July 10 - Leroy A. Smith Shelter (Day 113 – milepoint 1247.2)

Had a nice, short, nine-mile day planned, but ended up doing 24. How does that happen? Well, let’s see…

Got an early start in cooler temperature and NO HUMIDITY (thanks I think to yesterday’s storm). Decided to continue beyond Lehigh Gap with Landshark (23, New Hampshire). The climb up out of the Gap had us giggling with excitement as a mountain of boulders forced us both to scramble around on all fours for about 20 minutes.

A breathtaking view on top: rolling hills as far as you can see and the Lehigh River Valley meandering its way through a path of least resistance. The terrain for the next five miles or so resembled scenes from parts of the Southwest U.S. Very dry, exposed, and rocky. Kind of weird…

Our plan at this point was to get to the fire tower at the summit, fill up on water, and then camp just beyond. However, we got a little confused and could not find the water spigot rumored to be there (we later found that the spigot was at a ski resort
not far away).

So, no water, and I was out. Landshark gave me a little bit of the little bit he had left, I picked a bunch of blueberries and we decided to go the ten miles to the next shelter and, as far as we could tell, the next water source. Switched to auto-pilot, took one gulp of water per hour, ate blueberries sparingly, and arrived at the shelter in a daze. As luck would have it, I was immediately offered a quart of water by new faces, Journeyman and Starlight (50′s, Pennsylvania), which I promptly refilled for them down the hill at the water source. I think I saw golden halos hovering over their heads.

Nothing beats the magic of a Trail Angel.

Aquaholic