Date: 2014-06-06
From: Palmerton, PA

To: Wind Gap, PA
Miles today: 20.1

Day 87-June 7, Palmerton to Windy Gap, PA, 20.1 miles. Today had a great start when Jim walked to Dunkin Donuts to get our breakfast and was told it was National Donut Day! Who knew! We got a free donut with each beverage purchase so we each enjoyed a glazed donut with our bagel breakfast sandwich and OJ. Then we got a quick hitch back to the trail which saved us over two miles of walking. We are getting bad, if there is not a white blaze on it, we don't want to walk it! Greg was the trail angel that picked us up and he said that he once had a guy that worked for him who hiked the AT and the PCT and this guy said the worst part was walking into and out of towns. So Greg picks up hikers when he can! We were most appreciative! Our hike today began with our biggest challenge of the day and that was to climb up out of Palmerton. The trail went straight up the mountain and then became a boulder scramble as we followed the white blazes painted on the appliance-sized rocks. Of course it was quite steep and at times we had to stop using our hiking sticks and use our hands to help pull ourselves up and over some of the rocks. The views of the Leigh River were spectacular as we climbed and I went slow enough to enjoy this rock scramble challenge. Our climb took us up to a Superfund clean-up site. Palmerton used to be home to a zinc smelting operation and it did very bad things to this mountain. The government has stepped in to try to restore this area to its natural state. Jim hiked here about 3 years ago and was pleased to see how much vegetation has grown up in that time. Today's hike was supposed to be 15.5 miles to a shelter on the mountain. We got there at 2 PM and decided to hike another 4.6 miles into Wind Gap to shorten up our day tomorrow. We have some tentative plans to meet Sean, one of Corey's Syracuse University XC teammates in Delaware Water Gap tomorrow and we could be more flexible if we didn't have so many miles to walk. We are camped in a rather unique location here in Wind Gap-on the grounds of The Beer Stein, a local pub! They let hikers camp for free, figuring the hikers will eat and drink at the pub! We've already had a beer at the bar and will go back for dinner shortly! The trail continues to be rocky~nothing new there! And I had lots of time to think about the rocks and here is what I came up with. When the trail was built each rock determined what was its pointiest or sharpest edge and set that edge upright in the trail. Then if the rock had a nice flat surface it positioned that flat side toward the north-bound hiker's boots so the hiker would catch her toe on the rock! That is my theory and I'm sticking with it! We had perfect hiking weather today, mid to upper 60's, with a nice breeze occasionally. We each carried an extra liter of water today because there was no water available on the trail for 15+ miles. Because of the mild temps and being in the shade most of the day we really didn't need the extra liquid, but it was better to be safe than sorry. This free campsite may be noisy for awhile tonight, but one of the locals told us things will quiet down later. I'll have my earplugs handy! Tomorrow will be our last day in Pennsylvania! Guess who's excited!I've added a few new photos to the gallery. Rock On!All is well.