6.19.12 - The Return of Coffee To Go, and Knife's Edge

Woke up this morning to a familiar laugh and voice. Laying in my bunk in the Eckville Shelter, I could hear what sounded like Coffee To Go's voice. When I got out of the shelter, sure enough, there he was. Even though I'd heard he had been in the hospital, I thought he would still be ahead of me. I walked out and talked with him. Turns out he got sick for some reason on Dan's Pulpit, started throwing up and couldn't even hold water down. This lead to him becoming very dehydrated. A few other hikers made a makeshift stretcher out of pine branches and a sleeping bag, an carried him part of the way down the mountain until a group of about 50 rescue volunteers and some medical personnel showed up to help in getting him down the mountain and to the hospital. He was taken to Allentown Hospital where he was treated and then spent a few days relaxing and recovering in a hotel. He was driven back to Eckville Shelter, and that's where we met up again. Glad to see he was doing well!

It was raining, so we decided to take our time and wait it out a little. It stopped shortly after and we decided to take off. Due to a later start and not feeling like pushing it too much, we did 17 miles to Bake Oven Knob Shelter, one of the oldest shelters in Pennsylvania. It was a pretty crappy area to camp and a very small, sort of dark and uninviting shelter.

About 14 miles into the hike, we hit an area called the Knife's Edge. I had been looking forward to it, as it sounded challenging and exciting! It was a really cool area where the rocks made a sharp ridge line that we had to go across. With steep drops on both sides, I was careful to move across, but really enjoyed it!

Tomorrow is supposed to be hot, and we will be hitting an area that is exposed to the sun for a while, without many water sources along the way. Heading to bed early so I can get an early start tomorrow to beat the heat. Planning to leave by 6am.