Day 80 - Trail Angels (June 27)

Once again, I met a trail angel when most needed. I got a late start from Palmerton because my options back to the trail seemed rather poor. Uphill told me he followed the railroad tracks into town this morning, but found them to be too narrow for comfort if a train came by. Two section hikers showed up this morning, and said they just blazed their own trail off the mountain. Steve who is hiking with his young daughter said he followed orange blazes into town. I think the orange blazes followed a route similar to the one I took yesterday. My only other option was to walk along a very busy 4 lane highway with very narrow shoulders.

I did not like any of my options because they all had some danger and all required backtracking several miles. This is when I met another trail angel. I was walking out of town when someone called out asking if I needed a ride. It was a lady who was in town buying a baptismal dress for her three month old daughter. I did not even get her name.

Since she had wheels, I asked her to take me to Little Gap. This saved rewalking 3 to 4 miles depending on which option I decided to take. It cut off about 2 or 3 miles of trail I've not seen. I thought that was a good sacrifice to avoid the safety issued stated above and assure that I found the trail again with little problem.

This trial angel I'm sure has no idea how much of a trail angel she really was. I hope I adiquately expressed my gratitude. I wish I knew her name and address so I could send he a thank you note.

The trail has been very dry. I left town with 3 liters of water. I also made sure I was well hydrated. There was only one spring off the trail. I would have had to walk a half mile off the trail and down the mountain, which would have added a rugged mile. I decided not to get water. I walked about 20 miles today. I'm about 6 miles from the next shrelter, which has a spigget. I still have more than half a liter of water left. Getting to the next shelter should not be a problem.

I've been taping my feet every morning, and they are starting to heal. I very foolishly did not take care of my feet earlier in the week. I developed a very painful, but not disabling blister on the bottom of my foot. I've managed to prevent additional damage while walking 20 plus mile days.

Palmerton was a very nice town. Everyone was very nice. I really enjoyed my stay at the jailhouse hostile. I was the only one there last night. I saw several hikers were there the night before, and several already showed up for tonight. I met an old lady on my way to the hostile who told me about the depression, her older bachlor husband who worked on the Manhattan project, her daughter who was born the day the first atomic bomb was dropped, and her 50 years of marriage. I would have enjoyed talking longer with her, but her ride arrived.