Mountains Under Foot

From Hazard’s notes:
Day 72: July 20, 2009
Travel
From: Delaware Water Gap, PA
To: Mohican Outdoor Center, NJ
Beginning: 5:15pm
Ending: 8:45pm
Number of miles hiked:
a) Trail – 10.4
b) other
c) AT Mile Marker – 1294.0 cumulative
Weather:
AM: Overcast, thought it might rain. But it didn’t.
PM: Sunny and hot, returned to overcast by evening.
People: Ran into Many Names and Natty on the way out of the hostel. Ran into Prof. Mark as he walked back from mile zero on the Delaware River Bridge officially completing his PA section hike.
Animals: Best Bear sighting yet! Got some pictures. Fast snake colored in red and orange.
Money: $10 for breakfast, $4 for shuttle, $7 for laundry, $17 for resupply. $3 for lunch. $1287 cumulative.
Notes of the day:
AM: Woke up super early and decided to leave the bunk room to lay on the pleather couch and listen to the BBC news on NPR. I couldn’t believe how normal it made me feel, since radio and news are so hard to come by in the woods. Once people were awake and moving around, we started looking for shuttle options into the town of Stroudsburg, NJ for laundry and groceries. The best deal was the four dollar ride from the Pack Shack; who were actually more of a river outfitter and had almost nothing in the way of hiker gear. They could not fix my pole. Breakfast was had at the diner and Crocstar once again stole the show with how much food he could accidentally (he didn’t know it was that big) order. The shuttle took us into town shortly after 10am and dropped us off at the outfitter which supposedly had everything, but in fact had nothing. They could not fix my pole, however they did offer to send it back to Leki for me. No thanks, I need my poles. The laundry was just down the street so we got that going and Spoon brought his sleeping bag to get washed as well. An hour of daytime TV later and we headed out to try and find the library.

PM: On the way up Main street we stopped in a music store that was packed with boxes of vinyl records. We had to get out if there fast because there was way too many records I would want to buy. Our shuttle driver said the library was just up 611 (highway) but what he failed to mention was that it was over a mile walk. But we did it anyway and I was able to charge my iPod and get some pictures uploaded while Spoon worked on his journals. No WiFi unfortunately so I couldn’t send my notes. I gave Cat a call, but it was so noisy outside the library and that made it kinda difficult to converse and I had to cut things short because we needed to get groceries. I need more hours in the day! A teleportation device would be handy too. Anyway, we resupplied and called back our ride to pick us up. They seemed surprised we made the trip all the way up to the library. Once back in town we headed back towards the hostel, but not before stopping at the bakery for the best deal in town. A hot dog and a slice of pie for $1.50. I had two… Continuing back toward the hostel we stopped at Edge of the Woods outfitter that actually had everything we needed. They fixed my pole, Crocstar got new Platypuses, and Spoon got a headlamp. Very awesome store that we should have just tried in the first place. When we got back to the hostel we repacked food, filled water, and got out of town. To do that, we had to cross the Delaware River Bridge where we ran into Prof. Mark who had just finished his section hike. We congratulated him and then had the hardest conversation ever standing next to roaring highway. The short hike itself was easy, but the troublesome rocks persisted into Jersey. Just past a no name summit I heard a soft rustle and it was a bear just off the trail in the grass. He looked at me, I looked at him, and he just wandered along without much care in the world down the side of the mountain. He stood up on his hind legs to get one last curious look at me while I snapped pictures then disappeared. Very cool. Not but a hundred feet from there was Croc’s sunglasses which made me think for a split second that the only reason that the bear was so passive was because he already ate Croc… When I got to the campground the guys were waiting on the steps of the visitor center (with camp store) with ice cream waiting for me. After we finished our ice cream, we struggled for a few moments to get across the road and then walked to a campsite to cook dinner and get some sleep.

From Hazard’s notes:
Day 71: July 19, 2009
Travel:
From: Delps Trail, PA
To: Delaware Water Gap, PA
Beginning: 8:30am
Ending: 7:15pm
Number of miles hiked:
a) Trail – 26.2
b) other
c) AT Mile Marker – 1283.6 cumulative
Weather:
AM & PM: Beautiful. Sunny and blue skies
People: Another day with Crocstar. No one we knew previously at the church hostel.
Animals: Nope.
Money: $15 for dinner, $1246 cumulative
Notes of the day:
AM: Wind blew so hard last night that Croc’s tarp detached from the stakes and was flapping around so he just took it down in the middle of the night. We got a late start and none of us slept well so eating and packing up went slowly. All of us were thirsty and low on water, Spoon was completely out, and it was 6 miles to the next shelter with a good source. There was an alternative spring 2 miles up the trail, but the spring was .6 miles straight down the ridge. It was a easy decision to skip that extra pain and push forward. When we got to the shelter we all hiked down to fill up on water and finally hydrate. I felt a lot better now then when I had woken up this morning. From the shelter it was 5 miles down to the town Wind Gap and our last stop for reliable water and a good place for lunch. I could hear the sounds of PA 23 from miles away and when I got there it was deafening.

PM: The reliable water was from the motel just down the road. They strategically placed a sign notifying patrons that they sold sodas inside. A cold drink was too temping and we all took advantage. I tried a grapefruit soda from a local distributor in Allentown called A-Treat. I was very pleased. All that was left for the day was 15 miles of ridge walking. So Spoon and Crocstar motored ahead and I had a solitary walk for most of the afternoon with the first 6 miles being all rocks. At some point just before Kirkridge Shelter I caught up to Crocstar finishing a smoke break. I felt like I was apart of the tortoise & the hare tale, because I was slowed down by only having one pole and Croc was fast but took breaks. So we hiked together for a couple miles until Croc stopped just before the decent into town for one more smoke. When I got to the Church of the Mountain Hostel Spoon was showered and wandering around, there was Jazz music playing down the street, and hot dogs & lemonade waiting for me. Quick bite and then a hot shower without shampoo because the person that cleaned it out threw it all away. Hikers need soap!!! Still felt good. Then the three of us went down to the diner for chow. We ordered a huge amount of food, Crocstar taking the prize with two bacon cheeseburgers and a Belgian waffle. I had ribs and Spoon had Chicken Parmesan. On top of all that we each had a massive slice of cake. By the time the feast was over it was well after bedtime, so we waddled back to the church and passed out.

Hi MUFaddicts,

I heard from Hazard last night, they’re staying in Brooklyn, NY with a friend of Crockstar. They had a cool tour of the City yesterday and Hazard was able to upload lots of photos. He promised that he would work on his journal entries too.

I am working on posting more photos this morning. I will update to the current journal entries and then pause there.

Hazard’s injury is giving him a bit of pain, but nothing too bad. He needs to take good care of the wound to avoid infection, which is what I am most worried about. “Hazard you’re definitely living up to your trail name!”

More later!

Regards,
K

Hi MUFaddicts,

I know it’s been over a week since I last updated the blog, but it’s not laziness it’s because the guys had no Internet contact or very little. I only received Day 69-70 journal entries yesterday. The photos are also very behind because of the same reason, no computer access. I received a few new photos and was able to update Gallery05- PA with photos through July 12th. I’ve had phone contact with Hazard and they should be in NYC at the moment, so hopefully we’ll get caught up on the blog and photos very soon!

Apparently the trail through NJ was not very well maintained and the guys had a lot of setbacks. Also Hazard had a mishap yesterday – He sliced his hand open after slipping on a rock and catching himself palm down on a glass shard!!
The park rangers took them to the nearest town hospital so he could get treatment. He’s doing fine, had to have 6 stitches though. After that ordeal they caught a train into the City. That’s the last I heard from him, I am hoping to talk to him tonight, that is if he’ll answer his phone! “Son, answer your phone!”

More later!

Regards,
K

From Hazard’s notes:
Day 70: July 18, 2009
Travel
From: Allentown Hiking Club Shelter, PA
To: Delps Trail, PA
Beginning: 7;45am
Ended: 7:15pm
Number of miles hiked:
a) Trail – 27.6
b) other – .4 to and from water at New Tripoli.
c) AT Mile Marker – 1257.4 cumulative
Weather:
AM & PM: Sunny and hot. Great weather for rock climbing.
People: Caught up to Many Names at lunch, walked with Crocstar again today. Met Hopscotch and Cleancut. Said goodbye to Prof. Mark (Only doing PA).
Animals: Buzzards, hawks, and other birds of prey.
Money: $0, $1231 cumulative.
Notes of the day:
AM: Crocstar, Spoon, and I were the last hikers out of camp this morning despite it being pretty early. We made our way down the trail to where we had planned to go yesterday, New Tripoli Campsite, and descended all the way down to the water source. Crocstar apparently didn’t need any water so he skipped the extra walk and kept going. This would be the last time we see him until we stop for the night. A mile up from the water was The Cliff & Knife Edge which was fairly dangerous with the rocks being dry. If we were to go over that section yesterday it could have been fatal. The area was a rock scramble over jagged and slanted rock faces where one wrong step could send you over the edge. So that was fun. The next section put us at Bake Oven Knob, where we met the son of the Dan from Dan’s Pulpit (an outcropping at the top of a ridge yesterday) who had thought about one day hiking the trail. After chatting a bit we hiked down to Bake Oven Shelter for lunch.

PM: Crocstar had stopped by 30 minutes earlier according to the trail register. We quickly chowed down on some peanut butter and crackers. Many Names came up from the water source after reportedly being down there for over 20 minutes with half a bottle of water with a bunch of junk floating around in it. Needless to say the water source sucked and we would come to find out they will continue to be an issue for a while. After lunch was a ridge walk down to George W. Outerbridge Shelter which was the last place for water for the next 10 miles by my book. A short decent to the road and Lehigh Gap, home of the rock climb straight up the mountain. Going up this mountain was quite the challenge. We had to employ some of our rock climbing skills to make it up the trail. Hand over hand we crawled to the top which was very satisfying except for the fact that I snapped my hiking pole at the bottom joint and will need to get it repaired at the next outfitter. For now I’ll be walking with one pole, which is not good times. The top of the mountain is affected by acid rain that fell due to the extensive mining in the area and the trail has been rerouted through a reclaimed area that skirts the ridge and gives a great view of the towns below. We came across one 2-liter bottle of water provided by Allentown hiking club as a water drop. We took a little water from that and then found another water drop next to the road that was dry. When we got to Delps Trail where the next water source was supposed to be we found out from Crocstar, who had his big tarp already set up, that it was dry and the next water source was at the shelter 6 miles from here. Spoon and I had a dry dinner of Pop-tarts and cereal bars to conserve our water for the walk tomorrow. Camping out in the woods under Crocstar’s tarp while Spoon hammocks up. Tomorrow night we’ll be in a hostel!

From Hazard’s notes:
Day 69: July 17, 2009
Travel:
From: Port Clinton, PA
To: Allentown Hiking Club Shelter, PA
Beginning: 10:30am
Ending: 7:45pm
Number of miles hiked:
a) Trail – 22.6
b) other – .4 to and from Eckville shelter
c) AT Mile Marker – 1229.8 cumulative
Weather:
AM: The morning sun was killer and I just wanted to get out of town to avoid boiling.
PM: Clouds rolled in and the rain came starting as a drizzle and then bounced from steady to downpour for a couple hours.
People: Left a whole bunch in town. Walked with Crocstar today and ran into Grizzilla at Eckville. Prof. Mark was at the shelter.
Animals: Black snake in the middle of the trail and lots of chipmunks and other animals rustling along the trail.
Money: $11 for breakfast, $1231 cumulative.
Notes of the day:
AM: Eighteen wheelers flying by the Pavilion at 60 mph is not a great way to wake up in the morning. In fact, it sucks. Luckily the Three C’s diner down the road cured my morning woes with its Nibbler Platter that was basically a little of everything on the menu. Crocstar, Spoon, and I all enjoyed a huge breakfast that would sustain us almost the whole day. We waddled back to the Pavilion for our packs and headed to the post office on the way out of town. Crocstar had a mail drop that consisted of 4 dozen cookies, topo maps, and a replacement camera. After stuffing all of the cookies in his pack he exclaimed, “There’s definitely no need to resupply now.” The climb out of Port Clinton, unlike the decent down, at least had switchbacks to make our lives a little easier. Then it was down to Winston Furnace Shelter for water and prepare to take on Pulpit Rock & the Pinnacle.

PM: After that we came down a gravel road for a really long time which is never fun because the whole time you are thinking that this isn’t the trail, that you somehow missed the turn back into the woods. But it was easy walking and at the bottom was Hawk Mtn Road and Eckville Shelter. The shelter was actually a converted building behind this guy’s house which had bunks and electricity. We stopped in for lunch and to dodge the rain that was starting to hammer us. We hung around trying to keep dry and chatted with Grizzilla who had stopped earlier to take a nap but was deterred by the rain. When the rain finally let up a bit we pushed onward. The weather didn’t hold out for long and soon we were getting soaked while fumbling over slippery boulders. Good times. We stopped short of our goal today in favor of the shelter, but tomorrow night we will have to camp out if we want to make it to Delaware Water Gap by Sunday night. Tasty dinner, then sleep.