Day 106-Don’t Regret That Decision!

July 2-15.6 miles-Palmerton to Leroy Smith Shelter-AT mile 1275.9

Today was the infamous climb out of Lehigh Gap. It was a mile of 1000 feet of elevation gain mostly over giant boulders. 

One can take the blue blaze winter trail and avoid the rocks. We did not. 

Sure Foot climbing up

The bridge we walked over when we came into town. 

Another much faster hiker scrambling up the rocks. 

The other view. 

Sure Foot and the painted flag. 

Now, as you notice from the photos, Sure Foot has his pack on. I chose to slackpack. Dave shuttled us back to the trail, and I left my pack in his car. He would bring it to me later. I just carried my little day pack with lunch, water, my hoodie (for padding), and my rain jacket. I was really glad I did that. There were spots where I would not have been able to climb up with my full pack. I felt much safer without that weight on my back. I will say (and Sure Foot did too) that the climb was somewhat anticlimactic. The photo with the bridge down below...that wasn’t even all the way up. At the top of the climb, we thought we would have a view back to the bridge. Nope. The trail just went around the mountain, and eventually down the other side (but not much of a down). I didn’t even take a selfie, or a photo of Flat Will and LB! There were some views of either Walnutport or Slatington. 

Just mostly grassy trail around the other side. 

There did continue to be rocks, but no more really big rocks to climb, just the small, pointy, kill your feet rocks. 

Especially annoying. 

The plan for me getting my pack back was to hike to the Delps Trail, then hike it down to a trailhead parking lot, and meet Dave there. We stopped and looked at Guthook to see how far the trail was. Guthook said we were .8 away. So we hiked a bit further. Then we checked again. Then it said we were .7 past the trail! So, I had to go back .7, then go down the Delps Trail .7 to meet Dave. Sure Foot just stayed were he was. I would retrieve my pack, and hike back up to Sure Foot, and we would decide if we wanted to go on, or camp there. 

Well, the Delps Trail was very steep going down. When I got to the parking lot (I had been texting Dave), Dave said he knew where I was and he would be there. I got to thinking that I did not really want to climb back up that trail. I looked at the elevation map on Guthook, and saw it was much easier to go to Smith Gap, and hike back to Sure Foot. I texted Sure Foot and asked if he would want me to hike back, or meet me at Smith Gap (I would have Dave bring me there), and we could continue on to the shelter. I was not going to fret about missing 1.8 miles of the AT. He said he would meet me at Smith Gap. 

I started walking down the road that Dave would be coming up. I got to the paved road, and texted Dave to tell him where I was. Turns out, he was waiting for me at Smith Gap!  We got it straightened out, and he arrived shortly to pick me up. We went back to Smith Gap (it was just 3.8 miles away). I thanked Dave for allowing me to have a great day. I repacked my pack, and, since Sure Foot wasn’t quite there yet, I started hiking back toward him. It was just a couple of tenths when we met up. 

Sure Foot was tired, but we decided we could go the additional miles to the shelter. What was supposed to be a 9ish mile day turned into 15.6, but it was good because we’ll have a shorter day tomorrow to the next shelter. 

Water has been an issue, but we came across a couple of water caches, and that helped a lot. The spring at the shelter is way down. We will have water in 4.6 miles tomorrow. I have a little over a liter. I should be able to make it, even with breakfast in the morning. 

Slackpacking

Nice campsite.