Day 94: Spending the night in jail

Hiked 1.2 miles, staying at the Jail House Hostel.

Today is a nice short day into town.  All I had to do was descend down into Lehigh Gap.  Why Not and I headed out around the same time and walked into town together.  Once you get into Lehigh Gap you get to a busy road.  It is a tough hitch supposedly because there isn't really anywhere for people to pull over.  Luckily there is a 1.5 mile side trail that leads to Palmerton.  It was such a short hike on the AT that after taking this trail I actually walked more off of the AT than on it today.

Descent to Lehigh Gap, cool clouds

Crossing the Lehigh River

The Lehigh River

After walking all that way into town, as we entered the main street someone immediately pulled over and offered us a ride to the other end of town.  We jokingly asked where he was 1.5 miles ago.  After breakfast at a local diner we checked into the hostel.  

The hostel is run by the town and is completely free to hikers.  Although it is called the Jail House Hostel, it is not actually a jail (though you do check in at the police station).  It is in the basement of the city hall building.  It is a really cool service that the city provides and the whole town is very hiker friendly.

Looking back across the river from whence we came

Looking down the side trail towards Palmerton

 I spent the day doing the usual errands and spent some time in the library taking care of a bunch of stuff.  When I got back to the hostel a ton of people had shown up.  This includes Dip'n'sip and Srocket, so our group is finally all reunited again!  Srocket has met up and is hiking with her friend Chrissy for a little bit.

Today is Obie's birthday so we all went out to celebrate.  It was a huge crowd compared to recent weeks.  With everyone dropping out we haven't seen many people in the last couple weeks so it is cool that everyone ended up here at the same time.  In town with us is Beetlejuice, Obie, 2pac, Redknees, Still Don't, Muffins, Mr. Dallas, Brownie, Whistler, Peepaw and Newton.

Pennsylvania beer!  Thanks David!

Couldn't fit everyone into the panorama, there were that many happy hikers!

Why Not hanging with her boys!

We had a great time for Obie's birthday.  We had our Pennsylvania round courtesy of David, thanks again!  Then a gentleman at the bar bought a round for everyone.  Later a local celebrated getting engaged and gave everyone a small glass of champagne.  This was all after everyone had already been at the bar for a while so  everyone was having a great time by the end of the evening.  The locals were incredibly friendly and I really enjoyed my stay in Palmerton.