Last night we walked into Palmerton, PA and spent the night at the police station. Not to worry family and friends! After registering with the local gendarmes we checked in at the Jail House Hostel, the basement of the old police station that comes with showers and a basketball court.

PA has been a mixed bag of trail conditions. We began with lots of good flat trail alternating between open fields and woods, have had some superb views along the way, and then came the famed rocks. You hear a lot about the rocks and frankly I was dreading this section, but I'm happy to say it is not as bad as feared. Rocks alternate with some long stretches of forest road walks that were quite good and strolling through some thick beautiful ferns. Here's a few examples:

 

 

 History along the way had reference to the French and Indian War.

 

One great lunch viewpoint was Pulpit Rock which also had a big open field with an Astronomical Park with 5 observatories, all run by a local club. One scope was up to view the sun with it's solar flares.

 

Camping spots included two shelters with solar showers - ahhhh! and towns were small with few amenities. Port Clinton will stand out as a town with few fond memories for several reasons. For one, just imagine the look on "Silver's" face when he realized one of his trekking poles was still in the departed car of the hitch we got into a Walmart. Fortunately, you can also imagine the look when, about 20 minutes later, the lovely mother of a section hiking daughter discovered she had one extra pole and came back to find us outside hoping that would happen!

Magic has been plentiful: strawberries, gaterades, oranges, ham and cheese sandwiches, and a mid-week hiker luch feed with 2 kinds of pasta salad.

Just before Palmerton there is a parallel trail that is scenic and we took it. It provided good open views, but also had another plus...

                                                                 BLUEBERRIES!

Delicious!  We picked a ziploc bag full and had some on ice cream last night after a good dinner in the local diner.

This is day 4 of good weather and we'll be heading out of town in another hour. 33 miles left to go in PA!