Grit and Terminated are already awake. We are mostly packed so we just have to get everything out of our bunks without disturbing Ladybug who is the only one still sleeping. Everyone who stayed here last night will be staying at Breezy Acres tonight, with the exception of the man from Quebec. Kelly and I offered to slackpack everyone. The gentlemen deferred, but Ladybug jumped at the chance. I have a trash bag with her sleeping pad, sleeping bag, and everything else in her backpack that she won't need for the day, which will allow her to hike more easily today.
Kelly and I have a big day planned. We are going to do our first 20 mile day, hiking from Lehigh Gap to Wind Gap. The hostel is 15 miles southwest of Lehigh Gap, so we are going to drive my truck to Wind Gap and drop it off, then drive back to Lehigh Gap to start our hike.
We get our vehicles repositioned and we are on the trail around 8 am. The trail starts out rocky and steep, but it is manageable for the first half-mile. We are only 30 minutes into our 10 hour hike when we come to our first roadblock.
The trail starts to climb literally straight up a rock face. We manage the first 50 yards when it starts to rain. I make it up over a ledge by pulling myself up, but Kelly is having a hard time getting purchase on the rocks with her boots. She passes her poles up to me so she can use her hands, but she still can't get up. She decides it's too dangerous and she's going to turn around and go back to the car.
I look at my app and see that there is a blue-blazed side trail that is a foul-weather route. She decides to take that, and I continue up the trail to where the two trails will converge, where I will meet her shortly.
I am doing some crazy rock scrambling on all fours. Dangerous and not for the faint of heart, for sure, but the view is amazing. I am feet from a point of rocks where I can sit and look down onto the river far below, visible on both sides of the rocks. I climb and shuffle for another 15 minutes when the trail becomes more of a trail and less of a mad jumble of boulders and rockslides, and a few minutes later I am at junction of the blue trail where I wait for Kelly.
The trail takes us up and onto the ridge, where we hike through a huge section of burned out woods. This is the site of a recent burn. The plants that are present are very short. Bleeding hearts are prolific and so pretty, hot pink flowers dotting the landscape although they are less than one foot high.
The trail is pretty, but it doesn't travel in a straight line for more than a few feet at a time. The rocks are scattered everywhere, and when we aren't stepping around clusters of rocks, we are stepping around trees right in the middle of the trail. The trail crosses the forest road many times, and I read some comments about how people just take the road down the hill because of the rough condition of the trail. I see the road literally feet away from the trail, so I tell Kelly I am taking it until the trail merges again. She is agreeable to take the road as well. It probably only saves us one-tenth of a mile but it is good for my mental health.
When we emerge from the woods, we see a woman and young man sitting in camp chairs on the side of the trail. The young man introduces himself as Mission, and is thru hiking and his mom lives nearby so she is coming out to provide trail magic. We get some homemade snacks and talk with them for a while.
She tells us about how Blue Mountain is a superfund site for over 20 miles. The trees and vegetation are starting to grow back, but the water is unsafe to drink, so people leave water caches for the hikers. Next to the road are full 5-gallon jugs of water with pumps on top. We still have plenty of water, so we continue on the trail.
The ridge is really nice for the next 7 or 8 miles. We stop and have a snack and I pop some ibuprofen for my aching feet. We are holding up well, which is great because we are about halfway to our destination.
We reach a huge area of tent sites and pass a blue-blazed trail to a shelter. I get motivated to hike faster because we are less than five miles from Wind Gap. I turn on some music and turn up the speed, eager to finish our hike.
An hour later, we are almost off the ridge when the toe of my left shoe gets caught on the point of a rock and I sprawl forward onto the trail. My right knee lands on a very sharp rock, but miraculously I caught myself just in time, because the skin isn't even broken! The impression of the rock left a cool starburst pattern, spreading out from the middle of my kneecap. I also banged up my left arm and elbow, but I can move everything. I am still laying across the trail when Kelly catches up. She didn't see the fall. I take a moment to sort out my life before I take off again, slightly more carefully!
We get down off the ridge and to my truck by 6:15 pm. We did over 20 miles in 10 hours. Kelly got a couple bonus miles in addition to the 21 trail miles! We take off our disgusting shoes and socks and jump in for the 30 minute drive back to Lehigh Gap, where we pick up Kelly's car and continue to Breezy Acres Hostel.
We arrive at 7pm, and when we enter we see Grit, Terminated, and Zen. The hostel is run by Merri Poppins and located in the basement of her home. Merri arrives a short time later with Ladybug. We all chat and I show them the video I took from the crazy rock climb.
I shower and we start our laundry then Merri announces dinner is served upstairs in the hiker dining room. Kelly and I ate on the way back from Wind Gap, so we sit with the other hikers who enjoy a great meal with fellowship around the table.
Merri is well known on the trail for her hospitality and she is a wealth of knowledge. She tells us about a bear that has been terrorizing her neighborhood, so she has a bear trap in her front yard, courtesy of the Pennsylvania Game Commission, who will relocate the bruin once it's caught.
Merri is strict with lights out at 9 pm, which I love. We are welcome to continue to talk at the table upstairs, but everyone goes straight to sleep in the quiet, cool basement.
Today's Stats: 21 miles, 2,756 feet gain, 2,182 feet loss
Trail Stats: 1,281 miles, 257K feet gain, 265K feet loss
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