Day 11 - 16.7 miles - George W. Outerbridge Shelter

Long day on the trail today.  Out of camp by 7:30am and didn't reach the second shelter north until 6:30 PM.  Today's interesting trail trait was hiking over the Knife's Edge and Bake Oven Knob and of course untold boulder fields.

First the Knife's Edge - the hiking clubs in this area have a mean streak in them.  Imagine walking along the top ridge of a mountain where it is all stone angled at 45 degrees.  Here they paint the white blazes on the stone and go along the toughest routes.  With a full pack, it was tough.  At times I had to ride on my butt to get down some wide spans without falling off the cliff.  And just to make it a little more challenging, there was a drizzle all day with constant mist.

Now the Bake Oven Knob - which they call a loose gravel bed.  Loose gravel my foot.  This was a never ending strech of microwave-sized boulders heading to the top of the moutain.  Not as bad as the Knife's Edge but the challenge was trying to find where the path was.  White blazes were few and far apart.  Most hikers got lost in this section.

We reached the first shelter at 10 miles but decided to move on when we read in the journal that it had a large population of mice, racoons and snakes.  It was built back in the 1930's.

We lucked out with the storms today.  Got into camp 45 minutes prior to a big thunder storm.  Looks like another night in a shelter.  Will this rain ever end.

Met a new thru hiker couple from Yellowstone Park.  Trail names are Strech and Zippers.  Both work as year round employees at Yellowstone for the concessions contractor.  They had very interesting stories about the park.  One interesting one was that you can experience 2.5 hour traffic delays due to bison blocking the road.  Into Palmerton tomorrow for resupply and a shower.