Day 121-Rest in the Poconos

I started the day off with an icing routine for my knee which really needed the rest day. The morning was perfectly relaxing and Jamie made a huge breakfast. After a few hours of watching football, I left with Lawerence to help winterize a couple of the houses he manages as part of his company.

The first home was the one he offered to have me stay in in Effort. I'd never really seen a foreclosed house before, and it was interesting to see what can happen to a pretty new home after over a year of being vacant. The drywall was ripped up in a lot of spots where the copper pipe had been stolen and several of the walls were tagged with spray paint. The stolen pipes made winterizing very quick as the water lines didn't need to be drained.

After taking a bit more time winterizing the second home, we went to Lawrence's cousin's house to catch the start of the Eagles game. I've officially left Steelers/Penguins territory and am now very clearly in the land of Eagles/Flyers. We finished watching the game at Lawerence's parent's house where we had a great dinner of grilled cheese and tomato soup. I also got my first taste of apple dumplings which were amazing.

We left for home after a heartbreaking Eagles' loss. I got to meet Jamie's 8-year-old son Graydon before he went to bed. I spent my last night in Pennsylvania watching the Packers get mauled by the Saints. It wasn't a very good weekend for my sports teams, but my new friends in the Pocono Mountains made it a great one overall.

Jamie, Lawrence and myself

Day 120-Effort to Stroudsburg (16 Miles)

After breakfast, I left with Lawrence and Jamie on their way to get flu vaccinations. They dropped me off at Lawrence's uncle's car wash which I had passed on the way to the foreclosed house yesterday. I quickly found myself lucky to be running without the cart as the first few miles proved to have quite a bit of traffic with no shoulder at all.

I eventually got to run a few miles on a less busy cutoff road through state game land before getting onto the super busy Highway 611. Running with the cart through this would've been a nightmare as dodging the traffic to the strip malls and big box stores would have been pretty tough. After going through the busy outskirts I arrived to the bustling small-town downtown and crossed I-80 and waited at a Sunoco gas station for Jamie and Lawrence. They got me a Poconos Mountains t-shirt in Stroudsburg while they waited for me to finish.

They drove me back a different way than what I'd run and we got home just in time to watch Oregon State get whooped by Stanford. After this disappointment we drove up to Penn's Peak for dinner with Lawrence's parents and sister. It was just dark enough to not get a full appreciation of the view, but it was a very cool restaurant and concert hall with lots of memorabilia from the pretty big names that have played there. We got home and I crashed on their couch, falling asleep during what ended up being an exciting Penn State game.

Didn't see this until Day 122, but it was close to my end point today

Day 119-Albrightsville to Effort (11 Miles)

After waking up I met Erva, who had returned home last night just after I left for bed, and enjoyed a massive breakfast. She is a sales rep for Scentsy, and left me with an air freshener before Cliff drove me back to the Exxon station. The beautiful weather seemed like it was weeks removed from the pouring rain of yesterday.

The string of four long hilly days left my knee feeling like someone had jarred an ice pick into it. I took an extended warm up walk to an abandoned pool supply store where I started doing some stretching. As I was laying down a pickup truck stopped by worried that I had just been hit by a car. I started talking to Lawrence and Bryan a bit and Lawrence offered me a foreclosed house that he was managing in Effort to stay in for the night. I was originally planning on staying at an overpriced dumpy motel and was glad to take him up on their offer.

After kind of limping through the run and climbing one last final hill to the house, I met back up with Lawrence and Bryan who informed me that they wouldn't be able to turn the water on for me because someone had stolen the copper pipes out of the walls. Lawrence then offered to let me stay at his place back in Jonas, a town I had passed earlier in the day, which I gladly accepted.

Before driving back to his home, Lawrence wanted to show me one of his favorite sites in the area that he had just recently discovered. We drove awhile before stopping at some state game lands that were probably less than a half mile from Cliff and Erva's home that I stayed in last night. After about a half mile hike, Lawrence made me look down at my feet while I got into the clearing before revealing the gorge carved out by the Lehigh River. This was probably the best view of nature I'd seen since western Nebraska.

We arrived to his house after stopping at the family farmhouse that he would be moving into this winter. Here I met his girlfriend Jamie and took a shower in the first spa shower I'd seen on this run. Lawrence's sister, an avid runner, came over to meet me and we had dinner from Mike's Pizza. After hearing my plans for the next few days, Lawrence and Jamie offered to pick me up from Stroudsburg tomorrow and host me for an off day on Sunday. I was really lucky to meet such a great couple who would give me a great last few days in Pennsylvania.

Lehigh River Overlook

Day 118-Hazleton to Albrightsville (27 Miles)

While the rains continued from yesterday, I attempted to wait it out before the 11 am checkout time arrived. I started out east through the very busy beltway around Hazleton, a surprisingly large city, in the rain. After a lunch at McDonalds, I started down a a less busy highway that had a pretty good shoulder.

After passing through the highest borough in Pennsylvania, Freeland at an elevation of 1972 feet, the bike route started going down country roads again before getting to the Lehigh River valley. At Lehigh Tannery I jumped onto Highway 534 which took me through the large Hinkley State Park. After a massive descent and climb into and out of the main valley, I passed the empty campground that I would have stayed in for the night if my uncle Jason hadn't found me a connection through his church.

I gave Cliff a call outside of the Exxon station in Albrightsville at the junction of Highways 903 and 534. The shelter didn't do much as the wind drove the rain. Soon enough, he arrived, we loaded up the cart into his car, and drove south to his home in the woods outside of Jim Thorpe-a town named after the Olympic decathlete.

After showering and getting situated in their guest area in the basement, I joined Cliff for an amazing steak dinner and great conversation. I learned that he and his wife Erva, who was out at a Halloween parade, were originally from Idaho and that Erva was from the small town of Soda Springs, which is very close to where my grandma is from in Bennington. They moved out to Pennsylvania from Utah several years ago for Cliff's job with a foundry. One of their sons back in Utah was an ultramarathoner who has completed several 100 mile races.

Crossing the Lehigh River

Day 117-Danville to Hazleton (40 Miles)

Today was another case of leaving the motel earlier than I could have in order to get done before dark. I started back down the highway towards Danville before running on what claimed to be the oldest rails-to-trails in the United States, an old Reading Railroad line that was converted in the 1800's. After walking through the main part of town, I continued east after town on a small back road that

After the town of Catawissa, I continued down back roads towards Hazelton. Even though I had crossed taller mountains earlier in the state, I climbed them on highways which took the steepness out of them. These country roads were something else, a sign warned of 14 percent grade for a half mile on one of them. The curviness of the roads always

As I turned down Tomhicken Road, the road that would take me into Hazleton after about 10 miles, the forewarned rains started. The worst of this Nor'Easter was to the east, but I The forest I ran through provided some shelter, but it still got plenty wet. When I got to the b

Outside of my room at the Forest Inn I met Anthony, who was about to start a seasonal job at one of Amazon's largest plants in town. After showering and getting situated I went with him to dinner across the street at Denny's. It was interesting to learn his involvement with the 12 Tribes, a religious based farming community in upstate New York. After dinner, I went to bed exhausted yet again happy that tomorrow would be under 30 miles.

Beaver Valley

Day 116-R.B. Winter State Park to Danville (33 Miles)

I woke up after about 12 hours of sleep that was pretty uninteruppted. It was actually pretty warm last night, and I ended up shedding some unneccessary layers. The combination of 40 miles yesterday and sleeping on a blow-up mattress made packing up and getting ready for the day a little slow.

After receiving a Gideons Bible from a fellow camper, I made my way through the rest of the state forest and across more farmland to the town of Lewisburg. I would've loved to stay in this home of Bucknell University a little longer, but my stop was limited to just a lunch of pizza.

I continued east on my bike route for the second half of the day until arriving at the busy divided highway that would take me south into Danville. I opted to go a mile north towards I-80 for a cheap motel room at the Red Roof Inn. A dinner at McDonalds capped off a pretty uneventful day.

Old homes in Lewisburg

Day 115-State College to R.B. Winter State Park (40 Miles)

As much as I wanted to savor the noon check-out time at the Country Inn, I knew 40 miles would be tough to finish before dark if I didn't get a somewhat early start. After breakfast and getting a map and small football from Amanda at the front desk, I headed east where I had a campground waiting for me.

After a few miles on bike trails, I met up with Pennsylvania Bike Route G which took me around Mt. Nittany into the town of Centre Hall where I stopped for lunch at a pizza place. After this, it was just before 2 pm and I had about 27 miles to go. I continued east for a few miles before rejoining Route V, which I had left to visit State College.

For the next several miles, I was yet again in the heart of Amish country. Whereas in Indiana the alternative to horse and buggy was bike riding, here in Penn Valley the scooter was the method of transportation of choice. I got to see several Amish harvesting their corn. The horse drawn combines were a far cry from the massive machines I saw further west.

After 35 miles, I just wanted to be done for the day. The sun was starting to set and my legs were given quite the shock after a day off. The only thing keeping me from pitching a tent in the state forest land earlier than expected was that the campground had hot showers. I wearily arrived with just a smidgen of daylight left, set up camp, and took a shower in the handicapped stall. I ended up needing the bench in that stall as standing was a tough task after 40 miles. It was completely dark after leaving the showers and, not having the energy to cook, I enjoyed a dinner of dry ramen, a couple handfuls of almonds, and a can of pineapple. I fell asleep a little after 8 pm while reading under my headlamp.

Mt. Nittany