Date: 2008-07-04
From: Palmerton, PA

To: Little Gap, PA
Miles today: 5.3

I was not ready to get up this morning. It was almost midnight before I finished sending in yesterday's pictures, writing the journal entry and getting it all sent into Mrs Gorp.I heard a knock on the door at 6:40am...it was Smokestack. He thought I had been up and had my coffee already. I saw a surprised look on his face when I answered the door with a "just" woke up look on my face. :-)He asked if I was ready for breakfast yet. I said I would be in 3 minutes! :-)We walked next door to the diner and ate, then took a car up to Little Gap and left it.We headed back to the trailhead at Palmerton and started walking north on the Appalachian Trail about 10am.It was drizzly out and got just heavy enough to make the rock climb up Lehigh Gap pretty slippery.We had a fairly steep 1,000 foot climb. I've always enjoyed the rock climb, but Mother Nature wasn't too sure about what she thought of it yet.We got to the first rock scramble and we all made it over it with no problem.We got to the steepest rock scramble a little later and Smokestack and I were over it, but Mother Nature hesitated a minute. I think yesterday's fall on the Knife Edge was still too fresh in her mind.The scramble was slippery. I saw her thinking about it for a minute, then she went for it.She made it without a problem, but WITH a big smile on her face when she was done and I told her that was the last of the scrambles. :-)We walked on and came to an American flag painted on a rock-face.I waited and got a couple pictures of Smokestack and one of Mother Nature as they made their way over the rocks and near the painted flag.Those should make good pictures for mountain climbing on the 4th of July!We kept climbing till we got to the ridge walk on Blue Mountain. It's kind of a barren area after an old zinc factory polluted the area many years ago.I've always enjoyed the walk, but wouldn't drink any water or eat any blueberries from the area.Mother Nature was eating some blueberries and I reminded her that this is a superfund site. She stopped. :-)The blueberries did look tempting though because they were nice and plump and thousands of them were all around.I walked along with my rain jacket on. It was drizzling at a steady rate. It was a perfect day for a walk! It stayed cool and there was a nice breeze blowing.We came to a trail relo with just a mile left before Little Gap. It was a bad relo I thought.They took us off the nice forest road and put us over lots of rocks. Oh well....We got down to Little Gap and found a note on the car that Gator left. His girlfriend is picking him up today, so I probably won't see him again till I'm in NJ.That may sound like a long time, but I'm now only about 31 trail miles from entering NJ!We drove back to the motel and got cleaned up, then went to the diner for a late lunch.I had a dozen Buffalo wings and some fries with hot coffee.Since I didn't get much sleep last night, I went to my room and took about an hour nap. That just feels really good sometimes! :-)I watched the Weather Channel and saw the weekly forecast. It had thunderstorms predicted for ALL of the next 7 days....at least a good chance of thunderstorms predicted. (This is when my ol' buddy Chief would be dialing up Carlene to come pick him up)   :-)I checked my food because it looks like we are actually going to carry our backpacks starting tomorrow. Boy...I guess all good things have to come to an end sometimes. ;-)I needed a few items, so we stopped by the Giant Food Store. I bought what I thought I'd need, then we drove up to the diner and I had perogies that were done right!They were good and so were the lima beans I had.I know we only walked 5.3 miles today, BUT......I'll bet it was 5,3 miles MORE than my ol' buddy Chief walked today. Ha! :-)Another great day on the Appalachian Trail. :-)