Things looking up on day 3!

​T+3

Beside having to fix the blog this AM because apparently I screwed something up last night (thanks Twitter friends for notifying me!) I took today relatively easy.

I hiked from the Leroy Smith shelter to an unapproved, but well traveled, campsite 9.2 miles down the trail. Got started around 10 AM even though I was up before 7 AM. Had a good chat with the couple who stayed in the shelter with me (@thesunfishduo on Instagram) and found it hard to set out. They later passed me after I made camp. They set off from Delaware Water Gap too, just the day before me. Since I’m generally hiking at a faster pace than them, I'm sure I'll see them again.

The trail today was much less rocky, plus the rocks are far less treacherous when dry (dare I say an “easy" day?) so it was't full speed ahead. I was only slowed by the fact that I'm currently in a bit of a water desert. So, I was forced to hike to hike 0.4 miles down off the plateau / ridge the AT runs along to go get a resupply of water. While at the spring I ate lunch and drank the remainder of my water (~1.5 L). This gave me plenty of time to take in the scenery, which was beautiful!

​After that it was only 3.3 miles to the place I decided to camp. It was early - between 3:30 and 4-but I decided to call it a day. Certainly, I could have gone further, but it's only 6.5 miles to Palmerton and I needed to air out the tent. I packed it wet yesterday and the whole day was wet, so didn't bother attempting to air it out after getting to the shelter. Plus, what a location to make camp!

​An added attraction is that the tent site I'm staying at is a 20-ish minute walk from Blue Mountain Resort. I took advantage of this by getting dinner from there (take-out of course). Was a tad pricey - $13 for a wild boar sausage flatbread...yum - but worth getting a "real meal" in my belly. I say this because it is forecasted to be 26°F tonight (in the valley), and its less daunting facing that kinda temperature on a full stomach!

​All around, today was a bit of a pick-me-up after the first two days of fog and drizzle, which left me feeling like the protagonist in some post-apocalyptic movie. But, I'll delve into my thoughts in another entry.