The climb out of Lehigh Gap up Blue Mountain was almost as bad as advertised. But I cleared the scramble while it was still reasonably cool. The Superfund Zinc Site is recovering okay. There was grasses, clovers and young trees all over. And lots of berry bushes. Blueberries, raspberries and blackberries. The soil is quite thin though, so it'll be a while for recovery.
My shoes got wet due to morning dew, but it wasn't bad. I sweated more than anything else. At Little Gap, Mama Bear and Past Prime left ice cold water bottles in a cooler. That solved the water shortage; between Overbridge shelter and Leroy Smith shelter (16.7m), there is no safe water in the trail and the only other source is 0.6m downhill off trail.
I heard a noise coming from up the trail, and then two adult turkeys and about ten youngsters ran across the trail. Very cool.
The trail was full of rocks today, all day. My feet and legs ache.
Dirtface showed up here, she'd gone into Palmerston for food, as did Lost Boy, Jokes, Boot Scoot, Hollywood, Queen Bee, and Streamclean (from Germany).
REI still hasn't shipped my shirt order, hopefully it'll get to DWG before I leave. I called, and they blamed me for entering the address in a manner the computer couldn't recognize.
After supper, it started to rain. It's now almost nine and the rain is still steadily coming down. Glad I got here early as usual.
7/14/15 - Kirkridge shelter
Everyone in the shelter last night was up shortly after five this morning, so it was easy to pack up and hit the trail. I was out shortly after six. Unfortunately the rain started up about nine, but at least I was able to finish climbing out of Wind Gap. The Pennsylvania rocks were very much in evidence all day and the rain made them really slick. I slipped several times, especially on the rock scramble over the Wolf Rocks knife edge. Afterwards, I saw a deer and her spotted fawn crossing the trail in the mist. They weren't too worried about me.
Still, I made this shelter at 13.8 miles by noon, although at the cost of my feet. I felt guilty about stopping here for the day, but between my feet, and not being able to get to DWG before the post office closes today made up my mind. Turned out a good thing, a little before four it started pouring again. I'd've still been on trail had I left. No sense getting to town at the end of the day wet, and unable to complete needed business. I'll get up early again tomorrow and try and get in before the coming next round of rain hits.
Kirkridge is seemingly right off the road, but really it's just off the parking lot of a retreat property, so no one local bothered us. The retreat also provides a water spigot. Lots of raspberry bushes around the shelter; yummy berries!
Dexter (Boots Scoot), Sleeps In, Spaceman and the rest of the Wind Gap brew crew got in not long after the rain started. Dexter picked the chicken of the woods fungus I saw and is cooking it for his supper.
7/15/15 - Delaware Water Gap
It started raining again this morning around six; I'd been up since five looking at weather and decided to wait it out. It rained fairly steady until a bit after nine, radar said it was moving out so we all made our break for town. I made it down the mountain okay despite the rain slicked rocks.
Just above town, the trail crosses the dam for Lake Lenape. Today it was almost overflowing. I turned left on Main Street and walked past the Church of the Mountain Presbyterian Hiker Hostel, got fuel at the outfitter and checked for my package at the post office. No joy. Since tomorrow's a zero, I'll call them in the morning. Off the the hotel.
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