July 13, 2016     Delaware Water Gap, Pennsylvania

Delaware Water Gap and Kittatiny Mountains

   Well 270 miles have passed since my last blog entry, mostly due to lack of internet and computers in the small towns I have stayed. Tomorrow marks a momentous occasion however, the end of the AT in Pennsylvania, or as it is fondly known to thru-hikers, 'Rock-sylvania'. Tomorrow my hike begins anew; New Jersey, New York, and New England which includes New Hampshire. With any luck, I hope to be in my native New England with entry into Connecticut in 8-9 days. The heat and humidity are here of course, and this has motivated my rather rapid transit across Penn's Woods.

    Because of my upbringing with hiking in New Hampshire in the White Mountains, however,  the rock experience was not all that bad. I had one day in the rain where the rocks were very slippery, and I fell twice in an area of larger rocks. Pennsylvania however has different rocks for different tastes. Most of the time, the path has small to medium sized rocks, which can roll when stepped on. Oddly, there frequently were plate sized flat rocks set firmly on edge in the soil which can rip and tear at boots, (I bought shoe-goo today today fix my boots, where the rocks had peeled back the toe piece) , etc. One gets to love stubbing your toes, or hitting your heal on follow through which can send you into a spill. These rocks are very unlike New England. This slows you a bit, but you can still maintain a relatively fast pace while playing hop-scotch. The areas of larger boulders were found at overlooks, like Bear Rocks, Bake Oven Knob, Knife's Edge, and the Pulpit. These were relatively short lived, and consisted of car sized rocks, necessitating hopping from rock to rock with a 30 pound back-pack on, testing your skills of balance and strength. I heard a lot of whining from hikers about the rocks, but I think that hiking and growing up in New England prepared me well for the experience.
   The other interesting development is the thinning of the thru-hiking crowd. We have heard of a somewhat mass exodus of hikers after Harper's Ferry. In general it seems that the shelters and campsites are not as crowded, and I see less of the 'party-crowd' of hikers we saw frequently in the south.
   I left Harper's on June 28, facing the short 40 miles in Maryland. The trail crossed the relative wild white water of the Potomac River, over a walkway connected to a railroad bridge. For 3 miles, it follows the tow path for the old C+O canal. Most of the canal is overgrown but there is still water in some sections, mostly enjoyed by ducks. The hiking is fairly easy through the state compared to the trail in Virginia. Much of the trail follows old logging roads through beautiful hardwood forests, something I was not fully able to fully appreciate  nine years ago, as the trees then had been defoliated by an infestation of Gypsy Moths. The trail goes through several parks in Maryland and south Pennsylvania. Many parks had concession stands, and as you know, when you find an opportunity to forage for food directly on the trail, you should do so! The AT can provide wonderful hot dogs, french fries, and ice cream if you know where to find it.
   In Maryland, I passed the first Washington Monument, a great stone tower originally erected by the local citizens in tribute to Washington. It has been struck by lightning and apparently destroyed several times, but always rebuilt and is now a state park. The second day out, late in the day with a 23 mile hike, I crossed the border into Pennsylvania.
   Southern Pa. is actually very nice, and has almost no issues with rocks. Again the park is routed through many state parks. Hiking becomes largely a ridge walk with very little up and down for distance up to 40 miles. This is truly the 'green tunnel'. It is beautiful in it's own right, but at the same time can become monotonous mile after mile. For hours on end, there may be no view, no other hikers, and it's just you, your thoughts, and the trees.  It is however a time for introspection and realigning one's priorities. The terrain was easy enough to allow me to extend my hiking distances. Much of the time, my hikes were 18-22 miles, but I have also completed several 25 mile days and seem to be none the worse for wear. At Pine Furnace State park, I watched a few of the hikers attempt the half gallon challenge, by eating a half gallon of ice cream as fast as possible. I enjoyed some fries and a milk shake only, then took a cooked burger to go, to be consumed as my evening meal. That was the best!

Boiling Springs; water is 55'!

   I stopped in Boiling Springs, Pa overnight after a 12 mile hike into town. We stayed at the Allenberry Inn, a no frills luxury resort on the auction block this July, complete with a golf course. My room had a TV that received all of 4 channels,  one of which was the shopping channel and another Me-TV. They claimed to have WiFi, but I could not seem to sign on. I spoke to the desk clerk who said she would have someone check it out....right. I stayed the night in Boiling Springs, which is not boiling, but a fast flowing spring producing a million gallons of water a day, at a temperature of 55'. In the late 1800's, the townspeople created a man-made lake from the effluent in the middle of town as a center-piece of the town for enjoyment and recreation. I noticed several people still come to the shore to fill water jugs to take home.
   At the Allenberry, after paying the $4, they gave me a detergent pod, and told me where the machines were to do laundry. After a complete cycle of wash and dry, I brought the clothes back to the room, and noted that my shirt still smelled terrible, like it had never been washed. It was then that I noticed the detergent pod had survived intact both a washing and drying! Back to washing machine it went, this time manually puncturing the pod.
   After a good night's rest, I set out on the trail again, crossing the Cumberland Valley. for nice flat 12-13 miles through corn fields and pastures. With the flat terrain, I was able cover the first 7 miles in 2 hours.There were two climbs late in the day that brought me to Cove Mountain shelter, some 3 miles from Duncannon.
   The next day, July 4th, I reached the town of Duncannon early, only to find most stores closed for the holiday. The town has seen better days and is still run down with a lack of buisnesses in the downtown. I had met two nice day hikers at the shelter, who also down-climbed to the town. They drove their car around until they found me, then brought me to the local market for resupply, and waited till I was done. They then dropped me back in the down town area. I was planning to stay at the Doyle Hotel overnight, famous in AT legend and lore. It was built at the turn of the century by Anheisser-Busch, but it too had seen much better days. For $25, its a room, a bed, and a shower. I technically did not sleep in the bed as I chose to use my sleeping bag on top of the bed. I had to check in the morning after a somewhat restless night as I was convinced they had put two box springs on top of each other only. On inspection however, the mattress was just very bad, thinned to the point you could feel every coiled spring.  While showering,you have to ignore the large holes in the bathroom ceilings. They do however still have a great bar and restaurant downstairs.

the Doyle Hotel

   This fine establishment however was not open till 11 AM, so I found myself at the home of Trail-Angle Mary, who was serving a free breakfast to hikers. She is a woman of very modest means, who gives of herself to any and all hikers. She told me that several years ago she found herself homeless, and was forced to camp at the town campground frequented by hikers. It was there that she first learned of the trail and the hiking community. She got to thinking that hikers must have electrolyte problems, so she would go to Walmart and buy bananas, then distribute them to the hikers.  Her association with the annual hordes of hikers from that point on is apparently history. I was very impressed how she could give so much and have so little herself. She was very inspiring.

Trail Angel Mary

   At the Doyle, I tried to use their computer to update the blog. It looked like something out of the 80's, and I could not get the browser  to boot up... neither could the owner. About my age, she made some comment about how some things with age don't get better. I have to agree. Sorrento's Italian Restaurant was the only establishment open that night, Though I knew I should have ordered the small 12" pizza, I ordered the medium 14", and even surprised myself by eating the entire thing. I need to put a check on this when I get home.
   The next few days were quite hot and humid, which always seems to slow your progress. I still managed to put in 22-24 mile days despite the heat. The ridges so far were not bad with rocks, but we knew the rocks after Duncannon were famous with hikers. From the last hike, I had remembered the 501 shelter, a shelter just off Pa. route 501. The caretaker lives next door, and there is a cold shower. In hot weather, this is a welcomed perk. Also, because of its proximity to the road, several eating establishments in the local town of Bethel offer delivery to the shelter, and have been known to pick up hikers so they could shop for necessities in town, like beer.  We did order a calzone which looked a lot better than the dehydrated beans and rice I had brought along. You can forage off the AT!
   After 3 more days on the trail, I did a short 9 mile day into Port Clinton and the Port Clinton Hotel, needing a small resupply, and greatly needing another shower. The hotel was clean, but old (like me). At least each room had a TV, and the bar and restaurant downstairs were good. We visited the barber shop which encouraged hikers to drop by, charge their devices, have coffee and cookies. It was there that I found a ride down the pass to Hamburg to the local Walmart, and Cabella's, the largest one in North America. Cabella's is an interesting place to look around but is not geared to hikers, unless they hike in camo. After Walmart stop for food, I walked most of the 1.8 miles back, in a light rain, on a busy highway, until a trail angel pulled over and gave me a ride the rest of the way. He dropped me at the barber shop, as I felt a trim was in order. Unsolicited, this gentleman told me that men would come from miles around to get their hair done here. This sounded like a great idea... at first. I was seated with the older of the two barbers, who as it turned out was the other barbers father. He asked me if I could guess his age. I figured 70-75, but thought I'd be nice and low-ball the estimate to 65. He laughed and told me he was 90! His son who looked 50, was 69. Anyway I told him I just wanted a little trim. He then brought out the electric shears, and I suddenly knew what sheep must feel like every spring. With the first pass, the 'damage' was done, so I had to let him finish. When done, he showed me with great pride my 'new look'. He told me he was actually an artist, and when someone walks through the door he can see in his minds eye what that person should look like. Ah well, it's just hair and it will in part grow back... someday. For the time being, it's optimal for the hot and humid weather ahead! I think this cut will last me the duration of the hike. I do not anticipate purposefully recreating this look in the future.

   After the brief lay-over, it took me 4 days to reach my current location at Delaware Water Gap. During that time the heat and humidity cleared, and the hiking became a pleasure. The first day out of Port Clinton marked the passage of the front with on and off showers. We did get fairly soaked over the course of the day, and fell twice on two areas with large rocks. Wet Lichen on rocks and boots do not mix! After reaching the shelter, a violent thunderstorm went through. It was a good time to be in a shelter.  
    We had heard that there was a bad stretch of rocks spanning a 5-6 mile distance from Wind Gap to Wolf Rocks. Once again, the New Englander in me said no problem. During this stretch, I met another older thru-hiker 'Granite State' a hiker from Dover, N.H. We also climbed Lehigh Gap. This was our first boldering experience on the trail, not unlike parts of the AT on Katahdin before the Gateway. This did terrify some hikers. Beyond that, we passed through a four mile super-fund clean-up site. The area was completely devoid of all vegitation 9 years ago due to years of smoke pollution by a zinc smelting plant in Palmerton, shut down in the 1970's. I was surprised how much greenery there was that had developed since my last visit.

Lehigh Gap

   The descent into Delaware Water Gap did offer some spectacular views of the river and the Kittatiny Mountains in New Jersey. I cross the pedestrian bridge on I-80 tomorrow into my next state. Next update will likely be from Connecticut, after 160 miles.