Date: 2011-06-27
From: Leroy A. Smith Shelter

To: Delaware Water Gap, PA
Miles today: 20.2
Weather: broken clouds

Flowers and I got an early start immediately after Comfortably Numb and Kermit & Caro took off. We were hiking by 6:50am. We knew that there were limited bunks in the church hostel coming up so we wanted to get there as early as possible. We passed Kermit & Caro rather quickly in the morning. I was fairly certain that we wouldn't see Comfortably Numb until Delaware Water Gap because of his speed. It was a nice easy trek to Wind Gap and paired with fair weather this was rather pleasant. The next little section from wind gap to delaware water gap was straight out of the gates of Hades. The rocks were absolutely insane. They didn't slow our pace more than 1/2 an mph, but they were brutally painful on the soles of our feet. My feet have been a lot more sore these days then they ever have been. nothing a thru hiker can't handle. The last few miles before DWG was swarmed by day hikers. The descent had nice views of the chocolately Delaware river. It was filthy brown. This may have been due to the recent rains, but it was poo brown. Flowers and I got to the hostel around 3:00pm and found Comfortably Numb already there, as anticipated. We claimed a couple of the last few bunks. It's a good thing that we got in so early. We saw a sign for ice cream as we entered town, so we made a bee line for Zoe's and had some tremendous ice cream with all of the required toppings. We met a young guy named Whisper at the hostel. This guy said that he was a southbounder who was heading to Springer Mountin, GA. There was something a bit odd with this fellow, I just got a strange vibe from him. For the next couple of hours we lounged. The kids: Goldylocks and Havoc (Forrest) wandered in and claimed the last two bunks. They had the idea to slackpack and pay the outfitter to shuttle us. I had one better. Freight Train was taking a zero with her mum, so we could ask her to pick us up! I sent a text to Freight Train and she's cool with a ride, nice. We're planning on doing a big 28 tomorrow... After a shower in my clothes I journaled for a bit until Oompa made an appearance. He managed to catch up with us, so we decided to go to dinner all together to the pizza joint. They had numerous bottles and cans of beer, but nothing on tap. We made the best of the situation. This is the first time that I have ever been introduced to a beverage called four loco... According to the majority of the table, this drink has been taken off the shelves in numerous states and is as strong as one whole six pack in a single can. I had my doubts, so for a purely scientific reason I decided to try and prove the hypothesis. I will be honest. The drink is fierce. It's a foolish 12% alcohol and does indeed punch like a full six pack when consumed rapidly. Where this thing is so dangerous is in the taste. It tastes like a child's fruit drink. It resembles kool-aid far too closely. I had three... I only had three because Oopma challenged me to match him. I had to prove that Scotland is far superior to the Netherlands. Silly Dutchman. We made it back to the hostel alive, me more so than Oompa. The poor Dutchman insisted on regurgitating repeatedly outside. I saw to it that he knew where the front door to the establishment was. I still had to hike 28 tomorrow. I know Oopma was not going to be on that trip.