Jun 21 - Pennsylvania

DAY #96
START LOCATION: Lehigh Gap/Palmerton, PA
FINISH LOCATION: Random Campsite near Private Road
TODAY'S MILEAGE: 22.6
TRIP MILEAGE: 1,270.9
MILES TO GO: 908.2

I was wide awake at 5AM. It was oppressively hot in our "apartment".
Mimi, Long Shanks, Smokestack and I packed up our stuff, pounded a
bunch of water and met the boarding house owner, Ira Fine, for our
ride back to Lehigh Gap. Incidentally, this boarding house he owns in
Slatington, PA is called "Fine Lodging". It was anything but.
Hilarious nonetheless.

We piled into Ira's Pontiac Parisienne and he brought us to the nearby
Burger King for a to-go breakfast. He dropped us at Lehigh and we
enjoyed our breakfast before beginning our trek up to the "Palmerton
Superfund Site."

There was a zinc plant in the area back in the mid 20th century. Yada
yada yada, the thing contaminated and polluted the Lehigh Gap ridge
and completely wiped out the flora up there. As a result, there's a
nearly barren wasteland leading up from the gap to 4 miles along the
ridge. Google... Palmerton Superfund Zinc and you can read all about
it. Thankfully, the remediation effort is gaining traction and even
more thankfully, the ATC routed the trail along this high desert.

It begins with a treacherously steep climb that has been referred to
as "the toughest mile of the AT". It's all loose jagged rock ranging
in size from fist-sized to boulders. It was 8:45AM when we began the
ascent and let me tell you that within minutes... We were loving every
step of it. It was fantastic. It reminded me of hiking the White
Mountains in New Hampshire. It got technical in some spots and it was
a great change from the mind and foot numbing view-less ankle busting
trail in lower Pennsylvania. The weather up there was almost ideal. It
was 75 degrees, mildly humid and gorgeous puffy clouded blue sky. The
views of Palmerton, Lehigh Gap, Lehigh River and Slatington were
spectacular. It's the only portion Smoke and I would come back to in PA.

We started along the barren ridge and about 3 miles into it, Smoke had
gotten a ways ahead of me. I'd been taking lots of pictures and fell
back. I come around a corner of a small grove of trees leading to a
false summit and I see Smoke standing there waiting for me. He's all
aflutter. He yells... "Natedog! You won't believe it! I saw a
rattler!" I was excited... I wanted to see it! He explained his close
encounter as follows... He'd seen the thing coiled up near a cairn
along this exposed false summit. As he approached the cairn, the
Timber Rattler played it's title cut one hit wonder for him. It scared
the crap out of him and his description conjured up visions of a him
running away and shrieking with arms flailing like a schoolgirl who'd
just seen a spider in her cheerios. He told the story quickly and I
began heading to the spot to catch a glimpse of the creature. Just as
I turned and started to approach, I look down and there's the rattler
bluff-charging us, tail a-rattling. I turned and ran like, what else,
a schoolgirl who'd just seen a spider. The thing ducked into some
brush just as I snapped a grainy photo of the little guy. Damn those
things are loud and fast. I was almost glad about the noisy part.
They'll know I'm approaching before I can see them. From then on until
we ducked back into the woods, I was pack leader. We walked like 1mph
as we tentatively tapped our poles and were generally scared
•••tless another would come after us. In our heads, every step
obscured by ferns was snake infested and every tree root seemed ready
to rattle at us.

We congregated about 5 miles in and we saw Devo and Zen getting
dropped off by Zen's mom for D&Z to continue northbound. We platooned
once again... Long Shanks, myself, Smoke, Mimi, Devo and Zen all moved
on and reached the Leroy Smith around the same time. Water was
horrible today. I had to haul some in my pack. But a nice Ridgerunner
assured us the Leroy Smith was flowing great. The place was mobbed
with thru-hikers as a result. A really cool thing happened there... We
saw Sideway's and Moonshine's perfect photos of a black snake killing
and eating a chipmunk! It. Was. Awesome.

Some of us were pushing on and some were staying put. Smoke, Long
Shanks, Mimi and I were in the latter category. Smoke and I have a
rendezvous with Panda in the early afternoon tomorrow at the Delaware
Water Gap. We needed all the miles we could handle. Shanks and Mimi
just want out of PA ASAP. So, we loaded up with water, ice cream and
soda at the Gateway Motel in Wind Gap and pushed to a primitive random
campsite.

I'm so excited for steaks at Smoke's mother-in-laws tomorrow. Plus,
I'm heading to the EMS in Jersey for some new boots. 1,270 miles have
pushed my current kicks to the brink.

It's cool, breezy and gorgeous as we enjoy our last night in
Pennsylvania. I'll have my thoughts on the PA AT tomorrow when I reach
the dirty jerz. Fist pump.

-natedog