Day 116

Weather:
Sunny. High in upper 80's

Today’s Hike:
Bake Oven Knob Shelter to Campsite - 11.7 miles

In life we all have experiences that are meant to build character. Some of these experiences are fun and memorable and others you wish to forget (or at least not repeat). Today was one of those experiences you wish to forget. It started at mile eight, when we reached Lehigh Gap. We reached the gap at high noon; it was 90 degrees outside. After debating on whether or not to take a break, Rocket and I gave in to a compromise of Deli Subs for lunch and a break in the shade up get through the heat of the day. We still had 12 miles to hike. At 3:30pm it was still 90 degrees, but we knew we had to get a move on. We put our packs on and started toward the zinc mountain of hell. The mountain had been deforested due to zinc smelting in the late 1800's - early 1900's. I’m not sure what smelting is, but I can tell you is that it leaves behind huge rock wastelands with no trees. The climb was 1,000 feet straight up in the blazing sun. It was definitely not the funniest hike I've done.

The climb took forever and by 7:45pm we still had 8 miles to go and almost no water. We took a quick break and had to tell ourselves that everything would work out; it always did. Five minutes later Muster was down the trail and found an unmarked water source. We grabbed water and decided to cut our day short. We found a beautiful campsite on the ridge and called it a day.

While at camp Storm got a text message from her mom that Michael Jackson died. Even out here I can’t escape entertainment tonight gossip.