Date: 2015-06-02
From: Lehigh Furnace Gap, Ashfield Rd

To: Little Gap
Miles today: 10.3
Weather: light rain

Today was one of our shortest, but toughest hikes to date. More about that later. We started off with a great breakfast at the Filbert. Today it was french toast and eggs (over light) with a fruit cup, cranberry juice, and coffee. Kathy is great, she accommodated us and had breakfast ready at 6:00 AM. Only a few B&B's are willing to provide breakfast before 8. And then she drove us up the hill to Lehigh Furnace Gap where we finished on Sunday. Our concern yesterday was the weather, the rain started pretty early. And there were thunderstorms and heavy rain last night. But no rain this morning and it was very cool - good conditions for a tough climb. The first 4 miles of today's hike were characteristically rocky, but mostly flat and not difficult. The only unusual feature we passed was an area ravaged by a recent forest fire. Starman had described this to us several days ago. The ground was blackened as well as the tree trunks up to maybe 4 or 5 feet. Above that there was untouched green foliage. Then the trail turned down, passed a shelter and then continued down more steeply. As we descended, we could see the challenging climb in store for us across the river. At the bottom of the hill the trail flattened out and took us to PA 248, a very busy 4-lane highway that we had to cross. I'm not sure which was more dangerous, the traffic or the upcoming climb. The next section of the trail was the climb that we saw earlier during our descent. It was up the face of a cliff - at least that's what it looked like from below. The first part of the climb was a long series of high steps, rock, log and root steps, and they seemed endless. The steps wound through a stand of short trees and bushes, and we used anything we could reach to haul ourselves up the steps. Eventually, the steps led to the base of the cliff (or more appropriately a steep slope) and it was strewn with rocks and boulders. And the white painted blazes that mark the AT marched merrily across the rocks. So we set out across the rocks following the blazes. Sometimes they took us laterally across the face of the slope and at other points they literally went straight up. It was quite a climb and we got some scenic views of the Lehigh River Valley. The bad news was that it started to sprinkle and the rocks began to get wet. The last part of the climb took us back into short, stunted trees. We were still walking on rocks, but we weren't as exposed as before. And as we emerged from the trees, the rain began to fall in earnest. And it rained, heavily at times, throughout the remainder of the hike. The climb took us near the top of a ridge line. We descended a little and then the trail turned and paralleled the ridge for several miles. Much of the distance was through a superfund site dealing with a former zinc extraction plant. At first we walked through a long narrow grass field, then we climbed a bit and passed through a barren rock landscape dotted with a few stunted trees and bushes. Then finally we entered a thick dense forest and the narrow trail took a tortuous route, winding around rocks, roots and briars. By this time we were completely soaked, nothing was dry. When we finally reached our pickup point and called Kathy we were exhausted, wet and really tired. It was a tough workout for a short hike. On the ride back, Kathy stopped at a rite aid for us and we stocked up on bandaids and blister supplies. Back at the B&B, the first order of business was getting the wet clothes off and getting into the shower. I poured a cup of water out of each of my boots. Kathy's friend, Sherry joined us for the evening and the four of us had dinner at the Covered Bridge. We had a super time and really hated for the evening to end. But Sherry had to get back and we had to get ready for tomorrow's hike. We've had a wonderful time at the Filbert and highly recommend it as a layover point on this section of the AT. Kathy has housed a lot of hikers and understands what they need. It was fun paging through her hiker guest book looking for familiar faces, and we found quite a few. I would also recommend that anyone contemplating a career in environmental policy, or industrial processing, etc. be required to hike this section of the AT to get a first-hand view of the consequences of large scale commercial processing. I don't know the history or the issues associated with this specific site, but the landscape has certainly been traumatized. The locals say that for years, nothing would grow on this ridge. Tonight it's still cold and raining. I hope our boots dry out a little before the hike tomorrow.