Rocky Road

Now that we got that out of our systems. Thank you all for your encouragement after our last post. Let's just say we were more than a little fed up with this hiking business. We're continuing north, and we should be in New Jersey on Monday afternoon or Tuesday morning. Today we're in Palmerton, PA after a thirty mile rock scramble with stellar views but rough, rough, rough trail. I'm guessing we'll both be on our fourth pair of boots by New England. Palmerton is an interesting little town/EPA superfund site with a curious absence of trees on the surrounding mountainsides from the former zinc smelting operation. At one time this area was probably beautiful, but this afternoon we will be climbing another rousing round of exposed rock, compliments of acid rain. The climb out of Palmerton is supposedly the toughest thing south of New Hampshire's White mountains, and we'll let you know how that goes next post. Our morale is slowly rising (buying that fly rod at Cabela's helped me out quite a bit), but Maine still seems a long way off (probably because it is). Jess and I are holding up well, and we're back in a group of some of our old hiking buddies. In the last week we have had some wild experiences, but I think being conscripted as farm labor for an afternoon was the best. We spent an entire afternoon following an antique farmer on an antique John Deere tractor planting pumpkins and gourds at his orchard/farm. For what you ask? A ride to the Cabela's superstore...worth it. It's a long, but good, story so you'll have to ask us about it some day. Congratulations to Amelia and Kieth on their baby boy, and congratulations to Emy for her book signing. We look forward to reading the newborn and meeting the book when we return...strike that, reverse it. Sorry, we watched Willy Wonka in a hotel room a while ago. Jess just called me a weirdo. Anyway, the trail is calling, and we've got to go stick our thumbs out to catch a ride back. We have to hurry, it being naked hike day and all. Thanks again for all the encouraging comments after our last pessimistic post. We hope all is going well at home, and we love and miss you all.

Stomp and Shuffles