Date: 2012-06-19
From: Wind Gap, PA

To: Delaware Water Gap
Miles today: 15.8
Weather: overcast clouds

We caught a taxi back to the trail as our hotel was pretty far away. it was a rainy day most of the morning. Not really coming down hard but enough to make you wet and cover all the greenery so that every bush became a super soaker. I decided to head off by myself today as all of us had maildrops in DWG and i was feeling fit and ready to run. There were slippery rocks but also lots of dirt trail today and after a restful night in a hotel and carb loaded meal, I was flying. it felt good on the sections I could to stretch out my legs and simply walk. The bugs were biting something fierce today so there was the added incentive to try to outhike them. I startled two deer today who were such a rich red color that i almost didn't think they were deer. maybe really big foxes. Hey don't judge the trail warps your mind man, and i'm sure there are nuclear fueled giant foxes somewhere in the world. Anyway, I got into town around 2:30 and scurried down to the post office where Huff and puff's boxes were waiting for me. trail po stations are so used to hikers that they understand it when someone calls and says, "I'm not going to make it in time, so and so will pick it up for me". not sure if they're allowed to or not but i sure appreciate it so THANKS! so got all our boxes and headed back to the church hostel. it is so amazingly nice of the Church of the Mountain to run a free (donation based) hostel and man was it nice. Hot shower and a closet full of towels as well as a really nice area to hang in with plush sofas. there were a lot of us here so the bunkhouse was full and the overflow was out tenting. We met the pastor and a lot of the volunteers who are the sweetest people and so kind. Thank you thanks you. I was also in heaven because the local bakery sold chicken pot pies. omg soooo good. how i crave any kind of food that has to be baked in an oven. fresh fruit and veggies too. oh who am i kidding, I want all the food. But I especially wanted this and it was wonderful. you know how the best flavoring is hunger? Well thru hikers are always hungry so for 5 months everything tastes amazing.   So I ate that and then headed back to the hostel, took care of town chores and gear repair. I had to get new tips on my poles mostly because they were not just nubs, which i could totally deal with, but actually worn down to half tips and unevenly broken which hmmm, less safe. I tried to see if there was anything that could help the hammock but they only carried small patches. undeterred, I got out my hammock and started sewing. I'm attaching it to a piece of webbing which i hope will help reinforce the seem. Everyday more, I am thankful to my mother for teaching me to sew. sewing multiple seems took forever and I was up until 12:30am which is like hiker equivalent to staying up until 3 or 4 in the morning. I did enjoying getting to know stats, runner, jeff davis, catdog, nomad, far east coast and weazy better. but boy were they in party mode, staying up way past me even. Also i was super excited today when i was walking back to the hostel and saw stevo coming down the road. haven't seen him since Erwin, Tn. He's now going as Houdini. Yay for meeting up with old friends.