AT 2005. Part Three

May 9, 2005

The weather is starting to warm up. Pennsylvania has been unusually cool for this time of year, which has made walking far more tolerable than it was in July 2002 when I would have walked here on my thru-hike. So has the cloudy weather. There's lots of sun in the forecast for the next few days, so walking along the exposed ridges here may be a bit intense. At least I don't have bugs and dry springs to contend with. I did have the odd experience of coming into a shelter where the water supply is a spigot from an adjacent Retreat Center. Two northbound hikers got their water at the spigot. I found it shut off and no way to turn it back on. The other hikers shared their extra water with me so I had just enough, along with the half liter I caged from a day hiker, to walk 14 miles on the first truly warm day. Things like that leave me edgy but somehow manage to work out.

I'm in Palmerton, Pennsylvania, about 36 miles from Delaware Water Gap. The infamous Pennsylvania rocks are a challenge but not quite as bad as I thought. They have, however, given my about four blisters (my first of this trip) and at times are pretty tedious. What they are not are boulder fields, which is what I had expected. Most all photos I've seen of Pennsylvania are hikers crossing exposed rock areas. Mostly, the trail is just rocky so I must watch my step carefully. I'm doing very well in that regard on this hike. In over 100 miles of walking I've not fallen yet. I fell every few days last time. This time my reflexes seem much better so when I trip or my ankle rolls, I am able to catch myself before I go down. Perhaps I have truly learned to walk erect. I can only hope so.

This stretch of the hike has not been quite as lonely as I feared. I meet hikers most days, including north bound thru-hikers coming from Georgia. One whom I met on May 3 showed up at the shelter where I was staying on the 7th; he and his companion walked 130 miles in four days. I expect to cover that distance in 12 days. For the most part, though, I am on my own for much of each day and, since I sleep in a tent (far more comfortable than a shelter unless it's screaming rain), I have a lot of time to think and reflect. I'd like to tell you I am awash in Great Thoughts but mostly I figure how soon I will reach the next camp, what to eat next and how soon I can make the next town.

One thought that does come up often is how isolated from the rest of the world I am as a thru-hiker, pretty much separate from non-hikers. I experienced this alienation in 2002. Even in towns, hikers are pretty much removed from routine life. We are just passing through and have little to do with the people whom we see and meet. We wear distinctive clothing that sets us apart and a battered, worn and unshaven. Places like Palmerton are a good antidote to that isolation. The town lets hikers sleep in the basement of the borough hall and use the shower there. A very friendly policeman let me in late on a Sunday afternoon. The town clerk gave me a hiker goodie bag prepared by the local girl scout troop and the grocery store gave me a free apple. The same is true of many towns along the way and it helps keep things in perspective.

The trail coming into Palmerton passes through a Superfund area where the entire mountain top was poisoned by the emissions from the zinc smelter that was a major industry here for about a century. It's probably the most desolate stretch of trail I will see. I was planning to camp there last night so I could come into town early today but I got there early in the afternoon and wasn't too thrilled about sitting there all afternoon. Instead, I added four more miles and a sheer 1,000 foot descent into Lehigh Gap to my day.

Spring is coming to Pennsylvania now but it's not as rampant as it seemed down south. The forest here is about third or fourth generation, mostly small and not nearly as impressive as what I walked through in Georgia and Carolina. Wildflowers are coming up in places, including those little pale blue for petal flowers I was so taken with in the south. Not much wildlife is visible. Every now and then I think I hear wild turkey but I never see one.

And one addition to my last update. Peyton tells me that we finished third in the men's tandem class in the Nelson Downriver Race with time of about 1 hour, 42 minutes. I think we get a medal.

That's it from Palmerton. Now it's time for a final town meal before I head to the next shelter south.

Rez Dog