Kevin's AT Thru Hike

Day 96, Monday, 6/20 – I woke up cold this morning, we had temperatures in the 40s again. On the plus side, I made it through the night without getting hassled about stealth camping.

Birthday, Half Time, and I started to hitch into Palmerton around 5:30am so we could get breakfast and resupply food. There was plenty of traffic, but we really struggled to land a hitch. It made sense, everyone on the road was going into work, and likely weren’t interested in picking up hitch hikers.

After about an hour, we finally got a hitch and got dropped off at Dunkin Donuts. Zen, Sonar, and Blaze also stopped in for some breakfast. We then resupplied food at the gas station and got a hitch back to the trail. The hitch back to the trail was a lot quicker than the hitch into town.

Immediately after leaving town, we had a steep climb up to Blue Mountain Ridge. The hike up involved rock scrambling, which was fun. I also got a good view of my stealth spot from the night before. Across the river, on the left side of the bridge, there are a dozen trees in a row next to a small field. I had my hammock strung up between two of those trees.

For about 20 miles, the water sources were unsafe to drink, even after being treated. There were zinc factories in Palmerton that contaminated the area throughout the early 1900s. I carried a lot of water throughout the day, and also found a water cache along the trail that a trail angel maintained.

The second half of the hike was unpleasant. The trail was flat and there were a million small rocks, so the hiking was slow and my feet started to ache. I met up with Birthday and Half Time at a shelter, and we decided to stay in Wind Gap. This was about 3 miles shorter than originally planned for the day.

I hiked 21 miles to Wind Gap (Mile 1281). From there, we walked another mile to Detzi’s Tavern for a hot meal. Half Time, Birthday, and I all got the meatloaf special. It was some great meatloaf. Meatloaf is one of those meals that feels like a home cooked meal, which is a nice change of pace from all the pizza and burgers.

Detzi’s is incredibly accommodating to thru hikers. They allow camping behind the tavern for thru hikers and also open up the restaurant first thing in the morning and make coffee. After coffee, they give hikers a ride back to trail.