Date: 2008-07-23
From: Delaware Water Gap

To: Mohican Outdoor Center
Miles today: 10.3
Weather: light rain

During the night about 03:30 a.m., I was awakened by the flash of lightning. I had my rainfly attached at on end of my tent, but pulled back halfway.As soon as I felt those first few drops I scrambled to "batten down the hatches" on my tent. Not a second was wasted, the rain then came down with a vengence. I fell right back asleep.In the morning before packing up, I went and had breakfast at the diner.I came back and said goodbye to everyone in the hostel. The next half hour would be the first time I have been disoriented on the trail. Walking back down the street I didn't see a blaze, I just continued in the same direction as I had, when I came into town. Not thinking to check the telephone pole that was blocked by a dump truck and back hoe parked on the street, I continued on. I knew I had to cross a bridge, and I found one. However there was no trail on the other side. Back to the basics time. When in doubt go back to the last known blaze, so I did. Upon coming back into town, the dump truck had moved, and there I saw the double blaze indicating a right turn from where I had continued forward.You dumb@$$, Oh well, back on the right path now. I now came to a real bridge that crossed the Deleware River. Above was overcast, dark and raining lightly.No problem, because at the other end of this bridge I will be entering the 8th state of New Jersey!During the next 10+ miles I caught up with Sprite & Freckles. It had been raining now for a while. We crossed a gravel road and decided to detour .3 of a mile to the Mohican Outdoor Center. It was owned by the Appalachian Mountain Club. They sold snacks, rented a few cabins and thru-hikers could tent for free.Not expecting to stay, we stopped in to have lunch in a dry place and enjoy a coke and a sandwhich.The main room was like a lodge, games, books, piano & other musical instruments. They had a bathroom & showers as well. The forcast was looking real nasty. Torrential rains, possible tornadoes and flash floods were occuring in the valley we just came from. We all made a collective decision to stay and pitch our tents.Once up, the rain started coming down hard. We all dove into our tents. I figured this could take a while so I'll try and take a nap? Soon after, I looked through the mesh of my tent wall and saw that I had pools forming along my tent. I tried forcing the water away with my hand to no avail. This was going to require some engineering, which means I'm going to have to go out and fix it.Jumping out and closing my rainfly as quickly as possible, I dug trenches drawing the water away from my tent. Next I took leaves and pine needles to build little deflective walls under and away from my rain fly.This was better, but by no means was it fail safe. Once back inside, I just had to wait it out and check periodically. Try though I might, I was never able to get that nap. At one point the rain briefly lightened up. I decided I may as well wait in the lodge. Just outside I ran into "Kick It" & "Castaway". They were watching a rattle snake move along in front of them. The snake probably would have rattled a warning at this point, however, it appeared he was in search of and closing in on food. He didn't want to miss a meal bygiving away his presence and losing the element of surprise.I prepared my dinner in the lodge, and waited for the rain to ease up again. Eventually, I went back to my tent, dug out more trenches, built up more dams and deflective barriers under my rainfly and settled in for the duration.This turned out to be a straight 20 hours of lightning, thunder & rain storm.I just hope my rainfly will hold up?