[at-l] Ready's Journal; July 14 TD 32

[kahley7@ptd.net (kahley)]

I awakened to a beautiful sunrise. I'd tried to wake up Spur,
but with each prod he just nestled further into the sleeping
bag, so it became a show for my eyes only. I soon fell asleep again.
I'd had the strangest dream. The Reader's Digest version: I
was at a hiker hostel that was more like a concentration camp.
The "staff" were ardently bent on swaying visitors to their way
of thinking about the AT, which they'd learned from their "boss" -
Wingfoot! WF was never actually there, or ever seen - something
akin to the Wizard of Oz.
Although nothing actually bound any of us to the hostel, it was
evident that one could leave only by escaping. My dream essentially
revolved around an elaborate escape plan, aided by Spur, who'd
escaped earlier and was assisting me from the "outside." Very
strange indeed. 'Gonna hafta watch how much hot sauce
I'm using at supper from now on!
Our actual rising time was 6:00 and we were all hiking by 7:15.
Although there were the ubiquitous rocks, the trail was level and
well graded along today's section. Much of it was nearly roadwalk
condition.
Spur warned us that a tricky section was ahead. He explained
how last year he'd missed a turn-off; Corn (our visitor at the shelter
yesterday) had spoken of having done the same thing during his hike
last year.
We were on the lookout for it, but Molly and I each repeated that error.
Spur caught our errors and saved us the extra backtracking that would
have become necessary. There really needs to be better marking for
this section, where twice in close succession the trail veers off, but
the markings are vague and hidden behind brush.
We hiked an easy pace all the way until we reached the dreaded
descent for the day. I'd been worried about how well my hamstrings
would fare on this stretch, and was delighted to find it relatively easy,
so long as I slowed a bit and stepped gingerly. The muscles of my
right leg tightened up some, but never came to the point of pain.
We were really impressed with the rock work here. The crew who
did the work had obviously undertaken a huge challenge and
succeeded mightily.
In no time at all, it seemed, we were in Delaware Water Gap.
We stopped at the hostel, where we found Rambunny and Fausa,
along with Seattle and Breeze. Rambunny. We'd missed Isis and
Jackrabbit by an hour or so. Molly and I chatted while Spur went
to the post office for our mail drop.
When he returned, I sorted the goods and he went to the phone
to check our pocketmail messages and to call the Pack Shack
to see if we could fit in some river rafting or tubing on the Delaware today.
We ate a speedy lunch at the bakery then headed over to begin
our tubing adventure. It was a long wait to get things settled up
and be transported to the river put-in spot, but eventually we were
on our way, drifting lazily along the Kittatinny Range on three tubes
  tethered together. It was so relaxing; the sun shone brightly most
of the way and the winds were in our favor.
It was another long wait for the shuttle ride that would return us to
DWG, then it was back to the hotel and gear up to leave.
It was almost 6:00 PM when we finally were hiking again. Fortunately
  we had only 4.5 miles to go to reach the campgrounds for the night.
It was easy climbing for most of the way and we made it in short time.
My leg felt strong all the way.  Spur knew of some nice sites at the
campgrounds, which we found promptly. Spur and Molly set up the
  tents while I prepared dinner - Derbs and spaghetti, with lots of hot
chocolate.
It was dark by the time we finished, and so it was journal time and
sleep soon after. We were all tired from our day - soaking up sun,
lounging in a slowly drifting inner tube, sure does tucker one out!



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