Blue Mountain B&B, PA309

7/8 ~ Blue Mountain B&B (12 miles hiked)

For 12 crummy miles, it sure opened a can of whoopass on me.

The 1000 foot climb that started my day was much easier than what followed. The rocks may be 'flat', but the care that must be taken hiking on them is very tiring. Also, the section from Dan's Pulpit to Dan's Spring is poorly blazed and Dan's Spring was dry. It might be nice if they'd put up a notice about that at the TOP of the blue blaze. Right before or after the spring, I can't recall, I came to an unblazed pile of rocks with no path around them. Um.... I climbed over, and there was a trail. Yay.

I'm tenting here on the back lawn. There seem to be fewer bugs than last night. It would be hard for there to be more, certainly. Speaking of last night, the temps were in the low 60's which made for nice sleeping weather. today was great -- sunny, low 80's.

Oh man, I almost forgot! I saw a naked guy today. As I was leaving Allentown Shelter (which is a palace, even if the water source is very far) where I'd had lunch, there he was naked but for boots and a pack. It took me a minute to realize that I was seeing a penis instead of shorts. It was totally unexpected on July 8 many days past nude hiking day, June 21. No other hikers are here at the B&B, and I find that amazing. I had the best salad I've had since before June 15. The pasta was also good. I've so far resisted dessert.

I'm heading 13 miles into Palmerton tomorrow. It's supposed to be a real bitch of a hike. More rocks, and something the map calls a 'knife edge', then more rocks with the legend 'exposed, very rocky, unmaintained'. I can hardly wait. In spite of PA309's proximity, I'm looking forward to sleeping here. It's at 1300 feet, so it will be cool and breezy tonight. They have a watch dog, and the chef lives here.

Everybody is really pushing to get out of PA, so lots of people are passing me. I'm feeling better about that, as there seems to be an endless supply of cool people behind me as well as in front. I saw PA Mule sans Bagel. She went home to MI for 10 days, then she's flipping up to ME and hiking south. She got fed up with the heat here. I also met Stiches. She was with PA Mule, as were four others whom I can't recall right now.