Date: 2017-06-21
From: Allentown Hiking Club Shelter

To: Little Gap Rd
Miles today: 22.7
Weather: overcast clouds

I was up early this morning and packed up and had some breakfast. In case you were curious, I'm totally over with Maple and Brown Sugar oatmeal... at this point the flavor is like being hit over the head with a maple tree and then someone pouring brown sugar down my throat. It's was too strong and artificial be to enjoyable... Or edible. My first day having it I figured that I didn't really like the flavor and probably wouldn't buy it again... at this point I would burn it I weren't going to waste away without the calories. /rantI hit the trail early, by about 6am, since I had a fair number of miles to do before getting off trail and staying at a friend's place tonight. The hiking was easy to start and followed a forest road for the first couple miles. As rocky as PA is, these forest roads provide a nice break from them every once in a while and make it bearable.I passed a road with a restaurant just a little ways from the trail and I walked up to check it out, but the restaurant isn't open on Wednesdays, so I was out of luck for getting some breakfast. I left the busy road behind and soon the trail hopped back onto another forest road, allowing me to cruise along until I reached the appropriately named, Knifes Edge. A slanted slab of rock jutting up from the top of the ridge, it took some scrambling to navigate the rocks while taking in the countryside below. Up on the ridge it was a little breezy, a welcome change from the heat and humidity of the past couple days and clouds kept the sun off of me.Back on more forest roads again, while digging through my hip belts for a snack I was a bit lost in thought and was not expecting to see a man walking his dog on the trail. We chatted for a few moments before heading our separate ways, but it wasn't until the next road crossing (about 10min farther) that I realized my phone wasn't in my hipbelt like it was supposed to be. My phone is pretty critical, since it's obviously a pretty pricey piece of gear, is my only means of communications, and also has my trail guide on it. I immediately turned around and double-timed it back to the point where I had met the man-dog and was immensely relieved to find my phone sitting in the trail, exactly where it had fallen. Another lesson... don't overstuff pockets such that things fall out. I climbed over a rocky mountain summit and took a quick lunch break at the shelter on the other side before continuing on. Just as I hit the trail another hiker came down the mountain and was only a little ways behind me. I tried to outrun him, to escape the annoying click of his poles, but no matter what I did I couldn't hike fast on the rocks to give him the slip. I eventually just gave up and let him pass, which was a good thing because not long after I came to an exposed section of trail with tons (figuratively, but perhaps literally as well...) of blueberries. There were far too many to pick, but I did my best to get all of the ones in easy reach for the next mile or two of trail, which took long enough that it put me behind schedule. The berries were super sweet and delicious, far sweeter than what you can find in stores, and still had a lovely tanginess of being the first of the season. I was apparently so engrossed in the berries that I didn't even notice walking over a highway which tunneled under the ridge I was walking on. Pretty cool that someone decided it was easier to just go through the ridge rather than around it. I took another quick lunch break at the next shelter as I worked my way through the rocky descent into Lehigh Gap.Emerging onto a bridge, I got my first good view of the other side of the gap, a very steep, rocky mountain that I had to go up. First though, I got some TRAIL MAGIC from Ragwart ('16) who had driven up from FL to this spot because when he hiked he hadn't gotten any trail magic in the entire state of PA and was planning on being here for 5 days to make sure that didn't happen to other hikers. I was their first hiker and ended up eating 4 chilli dogs over the hour that I ended up staying before I decided that I really needed to get going.I powered up the first part of the hill until I was forced to slow down to choose my hand and foot holds carefully. For some sections I had to throw my poles up onto the ledge above and then climb up after them and for other sections I was hopping between boulders as I tried to follow the white blazes.  I was feeling pretty good, having fun with the scrambles and powering up (or perhaps, crushing...) the hill when, well, I'm not sure exactly what happened... The rock moved or my pole slipped, but I was falling forward. I managed to catch myself... mostly... my upper arm ended up catching the rest of me against a shelf of rock and getting a pretty nasty looking, but entirely superficial cut. I also got a nick on each shin and one on the forearm, but was otherwise fine. One of my water bottles (the full one) also slipped out of my pack and disappeared down in between the rocks, never to be seen again. Losing the water was pretty unfortunate because I was heading into the Palmerton Zinc Mine Cleanup Superfund site and the only water for the next 6mi was labeled toxic due to heavy metal contamination, but with a thunderstorm moving in I didn't have much choice but to move on while taking a lesson to be more careful.Just as I reached the top the rain started so I stopped, battened down the hatches and donned my pack cover, and continued on. The rain was short lived and stopped soon after as I headed onto the (semi-permanent) reroute around the Superfund site. The site was in the process of being re-forested after mining activity had left the entire ridge incapable of supporting plant life. The reroute skirted to the side of the ridge, meaning that I had a great view to the west as I hiked. I watched that thunderstorm dump rain onto the next ridge over, the clouds merging with the ground, connected by torrents of rain and punctuated with occasional thunder. The storm was outpacing me, and I watched as it slowly pulled out ahead of me, rain still soaking the earth a couple miles to my west.I think that this reroute is least rocky, dirtiest, easiest trail I've yet hiked in PA, and with the constant view it was like I was strolling through town, just 1000ft above the streets. I passed some blackberries having just ripened that were a little too far down the hill for me to reach and some dandelions bigger than my hand. The reroute eventually lead back up onto the ridge to rejoin the trail, which felt like a desert with the loose rocky terrain and the lack of water starting to affect me. I passed multitudes of blueberries, but restrained myself from eating (too many) because I wasn't sure how the contamination might've affected them. Finally ducking back into the woods, I met another hiker who offered me a sterile wipe for my arm, which by now had bled and dried in a rather gnarly (ie awesome) looking way. I cleaned it a bit, but left most of it to be taken care of off trail. It wasn't long until I reached the road and got picked up by my friend. My evening involved a shower, laundry, dinner (where I got a burger on a salad, best of both worlds!), resupply, FroYo, a mini wiskey tasting, and star gazing. Good day!Oh yeah, almost forgot to mention, today was the summer solstice, also known as hike naked day.