Instead of going to Vermont and doing new mileage up there, I decided to clean up some [...]]]> I’ve been out playing in the woods for the last week or so. What’s more “primal play” than this? I did a lot more rock climbing than usual, and I enjoyed every minute of that.

Instead of going to Vermont and doing new mileage up there, I decided to clean up some (comparatively) little gaps in my Appalachian Trail mileage in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. I actually had intended to complete New York as well, but I miscalculated a section in Pennsylvania, so I had to spend an extra day there. I’ve now hiked the southern 1,500 miles of the AT, except the 35 in NY I just mentioned. This means i need to hike from Danby, VT to Mt. Katahdin in Maine.

At no point on this trip did I get water anywhere but a spigot, so I was carrying at least one liter more than I usually carry (usually 2l, carried at least 3l this time).

All told, it was 84.6 miles, but the daily amounts were all over the place.

(NOBO is Northbound, SOBO is Southbound)

September 15 (NOBO) – PA 443, Green Point, PA -> Wm. Penn (8.7)
September 16 (NOBO) – Wm. Penn -> Eagle’s Nest (19.6)
September 17 (NOBO) – Eagle’s Nest -> Port Clinton, PA (7)
(drive north)
September 18 (NOBO) – Lehigh Gap, PA -> Wind Gap, PA (20.7)
(drive north)
September 19 (NOBO) – NJ 23 -> NJ 284 (near Unionville, NY) (9.8)
September 20 (SOBO) – Bellvale, NY at 17A -> Waywayanda Shelter (10)
September 21 (SOBO) – Waywayanda Shelter -> County 565 (Glenwood, NJ) (8.8)

Last Wednesday (15th), I started at 3:30 and finished at 6:15. I was expecting there would actually be water at the shelter. Unfortunately, it was totally dry. Shortly after that, while figuring out how far I had to make it the next day, I discovered that it was actually 27 miles to Port Clinton, PA not 17, as I was expecting. It’s a good thing that I had enough food – I had really only been expecting an overnight. After that, I carried a lot more water!

Over all, it was an excellent trip. I got rained on all day on the 16th, but the weather the other days was spectacularly nice.

This is a bit of the view UP the climb out of Lehigh Gap, PA. This particular mountain is a Superfund Site damaged by zinc smelting fallout. The rock climb is about 1000′ of elevation, and then there’s some negotiation of a flatter version of the same kind of thing. I’d heard a lot about how rough it was, but I had a blast climbing it. This whole day, all 20.7 miles of it, was totally awesome. The climb would have been pretty terrifying if it had been wet, however.

This kind of scenery is all over the place on the AT in New Jersey. This farm is sort of near Vernon, NJ. Shortly before I took this photo, there was a herd of cows on the trail that I more or less chased off. They really had no where to go but down the trail, so I felt like a backpacking cowboy or something.

This was in the shelter register at Waywayanda Shelter in NJ.

Bellvale Mountain (the border of NY and NJ is on this stretch of trail) is about four miles of walking on these big humped boulders. The views of Greenwood Lake were fantastic, and since the weather was dry and cool again, it was tons of fun, at least for me. There was even a ladder at one point because you had to drop down six feet, and nobody wants to jump that with a backpack.

I took this towards the end of my hike. This boardwalk continues for at least a mile through Pochuck Marsh. It’s a really amazing piece of trail engineering. The Appalachian Trail is maintained by volunteers. Imagine building this thing for more than a mile through a swamp!

Whew! Hard day of rocks, but it was nice to have a partner in crime to commisserate with.

We were both pretty wiped out from the rocks today. There was a road walk of 2-2.5 miles (woods road, no traffic), and the [...]]]> 7/11/1999 ~ Delaware Water Gap (13.8 miles hiked)
Cumulative Miles this leg:  76.5
Cumulative AT Miles:  240.2

Whew! Hard day of rocks, but it was nice to have a partner in crime to commisserate with.

We were both pretty wiped out from the rocks today. There was a road walk of 2-2.5 miles (woods road, no traffic), and the rest was infamous PA rocks. There was one boulder scramble, but that was actually fun. Unfortunately, it was about .25m.  The climb down Mt. Minsi was a real knee grinder though it doesn’t look that bad on the profile.
I’m currently tented behind the church hostel because the hostel is full. Well, I’d probably tent anyway. The weather is good, the lawn is flat (it’s always nice to tent on grass) and according to Bronco, it smells like hikers in there.

11pm and time for bed.

Took a zero and hung out in Stroudsberg and Delaware Water Gap. DWG has an excellent bakery and Stroudsberg had a good deli and a decent supermarket. Many chores were done today: laundry, sort through mail drop and bounce box, two post office trips, phone calls to the former employer and Cascade Designs (my platys are leaking. They will replace them in NY). I also responded to mail and planned my week. I’ve met too many thru hikers to name here.

It’s just going on 9pm, but I think I’ll try and get some sleep. About 2/3 of the hikers have gone to the bar, but I just don’t feel like walking down and up that hill again. If beer doesn’t sound worth the walk, I guess I just don’t want it.

>

My fortunes have improved a bit. Mule, Whittler, Trotter, Walking Home and Stitches were also unable to get a shuttle to Wind Gap, so they rented a car this morning. I crammed into a Dodge Neon with Mule, Whittler and 7 packs, but I’m now here doing laundry. I also got [...]]]> 7/10/1999 ~ Wind Gap, PA

My fortunes have improved a bit. Mule, Whittler, Trotter, Walking Home and Stitches were also unable to get a shuttle to Wind Gap, so they rented a car this morning. I crammed into a Dodge Neon with Mule, Whittler and 7 packs, but I’m now here doing laundry. I also got Carl a shuttle back here for tomorrow night, so all should be well. I’ll stay at the hostel in DWG and hit the PO there on Monday morning where I will be reunited with my POLES!

The aforementioned crew have slacked virtually all of PA. I tried slacking (from Pine Grove to Boiling Springs) but I didn’t particularly like it. I may try it again in a hike-to-my-pack situation instead of a hike-to-a-ride thing. I hated having a schedule and not having the freedom to just stop when I got tired. I did 20 miles in 9.5 hours, and it was very difficult. I should have taken 11 or 12 hours to do that section.)

I really hope Carl has fun out here. It will be great to have some company. I have plenty of company, actually, but no one who really knows me, and that’s what’s missing. I’m taking it pretty easy this weekend. It’s only 15.8 miles to DWG and we’ve got until 6pm Sunday to make it there. Such luxury.

It’s pretty late, so I’ll just say that we started up the hill at 7pm and went until we found a good site.

It’s perfect sleeping weather, so I think I’ll do that now.

Today was a really tough 13 miles for me. PA really pushes the term ‘trail’ to it’s limit. When I saw the knife edge, I laughed out loud at the absurdity of what I was about to do. I did it though (though I had to climb down a [...]]]> 7/9/1999 ~ Palmerton, PA (13.3 miles hiked)

Today was a really tough 13 miles for me. PA really pushes the term ‘trail’ to it’s limit. When I saw the knife edge, I laughed out loud at the absurdity of what I was about to do. I did it though (though I had to climb down a tree to get off the knife edge), so I guess it’s not so bad. In short, many rocks, many boulders, very little dirt for 13 miles.

Bake Oven Knob was pretty hard too, and the shelter there is not nice. The spring is .5 miles down the mountain, and there’s no privy. Outerbridge Shelter is also beat up, but the spring is convenient and running.

It got up to 98′ here today. I’m glad I started early. My room at the Palmerton Hotel is laughable. One twin bed, no TV, shared bathroom and worst of all, no A/C. I couldn’t get a room anywhere else in Palmerton or Slatington, and I couldn’t get a shuttle to Wind Gap where there were better rooms. Overall, I’m really disgusted with PA and, get this, I can’t wait to get to NJ.

For 12 crummy miles, it sure opened a can of whoopass on me.

The 1000 foot climb that started my day was much easier than what followed. The rocks may be ‘flat’, but the care that must be taken hiking on them is very tiring. Also, the section from [...]]]> 7/8/1999 ~ Blue Mountain B&B (12 miles hiked)

For 12 crummy miles, it sure opened a can of whoopass on me.

The 1000 foot climb that started my day was much easier than what followed. The rocks may be ‘flat’, but the care that must be taken hiking on them is very tiring. Also, the section from Dan’s Pulpit to Dan’s Spring is poorly blazed and Dan’s Spring was dry. It might be nice if they’d put up a notice about that at the TOP of the blue blaze.  Right before or after the spring, I can’t recall, I came to an unblazed pile of rocks with no path around them.  Um….  I climbed over, and there was a trail. Yay.

I’m tenting here on the back lawn. There seem to be fewer bugs than last night. It would be hard for there to be more, certainly. Speaking of last night, the temps were in the low 60’s which made for nice sleeping weather. today was great — sunny, low 80’s.

Oh man, I almost forgot! I saw a naked guy today. As I was leaving Allentown Shelter (which is a palace, even if the water source is very far) where I’d had lunch, there he was naked but for boots and a pack. It took me a minute to realize that I was seeing a penis instead of shorts. It was totally unexpected on July 8 many days past nude hiking day, June 21.  No other hikers are here at the B&B, and I find that amazing. I had the best salad I’ve had since before June 15. The pasta was also good. I’ve so far resisted dessert.

I’m heading 13 miles into Palmerton tomorrow. It’s supposed to be a real bitch of a hike. More rocks, and something the map calls a ‘knife edge’, then more rocks with the legend ‘exposed, very rocky, unmaintained’. I can hardly wait. In spite of PA309’s proximity, I’m looking forward to sleeping here. It’s at 1300 feet, so it will be cool and breezy tonight. They have a watch dog, and the chef lives here.

Everybody is really pushing to get out of PA, so lots of people are passing me. I’m feeling better about that, as there seems to be an endless supply of cool people behind me as well as in front.  I saw PA Mule sans Bagel. She went home to MI for 10 days, then she’s flipping up to ME and hiking south. She got fed up with the heat here. I also met Stiches. She was with PA Mule, as were four others whom I can’t recall right now.

Eckville Shelter is behind Lazee’s house and has a shower and a flush toilet! I believe he’s a former thruhiker, judging by that name. He also keeps sodas and ice cream sandwiches in the fridge on the porch for donations. The attractiveness of all this helped me quit here [...]]]> 7/7/1999 ~ Eckville Shelter (9.5 miles hiked)

Eckville Shelter is behind Lazee’s house and has a shower and a flush toilet! I believe he’s a former thruhiker, judging by that name. He also keeps sodas and ice cream sandwiches in the fridge on the porch for donations. The attractiveness of all this helped me quit here today even though it was only 1pm. I’m sure my knees will thank me in the morning.

Tomorrow is supposed to be cooler than today, which means that I’m going to make it a longer day tomorrow. It was decent today until about 2pm when the sun got wicked hot until about 7pm. I started at 7am this morning, so I had pretty enjoyable temps today after I climbed up from Windsor Furnace.

The views today were great. The first climb was to Pulpit Rock and the second view was The Pinnacle. Somewhere in the 1.5 miles between the two, I fell down. I really thought I had caught myself, but there I was on the ground with an infamous PA rock poking my knee (I have a bruise there) and my hip. I now need new sport tights.

I’d like to have slept in the shelter, but it’s got fleas and the flying bugs here are very bad, so I’m tented in the field across the street. By The Numbers, Courtdog and Woodpacker stopped here, but moved on. Too Obtuse, Slugger and Bronco pulled in really late. Bristlecone left the trail at Port Clinton and surprised a lot of people. Everyone thought he’d finish. I heard he was bored. Too bad — I was looking forward to seeing him at some point in the future.

It was incredibly hot today. I hiked from 8:30-12:30 and stopped right here. Tomorrow I have no ambitions beyond Eckville Shelter 9.3 miles away. The predictions for today were 102′ with a heat index of 115′. I know at least 2 hikers that passed by here heading for Eckville. [...]]]> 7/6/1999 ~ Windsor Furnace Shelter (6.2m hiked)

It was incredibly hot today. I hiked from 8:30-12:30 and stopped right here. Tomorrow I have no ambitions beyond Eckville Shelter 9.3 miles away. The predictions for today were 102′ with a heat index of 115′. I know at least 2 hikers that passed by here heading for Eckville. That’s 15 miles in this heat!  The weather report was also calling for a thunderstorm tonight, and I sure don’t see that happenning. It is *supposed* to be cooler tomorrow. I’d love to believe that. I’m glad that I already knew how miserable PA was in the summer. The humidity, alas, was not a surprise.

There’s one other hiker here – somebody who I thought was ahead of me based on register enteries – By The Numbers. He’s using the canned heat stuff caterers use as his stove. It’s slow, but it gets the job done. It’s not sterno, and it’s in a closed can with a wick. I’m betting it’s some kind of gel alcohol. It strikes me that a stronger-that-I-have kind of hand sanitizer (I’m using Purell right now) might make a good fire paste substitute. It sure makes a nice foot rub.

Since I left my poles at home, Tino improvised some PVC pipe for me to use as tent poles and walking sticks. I will get my Lekis back at Delaware Water Gap. The PVC pipes make better walking sticks than Tino or I thought they would. Now that I know I don’t need the duct tape to rig the tent, I can use it to make grips. The poles are slipperier than the duct tape, so it should be an improvement.

I completely forgot about something in my earlier entry: there was helicopter traffic for hours at the shelter. It is near a Military Reservation, and I also heard one jet take off. It didn’t seem to bother anyone else, as I heard no fidgeting but me. There [...]]]> 5/10/2002 ~ Sharp Mtn, Lunch
about 5 miles hiked 9-11:30am

I completely forgot about something in my earlier entry: there was helicopter traffic for hours at the shelter. It is near a Military Reservation, and I also heard one jet take off. It didn’t seem to bother anyone else, as I heard no fidgeting but me. There were some other weird noises I could not identify. They sounded like big bugs hitting a zapper outside the shelter, but quite near by.

I hiked in from Swatara Gap, and within 5 minutes on the trail, my feet were soaked due to a bad judgement call. There was a stream with a missing bridge and a rock path across. The rocks had water running over them, but I thought it was only an inch or so deep. Did I take off my shoes? No. NO. I did not. I suppose I should be grateful I didn’t fall in, but in short, the water was high enough to come in over my boot laces. Damn it.

Two hours later, I missed the turn off for the shelter. That’s never happened before but, but I was SOBO and it seems that, default direction or not (it’s supposed to be ME to GA, not vice-versa), trail associations hate southbounders. When I say I missed it, I mean I missed it by a mile, literally, and had to go back and look for it. It is clearly marked for Northbounders, of course.

I also slept in the shelter, which I almost never do. I got here, and it was quite dark, and the only good tent pad was taken by a family that brought a sledge to pound stakes, if that tells you anything. And pound they did.

The shelter people were already in bed at 8:30pm, but by coincidence, I KNEW one of them from War Spur Shelter, Candy, a German guy who’s been living in rural Georgia for two years before this. As always, ‘packers made room for the lone girl. They always do, but I only rarely ask.

(a.m.)
No MICE! I can’t believe it. Candy proved his trail name by eating PopTarts and a Mars bar for breakfast. I grossed him out by eating ramen noodles.

I guess I did 17.5 miles today, but id didn’t seem like quite that much. The climbs here are mercifully short. I did stumble over many a rock today, bruising myself and abrading my shin at one point, but I will have no problems getting into Duncannon tomorrow afternoon. [...]]]> May 12, 2002
17.5 miles hiked today, 9-5:45

I guess I did 17.5 miles today, but id didn’t seem like quite that much. The climbs here are mercifully short. I did stumble over many a rock today, bruising myself and abrading my shin at one point, but I will have no problems getting into Duncannon tomorrow afternoon. Can one drink in PA on Sunday?

The registers are claiming bear sightings left and right. Oh. And rattlesnakes, but I haven’t seen either. I did run into Lightfoot who said that he’d just seen a mama bear with three cubs, and that the cubs may still be up the trees. He was quite excited about it. I know I didn’t want to find myself between a mother bear and her cubs, but since he’d had a good experience, he didn’t seem to see any danger.

There have already been mouse sightings in this shelter, and a bird is nesting in here. I don’t think the bird will be any trouble, based on my experiences with the bird at home. The dog is also now between me and the mice, which might be worth something.

I’m here with Tiger Paw and Blue Water and BW’s new dog Nakita. She’s a great dog, and he got very lucky on a stray, IMHO. There are more coincidences with these two as I met both of them in and around Pearisburg also. I even met Tiger Paw’s wife and sister while lunching at Laurel Creek Shelter.

Between Peter’s Mtn Shelter and Clark’s Ferry Shelter, the terrain is quite benign. For about one mile after Clark’s Ferry, there are classic PA rocks. The trail was planned quite well around them, but I do hate going up and down and up and down when I’m supposed [...]]]> May 13, 2002
11.8 miles hiked, 9:15 – 3:00

Between Peter’s Mtn Shelter and Clark’s Ferry Shelter, the terrain is quite benign. For about one mile after Clark’s Ferry, there are classic PA rocks. The trail was planned quite well around them, but I do hate going up and down and up and down when I’m supposed to be either climbing or descending…dunno. In hindsight, it doesn’t seem bad at all and seems maybe a little fun. At least this club managed to blaze the rocks well enough for southbounders.

If I had hit those rocks walking out of Duncannon, my attitude would have been worse, so I’m glad I did this SOBO. In all, the whole trip worked out really well for me, and I can’t complain overall…except about the blazing.

Once I got across the Clark’s Ferry Bridge and on to PA849, the blazes disappeared again. I walked down Market Street in Duncannon instead of High Street, but hey, they are only a block away, and it wasn’t my fault I missed the turn — the northbounder blazing isn’t visible from that point and there is NO BLAZE for the southbounder to know to turn…well, you see what I mean. In any case, it’s the AT corridor, so I’m counting it. I didn’t know I went wrong until I got to my car at High St and saw all the northbound blazes continuing down the street.

I may not do the Swatart to Port Clinton walk this coming weekend. I may do the south section of SNP instead. I hate to tempt fate since in all, I think things went quite well in PA. For once.