| July 26, 2005 |
|
Leroy A. Smith Shelter at 7:15am. I
came down into a clearing where I could see the clouds in the
valleys. I've lost my blazes, I can't find where the trail is
now. I've been looking for about 10 minutes or so and still
haven't been able to pick it up. I'm lost at this minute.
I finally picked up the blaze after looking around for about a half
hour. I went back to the last blaze I saw and then just
kind of picked it up. It was at an angle rather than
straight. |
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The is not a visible blazed trail at all .
I got to one spot and I thought It was one and Simon said it was the
other, so I went around a little bit of the easy way and sure enough
a I saw a blaze where Simon had started. I trust his instincts
quite a lot. |
|
I made it through to Wind Gap got off
the trail and made it over to the motel and got some pop, water and
rested. Back on the trail now at 11:00am. A very steep
rocky climb coming out of Wind Gap on switch backs. The rocks
are horrible through here and you can't make any time at all.
I'm just stumbling and falling all over the place. |
|
I just crossed a gravel road that leads to
I don't know where! When I got into the little woods there's
lot of ferns and the trail looks a little smoother. I can make
some speed now. Well so much for my intuition, it rocky.
It's almost 1:00pm and I'm going to stop for a break. |
|
Well I fell like a bull in a china shop,
down I went again, cut myself on the knee and my hands. The
tip of my toe caught a stone causing me to fall. Step on a
stone that wobbles with you and flap your wings and try to get your
balance. |
|
There's been a lot of rattlesnakes through
here. I think a lot of them are coming out because it's been
dry. Looking for water probably. |
|
I must be getting ready to go through
Wilkes Rocks. Large, large boulders pointed straight up.
I hope it's worth a view out there. It looks like we're going
to be in the sun too. |
I standing out on Wolf Cliffs,
there's nothing but rocks out there, rocks underneath me, and
everywhere. There's just a time view of tree tops that's all.
I've seen a whole lot prettier places. Simon hit a ledge where
it was to high for him to jump off, so I took him around the way I
came off of there and tried to help him down as much as I could.
I had to took his front paws and pulled him off the rock down on to
the next rock and once he was down there he was OK, he was able to
travel on.
We're both sitting down on the big huge rock just resting.
That was very trying coming through there. Any wolf in his
right mind wouldn't want to go across these rocks. |
|
Going down big huge boulder is sometimes
not a easy as coming up them. Coming off the rocks there's no
path. You just have to pick the best way that you can to get
down. There was one point where Simon came out on the ledge
and couldn't get off of there either, so I had to turn and go to my
right walk down another rock and we finally got out. When I
first started down off the rocks, I was about 6 or 7
feet out in front of Simon and I couldn't figure out why he wasn't
coming on down that little area that would have been very easy for
him, turned around and looked and his back pack had slid off and was
completely dragging the ground. I for got snap it underneath
when I took it off him for a rest. So I had to climb back up
the rocks and put his back pack back on. |
|
One can tell there hasn't been mush
rain in this area, the weeds are really droopy looking. I
guess there's a lot of water at the next shelter, where all we have
to do is turn on the spigot. Which will be great. We
won't have to filter it or anything. That will be the
Kirkridge Shelter. I should be turning there before long. |
|
Headed out from Kirkridge Shelter at
5:00pm. to do the last 5 miles today into Delaware Water Gap.
I was told by Rodger the this will be a little easier that it has
been. So much for Rodger's comment about not have big
boulders, I just went up some big huge bounders and ever since I
left the shelter this trail has been nothing but rocks. Going
through a tangled mess of scrub oaks, briars, blueberries and
cotton-picking rocks. |
|
I've come into Totts Gap. Here I am finally
on this graveled road. I think this is the road or last 2
miles to go down into Delaware Gap. I finally came out on the
road that Rodger was talking about. It's getting almost dark,
I still have enough daylight that I can see. I came out on a
little pond and heard bull frogs croaking. I sure hope I'm
still on the trail. Yes there's a blaze, there just few and
far in between and plain hard to see. |
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Going to take a zero day in Delaware
Gap. |
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Swing'n Jane and
Simon |
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