TRAIL DAY 137
Wed, July 6, 2016 By 7:30 a.m., I was back on the trail and headed north to Wind Gap. The name meant there would be a descent into the gap. Until then we continued on the 1000′ level ridge and arrived for an early lunch at Leroy A. Smith Shelter at 10:45 a.m. There we met a fellow with a camouflaged backpack that looked very heavily loaded. A sweaty grey T-shirt was slung over the pack and thick paperback books were on the ground nearby. The thick-material pack and thick books were unthinkable to most thru-hikers – certainly to me.
The bare-skinned hiker was sitting on the floor of the shelter and looking at a deer tick on his arm. Warnings about the need to do a body check for these little buggers always points out that they are, indeed, little which has always suggested to me that finding one would be worse than trying to find that needle. The more dangerous deer ticks are all the more dangerous because of their size. They are not the evident and easily felt large ticks.
The worst feature of ticks, other than their causing Lyme Disease, is that they anesthetize you as they bite. Unlike the mosquito or the bee, you never feel their bite. As I think I mentioned, my wife found 3-4 on me in Middletown, Virginia. I probably pointed out then that Theo’s ingested anti-tick medicine worked so well they left him and came to me. To my knowledge, these were always the big guys and happily did not harm. I’ve been tested more than once for other illnesses and Lyme Disease was always included and came back negative.
En route, I encountered more moths. I remember swarms of them on my way to Palmerton. I forgot to mention them in my July 3rd notes but seeing them again in a video I took on July 6th reminds me. The reason it reminds me of the earlier encounter is that I took this video because the moths could not get airborne. Their short life span seemed to be coming to an end. They had no trouble just a few days back flying in your eyes, your hair, and your mouth if you left it open. You could feel them colliding with any unclothed skin. It was not a pleasant experience. I’d rather moths than an angry bear – but I’d rather a calm bear than a mindless swarm of overactive moths.
A few days before, knowing Wind Gap was not far off, I called a family friend of my wife and her 7 sisters who lives near Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania. I was welcomed to stay at her house and I would not be the first AT hiker to do so.
At the Gap, Route 115 would cross under PA 33 and lead to a parking area where I would meet my host. A bit before the long descent, I ran into three vigorous lady day-hikers. They were interested in my thru-hike and my companion. They were probably on their return hike to their car and were able to give me some input on the trail ahead. As expected, the trail into the gap was somewhat steep and used a switchback, so common in the south, to ease the descent.
Route 115 was in view shortly after 5:00 p.m. My host said she would be leaving work to pick me up and should be there around the time I was. I waited at the parking lot which was also the point from which the trail would continue 2 days hence. Someone came by and asked how far it was to the next shelter. I checked AWOL and advised it was 9.1 miles in. He stood at the entrance into the woods for a short time debating whether to start the climb up and out of the gap and finally decided against it.
My host arrived and gave me a warm welcome. Theo and I climbed in and were on our way. I had gotten in the habit of informing folks I called for a ride that I had a dog and, except for the unfortunate (and illegal) experience at Newfound Gap, no one objected.
My host and her husband have a lovely home in a very pretty section of northeast Pennsylvania called Cherry Valley whose name captures the beauty. There was a spring house on a stream slightly downhill from their comfortable home.
Across the stream, at the corner of their property, the husband has his office where he sells solar panels and solar energy around the world.
I was treated royally the whole time I was there. Good food, good drink, excellent quarters to myself and WiFi to connect and write as time allowed. The wife was more than just a good cook. Clearly, she was very skilled and knowledgeable and pulled out all the stops for the hungry hiker and, I suspect, did regularly for her hungry husband. No complaints here. Theo and I could not be more comfortable.
Day #137 Sams Gap Road > Wind Gap (Cherry Valley) 8.1 miles