entered our fourth county (21/44)

So far we've completed the D&L in Northampton and Lehigh Counties. We've also begun Bucks county. That will take a while to finish. Today we began Carbon County. Only Luzerne left to go. We are getting this done! (see yellow highlight.)

Today we did two more trailheads, and the trail was fairly sunny.

We met at the Lehigh Gap Nature Centre, and then drove to Marvin Gardens. (Not the one in Monopoly.) I had called the nature center to make sure the trail was open. It had been closed to restring the electric towers.

This section is on the road and was okay for shade. We had reached the East Penn Trailhead and just began the three plus mile journey to the gap when I realized I didn't have my keys. They were in Pam's car. We had to walk back. Pam suggested calling an Uber from the gap. Would there be Uber's that far north? This might be a vialble option when we are in the Philly area. It would certainly be cheaper than running two cars.

Instead we got in the car and moved it to where we stopped and began again. Pam stopped to kill a spotted lantern fly and then looked up. It was their favorite food a "tree of heaven". And it was covered with them. Pam must have killed over thirty on one bush, and that many got away. We decided to try and ignore them because it would take hours to get 50 feet.

There was a lot of sun on this section. There were also about 10 little waterfalls. Except it's so dry only one had any running water.

As we got closer to the gap, we saw the towers. Man are they huge. And they run right along the trail. I can understand why they closed this section of the trail during construction. Though it looked like they still were working, and there were also crates of glass insulators. Maybe they'll close it again? Who knows.

We learned a couple things walking in the heat. First and foremost we need to have at least two masks. Our masks were wet and disgusting.

Secondly, always check that you have your car keys.

Miles/Steps:    6+

Weather:         86 at 8 am, high humidity, mostly sunny.

Bathrooms:      the one at the East Penn trailhead was gross, I-1.5; the one at the Gap was P-3.5
Wildlife:          Flying above hawks, circling vultures, a frog, a snake, black swallowtail butterflies, 2 bunnies

PPE Found:      5 masks. 

SLF:                Killed about 30. The number available to kill was uncountable. You needed to spray something.