The rain came down in sheets last night, whipping up under the large shelter even. It was mostly just a misting under the roof, but surprising nonetheless considering how large the overhang was. One more hiker, Jeff, trundled in out of the rain before I passed out, but other than that all was quiet.
Everyone but Lush and me was up at 5:30am and out by 6:45. I got up at 7 and left at 7:30, leaving Lush to his breakfast. It was only 7 miles to Delaware Water Gap, where I'd be staying for free at the Church of the Mountain hostel. The rocks did let up a bit for my last stretch in PA, but it was a wet and slippery decent into town. Not to mention buggy.
When I made it to the gravel road into town it was 10am. As I was clomping down the sloped road, I noticed that my shadow was fuzzy. I glanced behind me only to see a frenetic mass of bugs with what I can only describe as hive-minded malicious intent staring me down. I did what any stout hiker would do.. and ran for my life, swinging my hiking poles in wild clumsy arcs as I panicked. By the time I skidded down onto a road with real traffic, I had lost my blood-sucking tails, and just looked silly for being out of breath running from nothing. I think I played it off nicely by ignoring it altogether and walking toward town.
I immediately headed towards the hostel, where I saw Etch-a-sketch and was greeted warmly by Condo and Germaine. I dumped my pack, checked out the digs (where I found Dino DNA taking a nap), and wandered off toward food.
The rest of my day was very relaxed, eating, reading, and chatting with other hikers. I saw a lot of other hikers throughout the day. Shade and Shadow were there camping, so it was good to see them again. Oh and I got a free root beer float because the ATM in Zoe's Ice Cream was broken. Maybe not quite trail magic, but definitely some trail luck.
By the time night had fallen, beer had been acquired by a tough as nails lesbian couple (whose names I'm forgetting), so Condo, Germaine, Jeff, and I partook. That's how our night eventually came to a close (after a second beer run was made). It was agreed that it felt extremely right to be drinking in a church basement, considering that all of us are not only dirty hikers, but also filthy heathens. That's my kind of trail magic.
