After the beers, the traumatic hiking, and getting in so late, I slept in until 730.  When Duck and I finally got going it was starting to get hot already.  The hiking was, you guessed it, rocky.  Even the flat ground would have these rocks sticking out of the ground with either edges or corner points exposed.  Very painful to constantly step on these.  It’s like body blows to a boxer; one punch might not knock you out but the twentieth finally wears you down.  Stepping on a few of these rocks doesn’t knock you out, but the thousandth on the bottom of your feet has them in agony by the end of the day.  I’ve been taking a dozen ibuprofen a day to keep the pain manageable.  

We got to the town of Palmerton PA a little after 1 pm.  The forecast called for rain starting at 3:00.  We ducked into a pizza place (no pun intended) and decided that the dangerous climb right after the town would be a bad idea in the rain.  So we took a Nero (nearly zero) after only eight miles and checked into a hostel.  We went out to dinner with Bear and Sir Poopsalot.  I will let you guess how the later got his trail name (hint: it happens four times a day).  But I digress. We had a delicious meal, did laundry, showered, and all around prepared for tomorrow’s extremely difficult ascent out of Lehigh Gap.  Tomorrow we hope to make up some miles.  Happy trails.