We left camp with the vain hope that there would be some relief from the rocks.  No such luck.  We hiked in nice but hot weather for about three hours before hitting a road crossing that was about a mile from the little town of Wind Gap.  Whenever you are in a gap it usually means a steep climb to get out.  Wind Gap was no exception.  So we thought it prudent to eat and hydrate up at the convience store a mile into town.  We walked the mile down hill and gorged ourselves in hot dogs and micro wave sandwiches washed down with a half gallon of sweet raspberry tea.  To save money, Duck and I split a quart of ice cream for dessert.  Whooo- daddy!

By the time we finished it had gotten considerably hotter and we suddenly realized that the mile back to the trail was up hill.  It was my turn to Yogi a ride so I grabbed my pack and poles and did my best broken wing act around all of the gas pumps.  After a period of slinging my pack around painfully, some guys asked if we were hiking the trail.  That led to a ride back to the trail head– cha ching on the Yogi.

We hiked an enormous hill out of the gap.  It’s getting harder to tackle those in the heat.  But we up top the ridge and hiked over more rocks for another four hours.  We had another three quarter mile side trip for water before finishing just two miles from the Delaware river and New Jersey.  We found an over look with some tent sites and enjoyed an incredible view of the sunset over the Delaware river valley.  Tomorrow we hike down to Delaware Water Gap and into New Jersey.  Happy Trails.