I set up my tent to avoid the hornets, which turned out to be the right plan. I crawled into my little one-man bug net, and listened to mosquitos desperately buzzing outside. Hornets or no, bloodsuckers are worth avoiding.
I was joined by two hikers last night, one of whom I've seen a lot of since named Iced Tea. By morning both had of them had left, so I enjoyed some cold oatmeal and packed up, getting feet on trail at 9am.
My plan for today was still leisurely, since 9 miles brought me to Palmerton and their free hostel. Plus the next shelter is another 16 miles past Palmerton.. tomorrow could be a tough day.
Today's terrain was as rocky as its namesake. I found myself scrambling down a mountain of boulders under a power line, with cicadas bursting into flight all around me from beneath the rocks. It was deafening to the point that I had a tough time listening to music over the buzz. In other wildlife news, twice I stumbled onto a wild turkey with its babies before they'd fly away in all directions, scaring the bejesus out of me.
After six miles I came to a shelter where I stopped to hydrate and cool off. It was much nicer than the shelter I avoided sleeping in last night. I met a friendly Brit from New Castle, southbounding in a Where's Wally shirt. I say Wally instead of Waldo, because apparently that's his name in England. Who knew. He didn't have a trail name, and was only going from NY to NC, so I told him he should go by Wally. But I'll never know.
After shoving off, I quickly stumbled down to a highway. And I do mean stumbled. The parts that have gotten the weakest since my 10 month stint in the real world are my ankles and my hips. Currently I'm giving my ankles a pretty good beating, but nothing truly damaging. I'm pretty sure that the ankle strength I had before was built more on how stiff they had become than actual strength, so this is par for the course.
As I made it to the road I discovered that the trail went over a bridge for a while, which was a real shame since it was scorching under the sun. As I was crossing I noticed two hikers about 50 feet behind me. We met up once across the bridge and in the shade, and discussed hitching to Palmerton. The three of us spread out across the highway to be most visible, but someone spotted us getting into position and offered us a ride before we could pop out thumbs. It's great to accomplish something before you start trying.
It was a quick 2 mile drive to the Jail House Hostel, during which I learned my hitching companions names: Chaos and Timex. As we climbed the stairs to check-in, we crossed my German friend from the night before, Iced Tea. He gave us the rundown of the town before wandering off to do some food shopping.
It was now 2pm, and after checking in the three of us took turns using the open communal shower that none of us wanted to use communally. I may be only two days in, but it felt damn good to get clean.
The remainder of my day has been great. I was feeling a little weak at the end of my hike, but could have gone a bit further. So being able to rest with some excess energy is good at this stage of the game. After claiming my bunk in the Jail House Hostel, I wandered out to claim my first Subway of the trip. The foot long and soda wasn't as good as I remember, but as my hiker hunger comes back that should change. I came back to meet a bunch of other hikers. To name a few: Gravy, Puffy, Pig Pen, Captain Planet, Oreo, Quohog, and more whose names I'm forgetting. It's a pretty full house tonight, and we spent most of the day relaxing on the grass lawn in front of the hostel. Apparently people in this town like to drive up and down the main drag, and it was amusing to watch, particularly when a pickup full of locals shouted at us to "Get a job!" So I already feel like hiker trash again. It brings a tear to my eye.
Most of my fellow hikers went to watch the Bruins, and I wandered around town a bit. As it started getting dark I ran out to grab some buffalo chicken fingers and fries, and enjoyed them on the lawn while watching an episode of The Killing on my phone. Boy, it's good to be back in nature!
