Port Clinton, PA —> Delaware Water Gap, NJ
It was only a few days from Port Clinton to the DWG so walking out of town I felt great. I flew up the Pennsylvania mountains. I met a cool hiker named Taco that day and we walked together for a few miles before I hiked on. When I arrived at the shelter that night there were some thru-hikers but also some strange people - the classic “says they're a hiker but is wearing jeans and doesn’t have a pack” people. I felt weird when one of them started brandishing a
knife to whittle a stick. The other hikers there felt uncomfortable too so I leaned over to one of them and said, “hey do you wanna hike on?” He said, “yeah and we should tell those other guys too - we’ll leave one by one so it doesn’t look suspicious.”
We played a game of telephone passing on the message to the other hikers in the shelter and once we got out of sight of the shelter we all started running. When we all caught up to each other we just stopped running and doubled over laughing. It was quite the adrenaline rush so we just sat there and laughed on the floor for a few minutes before we introduced ourselves. I met Pidge, Bearfood, Bo, IT Cowboy, and Tracks, who later became my best friend on trail and we are friends to this day.
We tented there that night and when we all woke up we decided to hike out together. We all hiked big miles so we agreed to do a 30 mile day into the DWG. That 30 mile day was the best day on trail. We got along so well. We made jokes, told stories, took dumb naked pictures on peaks, and ate the summer berries that lined the trail in the summer.
Ripe, sweet blueberries, raspberries, and blackberries were plentiful and our hands were all shades of red and purple by the end of the day.
At a road crossing, a man and his son gave us us trail magic - Snickers bars, slim jims, and a flask of Fireball; the trail magic of champions. He insisted on us all taking a picture together and he praised us like we were royalty.
We barreled down the hill into the DWG and on the way, ran into two thru hikers class of ’16. I don’t remember their names but we liked them so much we took a picture together.
That night we stayed at the free Church Hostel. We met-up with Sparky there and got a massive sundae at the ice-cream parlor across the street. These guys were the brothers I never had. This was the thru-hike I came for. That night we all went to a bar and Tracks made it his mission to find a drink I liked. I never drank in college because of running but hiking’s not a sport so this seemed like a good time to start.
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