Day 79 - Palmerton City Jail (June 26)

I write this from inside the Palmerton City jail. Actually, its the former jail. The city turned the jail into a free hostile for thru hikers You get a wooden bunk, a shower, and other wonderful amenities. I'm the only one here tonight. I see from the log book that several people were here last night. I did not know any of them.

The guide book said I can either jump the guard rail and follow the railroad tracks or I could follow the well marked blue blazes. I made the mistake of choosing the well marked blue blazes. The blazes took me over a 1,000 foot mountain only to end where that trail intersected with the AT.

My choices were limited. I could have continued walking about 13 miles to the next shelter, which I could not have made by night fall. I could have walked another 3 or 4 miles to the next spring and hoped there was a place to camp nearby. Or I could have hiked back down the blue blazes to look for a way into town.

I decided to hike back down. I called Paul for assistance. He used google earth to find a way along the base of the mountain. The problem was I ended up in a fenced factory of some kind with the gate over a bridge being locked.

I have to climb down over the bridge, and then climb out on a fence that hung over the side of the concrete. I had to lower myself using the overhanging fence until my feet almost touched the ground. Then I dropped to the ground avoiding the barbed wire at the bottom of the fence, and scrambled to the other side of the bridge.

Its was a pretty crazy thing to do, but a was pretty desperate at that time. I was very tired from the pointless climb over the mountain, and I needed to be in town before stores closed. It would have been a couple miles back to the railroad tracks.

Other than that adventure, water was the only problem. I was fortunate that I completely filled up with water the night before, and two road maintenance guys gave me a bottle of frozen water. I did not need that water when they gave it to me. I thought it would be nice to have something cold to drink. It turned out that water prevented a half mile rugged climb down to water when I passed the next spring. I had just enough water to go another 7 miles to a spring I was told was good.