Date: 2019-06-15
From: AT parking lot just before Lehigh Gap

To: Smith Gap Road
Miles today: 12.1
Weather: clear sky

John Stempa dropped us off about 8:30 in the morning in Palmerton and we started hiking up Lehigh Gap. Lehigh Gap is the site of an old zinc mine that is now a superfund cleanup area. It is not recommended to drink the water there, so we had to carry extra water for the day.  I was totally psyched out about this climb.  Getaway told us yesterday he planned to take the alternate trail around it.  This morning just as I was about to say I would take the alternate route also, he said he was going to do the climb with us.  I couldn¢t back out then.  After a half mile or so, the hiking became rock climbing.  There were some sketchy places where we had to stop and plan out our next several handholds and footholds.  I cannot imagine doing this climb with a full pack.Several times we had to stop for a break and scoot out of the way so others could pass us.  Once we started into it, we were committed; there was absolutely no way I could have gone down that section, so I had to continue upward.  Several times I had to hug the rock face as I inched my way forward and upward. Several times I had to sit and scoot sideways on my rear.  I kept thinking about the opening of the Mission Impossible movie where Tom Cruise was rockclimbing.  When we finished, we waited at the top to get the next hiker to take a group picture of us.  We heard voices coming.  I was thinking that I was really going to feel like a wimp if it was an overweight mom with a couple of young kids with her.  Worse!  It was a young couple with a two year old in a backpack!!  I cannot imagine doing that climb with a child on my back!!I may need new pants now that this is over.  I probably wore out my seat in this pair, sliding on the rocks so much.  It was such a relief to finish, but what a sense of accomplishment!After that climb, we still had a little over 10 miles to actually hike.  Of course Pennsylvania threw all its rocks at us on this, our last day in PA. There were all sizes of loose jagged rocks to navigate.  We stopped at a nice campsite for an early lunch and rest after that climb.  At Little Gap Road we came upon Jimmy of the Appalachian YouTube videos and his wife with drinks and snacks again.We met the ridge runner for the area, SMatt and chatted briefly with him.  We gave him what details we could about the guy and dog we had encountered at Outerbridge Shelter.  He had already heard about him and been up to check him out once and was planning to go back again the next day.  We hiked for awhile with a guy from Cheshire CT who has been doing sections of the AT for 32 years and still has 500 miles to go.  He and a friend were out for a few days.  They both brought cars and they park at opposites ends of a day¢s hike.  One of them hikes north while the other hikes south between the cars.  When they meet in the middle of the day, they swap keys. There are many ways to hike the AT.We only did a total of 12.1 miles but we took our time and took breaks and it took us until close to 4:00.  When we made it to Smith Gap Road, I was done with Pennsylvania, because I had already done two days of hiking in northern PA in 2017.John Stempa picked us up and brought us back to his house.  We all quickly showered and changed and drove to Easton to an Italian restaurant for dinner.  John¢s 21 year old son John and his friend Miranda perform as ¢MoJo¢.  They bill themselves as ¢acoustic rock¢.  They have attended School of Rock in Easton for years. The show began at 6:00.I had pasta e fagioli, salad, and baked lasagne and I was FULL.  We are used to going to bed when it gets dark between 8:30 and 9:00 so we left about 8:00.  We stopped at Walmart for a few things and got back around 10:00.  It was a late night by hiker standards.