July 6, 2012

Start: Travel Inn, Wind Gap, PA

We woke up this morning well rested and eager to get out on the trail. We were up at 6:45. As we were getting ready, Brian spotted a badger outside of our window. Cool wild life and we weren't even on the trail yet! We were out of the motel room by 7:45. We walked across the street to the Gap Diner because we heard that is a good place to get a ride to the trail from. I stuck out my thumb for the first time ever and within 10 minutes, we had a ride. Jerry dropped us off at the trail head about 2.5 miles down the road. We started the day with a rocky climb. Once we were on the ridge, we had rocks all day. The joke amongst the hikers is that the trail maintenance crew comes out every spring and sharpens the rocks with files. With the amount of sharp rocks that stabbed my feet today, that joke is almost believable. About 3 miles in, we shared a snack break with thru hikers Miles Supertramp, Spot, and Tex. All super cool guys! They joked about inventing a rock chipper... I LOVE that idea!! After the short break, we continued 6.2 miles to Kirkridge Shelter for lunch. I saw my first snake... A baby black snake. Better than a rattle snake, but still yuck! We filled up on water (it was HOT today. It was a challenge trying to drink as much as I was sweating out), took off my boots, and ate a pop tart, a candy bar, and some sour watermelons. All that was left was 6.5 miles to the Church of the Mountain Hiker Hostel. After an hour, we began our hike there. As there was earlier in the day, we had all kinds of rocks... sharp, small, big, and even some boulders we were climbing over. We got to a dirt road bed about 3.5 miles from the hostel. The trail blazes were terrible, but it turned out to be the trail. Someone had written 900 out of sticks because that is all there is left until Katahdin! At the end of the dirt road, we had summited Mount Minsi. We then began the 2.6 mile descent into Delaware Water Gap. It was a rocky descent, but had beautiful views of the gap. I was tired and my feet were sore from all of the rocks, but my knee held up really well. Pretty much no pain. I guess the rest and the braces did it some good. When we reached the road and were on our way to the hostel, I had the highlight of my day!! A van pulled up to us and asked if we were hikers. We replied, "yes!" and they handed us each a minute maid frozen icey!!! Trail magic = pure awesomeness!!! Once we arrived at the hostel, we put our stuff down and walked into town for dinner. We had... You guessed it... Pizza! We made our way back to the hostel, took a much needed shower, and are tenting on the church lawn. There is a bunk room, but it is supposed to be a nice night so we preferred our tent. The total mileage for today was a rocky 15.7 miles and we are tired!!!

End: Church of the Mountain Hiker Hostel, Delaware Water Gap, PA

Peace Be The Journey
~Flicka