We woke up early and had a quick breakfast of fruit and cereal. There had been no rain overnight so we managed to dodge the storm. We drove away at 6:30 and of course our noisy campers were not up – in fact there were no campers up this early. We parked our car at the AT lot at Wind Gap and then rode with Jerry to Lehigh Gap. We started hiking at 7:25 walking over the Lehigh Bridge and then crossed the highway to start the ascent. Because we are using the AT maps that are excellent for distance but do not give information about the terrain, we were unprepared for the cliff that awaited us. Jerry (aka Rabbit) in the lead took the wrong trail and we had to backtrack a little to find the one with the large sign clearly pointing the direction. The confusion resulted from the work area and fences just in front of the trail. We started at 400’ and took a steep rocky trail which half way up regressed to large boulders. Trail markings were on the rocks since there were no trees on this part of the mountain. This is a EPA Superfund Site because of all the emissions from zinc mining and smelting nearby. The trail became very steep and we often needed to use our hands rather than the trekking poles. In fact, Jerry took Gale’s poles for the final push to the top so she would have more flexibility. We were fortunate that the sky was blue, the rocks dry, and an occasional narrow ledge available to perch. Once we got up in a place where we had some rocks between us and the drop-off we could enjoy the view down to the Lehigh River Valley. Unfortunately, the top was not really the top because there was a rock slide with more boulders around the corner waiting for us, the trail was still going up although the grade was less steep. We were just thankful we had climbed up and did not have to navigate this going down. We made another note to use a second reference for the trail that gave information about the terrain despite Jerry comment that he really did not want to know.
After another 20 minutes of scrambling we were on the exposed summit. Here the trail was totally level and without any rocks. We were completely out in the open in the EPA Superfund Site and although the vegetation is making an anemic comeback. The trail continued like this pretty much until we descended 400’ into Little Gap. From here on the trail was totally rocky with just a few short stretches smooth. The climb out of Little Gap was surprisingly strenuous because we had a steep talus slope of boulders to scramble up. Once on top the remainder of the trail was relatively level until the first descent into Wind Gap. This part of the trail was also full of rocks varying between stretches of smaller rocks or larger rocks mostly with sharp points and edges. We saw two butterflies mating along the trail oblivious to passing hikers.
Today we met mostly day hikers and only a few thru hikers, none of whom we had encountered earlier in the week. Once we reached the road via switchbacks and steps we found Jerry waiting with two hikers who needed a ride back to their car at Little Gap. After 20.7 miles we were ready for Subway and explained that we could shuttle them but we needed to have dinner at Subway first. If they had not gotten a ride with us they would call a taxi. All 5 of us with gear managed to fit in the Honda.
Back at the campsite the couples with the large tents were excited we had accomplished our hike and promised to adhere to the 11 pm quiet time, which they did. Unfortunately, we had another 3 campers who arrived at 10 pm, one of whom proceeded to carry on a monologue until 3 am. We definitely need to get ear plugs.
We made notes about things we need to include next time:
• 2 large trash bags to put a wet rainfly and ground cloth and another one for the tent.
• earplugs
• a second tube of toothpaste
• extra camera battery
• whisk broom to sweep out the tent
• new thermometer to hook on the backpack; Klaus lost the one we had on day 5
• a second hairbrush or a comb
• 2nd pair of shoes with heavier tread (Gale had hers but Klaus only brought one pair)
• headbands; our hats allowed the sweat to just roll down our faces
• backpacker towels
• pencil sharpener (by hand)
• xerox trail profile we can add our notes to
• reference from 2nd AT book that describes the topography and vegetation on the trail
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