wind gap, pa to delaware water gap, pa

we finished pennsylvania! tomorrow we cross the bridge into new jersey, where there are more rocks, but not for long.

i slept pretty well behind the restaurant. i had thought the traffic might keep me up, but i was beat. i barely had enough juice to do my journal entry, a sentiment i feel again tonight.

as we were packing up, one of the restaurant owners came out and told us where we could fill water, offered us a coffee, and a ride to the trail.

we packed up and downed breakfast in record time. there was another hiker waiting for us to shuttle and he was ready.

back on trail, we had a little over 15 miles to delaware water gap. it started the same as yesterday. rocks rocks rocks, and no views. but then there was a brief section of flat service road before a long steep descent.

we immediately went to the free hostel and were confronted with a bevy of hikers we’d never seen. the vibe was a little off, and every bunk was taken, some with just a pair of hiking poles, indicating a hiker was saving space for someone not yet there. this is something you do not do. we were told there was an overflow shed out back, but when we saw it we just left, as it’s going to storm tonight, and the shelter wouldn’t have kept us dry.

we headed back to the yellow house hostel which wasn’t free. when we got there, the house was deserted, no one home. it smelled like trash and kinda looked like an abandoned house. then a few things started sinking in: there was a hiker box in the front hallway. some of the finish work in the house was really good, though the entire place was a construction zone. rocket was finally able to contact the owner who showed up 10 minutes later.

the house was his renovation project, and going pretty well by what i can see. there was still a ton to do, like put a latch on the front door. (it blows open and closed every few minutes) the bathrooms were really well done. good tile work, and really interesting sinks, only some of them functional. he let hikers stay in the upstairs bedrooms.

we went into town to a bakery for lunch. they were having issues with their POS machines, and i was able to diagnose it as a country wide issue, and not their issue. they were thankful. some of their patrons however were entitled yellow dress wearing bitches and couldn’t fathom the inconvenience being anything but personal, and apparently that gave her permission to take it out on the employees.

we did a light resupply as there was absolutely no fresh food in DWG and returned to the hostel. i did some laundry and i contacted darn tough about getting some new socks. thankfully they have an expedited process for thru-hikers. i talked to magz for a bit and took a very short nap before heading out to dinner.

dinner was good, but expensive, which was surprising for a place that had something like “why have fine dining when you can have fun dining” on their billboard out front.

we got lucky on the way out and were able to walk back to the hostel between thunderstorms.

tomorrow we head into new jersey. i can honestly say i don’t ever want to walk through PA again. by all accounts, NJ is great, and the trail only gets more beautiful from here.