Date: 2015-05-31
From: PA 309, Blue Mountain Summit

To: Lehigh Furnace Gap, Ashfield Road
Miles today: 8.3
Weather: light rain

This morning was a bit of a struggle for me. I was hoping for a zero day to rest up from our last two long distance treks. But it wasn't to be, there was no room at the inn. So I settled for a Nero - just over 8 miles. The shorter distance sounded like a good idea, but it was one of the harder stretches in PA. We got a reasonably early start from the Blue Mountain Summit. Kenny had tucked our leftovers from last night's meal into the refrigerator so we had ahi tuna with peanut sauce and chicken Marsala for breakfast. It rained the night before, but it wasn't a soaking rain. So we had reasonable trail conditions. This was helpful since Princess couldn't find her poncho the day before. We searched all of our gear and she called back to the Union House to see if she left it there, but no luck. So our best guess is that it fell out of her slack pack somewhere along the trail. So much for "Leave No Trace."We were very fortunate that there was no rain. After a couple of miles of a fairly docile trail we began to encounter serious rock fields that quickly led to the formation known as the Knife's Edge. This is a sharp ridge that runs for some distance, with a threatening drop-off on either side. I remember it well from last year, except that I didn't remember how long it is. Princess is great over these kind of rocks, so I followed her lead and we managed to get through. As we were creeping along, step by step over the rocks, two 20-something's in trail runners, without hiking poles or packs came jogging across the top of the ridge, chatting with each other and hopping from rock to rock. At that moment we were trying to find the blazes marking the exit route. They casually said "this way", and hopped down 30 or 40 feet of boulders and then disappeared at the bottom. We never saw them again. After we finished the Knife's Edge, we segued into Bear Rocks. Essentially more of the same. And then after that came Bake Oven Knob. I've come to learn that "knob" means "rock outcropping" and The Knob was no less challenging than the 2 preceding features. One thing I noticed about the "knob" was how much trash there was in the crevices between the rocks. Thru-hikers generally respect the trail and try not to leave any trace behind. But the knob was chock full of cans, bottles, wrappers - more debris than I've seen anywhere else on the trail. After three miles or so of sweating every step, the rest of the hike was a breeze. And we finally reached Ashfield road, our pickup point. A awe approached the trailhead, we found gallons of water cached along the side of the trail. And as we stepped out into the road we met Starman and Rocky. Starman is a Trail Angel who leaves water and sometimes other goodies for hikers. Starman was out on an exercise hike with Rocky and we talked with him while we waited on our shuttle driver, Kathy. He's been leaving magic for a number of years, eight I think. He's section hiked a lot on a number of different trails, so he knows what hiking involves. In my opinion, he's an invaluable resource. This part of PA is very dry. Much of the trail is along ridges, so there are almost no water sources. So Starman and others like him leave bottles and jugs of water at various points along the trail. Usually somewhere reasonably accessible, but not close to popular public access points. So they're more likely to be found by dry long distance hikers. We had a great chat with him about trail magic and various hiking trails. And eventually Kathy came up the gravel road to pick us up. Kathy owns and operates the Filbert B&B in Danielsville and also provides shuttle service to nearby railheads. We stayed at the Filbert last year, really enjoyed it and decided to return this year. We plan to stay here 3 nights while we hike this section of the state, so I'll describe it in the next couple of days. On the way to the Filbert, Princess asked Kathy to stop at a Kmart and she was able to pick up a basic poncho. It should be acceptable until she gets the replacement cuben fiber poncho she's ordered from Zpack.