Date: 2007-06-06
From: Lickdale, PA

To: Lehigh gap, PA (Palmerton)
Miles today: 75.0

Making progress, almost the the Delaware Water Gap!Day 36 - 501 shelterCraker, Miss Judy and I left the hotel in Lickdale early in the morning and walked back to the trail head. Not much chance of a ride that early in the morning, but at least the hotel had a decent Continenal Breakfist to get us going. Got back the bridge over the Swatara river, passed under I-81 and climbed up the hill to get back on the ridge. Once up there, the ridge stayed pretty much flat, but with the usual mix of ankle twisting loose rock with nice easy going woods road walking. Mostly easy walking, but they have to throw in sections of rough stuff to slow you down every couple of miles. eventually we arrived at the 501 shelter, which is somewhat unique. It's very near a road, has a Park Ranger caretaker, sleeps about 10 people and has a neat skylight in the center of the roof. Best part, is you can call for pizza delivery from there, so of course, we did! The caretaker also took a few of us back to town, as he needed to go down there. But we only went to a junk food store, but that was good enough, we love junk food! That night we had a big Thunder storm blow by, so we were glad to be in this shelter!Day 37 Eagles Nest Shelter 15.1 milesNothing too remakable about this leg, stayed on the ridge so no climbs to slow us down. Again the usual mix of easy woods road and pain in the butt rocks. A couple of vistas to break up the monontony of just walking through the woods. At least the Gypsy moths seem to be affecting this area less than a few days south, so no more worms crowling all over us and dropping leaf litter into our hair. A fairly new shelter, pretty nice. Sound of thunder as we got close to the shelter, but made it well before the storm. Another good storm for a few hours near dark. Day 38 (saturday)- Port Clintion. 8 miles Port Clinton hotel.If you haven't noticed, we like hotels. Today it was very hot and humid. We arrived in town just in time to make the PO before it closed (11:30am) after a ver steep decent off the ridge. I was thinking of sending some stuff home, but got there a little too late to get that together. Craker got some stuff off and Miss Judy got her drop box, which was good. Being Saturday, it would not be available until Monday. Since it was so hot and there was a good climb back out of town to the top of the ridge, Craker and I optend to spring for the hotel, with food, air conditioning, shower and a bed. Only one room left since it was the weekend and they don't have many to begin with. And only one bed in a room, so we tossed a coin and I ended up sleeping on the floor, but at least it was cool! The Port Clinton Hotel is also a very old place, but is a step or two up from the Doyle in Duncannon. The town has very little else to offer though. A new outfitter faifly near-by will come out and take you back to his store if you call, so we did, needed some food. He's just starting out, so his stock was limited, but we were able to get some Mountain House meals and he stopped by a convenince store for us for snack stuff. His free bunk house wasn't too exciting, so we were glad to spend the big bucks for the room in town. Day 39 (sunday) Windsor Furnace shelter - 6 miles.Miss Judy stayed in town, she was starting to have foot problems and needs at least a few days off. Get well Judy!There was a large canno trip group in town, so the fire department was doing a breakfist for them. Thankfully, for $6.00 they let us eat there too! Love these kind of things and turned out we were in the right place at the right time again! We only did 6 miles this day, as tropical storm Berry was coming our way. We didn't think we would have time to make the 9 miles to the next shelter before it started. As it turned out, we probably would have made it, or at least only got a little wet. But once the storm got going about 4 pm, it really rained hard all night. We were also glad we didn't go to this shelter on a Saturday night. It has very easy road access and apperently was very busy the night before. Was a wise dession to say in town for Saturday night. Day 40 -Eckville shelter - 9.1 milesWell, another fairly short day. Three in a row now. But we had to wait until the tropical storm finnaly finished going away, and that happend later in the morning then they were saying it would. Pretty good climb out of Windsor Furnace. Pretty damp too. Once we got back to the ridge line, another band of fairly heavy rain moved in. Found out my gortex boots are no longer waterproof, soon as I stepped in a puddle, they were full of water! I tell you, these are not very good boots after all. Thankfully, the rain let up after about an hour, but the trail had running water on it for a few hours longer after that. We got to Eckville shelter early enough to push on I suppose, but the sun was finally out so we decided to stay and dry out. Plus we had another big hill to climb to get out of there and we hate doing big hills in the afternoon :-)Eckville shelter is another one right off the road, with a caretaker in a house next to it. But not nearly as nice as 501. This shelter is in an old garadge, only has 6 bunks. Some thoughtfull person nailed carpet on the bunks and now it smells mildewy. The caretaker wasn't very friendly or helpfull, no rides to town, thats for sure and not pizza delivery either. Glad to be out of there! Day 41 - Bake Oven Knob Shelter - 17.4 milesHey finally a big mile day! Weather improving as the big strom moves off north and a cold front pushes in from the north west. The climb out of Eckville wasn't too bad and trail was mostly woods roads, but of course, the usual streaches of loose or large rocks to stumble over when they figured the going had been too easy for too long. Resturant at PA309 was closed (only open Thursday to Sunday, bummer) The cliffs and Bear Rocks near the end of the day made for some good views, but very difficult walking for a mile or so. Feet were pleanty sore at the end of that!Bake Oven Knob shelter is an old one. Glad only Craker and I were there, as there wasn't much room for anyone else the way it was set up, unless they were very short. Found out there was no privy either and water was aways down the hill. Oh well, got to visit some of these kinds of shelters every so often. Day 42 - Plamerton, PA (Lehigh Gap)So today it was a pretty easy 8 mile walk to town here. Both Craker and I were pretty much out of food, so had to come here one way or the other. Turns out to be a nice town. Best part is the free town hostel in the basement of the old jail house! When we checked in with the town clerk, she gave us the tour and a goodie bag with a bunch of stuff in it. Toothpast, brush, tolet paper, postcard (with a stamp) 15 minute free calling card, granola bar and a few other odds and ends cant recall them all at the moment. Shower in the building and pleanty of resturants near-by along with the food store. We're pretty much in heaven here! Couple more days to go and will be in the Delaware water gap and the end of this trip. About time actually - getting tired on stumbling on the PA rocks and these boots don't look like they will last much longer.