Miles today: 20.1
Total miles: 932.3
Had the luxury of sleeping in today since I didn’t have to be up until 9am. That’s when the owner of the Beer Stein comes and then we get free breakfast. Even though I could sleep in I still woke up around 7. I slept so well last night though. I got up, preate breakfast with some donuts and juice from the gas station across the street and relaxed for a while.
At 9, the owner, Kerry came and let us inside the kitchen. We basically had free reign and could use any of the food and all the stoves and cooking supplies. We had a huge meal and I was stuffed after eating my own breakfast wrap creation. Wood butcher and bartender made scrambled eggs, Rebar made French toast, and delta made pancakes. It was a feast! It was nice out so we even ate outside on the patio.
After that we were feeling stuffed. I’d planned to go 20 miles to the town of Palmerton but it was already 10 ish so that was seeming unlikely. We talked about going to a campsite at 16 miles and some of the other guys were even thinking of just doing four. I wanted toget walking so Blondie and I got a hitch to the trail head and got walking by 11 am, a very late start.
The rocks weren’t terrible today. Some tough patches but also some nice smooth sections. It was almost entirely flat all day so that was nice too. All day Blondie was trying to convince me we should go to Palmerton but I was hesitant if I’d be able to make the 20 by dark. When we got to the campsite at 16 miles it was only 430 ish so I gave in and we set out the remaining four or so to Palmerton. The trail goes on a detour around a superfund site which was strange. I’m supposed to be in this beautiful wilderness getaway trail and it has to be rerouted to avoid toxic materials. At least the detour was nice and grassy and right along a ridge line with beautiful views.
We had a rocky descent down to the road. It was actually kinda fun, did some butt sliding on steeper sections. We got to the road by 630 and got a hitch pretty quickly. The hostel is called Jail House Hostel since its in a building that user to be the police station. Now it’s a town hall type thing. But it was after hours when we got there so we had to check in with the point person who just so happens to be the police. HA. He took down our names and addresses (not really sure why) which felt somewhat like I was in trouble with the law.
I took a nice shower. There are three shower heads all together and I turned on two and ran between them for a little. Then Blondie and I went and pigged out at a diner. Not sure where everyone else got to today. We only have 18 miles to the shelter tomorrow and after our many miles starting at 11 today we are joking we can leave as late as noon tomorrow.