Date: 2004-07-29
From: Wind Gap PA

To: Delaware Water Gap PA
Miles today: 130.6
Weather: clear sky

7-29-2004 11:23 am Wind Gap PA Travel Lodge Hotel Adam (Gather) HaleI left Duncannon PA on 7-22-04 around 10 am. Left there with Wipeout and Paparazzi. Heard Nitro is back on the trail, been seeing her name in the registers. Also heard Semicolon is back on the trail. Hard to keep up with all these hikers.We started running into the PA rocks soon after Duncannon. I have always heard about the rocks and how rough they were. Nothing could prepare me for what we ran into. It's not just rocky trails, it's great huge mountains of slick sharp rocks. Had to do a lot of climbing and crawling to get over them. What made it worse it's been raining for days and that makes them slick and dangerous. They go for miles and miles.It had to take an evil twisted person to route the trail through here. I mean there are sheer drop off's of hundreds of feet. If you slip and fall you will be seriously injured or killed. I took some nasty spills, didn't get hurt but almost went over the edge several times. My new hiking shoes I started with from the James River bridge are destroyed, nothing but junk. Kurt of Blue Ridge Mountain Sports said the PA rocks would knock my socks off, he forgot to mention my shoes ! I will have to buy another pair of shoes up the road somewhere. Breaking them in is another thing I dread.Someone told me the bad rocks were still ahead, I find that hard to believe. I'm really worried about Jorma (Slimer) coming through here. Although he's already in them behind me.The rain has been coming down in sheets for days, flood warnings out all over the place. I have been soaked for days now. A cold front came through the other day, temp dropped. I was soaking wet and cold. I'm pretty sure I was going intohypothermia. Started seeing things. Made it to a shelter about 8 miles up the trail. Took off my clothes and got in sleeping bag, starting eating Snicker's bars trying to get my body heat back up. After about 3 hours I begin to feel better. Put the cold wet clothes back on and hit the trail again in the rain.One more day of these hellish rocks then NJ where the walking is supposed to be smooth. But I was told the Shenandoah's were smooth too. HA !Have met up with Carp, Broad X and Poptart, great people to be around. Paparazzi , Wipeout and I have split up. Thats the way it goes. Everyone has their own speed and preference out here, but we'll bump into each other again on the trail. Great people to be with.Made it to Bake Oven Knob Shelter the other night. Pouring down rain, cold. The shelter was a welcome sight. This is a real dinky shelter, three people at most could fit into it, not much of a shelter at all, but it's dry inside. I was lying there and this big black snake comes crawling in the shelter with me. I watched it crawl up the wall and then overhead. He was looking down on me flicking out his tongue and acting as if he owned the place. I can tell you now I will not sleep in here with that thing. The rain slacked off a little and I went outside and pitched my tent in the rain, that's where I slept.Saw where Doc has been signing the registers as Reverend Doc. Wonder if that's the same Doc I hiked with through the Smokies ?Got a picture of Poptart at the Pinnacle overlook, beautiful view. I heard it's the most scenic overlook in PA. I have met Slider, hiked with him down the trail great guy. There are three of them, call themselves the PA Boys. Two of them are brothers, "Slider" Stumpy" "Neon Leon" Heard Jorma was hiking with Slider down the trail last week.I'm told I'm 35 miles from the New Jersy line and out of these rocks. Don't care if I never see another rock again.On to another subject "Red Necks" now I do not want to offend anyone but after crossing the Mason Dixon Line (also this is my first time up north) I just cannot see where our northern cousins (see I didn't say it) can get off by calling us southerners "Red Necks" gently put,.. I'm seeing more good ole boys up here than back home. Simply put,.. I guess we are just all "God's Red Necks". Also now I'm convinced the people that the "Trout Group" and the "Navigator" ran into in north Georgia must have come from this area. Only difference I see is they can say "Good Morning" faster than we can. And oh, by the way they also eat grits up here too ! I left Duncannon PA on the 22nd of July, hiked into Wind Gap PA on 29th of Julythats 7 days. I knocked down 130.6 miles, That's an avg of 18.6 miles per day crawling over the rocks through pouring rain.Total Miles hiked to date = 1263.4 milesTotal Miles to go ........= 896.6 to goDad said Slimer was behind me digging and scratching trying to catch up. I will leave here in the morning, I have my sights set on Delaware Gap PA which is only about 16 miles up the trail. dad faxed me the last two articles from the Denton Orator, thanks Toni. www.dentonorator.com