Becoming Odyssa - Jennifer Pharr Davis [88]
I sat up in my bunk and looked at Raptor. He just shook his head, and we both laughed. There was so much absurdity about the mid-Atlantic that it made me appreciate Raptor’s normalcy all the more.
We took our time getting ready that morning, knowing that an early departure for the trail would put us in close proximity to our cellmate.
The climb outside of Palmerton was unlike anything else I had experienced on the trail. We had to use our hands and feet to scramble up a rocky mountainside, only to arrive at a desolate wasteland on top of the ridge. There weren’t any trees, there weren’t any animals, there weren’t even any weeds. It was completely barren.
“Did you know this was a Superfund site?” asked Raptor.
“Super fun? What makes it super fun?”
Raptor laughed, “No Odyssa, Superfun-Duh.”
“Oh. What does that mean?”
“It means someone screwed up, did something really harmful to the environment, and then the government spent our tax dollars trying to clean it up.”
“What happened here?”
“There used to be zinc plants in and around Palmerton, and the emissions they let off killed the vegetation and polluted the river. If you think it looks bad now, think about what it must have looked like twenty years ago, and think about how bad those emissions must have been for the lungs of the people who lived here.”
I tried to take shallow breaths until we climbed off the ridge and back into the forest.
After making it safely past the Superfund site, Raptor and I decided to hike separately, but we agreed to reconvene at Delaware Water Gap. Delaware Water Gap was a source of confusion for me because the term “water gap” made me think it might be a river crossing, but the words were printed in bold in my Data Book, which meant it had to be a town. In addition, the phrase had me erroneously convinced that the trail went through the state of Delaware.
The one thing I did know about Delaware Water Gap was that there was pie there. Warren Doyle had given us lots of trail pointers at the institute, and I had made plenty of notes in my Data Book. Beside Duncannon, I had scribbled, “DO NOT STAY THERE!!!!!” But beside Delaware Water Gap, it read, “Mmmmm . . . pie!”
I was excited about the thought of pie, and I hiked quickly toward its promise. That’s when I had my second encounter with Neon.
“Hi, Neon,” I called.
He didn’t respond, but he did increase his pace.
I hiked up behind him. Instead of stepping to the side of the trail and letting me pass, he started walking faster. I kept up.
“Excuse me, can I get by?”
He pretended he couldn’t hear me.
I shifted to the left and then the right, trying to pass, but he shadowed my movements and wouldn’t allow me to go around him. It felt like I was being boxed out underneath a basketball net.
Finally I faked left, spun right, and hiked past him. Score!
Neon was the first person I had met who was actually trying to race people to Katahdin. It was fine if he wanted to hike fast, I didn’t have any problem with that. But he should do it because he wanted to hike fast, not in an attempt to race other people.
The next time I saw Neon, I was sitting on the patio of a bakery eating apple pie in the town of Delaware Water Gap, above the Delaware River, but definitely not in the state of Delaware.
Neon did not stop for pie. He just kept hiking. I hoped that he would beat me to Katahdin so I wouldn’t have to see him again.
That night, Raptor and I stayed in Delaware Water Gap at a church hostel, where the congregation had converted the sanctuary’s basement into a bunkroom and common area for hikers. The hostel had a great shower, a comfy couch, and it was stocked with pie that I had brought back to share with Raptor.
After reducing my daily miles and spending several nights in towns, my feet felt much better. I also had started to carry pink flip-flops with red hearts on them, which I had picked up for three dollars in Palmerton. When I wasn’t hiking, I would put on the flip-flops to let my feet air out. They also made me feel pretty, which helped my morale.
That evening, I told Raptor