Appalachian Trail SOBO Day 57 – Hello Pennsylvania
21st September 2023
Brink Road Shelter (876.6) - Delaware Water Gap (901.5)
Daily miles: 24.9
Total miles: 909.4
25 miles to town today. It was going to be one of those days with not a lot of stops. Just push to town. I slept well, my alarm (vibrate only) was going for 4 minutes before I noticed. And the thing that woke me up was Toe pouring water into her pot.
My friends all like to sleep in the dirt
I left camp at 7am in my fleece because it was cold this morning. I lasted about 5 minutes in my hat and then about a hour in my fleece with the hood going on and off.
I was above the clouds this morning and the view on the open ledges were beautiful.
Early morning light
Above the clouds
I saw a group camped and then a school group who were in the middle of the trail so I had to come up behind them and say morning and they all moved out the way for me.
Stopped for a nature poo.
Saw another school group.
Happy in my hoody
I was moving along at a nice pace and then around 10:30am I saw a porcupine in the trail. It climbed a tree ever so slowly and as I was watching it I heard voices, so I left my trekking poles by the tree and ran back down the trail and Toe and Pyro were hiking together so I told them to shush and come and look at the porcupine.
Morning light
Porcupine!
Porcupine climbing a tree
We then hiked together until we needed to stop for water, May Queen caught up to us and we walked together to the fire tower where we stopped for lunch.
Fire tower
There was still 13 miles left for the day so I got moving around 12:30pm and I was fully expecting to be caught and overtaken but I was flying down the trail.
The trail was nice, a little rocky in places, and I did trip and landed really hard on a pointy rock on my heel which made me stop for a second and catch my breath, but it all seemed to be ok.
It was warm and up on the ridge I was going in and out of the trees. At the top of the mountain I saw an owl on a stick and it took me a while to realise it wasn’t real. There was a man up there looking through binoculars, facing the other way to me, and he had a whole conversation with me without ever looking away from his binoculars.
Now it was mostly downhill from here to the bridge. And there was still 8 miles to go. Pyro caught up and overtook me.
Went past a nice lake.
Saw a deer, second one of the day.
Legdes
Views across the fields
Views across the river
Is that a real owl?
Definitely not a real owl!
Views across the lake
Hey deer
Nice wide smooth flat trail
There were a lot of rocks in the trail and they were really starting to hurt my feet so I was starting to feel very tired with about 5 miles to go. I was feeling pretty thirsty too but I couldn’t be bothered to stop for water.
A lot of the time I just felt like closing my eyes. The last 4 miles were a real cruise it was a nice wide downhill path alongside a creek which had many swimming holes, then a road walk until the long bridge over the Delaware river. This is where the state line is so I crossed from New Jersey into Pennsylvania. The traffic was going by so fast and the bridge was really bouncy. I got to the border at 5pm and then it was a short walk into town and I was sat in the church basement by 5:15pm.
A little road walk
Under the underpass
A longer road walk
The big busy bridge over the Delaware river
Bye bye New Jersey, hello Pennsylvania
Lemonhope and Pyro were already there and they said they had been there about half an hour so I was really happy with my speed today.
Our plan was to zero here tomorrow, but after looking at the weather - which is supposed to be horrible on Saturday and Sunday, and maybe Monday (today is Thursday) – we thought we should make the most of the good weather tomorrow, hike in the rain Saturday, stay somewhere Saturday night and zero on Sunday. Otherwise we would be zeroing on a good weather day and hiking out into the rain.
It was a lot to get our heads around because we had all been looking forward to talking the day off tomorrow but it makes sense.
May Queen arrived and Toe arrived about an hour after I did. We all went out to get food and we went to a ramen place. After seeing someone else’s food come out we ordered the Yaki Soba and oh man it was good. Such a huge portion, a hiker portion. I was so full at the end but I didn’t leave a single scrap.
Avoided this place in 2018 because I couldn’t look at another noodle
It was delicious!
Didn’t leave any - even with chopsticks
There was a couple in the restaurant, the guy hiked in 2021, and they paid for a flight of sake for us without telling us before they left so that was a nice bit of trail magic.
Saki tasting flight
Apple pie and hot dogs
I had a small Ginger Ale with my dinner and what I should have done was also drink a pint of water, but I didn’t, and I’m now lying here on the floor of the church basement feeling really parched.
I had a shower in a very mouldy and strange shower, but I got wet and used soap and it felt good. I dried myself with disposable towels which were unusual; like giant paper towels. As I was drying myself I managed to rip open the skin underneath my little toe. So now that’s an open wound which is really uncomfortable.
There is no laundry here which is a shame because I could really do with washing my clothes because they stink, but looks like it will have to wait!
Also, I think the second port on my charging block isn’t working and my AirPods aren’t charging properly either which is a bummer.
It’s a shame we aren’t staying here tomorrow because I would have definitely eaten another one of those meals, I can’t stop thinking about how good it was.
I am sleeping on the floor in the common room. Some of the others are on the sofas. The bunk room was a bit too stuffy.
