Date: 2015-06-24
From: Wind gap

To: Delaware Water Gap 
Miles today: 15.6

We woke by the television and lights coming on at 1:15am. Seems we can't get a break for sleeping through a night. Something always wakes us up. But, thankfully, we had electricity and water. We took our Epsom salts baths this morning before hitting the trail. That made it hard to start hiking as our muscles were relaxed. We had a quick "breakfast" of corn flakes and milk. (If you are ever in Wind Gap don't stay at the Red Carpet Inn!) We checked out of the hotel and the owner did give us a small discount for no electricity and water. Well actually, the owner gave each room a gallon of bottled water.    Outlier and us started climbing out of Wind Gap at 7:40. A late start but a fellow hoteler gave us a ride back to the trail. You can't be upset about the time. Since we didn't use the gallon of water, we left it at the trail head for other hikers. Oh, the rocks were merciless today. We had more Pennsylvania rocks. All of us had sore feet from the last days of rocks. Today our feet seemed like every step caused shorting pain. Will our feet ever be the same?! We climbed over rocks to an elevation of 605 feet. That doesn't seem like alot, but it was. The one great thing about today was the weather. It was perfect hiking weather - cool, a light breeze and no humidity. For the first time in days, our clothes were dry when we reached the top of the climb. We took an early morning snack break and our "great" breakfast wasn't enough. During our break, we each grabbed a tree for the tiolet. When you use a toilet in the woods, you sort of squat with your back to the tree. Well, Lavender put her hand on the tree trunk to help herself up. She left out a yelp. What was on the tree trunk that made her yelp? At least 20 dead caterpillars hanging on the trunk. Their guts were coming out. And when she touched them, the guts came out on her hand. It was gross and disgusting, oozing and slimmy. And, no water to wash her hands. The next best thing to water? Leaves. Yep, leaves. There are always work arounds on the trail. A leaf can be used to funnel water, wash your hands, wipe the mud from your legs. Creative engineering at its best.   We met another thru-hiker, Phantom, after our break. We hiked with him awhile. It was nice seeing other people. We were sharing stories and trail phlosophy. We were having a fun time. And, the rocks on the trail didn't seem that bad. We made it to Wolf Rocks in no time.    We had heard horror stories about Wolf Rocks. As we approached them cautiously, we could see they seemed to go on and on. Up we clamored, Count, followed by Outlier, then Phantom, and Lavender bringing up the rear. We clamored over those boulders like nothing. In fact, we couldn't believe we had finished the rocks so quickly. It was actually fun and easier than hiking on the rock covered trail. The rock covered trail returned after Wolf Rocks and our feet hurt again. We continued on the feet beating trail until our lunch break. We took lunch at a shelter with water from a spigot. No water filtering needed! Oh, the joys of life. We had forgotten we had leftover pizza from our candle light dinner at the hotel last night. It tasted good as neither of us were in the mood for tortillas. And, we had cherries - fresh fruit. YUM. We shared these with Phantom and Outlier. All hikers enjoy fresh fruit. We continued to tell our stories of the trail. Phantom had some crazy food stories. He had us laughing so hard. Good thing there was was a "clean" privy near by. Lunch ended and we were rock fighting again. Then, the trail changed to a forest service road. It was amazing. Our feet said "thank you". They stopped hurting until the rocks returned. We started down, down, down towards Delaware Water Gap. We could hear I80.   But, we were still in the forest. The AT likes to make us think we are in the wilderness hiking as even with hearing a highway, we have to fight with the rocks on the trail. Eventually, we saw vehicles on I80 but they looked so tiny. We knew we still had to hike over a mile to town. The last mile into town is like the last hour driving home after after long driving holiday. It seems to take forever. Eventually, we made it to Delaware Water Gap. We walked the main street of Delaware Water Gap. That didn't take too long. We stopped into The Church of the Mountain Hostel. We saw lots of familiar thru-hikers we haven't seen for a few weeks. That was great. We went to the outfitters to see if something could be done for Lavender's backpack. Her pack is bruising her lower back. They could do nothing. We will come up with a few solution for this dilemma. Then we walked to the Village Farmer and Bakery. There were so many choices it was hard to decide what to eat. Too many choices for people who usually only eat instant mashed potatoes. After pondering a while, we each ordered a homemade chicken pot pie. And it was gooood. We took it easy for a bit. Then, we ate some homemade apple pie. Again, it was goooood. Tyler's, our son, sophomore roommate's parents from undergraduate took took us to their home for the night. A shower. A bed. In a home. Doesn't get much better than this.