Port Clinton, PA to Delaware Water Gap, PA 7/30/18 – 8/5/18

Posted on August 6, 2018 by Marlisa

Hello Rocksylvania! I think it’s safe to say we have now hit the rocks on the trail that Pennsylvania is known for. Most of the trail we have hiked so far in PA, especially the first 150 miles, has been some of the nicest trail we hiked yet. BUT, now we have hit the rocks and it’s no joke! We have close to 50 miles left in Pennsylvania and it’s been pretty rough. Sometimes the trail is just covered in small jagged rocks that poke our feet everywhere when we walk and other times there are big boulder fields to climb over. Its definitely slowed down our mileage some…our biggest day was 19 miles and then there were a day or so that 10 miles felt like a stretch. We also had soooo much rain the past few days so that added another dimension to our week that was a bit challenging. The one day we had up to 3 thunderstorms in an afternoon so we weren’t really able to ever dry our stuff out including our shoes and socks so our feet looked all wrinkled and prune-like by the end of the day. Friday was our last day of rain and by the end of the day our feet were pretty bad…after being wet for so many days they stank something awful and really hurt.

Some pictures of this week…

Some of the rock fields we walked through…

Since there were so many rocks, we also saw ALOT of rattlesnakes.

The bugs got bad enough that we wore our bug nets for the first time this week

I remember when we came out of the woods on our way down the mountain into Palmerton, Lance stopped and said “THAT is the mountain we climb that everyone has been talking about!” We both looked at it and were like…”wow”. (I was a little nervous about it since everyone talks about how awful it is)

The big climb up out of Lehigh Valley from Palmerton

We actually did have fun doing this climb. It was definitely intense and I was glad it didn’t last longer but it went fine and we were grateful the rain held off too over that time so the rocks weren’t slippy.

Anyway…on to the rest of the week….

We resupplied in Palmerton a few days ago at the local grocery store and since we were hikers, they gave us a free orange and apple…so yummy

Lance’s feet after all the rain…(sorry if hiker feet pics are too gross)

Last night (sat eve) we got into town here at Delaware Water Gap. We stayed at the Church of the Mountain Hiker Center, kind of like a hiker hostel, run by the local Presbyterian Church. We planned to spend our weekly zero day here on Sunday…We were SO excited for our zero day to rest our feet and dry our feet out as well as our clothing and all our gear. We enjoyed showers, doing laundry, and had lots of sunshine to dry everything out. We even got to enjoy a Sunday morning church service at the church that runs the hostel.

The Presbyterian Church that has a hiker hostel in the basement of their church we stayed at.

There was no laundromat in town and our clothing desperately needed a good washing again so we did laundry like this in buckets.

Apple Pie Cafe…we enjoyed a lot of yummy food here including their hot dog and slice of apple pie special for lunch

We ended our day with some Netflix and pizza

Happy Trails,

Marlisa

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2 Comments on “Port Clinton, PA to Delaware Water Gap, PA 7/30/18 – 8/5/18”

Sherry Histand
August 6, 2018, 6:20 pm

I’ve been thinking of you’ll and wondering how you were faring with all this rain.Sounds like it has been a challenge! Jim n i are on our way to Kentucky for the Rapid Respi we meetings!
- Marlisa
  August 10, 2018, 1:38 pm
  
  Yes, the rain has made things a bit more challenging!