This morning the owner of the Beer Stein came in a little after 9:00 and opened up the kitchen. Hikers are allowed to go in and make whatever they want for breakfast. Timon and Beeline got started immediately on home fries, french toast, and omelettes. Timon has worked in kitchens before but Beeline looked like a natural too, and the food was amazing. The owner’s been doing that for ten years and it’s incredibly nice of him.

I got a much later start than planned but Jungle Jym and I hitched back to the trail around 11:00. It was very rocky for a while and I was slow moving because my shoulder was hurting and I’d developed sore spots on the balls of my feet yesterday. My socks are worn out and my insoles look like they might be as well. Luckily, my friend Kelly was meeting me today and bringing me some new items.

Right after I had a snack on Wolf Rocks, I got a text from Kelly saying she was already on the trail so I sped up some. She had parked near the town of Delaware Water Gap and was hiking south to meet me. I finally ran into her on top of Mount Minsi. Kelly had brought me fresh cherries from my old town’s farmers market and homemade cookies! We sat at an overlook on top of the mountain for a while catching up, then continued down into town, with 15.4 miles for me today.

We picked up pizza and drinks at Doughboy’s Pizza and ran into Jungle Jym again just as we were leaving. He decided to come hang out with us in our room at the Pocono Inn so we headed over there for the night.

image

image