Date: 2007-06-16
From: Hawk Mountain Rd

To: Rte 309
Miles today: 11.5

Saturday, June 16, 2007Hawk Mtn Rd to Rte 309, 11.5 miles plus maybe another 0.9 (0.5 count) to a parking area where we¢ll might meet Purple Sherpa (we¢re not sure if he¢ll be at Hawk Mtn Rd or the parking area).Start 8:00. Temps mid 60¢s, small clouds in blue sky.Crayola yellow-orange toadstools, about 3/8 inch high.Hello to father and son coming down from Allentown Shelter, and 2 men coming out of the shelter. I¢d like to go to the shelter to see if the olive oil stain on that large flat rock is still there. I¢ve always tried hard to ¢leave no trace¢ and I¢ve always felt guilty about that olive oil soaking into the surface of that rock when we spilled linguine al aglio e olio we had tried (and failed) to cook in skillet part of a ¢backcountry oven¢ I was toting, bewitched into buying it by advertising. ¢Be the envy of the shelter. While everyone else is eating Liptons, you could be eating fresh-baked biscuits.¢The oil stain is gone. Time, and I suppose the cleansing action of acid rain.The privy looks and smells as good as 4 years ago, mirror, hooks, dangling air-freshener, clean.Budded day lily growing out of a rotting tree stump next to the shelter.This is a great shelter. Glad we stopped. Zig Zag signs the register.NOBO Scotty Toolight, trail-named Toolight because he was told at Springer his pack (30 lbs) was too light. Everyone else was carrying 50.Hello to NOBO Judo from MD (spotted here and there on her body with poison ivy, she thinks she may have spread the oil with her hands), started March 25. She¢s using ¢tecnu¢, a product that decontaminates skin and clothing and equipment by removing or deactivating the invisible oils of poison oak, ivy and sumac. Judo has met Glenn and Brian, she says they stop occasionally to find work to earn a little money to finance the next leg of their thruhike. Last year I bought an expensive 4 oz container of tecnu (active ingredient octylphenoxy-polyethoxyethanol). It¢s home in the bathroom, I forgot to pack it. Relying on grocery-bag or Smartwool gaiters to barricade legs from ubiquitous poison ivy here in PA. P.S. These work.Zig Zag has bought rubbing alcohol to wipe down the shafts of our hiking poles after we finish each day¢s hike. Thanks, Zig Zag.Hello to a day-hiking young man, hiking a 22 today, in and out from Hawk Mtn Rd.Hello to NOBO Chill Out.Hello again to NOBO¢s Running Wolf and Fahrenheit, bringing up the rear of the Riders of the Storm. They say some of the Riders are 300 miles farther north, in VT. Also that Aquaman is a few days ahead, in NJ.See more lilies that remind me of foxtail lilies.Hello to Joe and Chris hiking to NJ.When we stop about 11:30 for a break there¢s cell reception. Haven¢t had it elsewhere around here, or at the campground last night. Find 3 messages from Flex and Easy, trying to hook up with me last night at the Jail, maybe we can set cars. Wish I¢d been able to talk to them, or to get these messages earlier so I could have called them back sooner. I leave a voicemail for them that I¢m sorry to miss them, unfortunately we¢re moving in opposite directions. Back home, I connect with Easy. Flex will hike til late June to the NY/CT line. Then they¢re heading home to Michigan.Hello to 15 members of a Bethlehem church youth group out backpacking for 4 days, hiking north to 309.At Dan¢s Pulpit sitting on a rock reading a book is NOBO Spence, started April 1. Sirene learns he¢s 17, and is home-schooled.Bright red mountain ash berries.Another youth group, about 20-strong, shakedown hike for a trip out west to Philmont.Out about 3:15.As we reach the campground, the sky opens and dumps a drenching rain. Sirene and I go to Cabela¢s where I buy more Driducks rainsuits. The jackets wear out after a season or so, but they¢re so lightweight and inexpensive, I don¢t mind buying them every year. For some reason rain pants, which I don¢t wear, come with the jackets. I find I can make the jackets waterproof by wearing 2 of them. Usually a newer one over an old one. This year I experimented wearing an old holey one in size medium over just me and a new one in extra large over me, my chest camera case and my daypack. That combo was waterproof until the stress of stretching across both me and the pack, and the stress of tying it by the sleeves around my waist, ripped out the extra large¢s left armhole.