together and rang them on the rocks exuberantly. I hoped this sounded intimidating and not interesting to Mr. Bear. Slowly I approached the bend and rounded it. No bear on trail. The foliage was thick on both sides and I scanned wildly for any sign of movement. Finally I spied him off to the right under a tree some fifty feet away. He was a big one, a full-grown well-fed Papa Bear. I made more racket, and he turned and bounded away a few yards then slowed to a walk and disappeared. First the rattler now this. Both seemed rather annoyed with me. I was disappointed not to get any video, but it all happened so fast.A steep downhill over loose rock brought me into the Lehigh River gap. A construction crew was replacing a power line tower on the west side of the gap as I hiked through. Their sign helpfully warned hikers as the trail crossed their makeshift access road to "Watch Your Step". Then the trail left the even gravel bed of the road and returned to navigating a field of loose scree. If a hiker needs to be told to watch his step he wouldn't be on this section of trail to begin with.After crossing the Lehigh River on the road bridge I followed a side trail into Palmerton for a mile and a half. It was a nice level walk on an old rail bed above the river. Someone had painted a huge smiley face on a boulder along the way. Palmerton is a neat mid-sized town laid out on a grid with an historic downtown. But I was only there for the food. Iced tea, ice cream, a cheese steak, plus an Italian hoagie for the road. I hung out at the sandwich place for awhile before hiking back to trail. A grizzled, gap-toothed retired zinc plant worker outside the convenience store was interested in my hike. He said he was too old and unhealthy to do anything like it. I started to encourage him but stopped. Attitudes like that come from within over a long period of time. Instead I asked him about the zinc plant, which is largely closed now. The mountain behind it, which the trail follows, is still being restored after being defoliated from zinc contamination. Every time I'm up here it seems greener.A thunder shower hit as I walked back to trail and it rained lightly as I climbed up the bouldery trail. There's a section that requires some hand-over-hand climbing. I have no good way to quickly stow my poles when this happens. I'll need to figure something out before New Hampshire.Once through all the rocks the ridgeline was easy walking, though the thick grass and brush soaked my feet. Several miles later I reached Little Gap where another water cache from Mun gave me enough to dry camp tonight. There I met two southbounders - a black-bearded guy named Slip and a girl named Poncho - hiking from Hanover, New Hampshire to Georgia. Said there were a ton of blowdowns in New York thanks to the tropical storm. A few more miles in I became frustrated with my slow pace over the rocky trail as dusk approached. There was already a tent at the campsite by the Delps Trail I had been heading for. So I searched around until I found another overgrown tentsite nearby. Ate the hoagie I'd carried out from Joe's in Palmerton. And hung the bear bag after remembering the Papa Bear I'd seen earlier.