Appalachian Trail Adventure: end of June

6/28

• Distance Travelled: 19 miles
• In Palmerton, I worshipped at the 1st United Church of Christ, which was next to the “jail house hostel,” and after the service, a lady there offered me a ride back to the trail. I was so grateful!
• I hiked up out of the Lehigh Valley Gap into some famous terrain in what's known as the "Palmerton Superfund Site." Here, zinc smelting had killed virtually everything that once lived. The land was very barren and rocky, but I found it to be quite beautiful anyway. I enjoyed lovely views, and where new life was emerging from restoration efforts, I was surrounded by stunning flowers, butterflies, lots of blueberries, and my first blackberries on the trail!
• At night, I camped with the "Babes in Boots" gang of hikers (a really fun crew of mostly girls, all who just met on the trail). I'd gotten behind my normal group of hikers because I'd gone to church. As I was setting up my tarp, one of the babes, Squeegie, invited me to share her 2-man tent, and so, what the heck, I did. We had a ball together and laughed a lot. I'll always remember how we sleeptalking conversations, and how, in the middle of the night, I feared that a fictitious nearby snake was coming to steal my pear, and I had to run to find it and secure it. Have you ever heard of a snake eating a pear? Ah, how dreaming makes us think!

6/29

• Distance Travelled: 17 miles
• Today I made it to the end of PA! As I moved into the beautiful Delaware Water Gap area, the notorious rocks of Pennsylvania were replaced with blooming rhododendrons and refreshing streams.
• In town, we found a church-run hostel where we dropped packs, showered, and set up camp. Everyone's favorite thing about the town (Delaware Water Gap, PA) was the bakery, where there was a $1.99 special for a hot dog and a slice of apple pie. I opted for an entire Pecan Pie, which, of course, I ate all by myself (in 2 sittings, though).
• At night, we went to Stroudsburg, PA, where we celebrated hiker Joker's birthday at a bar. (Joker, a 26-yr-old girl, later becomes one of my best hiking friends, by the way). This is one of the funniest nights of my life...

One of the funniest nights of my life...

At the bar, it would have been a calm boring Tuesday night were it not for us hikers -- all 15 of us. We were silly, loud, and strange-looking. A number of the hikers had "town shirts" which were hawaiian shirts found at Goodwill in Waynesboro, VA. One dude, FlyBy, couldn't find a hawaiian shirt, so he chose a plus-size ladies blouse that had a pattern of collaged animal prints. He then cut off the sleeves. It was a hilarious garment. We all drank and sang tunes from the jukebox at the top of our lungs, and danced also. Although I originally wasn't going to be the designated driver, I somehow ended up being the most sober person at the end of the night. Keep in mind, I haven't driven a car in an entire month. I also have never driven or even been a passenger in a car in this area, and it's completely dark outside. Oh yeah, and the car is a Rent-a-Wreck Dodge Stratus that is literally held together with duct tape and has numerous other problems. On the way back to the hostel with my first load of drunk hikers, guess what? Blue lights. Apparently, I "went off to the shoulder," though it was a barely noticeable mistake that was absolutely the result of the vehicle's terrible handling. It was terrifying. I had no idea where any of the important papers where, and when the cop asked who rented the car, I had to stop and think for a minute before I could only come up with the dude's trailname, "Rainman." Of course, Rainman wasn't in the car. So, the cop didn't believe that I was sober, made me follow the tip of his pen with my eyes, and then breathalyzed me. Fortunately, the machine read "000" and the cop sent me off. However, when I returned to the bar for the second group of drunk hikers, the same cop called me out for jay walking. Then he told me he was joking. I did not want to laugh. Also, I'd almost hit a deer on the way back to the bar. That would have sucked. In the meantime, a couple of hikers had gone into the Dunkin' Donuts, shortly before closing, and somehow convinced an employee there to secretly give us all of their leftover goods from the day, so I was met with 2 enormous garbage bags loaded with donuts, bagels, muffins, and cookies. One hiker offered the cop a donut, haha. (The cop refused). We ate a ton of donuts and had no more trouble the rest of the night.

6/30 -- My One Month Trailiversary!

• Distance travelled on the AT: 0 miles (this is called a "zero day," and its my first one!)
• However, I did run around a lot today, and I rarely sat down. This is because I went to Dorney Park, an amusement park in Allentown, PA. It was a continuation of Joker's birthday party. I almost didn't go, because I'm a cheapo and make little money anyway, but another hiker, Pretty Pretty Ewok, offered to buy my ticket, and I was moved by his generosity. I didn't let him pay for me, though. Anyway, thank God I went! Let me tell you, if you really want to get bang for your buck at an amusement park, just spend a few weeks beforehand torturing your body in the woods. It will be the most unbelievably thrilling, exciting, fun experience you've ever had! It was better than the orphan Annie walking into Oliver Warbuck's mansion! Here's some moments I'll never forget:

• walking into Dorney Park, we gathered for our picture. The photographer said, hey you all (except for the 4 girls, including myself) have beards! You should be called "Team Beard!" I thought she said we should be called "Team Weird," which also would have been appropriate. We laughed at and embraced the name, and several times throughout the day huddled together with our hands piled in the center and cheered out "TEAM BEEARD!" before dispersing to the various attractions. Our best huddle break was at the end of the day. First, we all ran in and gave a surprise group hug to Joker, for her birthday, and then a hiker named Ahab commanded, "Team Beard, 'Big and bushy' on three... one, two, three!" And we all hollered "Big and bushy" at the top of our lungs. We're planning team jerseys now.
• At one point while it rained, we went inside a theatre and watched "Snoopy On Ice." It was my first ice show ever, and I was mesmerized.
• Speaking of ice, at one point while the rain turned into hail. God only knows how, as it is summer. Anyway, we were riding on a roller coaster at the time. That hurt.
• At one point while it rained, we hopped on the carousel. I'd thought that I'd outgrown such rides, but it was so fun! I was sucking on a ring pop at the time, and we all did silly things like slapping our ponies' rear ends to get them to giddy up, lassoing, yee-hawing, hopping up and down, and best of all, making all the other folks there join us in doing the wave over and over and over.

Being like a child

Joker once said something about how we each have to be our own women, I think referring to how we have to do what we each feel compelled to do, regardless of the wishes of others, including family or spouses. All I could think to say in response was that "I feel like all I'm doing is just being a kid, though." We laughed, because we truly have turned ourselves into silly childlike kids. You should see us when we're on a pedestrian bridge going over a major highway, jumping up and down and raising our arms in the air to try and get every truck and car to honk at us. This summer has taught me how to make fun when I have nothing. I've been shown the purest joy while doing the simplest things, like eating berries straight from a bush. I am so content to just be out in nature, and to be in the company of all these other random folks who I'd otherwise have never met. Although I've grown my independence this summer, I've also learned how much I really need to depend on others sometimes. I am really happy :)