Date: 2017-07-13
From: Blue Mountain Summit, PA 309

To: Little Gap Rd., Danielsville, PA
Miles today: 18.6

It was a long and strange day.  I climbed a steep rock face dripping sweat in early morning, climbed over a steep place called Knife Edge in a downpour in the afternoon, and am now in my tent in my wool long underwear for the night.  And I got kicked out of a bar for the first time in my life.  The hike today had several rocky, dangerous places to climb.  The steepest climb with the biggest potential fall was at Lehigh Gap, about five miles from the end.  Warren shuttled us to do that section first while we were fresh and the day was not yet too hot.  The climb up the rock face there was difficult, and I needed both arms to pull myself up in some places.  I tried to use the left arm mostly to balance, but I had to pull myself up with it several times.  Once we reached the top the trail ran along a grassy ridge with nice views of the Lehigh Valley.  (This section of the trail is a detour to avoid a Superfund site where zinc smelting from 1898 to 1980 caused deforestation.). There were lots of blackberries and some blueberries.  We stopped to eat some of each (later realizing that probably wasn't such a good idea).  There were also some ripe wineberries and lots of wildflowers: thistle, salsify, hop clover, bladder campion, sweet peas, Deptford pink, milkweed, yarrow, crown vetch, white clover, red clover, and bleeding hearts.  There were several wildflowers that I hadn't seen before.After we finished that section Warren shuttled us back to Lehigh Gap so we could hike south for the rest of the day.  This was also along a ridge.  We found lots of ripe blueberries, and I had my first ever huckleberries.  Several sections required climbing over big rocks.  We were over the first difficult section when it started to rain (sometime after 3:00).  It rained hard for several hours.  When we got to the Knife Edge it was still pouring.  Bill, Arlene, and I were so scared we took a pee break before we started.  We all just peed on the rocks where we were standing.  We were already soaked to the skin by then, and I started to get chilled.  We stayed very close together while we pulled, pushed, and scooted ourselves over the narrow edge of slanted rocks.  I was far too focused on each move to take any pictures.  After that there were several more miles, some with rocks.  We finally got back to where we were camped about 7:00.  There was a restaurant/bar nearby, where we hoped to get dinner.  I grabbed some dry clothes and headed there.  I hoped to change into the dry clothes in the restroom.  I stood beside the sign that said please wait to be seated.  I still had on my wet poncho.  After a minute the owner came out from behind the bar and asked me what I was doing there.  I said I wanted to get dinner, there would be three of us, and could I please use the restroom to change into dry clothes.  He said, "No, you can't bring that stuff in here.  Take it outside."  I went out to the van and undressed there.  I couldn't find my dry pants, so I went back to the bar in a dry top but my wet shorts.  We got dinner.  The owner kept asking everyone what they were doing there and seemed to be in some kind of argument with the waitress.  He was quite drunk.  We were glad to get out of there and back to our tents.Tomorrow is a town day.  It's supposed to rain all day, but we know we can get showers at the end.  I really need one.