Last night's storms were worse than I thought. In Hamburg, a tornado ripped the roof off a school; it will have to be demolished. Fortunately they're covered by insurance. I expect to find muddy trail and lots of blowdowns on my trek to Delaware Water Gap. In addition to the rocks.
Climbing out of Port Clinton, I saw a hiker up ahead. As I got closer, I realized it was Dora! She and Boston zeroed in town. They plan on taking a nap at the first shelter from town, then hiking past my destination of the Eckville shelter. Shortly afterwards, I got passed by Diesel; his parents came out to visit and he took two zeroes in Reading.
At the Pinnacle rock lookout, I ran into a group from Philadelphia, with the Urban Nutrition Initiative, out for a retreat. They gave me Trail Magic sliced watermelon! So nice!
I reached the Eckville shelter a big before 4pm. It's a small cabin in the yard next to the caretakers house. Fortunately the road is a winding rural one and not travelled much, should be quiet tonight.
Dora showed up at six, but no Boston. A hiker named Ma'am, a pediatrician from CT, also came in today. She got the name because she's about my age and down South, that's what one says to respectable women. Up North it's apparently a term for an older woman, which Ma'am does not see herself as being. She has kept the name I think as an exercise perverse protest. She's good folks though.
7/11/15 - I woke up at five thirty and was on trail around 6:45. The rocks continued although the uphill climb out wasn't bad. But on top the rocks got bad. Really bad. It turned into a rock hop maze for almost the whole 7 miles to Allentown Hiking Club shelter. I got to the shelter around ten, and had to take a long break. Yeti and Amish were leaving as I arrived, they're headed for the shelter just before Lehigh Gap.
I rested for an hour, ate some food and headed out. A bit later I met a man and his wife, the trail maintainers, on their way to clean the shelter. The trail cleared up shortly after and I was able to speed up. I got to PA309 shortly after 1pm and met Boston coming out from the Blue Mountain Inn and B&B. I went in as well and got a late lunch, then moved out two miles to the New Tripoli campsite.
The New Tripoli campsite is downhill from the Trail a few hundred yards. It's in a low lilting area and was a bit buggy. There are some tent spots right near the Trail but no water. So I lugged some up to my chosen spot and settled into my tent.
Someone in the New Tripoli area, just on the other side of the ridge, SE of the campsite, blasted heavy aerial fireworks until after 10pm. I didn't bother to get out and go look, but the reflections flashed off the trees on the ridge line, so it wasn't far away.
7/12/15 - The fireworks show ended around ten last night with a rolling barrage that sounded awesome; I'll bet it looked fantastic. Since I stayed up late and had only eleven miles to do today, I tried to sleep in. And ended up on trail at seven thirty anyway.
The trail was extremely rocky today with several rock scrambles and numerous rock hops. Really bad rocks; I was very glad I'd been warned by my friend Tony the Tiger about this section.
As I got to Bake Oven Knob road, a sign said "<-- 2007="" a="" and="" another="" around="" asked="" been="" binjali="" browns="" bytecode="" came="" caught="" chairs="" churchmouse="" cokes="" couple="" cried="" dashed="" detoured="" div="" e="" eggs="" everyone="" familiar.="" for="" four="" gas="" great="" grills.="" guy="" had="" hamburger="" hash="" hat="" he="" hen="" here="" hike="" hours="" i="" into="" knew="" looked="" lot.="" magic="" man="" me="" members="" met="" my="" name="" nbsp="" o="" of="" on="" ood="" or="" out="" ow="" pain="" parking="" pavilions="" people="" pickup.="" portable="" run="" s="" said="" set="" several="" some="" stayed="" tables="" that="" the="" then="" they="" three="" time="" to.="" to="" trail="" train="" two="" up="" vehicles="" very="" we="" welcome="" were="" what="" when="" who="">
I made the George Overbridge shelter about three thirty. It's a cruddy shelter, being so close to the road so the locals trash it, but I don't want to do Lehigh Gap tonight.
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