Today was an interesting day. It started at the St. John’s pavilion where I stayed for a second night. I had arranged for a shuttle driver, Steve, to pick me up at 9 o’clock. So I got up about 6 o’clock, packed my stuff, looked at the clock and still had almost an hour and a half before the pick-up. I called Steve to confirm that he was coming at nine and I asked him if he could pick me up at the 3C café, which is about a 10-minute walk up the hill from the pavilion. He said he could so I started the hike up the hill.
Now, the 3C restaurant has a reputation for home cooked food and large portions. When I got there, I ordered the 3C special omelette, which is a three-egg omelette with peppers, onions, and ham. It was about the worst omelette I’ve ever eaten. It had white American cheese melted on the top and the eggs were so done that they were brown in places. The orange juice even tasted a little off so overall I was not impressed with the 3C restaurant.
Steve called me at about 8 o’clock and said that he would be up there at about 830, which is 30 minutes earlier than we agreed, but that’s OK because I was ready to go anyway. He said he drove a red Dodge Dart. Now I was thinking of a Dodge Dart like Click and Clack the Tappet Brothers used to talk about, but this was a new Dodge Dart. It didn’t make any difference, because the interior was so bad that it’s hard to describe. Now, when I met Steve yesterday in the barbershop, he had his English bulldog with him who promptly started to lick my leg for five minutes until I finally shewed him away, I guess he liked the salt from the sweat. Well, apparently Steve’s dog lived in the Dodge Dart car because it was covered, ceiling to floor with dog hair and dander. In fact, the front seat looked like it was made out of camel hair, not vinyl. Steve himself is about 83 years old, walks with a gimp, is missing some of his front teeth on the top in the bottom, and smells like Winston cigarettes. Needless to say, it was an interesting shuttle ride up to the ridge. Steve talked about Second Amendment, hunting, girls shooting, and the Second Amendment again. That kind of gives you a taste of where Steve was.
I made it up to the top of the ridge without further incident. This particular portion of the forest was very dense, with much shorter, smaller more numerous trees, but well laid soft path, at least in the first section. It felt almost as if I was inside a room rather than in the forest. As usual, the path started out soft and got progressively rocky as the day went on. After about 2 miles in, there is a section which is called the Knife. It’s literally a diagonal stack of massive rock shelves at the top of the ridge that runs for almost a quarter of a mile. Very difficult to hike over. I was able to get some video and some good shots of the views. Beautiful trail, but very difficult and definitely a four-point climb in some places. At one point I had to sit down and scramble through a narrow defile of rocks and my pack got caught and scraped the fabric off of one of my water bottle holders. I’m definitely going to have to get a new pack next season.
I bumped into Dreamsickle and Lucky somewhere in there. Of course, they were faster than me, but I managed to catch them in about 3 miles at a road where they were sitting with some friends, eating steaks, watermelon, and soda. Definitely trail magic. They invited me to have some of their watermelon, which I eagerly accepted. We chatted for a while, and then I went on.
I was able to make it to Bake Oven Knob Shelter. The water is excellent here, but the shelter is inhabited by yet another porcupine. So I pitched my hammock slightly down the slope toward the spring, and prepared for rain, which is expected tonight around 9 o’clock. It’s supposed to rain most of the night, and I am going to make sure that I am prepared and will not get wet this time.
Tomorrow, I will hike into Palmerton and stay somewhere there. That’s the last town that I’ll hit before I get to Stroudsburg in about four days. The trail is still fairly difficult, but I guess my feet are getting used to it. Overall, this was a great day.
Today’s Mileage: 6.2
Total Trail Miles: 226.8