Date: 2008-07-07
From: Wind Gap, PA

To: Kirkridge Shelter
Miles today: 9.2
Weather: overcast clouds

I slept great last night. I had the AC turned on really cold and I just had my nose sticking out of the covers most of the night.I woke up about 5am and walked down to the lobby and got two cups of coffee, then went back to my room at the motel in Stroudsburg and did the last of the evil sudokus I had.The breakfast was at 7am and I got there just before Mother Nature and Smokestack. It was served in the restaurant inside the motel and ended up being a pretty good meal that came with the room.I was all packed up, so all I had to do after breakfast was get my pack and check out.We headed over to Wind Gap and got started walking north on the Appalachian Trail at 8:45am.It was a humid day, but I climbed the 600 foot climb slowly out of the gap and wasn't too wet when I got to the top.I had remembered this area as having the bad little pointy rocks that hurt my feet in past years, but today I was only walking 9 miles and I was going slow. That made a huge difference!I guess I usually walk the 30 miles from Delaware Water Gap into Palmerton and I have to walk faster, so the rocks bother me more. Today was a breeze and I really enjoyed the walk through the rocks. I was walking slow enough to pick my footplants carefully and I avoided the pain. :-)Liberty passed by us like he was on a mission shortly after we started our climb. He said he was shooting for Delaware Water Gap today.I came up to a doe that was standing just off the Trail. I got to within 15 yards of her and got a picture.I bought a new hat yesterday. I was hoping I'd like it because it has a detachable neck cape. I started out just sportin' the hat without the neck cape and liked that just fine.The gnats started getting bad, so I attached the lightweight neck cape. It worked great for keeping the little buggers out of my ears and very few of them tried dive bombing my eyes....and I have to add that I think I looked quite dashing! :-) Stumpknocker sportin¢ a newcap with a neckcape to keep the bugs awayWe stopped and ate a snack. While we were sitting there, Chopsticks came by. She's a young girl who started walking north at Harpers Ferry, WV with plans of stopping at Delaware Water Gap. She said she's having such a great time that she's going to try and get NJ and NY done before she goes back home to Des Moines, IA. Chopsticks eating lunch Chopsticks walked on, then we finally got up and started walking too.I was being really slow and got way behind Mother Nature and Smokestack.I saw Wolf Rocks coming up and could hear Mother Nature ahead about 200 yards.Wolf Rocks are a ridge of rocks and the Trail goes over them and follows them for about a quarter mile.I was enjoying the rocks, but there's no views from them.I caught up to Chopsticks who was sitting down eating her lunch. I snapped a picture and walked on.I saw Mother Nature and Smokestack at Fox Gap.Bilbo Baggins left a couple coolers with Gatorade and ice at the gap. I had a Gatorade and a couple pieces of chocolate.It was an easy day so far and we only had half a mile to the shelter.Mother Nature and Smokestack took the lead again and I followed about 1/10th of a mile behind.I got to the shelter and sat there talking for a while, then decided to put my tent up to let it dry out from two days ago.I got it set up, then read through the shelter register, then signed it and used a smiley face sticker.I was getting sleepy and felt like a nap was in order. It was 3pm when I laid down and 4pm when I woke up to voices down by the shelter.The nap was great! :-)I walked down to the shelter and saw HiLo and Steadfast there. I hadn't seen them in quite some time, so we talked while I ate my dinner. HiLo and Steadfast Pretty soon the talk started going between Mother Nature, HiLo and Steadfast...three women. I sat there on the bench looking down at some bugs crawling around by my feet while the talk between those three went from menopause, blisters, smelly backpacks, good drugs for this and good drugs for that and when it got to bladder infections, I excused myself and walked back up to my tent for the night.Poor ol' Smokestack is sleeping in the shelter with those three. :-)My ol' buddy Chief called me last night after he read my journal. He had his tutu all up in a twiddle, so I figured I'd better say something nice about him tonight. I thought about what nice thing I could say about him all day while I was walking and couldn't come up with anything...so I'll talk about the weather.I thought it was going to be hot and humid today, but it actually turned out pretty nice...it was humid, but never got much warmer than 83 degrees. It was overcast most of the day and a little breeze would kick up now and then.There, I feel much better now after being extra nice to my ol' buddy Chief tonight! ;-)Another great day on the Appalachian Trail. :-)