Appalachian Trail SOBO Day 58 – The start of Rocksylvania
22nd September 2023
Delaware Water Gap (901.5) - Leroy A Smith Shelter (921.5)
Daily miles: 20
Total miles: 929.4
I stayed up too late on my phone doing things I didn’t need to do like updating my phone software to iOS 17, so it was a struggle to get up in the morning. Very swollen eyes and lots of eye ooze.
Hoodrats
We had to go to the gas station to pick up a couple of days worth of food. I already had a little bit left over so a limited gas station resupply would have to do. I had 4 croissants and 6 fig bars left. I ate one croissant for breakfast and the last few Pringles in the tube.
I got 2 Milky Way, 2 Twix, a tube of Pringles, some fruit snacks and some chewy sweets. That will do me for 2 days. I also got a Chocolate Milk and a Ginger Ale to drink now. I was so dehydrated last night, I should have drunk a load of water but instead I just put on some lip balm to make myself feel less dehydrated.
Gas station resupply
I struggled with my headphones, the left earbud is still not charging, but, I discovered if I wedged a piece of paper down the side it will charge. Not ideal, but at least it works for now.
May Queen came back from the post office with a package and her mum had send loads of cookies so I ate a few and also packed a load out.
Church of the mountain hiker hostel
I ended hiking out about 9:45am which was later than I had intended, but hopefully the 20 miles today is still achievable before dark. The first bit was a bit of a climb but it wasn’t that bad and then it was a nice dirt road walk.
I called Cal because we hadn’t let him know what we were doing, and the last thing he knew was that we were taking a zero today. The others caught me up and we all spoke to Cal for a bit. He saw 2 bears yesterday.
We hiked together for a little bit until we stopped for a little lunch break. We still had nearly 14 miles to go so we didn’t stop for long, it was also kinda chilly sat there too.
View over the Delaware river
A nice dirt road track
Hiker train with Toe, May Queen and Pyro
We all did our own things this afternoon because we needed to plug into headphones and just hike to the shelter. The trail was super rocky; the start of “Rocksylvania”. The things with these rocks is that they are different to the other rocks. Whereas previously we’ve had big rocks or slab rocks, these rocks are small and pointy and difficult to walk on.
It’s a real killer on the feet but more so for the brain; it takes so much concentration. Every step needs to be assessed and I felt like I had hardly blinked at all because I was so intensely focused on the trail. I’m surprised my trekking poles are still in one piece because I landed hard on them several times to save myself from falling.
The calm before the impending storm
Nice smooth trail
Big rocks
And little rocks
Hidden rocks
A skinny little trail
Rocks for miles
In the descent to wind gap I spoke to a guy who’s works for the ATC (Appalachian Trail Conservancy). He manages Georgia to PA which is a massive section. He was out assessing the trail and he mentioned that his project this weekend had been cancelled because of bad weather. He warned that it’s raining over the weekend, which we knew about, but he also said it will be windy so make sure we stayed warm.
When I got down to Wind Gap I was almost out of water and thirsty. There is a motel just off the trail that is hiker friendly. I couldn’t really be bothered to go off trail but I could see it from the trail so I walked down there.
Road walk to get water
It was an odd kind of place. A bit seedy feeling. I walked into the office and there was a really friendly cat which I had a nice pet of. It quickly rolled over and showed me its belly and I could have stayed for a while and stroked it. The main guy is Indian with a heavy Indian accent and he was saying something to me about sleep and going on ‘the Google’. I thought he misunderstood and thought I wanted to stay the night but he was trying to tell me I needed to Google a book about sleep and meditation and gave me a sheet of paper with an excerpt on. Then he told me where the water was.
I filled up my bottle. Drank half of it and filled it up again. I had 4.6 miles to go. The trail itself was relatively flat in terms of elevation but the rocks just don’t let up. My little toe was hurting a lot where the skin had split, especially when my foot would slip off a rock and open the split up further.
Spot the deer
Power lines
Trail goes right under the pylon
I feel strong today. Maybe my trail legs have arrived. Saying that, I was pretty tired when I got to the shelter. Pyro was already there because he is so speedy, then May Queen arrived, followed by Lemonhope (who hitched into town to go to a supermarket) and then Toe arrived about half an hour later.
Side trail to the shelter
They all went down to the spring to get water – I still have my bottle from the motel – and Toe was gone for ages. She missed the spring and carried on so she hiked an extra 1.6 miles. She was mad when she came back! It was pretty funny though.
We are doing a 30 mile day tomorrow because it will be raining and we want to get to a hostel – because no one wants to hike 2 days in a row in the rain – so we plan to take the next day as a zero when the weather is really bad. But it’s 30 miles. It’s going to be a complete sufferfest, but hopefully it will be worth it.
My feet are sore tonight.
Another SOBO came into the shelter so it’s very cozy in here with 6 people. He started on the 17th August and is aiming to be finished by the end of October, so we’ll probably never see him again. His name is Dang… said like “Daaang” – because that’s what everyone says when they find out how fast he’s moving!
