Date: 2008-05-20
From: Unnamed Campsite PA

To: Hostel Palmerton PA
Miles today: 12.6

Day 93 ¢ Tuesday May 20 ¢ Hostel Palmerton PA ¢ Miles Today: 12.6 Total Miles: 1245.6We had another night with no rain! We thought life was good when we hit the trail ¢ it was not raining, nor was it sunny. The last couple mornings we started out with sunshine but ended up with rain by mid morning, so we thought perhaps our lack of sunshine this morning meant we would not have rain today. No such luck. As normal, by mid morning it started raining lightly. We were hoping that the rain would remain light, as we needed to get a hitch into Palmerton.The 12-mile hike to town took us from 6:00 to 12:30, as we had lots of rocks near Bake Oven Knob that slowed us down quite a bit. But luckily the rocks were dry when we went through and we had no problems. We could definitely see that when the rocks were wet they would be most dangerous. By the time we got to town, it was raining more. We had hoped to be able to take off at least our rain pants to give an appearance of dryness as we were hitchhiking, but due to the rain, we could not. We decided to give hitching a try for 15 minutes before beginning the dreaded 1.5 ¢ 2 mile walk into town. Luckily, within 5 minutes a car pulled over to pick us up! A lady and her daughter gave us a ride. The lady had on a Steelers jacket, which provided very easy conversation for us. She gave us the tour of Delaware Avenue, the main street, showing us the library, the laundromat, and Borough Hall, the hostel.   We checked into the old jailhouse, turned hostel. After showing our drivers license and signing a registration form, we received a bag of goodies from local groups and businesses containing toothpaste, toothbrush, granola bar, Band-Aids, toilet paper and a few other odds and ends. A very nice offering from the local Girl Scout troop who coordinated the contributions from the local bank, phone company, drug store, doctors office, grocery store, town borough, Chamber of Commerce and Wal-Mart! The best town welcome we have had yet on the trail!After registering, the lady showed us to the basement where there were 7 bunks, sleeping 14. The room was huge - probably 20' x 40'. There was also a boiler room next to our sleeping quarters where we put our shoes and socks to dry. Our rain gear dried as we continued to wear it inside the Borough Hall. We placed our items on the bunk beds and headed off for errands ¢ grocery store and library for internet access. Got to love that internet access! The grocery store folks were real nice too. As the grocery store clerk rang up our food purchases, she asked if we were hikers. Of course, our clothing and perhaps grubbiness, gave us away, so we admitted to being such animals. She then informed us that we were to go get a free apple; one each! Wow, such a sweet deal! As usual, there was not much more than seeds left by the time we were finished with them.After 4:30 the Borough Hall closed and the gymnasium was no longer in use so we were able to use the gym shower. Now that was an interesting experience. There was no boy¢s shower and girl¢s shower, just one community shower area. OK, no problem, it¢s only the two of us, so we can shower together. But wait, there¢s no lock for the door! It¢s a swinging door with no latch! OK, this is going to be interesting if another hiker shows up, especially when 99.9% of the hikers are guys and young guys at that. I¢m sure they do not want to see a nearly 50 year old lady Grasshopper showering! On top of the issue of no door lock was the fact that the lovely swinging door had a window in it! A see-through window! OK, enough of this silliness, the dirt has got to be washed off. We hung a towel over the window and proceeded to take our shower with an unlocked door. The shower was a multi-head shower area with a trough for the run-off. The force of the shower water was so strong that I don't think soap was necessary. Unfortunately, we took such a long, hot shower that Brakeman became overheated and felt faint and nauseated! As he sat down to try to collect himself, he broke out into a sweat and thought he was going to lose it! He hung tough luckily, otherwise he would have been thrown back into the shower for clean up.During our shower, we washed our stinky socks. We had a very wet week and Brakeman's socks stink royally. Grasshopper¢s socks, the new ones that she yogi¢ed just a few days ago, do not smell nearly as bad. Our shoes are also a little bit smelly and Grasshopper¢s gortex gloves have a smell that escapes the ability of words to describe. We rarely hit a laundromat these days, preferring instead to do our own laundry, as it¢s faster that way. Our clothes are just going to get wet, dirty and smelly again the next day anyway. After Grasshopper thoroughly washed her socks with holes in the heels, she decided they were really not worth the weight to carry anymore, so in the trash they went. A sad parting.The hostel even provided towels for our shower! There were two stacks, one for clean towels and one for dirty towels and a note that said, ¢Please take one of each and wash the dirty towel when you do your laundry.¢ A great system, except for us, as we did not do laundry. So for the next batch of hikers that pass through, our apologies for not having washed our own towels.After our shower, we sorted through our food, and enjoyed our tube of raw chocolate chip cookie dough from the grocery store! While packing our food, Brakeman determined that we have mold growing inside our main food bag.   Lovely what all this wet weather does to our gear and us! We hung our food bag from a hook in the ceiling, as I¢m sure there are mice in the hostel as a result of all the hiker food.Unfortunately the forecast for the next couple days still shows a 40 - 60 % chance of showers, so I don't think we are out of it for a while. Grasshopper rummaged in the supply cabinets in the dungeon and found us some old army blankets to pad our plywood bunk floors. The cabinet was labeled Boy Scouts; not sure what they do with army blankets. We are hoping for at least a dry morning tomorrow, as we have a hard 12 mile climb through some huge, huge boulders just outside of town. We're going to have to try to score a hitch somehow out of town, which could be a bit of a challenge early in the morning.Into bed we climbed, enjoying the shelter all to ourselves! We're inside 4 walls with a roof, controlled temperatures, electricity, running water and it's all free thanks to the town of Palmerton. A sweet deal from a town that loves their hikers. So thank you Palmerton and goodnight