Date: 2008-05-09
From: Palmerton

To: Palmerton
Miles today: 0.0

This has officially turned into a zero day. Weather here is atrocious - thunderstorms and 3-4 inches of rain. Not a great scenario for climbing over the rock mountain north of Lehigh Gap. The police are even breaking their "one-night stay" rule and letting hikers also stay tonight. Tomorrow is supposed to be sunny - I'll be ready for an early start.Had dinner last night at the Palmerton Hotel restaurant. A bit disappointed in the quality of the food and their prices. You can get better (and cheaper) food at Bert's. And Bert's makes a helluva Vanilla Malted. There is a bar at the Palmerton Hotel - looks like it is the town's singles meeting spot at night.Also found a hardware store on the main street. Wanted one of those small snap links for my pack. They wanted $2.89! I didn't buy one. I'll ask Trail Boss to send one from home - that one will be free.Even though it is pouring outside, few of the men outside are wearing rain coats or carrying umbrellas. Maybe it's some kind of macho thing?The jail hostel (if I didn't already mention it) has a pretty large hiker box. Both food and non-food items. If you take a shower in the gym - their are four individual showers. The one nearest the toilet has the hottest hot water. It's an old building and they do what they can to keep it running smoothly.I was disappointed there is no movie theater in town. Everyone else drives about 10 miles to some mall theater. Didn't help me, though.Next stop is Delaware Water Gap for a mail drop. I'd planned on staying a night at the church hostel, but this zero day may cancel those plans. Then around three days to Unionville, NY and another mail drop. Looks like the next mail drop after Unionville will be Bear Mountain.Trail Boss is driving up to visit and we will spend a couple of days at a B&B in Tyringham, MA. I should be there by Memorial Day weekend.Don't know where StorminNorm and Water Bear are - except they are ahead of me. It will be difficult to catch up due to their pace. I think I'll just stick with my 2 to 2 1/2 mph pace daily. I've been getting up by 6:30am and starting the day's hike around 7:30am. That gives me up to 12 hours of hiking per day. That's a potential 24 miles per day. Plenty good for me.I've switched out a number of items of gear. For my pack, I have pulled out my old (2 years) GoLite Gust. I was able to fit every thing in it (amazing). I made some earlier modifications to the pack and its weight is about 10 ounces. Total weight now is 17 pounds (with 1-liter of water and 4 days of food). It carries like a champ. The Gust has no hip or chest strap, but the design is supposed to support up to 20 pounds. My shouldars have handled the weight just fine. During the day I will make several adjustments to the shouldar straps to raise or lower the pack.The only remaining piece of gear I will send home before long is my synthetic outer jacket. But it's still just a little too cool in the evening to send it at this time.The Hennessy Hammock (A-Sym Backpacker Ultralite) continues to prove itself. Imagine hiking on the PA rocks and having no shelter or tenting spot (a distinct possibility). The hammock was made for those scenarios. I'm using a z-rest closed cell pad in the hammock and a 32-degree down bag. I'm pretty comfortable down into the mid 40's. It's the pad that makes the hammock warm enough underneath you.I continue to go stoveless. I pre-pack all of my breakfasts and dinners in their own double-zip lock freezer bag. Just add water and eat. Disgusting? I guess it depends upon each individual.Okay, all for now. Haven't seen many March 1st starters - shelters still pretty much empty. That will be changing soon.