Date: 2007-06-28
From: Eckville Shelter

To: George W. Outerbridge Shelter
Miles today: 24.2
Weather: broken clouds

The thunderstorms from last night made things a little cooler, but not enough to keep me from nearly sweating to death. I woke up at about 6:15 and was ready to cruise by 7:15. I was about the third one out this morning which was great for me considering there were a bunch of old farts there, he he. They usually get up and are gone before I even am awake. But I have been getting up earlier and earlier so I can cover big miles and get to camp at a decent hour. If I can help it I am done getting to camp late unless I get a late start because of a resupply or if I watch the sun set somewhere. I am glad I got going early today because it was really rocky today which slowed me down a bit.   It was a decent climb up to Dan's Pulpit and the temperature wasn't too hot at the start of the day. Then the trail was rocky all the way to Allentown Shelter. There were lots of large rocks that I had to hop across and there were lots of ankle busters too. I took a short break at the shelter with Gimpy and then I was off again. The next 5 miles were really easy and I stopped at The Blue Mountain restaurant to grab a burger and a soft drink and watch the weather. After I left not more than a mile in I saw this big bear coming up the trail towards me. It had to be at least 250 lbs. It stopped and looked at me then went into the woods. Then I waited to see if any cubs came out and then another bear about the same size as the other one came up the trail. It looked at me and kind of raised its nose at me. It took a few steps towards me and then Gimpy came walking up behind me and he slowly walked into the woods. Man they were big. That makes it 15 bears I have seen so far. I would be perfectly happy if I didn't see anymore on this trip cause you never know what they are going to do. I think that the chances are pretty good that I will see some more because Jersey has the highest population of bears per square mile. We'll see I guess. The rocks started up again shortly there after as I went up this knife edge that was cool. Then there were these cliffs and then Bake oven knob that were pretty cool. The views were still quite hazy because of the heat but you could see somewhat. I stopped at the next shelter but was only there for a moment because the water was too darn far away. So I started out for the last 7 miles with the rain starting to move in. I still found time to stop and eat blueberries because I just couldn't pass up an opportunity like that. I was probably about 2 miles from the shelter when it started to pour. The lightning got kind of close but not too bad. I was the only one here for a while but Gimpy showed up a little while later. I ate a nice dinner of Teriyaki noodles tonight which is probably my favorite dinner. Lipton actually makes some pretty good stuff. So it looks like it is just Gimpy and I here tonight. Nobody else from last night has showed up. I don't blame them that much because it was a tough day with all those rocky sections. It looks like there is a tough climb out of Lehigh Gap tommorrow but it is suppose to be cooler so it shouldn't be all that bad. We shall see though.