Date: 2019-06-16
From: Delaware Water Gap

To: Mohican Outdoor Center
Miles today: 10.7
Weather: clear sky

We woke about 6:00, pleased to see that it was not storming as had been the forecast.  We packed up, ate, and left John Stempa¢s house about 7:30.  We dropped Getaway off at the trail at Smith Gap Road; he was heading north, planning to get to Wind Gap and take a zero day.  We then drove to Delaware Water Gap and stopped at the Church of the Mountain Hiker Hostel to use the facilities.  Then we drove to the trailhead and were dropped off with our full packs.  It wasn¢t raining but it was very humid.We hiked across the Delaware River Bridge, taking great delight in getting a picture of the PA/NJ state line drawn on the bridge.  We stopped at New Jersey¢s Kittatinny Visitor Center and used the facilities there also.We hiked along a busy road briefly, then under I-80, then through a parking lot, and finally into the woods again.  We had about 3.5 miles of uphill trail but only 1000 feet of elevation change so most of the trail was not drastically steep.  Along the uphill grade I passed my 1300 milestone.  Woohoo!!We met the ridge runner for the area and chatted briefly with him.  These ridge runners patrol their assigned area, talk with hikers, try to educate hikers in the Leave No Trace (LNT) principles, and try to head off any problems they see, among other things.We met a retired mail carrier from Wallingford CT who started his hike in Harper¢s Ferry a few weeks ago.  He is called Gravity because of the number of falls he has taken.  He actually passed out twice after hitting his head on one fall and a friend had to call 911.  He spent a day and a half at a hospital undergoing multiple tests but no conclusive evidence of a concussion.  We got passed by one young solo male thruhiker who was not very talkative and Blue and Honey, a husband and wife team, who were at the Microtel in Hamburg with us.  It began to look like it might still rain so we did not stop for lunch.  We wanted to make it to the Mohican Outdoor Center before we got soaked so we really hustled.We came to Sunfish Pond, a glacial pond and National Natural Landmark.  It was beautiful. The trail skirted the huge pond and we had views from all angles and we took several pictures.  We crossed a pretty stream but didn¢t even need to stop for water.   We climbed Kitatinny Mountain and had 360* views from its rocky summit and took more pictures.  After another stream crossing we were at Camp Road, and we turned off the AT onto it and hiked .4 down that gravel road to the Mohican Outdoor Center.  We arrived about 2:30.  Blue and Honey were already here eating.We checked into the bunkhouse, where we were given a private room with one single bed and one bunk bed. There were several similar rooms and several bathrooms also. We rented towels for our showers and placed orders for sandwiches to be ready in an hour.  We unpacked in our room, washed our clothes in the shower as we cleaned up, dressed in our sleep clothes, wrung out our washed hiking clothes, hung them all over our room, and went back to the checkin area to get our food.  While we ate, Gravity came in and decided to eat and bunk here also.It¢s funny that we have hiked several days with three guys our age all with G - Y names this trek...Legacy, Getaway, and now Gravity.We had a relaxing afternoon hanging out. The girl at the office told us someone else had a reserved spot in the bunk room in the room right next to us and that they would be arriving later.  We stayed up until 9:30 swapping stories with Gravity and finally got ready for bed, hoping the latecomers wouldn¢t be too noisy when they finally arrived.We hiked 12 miles but I had already done 1.3 of it on a previous section hike, so I could really only add 10.7 to my AT total.