Woke up at 4:30am to try and beat the heat a little bit. It would eventually get over 90 degrees again.

The terrain kept getting rockier (yes it is actually  possible!)

I stopped at a small spring for water in the morning and made my own little water spigot with a cut out Smart Water bottle.

Later in the morning,  I hit a road crossing and met Walking Man. He thru hiked with his wife back in 2010 and is now driving  a truck. He had stopped for a break and offered water,  coffee, fruit and PB&J! Rabbit showed up along with a couple flip flop thru hikers. It wad awesome trail magic on a hot morning that was only going to get worse.

I hiked with Rabbit for the rest of the afternoon,  more than happy to let someone else walk point and find any more rattlesnakes first!

We walked across the knife edge, which was a 200 yard boulder scramble on the edge of rocks. All in all, it didn’t really live up to the hype.

The trail actually leveled off for a bit afterwards, and I was able to make up for slower miles on the rocks.

I decided to stay the night Palmerton at Bert’s hostel to stage for a steep morning climb and waterless section of trail in the morning.  It was $20 and included shower and laundry.

Half Blind, Bangles and Sleeves also stayed and we ate dinner together. Sleeves has heard that I couldn’t find a beer on my birthday the day before so offered to buy me one.  The restaurant didn’t serve alcohol, so they brought me ice cream and everyone sang happy birthday!