Date: 2023-05-27
From: MM 1261

To: MM 1270
Miles today: 9.0

Day 77 9 mi. MM 1270Set up the tent at a stealth site tonight.  That's an unofficial location where previous hikers have set up camp. Usually rough. No facilities. You have to plan water accordingly. This site had water way down, as in a half mile. Fortunately, some trail Angels had left a water cache at a road crossing about  4 miles back so I had enough water for the night plus a half liter to start the next day. The seasonal, meaning they may or may not have water, are all getting pretty dry. It hasn't rained in quite awhile and there was almost snow this past winter. So the snow melt that usually charges these small aquifers did not happen. No snow, no rain, no water leads to unhappy hikers. If the trail angels were not stocking water caches, this hike would be twice as difficult. Thank you so much Angels!!!So todays hike started with the famous climb out of the Lehigh Valley often touted as the hardest climb outside the White Mountains. So what is it like?  Well, it's about a mile of "trail" with close to a thousand feet of vertical - so about a 20% incline.  But much of that vertical comes in a climb that requires the use of both hands a feet. Literally climbing not walking. The rock face is exposed so you have a great view of where you would fall if things didn't go well.  But having said all that, it is very doable. I found only three locations where I had to be very careful and did not have really easy hand and foot holds. I was super glad to be going NOBO because the SOBO folks would have to look down as they traversed the mountain. Something I do not like to do. No fear of heights-just a fear of bad landings! The climb also had significant rock hopping sections much like the rest of PA.  The only difference was these went up not horizontal. If a hiker did not feel up to this task going either direction there is a Blue Blaze bypass available. Since I didn't take it, I'm not sure what it was like. But rumor is that it isn't easy either - just not so exposed.  Upon reaching the top, your reward is a 5 mile hike across a Super Fund site. I heard it was because of an old zinc mine but I didn't do any research myself. Anyway, for a hiker, the important thing is that things are starting to grow again but nothing is very tall. So there is little to no shade and absolutely no water and it was a very sunny day.  So it was quite hot. I found a pair of pine trees that gave a pretty good patch of shade about half way across and took a 30 minute nap. That cooled me down enough to continue. At 4:00 I was 7.4 miles from the shelter I was trying for and realized I might not make it. So I pressed moderately hard for one hour and found I had covered about 2.2 miles. That meant I had at least two more hours of hiking if the rocks didn't get worse which was quite possible. That would have meant arriving at the shelter and doing set up in evening's fading light. I didn't care a lot for that option and continued on looking for a good tent site.  I ended up there about 6:00. In the end, I was a little disappointed in not getting to the shelter but felt comfortable with my decision to stop short. A thru hike is a continuous balancing act - the most dangerous thing you can do is stick to a plan just for the sake of the plan.