Date: 2007-05-17
From: Fine Lodging, Slatington PA

To: Leroy Smith Shelter
Miles today: 16.1
Weather: broken clouds

Thurs. 5/16Leroy Smith ShelterIra, the really helpful man who runs Fine Lodging dropped Frosty and I off at the base of the mountain on the north side of Lehigh Gap. The guide book mentioned an "easier" trail that added a mile and a half so neither of us wanted to take it. We assumed that the only danger to going directly up the face of this mountain would be if it were winter time and inclement weather prevented it. Wrong. We should have gone the "easier" route. It was the steepest, most difficult climb of my trip so far. My knees can handle three inch step ups on their own; with trekking poles I can hoist myself up the 6 to 8 inch step ups, but when they are over 8 inches its hard to get up as my arms have to do all the hoisting (against the trekking poles). Usually I have to put the poles away and find stable hand holds to do that kind of lifting (tree roots, rock edges). This whole ledge was mostly the latter kind of climbing. Very difficult and tiring. We got almost to the top of the face when there was a spot that required about 6 feet of scrambling. Furthermore, it dropped off to rocks 50 feet below. Neither Frosty nor I could see how to scale that 6 feet with our packs on. Somehow Frosty got his off while he was partway up and managed to push it over the top. We were both incredibly relieved that it stayed where put and didn't go tumbling off the ledge to the rocks below. Then Frosty hoisted himself up. Now my turn. Frosty lowered his rope and I attached my pack to it. He hoisted it up. Then up went my trekking poles and waist pouch. Now it was up to me to make the four or five moves to get myself up over the face. I was truly freightened. The knife edge had me anxious and uneasy, but bottom line I never doubted I could get across it in one piece. I really wasn't sure about that on this one. But the alternative was to spend what would have been hours going back down that difficult climb (its always harder on my knees going down than up). I grit my teeth, eyeballed my handholds and just went for it. Frosty said I attacked it like Spider Man, and he's right. I figured it was no time to pay attention to what my knees were saying but to just get the hell on up! What a relief! We were both just jubilant. Conquering the rest of that mountain top wasn't easy but nothing else came along to frighten us. For the rest of the day though I felt unsettled by the climb - why hadn't something been said in the guidebooks suggesting that a person alone (like I am most of the time) should not have taken that trail. I felt the AT had let me down on that one. Frosty became my hero: no way would I have gotten up there without him! Well, a sweet note to end this day of anxiety and 16 rocky miles: my first "trail magic". Frosty came up from a trip to the spring and brought me a cold coke he found awaiting him there. We think maybe Boomer left it. As we started the day's hike two college aged guys passed us at a clip. We'd only learned they were in the middle of a week long hike. No surprise, we found them at this shelter where they'd been since the afternoon. Collectively they've named themselves "Noodle Brains". Like us, they are headed for Delaware Water Gap and they and Frosty think they'll do the 20 miles to get there tomorrow. I'm thinking that's just too much, given the rocks and that I'm slowed by sandals and I'll aim for the next shelter that's 14 miles away. We all enjoyed one another, especially since all four of us had been "surprised" by the challenges of that particular rock face this morning!Frosty thinks I should spend less time thinking about my problems and more time enjoying the trail. He's right, of course.