Nan's 2014 Appalachian Trail Journal

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July 28, 2014

By Drag’n Fly aka Nan

7/14 Back on the trail. We are going to hike PA until I see how the knee feels carrying a pack and hiking. I did seven miles yesterday between Sherwood Dr. and Rte. 641 and it felt okay. So we are going to work our way north thru PA leap frogging cars. We dropped a car at PA 443 where we had finished on 7/6 and then drove to Port Clinton to hike southbound back to PA 443. Did 11 miles and the hiking went well. It started to pour late in the afternoon so we had to set up camp in the pouring rain.

7/15 Did 16 miles today. We are seeing a lot of northbound hikers. Most we do not know but some we do: Daddy Long Legs and Baby Steps, Bad Camel and her daughter, Popeye, and Mo, who we had not seen since Franklin, GA. He said that he was off of the trail for 30 days taking care of some family things. Most of the hikers in this last bubble are young. I guess they waited until after graduation to start. We are camping in a really nice wide open camp area across the trail from William Penn with about seven young people. One of them asked us if we cared if they smoked. Nice of them to ask but what they smoked was not legal in PA. The trail is really nice sometimes and really rocky others but mainly level. It is pretty overgrown and my arms are all scratched up from the thorns on the wild raspberries.

7/16 Hiked 8.7 miles to my van. Nice hike thru large areas of forest floor just covered with ferns. What a beautiful sight. Came down across Swatara Creek and found lots of red raspberries for the picking. We had seen many hikers heading north but I guess that no one wanted to stop and harvest the berries. Freckles and I ate our fill. We ran into Cherry Blossom and a new fellow, Yellow Beard. She had left Atlas in DC where he went to visit his girlfriend.

After we got the car, we went to the Lickdale KOA for lunch to eat subs and ice cream cones before we drove north to PA 873 to start hiking south to Port Clinton. With the leap frog we will be hiking southbound but progressing north. Did another 3.5 miles to a camping area on South Mtn. with a nice view of the sunset. Freckles has been having sore feet. So far my knee has not been a problem. It’s hard to believe that everything the doctor said was wrong with it really is wrong. Maybe he was looking at someone else’s MRI and X-ray.

7/17 Hiked 14 miles today to the Allentown Hiking Club Shelter. Last night a cold front moved in and it became very windy. The nice open campsite on the west side of the mountain was not so nice after all. It seemed that I was awake most of the night because I was cold. Since it is the middle of July, I just have a very light sleeping bag and no warm long undies. Never thought that it would be cold.

Today was a hard hike with Bake Oven Knob, Bear Rocks, and Knife Edge. All have huge rock climbs and are really not a lot of fun. I think Knife Edge is one of the top 10 scary parts of the trail. We got through safely but were very tired from the stress. We were pretty tired so when we got to the camping area we got set up and fixed our dinner. It was only after dinner that I spotted a large rattlesnake lying about 20 feet from my tent. Should I move the tent? Decided not to because it was pretty cold and I figured the snake would stay put for the night and, at least, we had the snake in plain view!

7/18 Today was 17 miles. The knee is still holding up with the aid of extra strength Tylenol which, I’m sure, is helping. But the swelling has gone down and there are no really sore spots anymore when I press on it. So I declare it healed and no further mention shall be made. We stopped at Eckville Shelter for lunch and found Schwepp there. We had not seen him since Damascus which happens to be his home. He is a really nice young man who started in GA when we did and who we saw a lot of early in the trip. The trail after Eckville was uphill on an old road. We met a large group of young people from the Civil Air Patrol out on some kind of maneuver. They were marching to a chant. Pretty neat.

Camped just short of Windsor Furnace Shelter. No rattle snakes in view but I am sure that they were there.

7/19 Hiked 5.6 miles into Port Clinton. Freckles had to get to the post office to pick up the bladder for her hydration system which she had forgotten at home. Rich mailed it to her. We picked up her car and drove to the Port Clinton Hotel for a $5 shower and to do laundry and eat lunch. There was a sign on the dining room door for hikers to please shower before coming in to eat. Our waitress said that she gives them the sniff test. Since we had already showered, we passed with flying colors.

We then went to the nearby Cabela’s to do a little shopping and we each bought a new pair of boots. I also bought a new rain jacket. After shopping, we took Freckles’ car to Kittatinny Visitor Center across the Delaware river from the Delaware Water Gap and resupplied the next three days’ hike out of our boxes that we had left in her car.

After walking across the I-80 bridge, we stopped at the Church of the Mountain Hostel and got a bunk for the night. We then walked downtown to the Apple Pie Bakery to see what they had good to eat! I had a great salad with goat cheese, fresh fruit, and walnuts on a bed of greens with honey dripped over it. Yum. Yum. Freckles had a hot dog, apple pie, and ice cream. Tomorrow we start south to Palmerton and my car. It is good to be back on the trail.

7/20 Got off from Delaware Water Gap at about 8:15 after wandering around looking for the trail. This is a really nice section of trail climbing out of the Gap. There is one overlook of the Delaware River but also I-80 and the railroad so it is not so great. The rocky trail is lined with white rhododendron which had lots of flowers the higher up we climbed. Lots of PA rocks on the trail, but some nice sections also. We opted for taking the bypass trail around Wolf Rocks since we would have many more opportunities to do rock scrambles with no option of a bypass trail. Freckles took a nasty fall and hit her knee on a rock. She said that it hurt a lot but she was able to keep hiking. We were commenting on how little wild life we had seen when a deer ran across the trail in front of us. Later we saw two more.

We hiked 16.8 miles before setting up camp just south of Hahn’s Overlook. Both of us were very tired after a long day of walking on the rocks.

7/21 Another day of rocky trail and not much water. Had to load up at Leroy A. Smith Shelter for our hike to Palmerton since that is the last water going south that we can depend on. Freckles said her knee was doing pretty good and she was not having any trouble hiking. Still running into a lot of north bounders. Met Mailman heading north. He had been in our original pack and we had not seen him since the Smokies. He gave us a report on lots of hikers who had also been in our original pack. Some are still south, some have left the trail, and a few are north of us.

Did 14.2 miles today and camped just south of Little Gap Rd. We have 5.4 miles tomorrow to finish eastern PA. We are then going to leap frog a car up to Wawayanda SP, NJ, and hike south for 67.2 miles to Kittatinny Visitor Center at Delaware Water Gap.

We saw a big black bear today heading north on the AT. Of course, we were headed south. It was a bit of a standoff for a while then the bear turned and headed south. As we approached yelling and hitting our hiking poles together, it finally ran into the woods.

After tomorrow we will have 894.4 miles to go!

7/22 Today we hiked to my van which was parked across the Lehigh River from Palmerton. The hike took us thru the Super Fund site. The whole mountain had been denuded of trees and plants due to about a 70 year zinc smelting operation in Palmerton which terminated in 1980. It is starting to come back with grasses and trees, many blueberries and raspberries and some wild flowers. It looks much better than it did when I hiked the area ten years or so ago. The trail makes a very steep descent to the Lehigh River. When hiking northbound, it is a very challenging climb. Southbound, it would be a horror so Freckles and I chose to descend on the blue blazed winter trail for about 6.5 miles.

We picked up my van and drove to Wawayanda SP in NJ to leave the van so we could hike back to the Delaware Water Gap. After resupplying from the van, we hiked south three miles and set up camp beside a stream. It was nice to soak my feet in the cool water. Hob and Chickadee came by hiking north so we had a good time chatting about the hikers we know and where they are on the trail.

7/24 Hiked 14.1 miles today. It was very hot and humid. There is a long walk on a boardwalk over a swamp and over a suspension bridge across the Pochuck Creek. This is a really nice section with wetlands and a sea of grass so it is good for bird watching. After that, there are a series of ups and downs--more up than down--until you reach the top of Pochuck Mtn. From the summit you can see High Point SP, the highest elevation in NJ. We will be there tomorrow. There is a very steep rocky descent from Pochuck Mtn. and then a long flat walk around the perimeter of Wallkill National Wildlife Sanctuary. Again, nice birding. We passed two thru hikers who stopped to fish in a very small pond and caught a very large smallmouth bass which they released.

We are camped at Unionville, NY Town Park. They allow thru hikers to camp for no charge. We ate at Annabel's Pizza. It is starting to rain. Hope that it cools things off!

Drag’n Fly

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