PA Hike Day 4
1. Moonsday, Winterfilth, 3. My 52nd birthday. Goal - Allentown Shelter or spring .3N. 16.5 or 16.8 miles.
2. Day 4
3. Morning temp: 45
4. Weather: cool in am but beautiful all day
5. Time start: 0700
6. Time stop and miles: 1815 - 20.6
7. End point: Blue Mountain Summit B&B. Camping behind
8. Events: turned 52. Blisters.
Log: A crazy homeless guy came in near dark with a dog. Spent the night ranting in the shelter and left us a manifesto of utter crazy. Nice hiking today. Some cool views and two long climbs. Rocks, rocks and rocks, but some good trail too. Got to shelter and decided to move on for water and a shorter day tomorrow. Developed a couple blisters on both feet, but all is good.
1. Moonsday, Winterfilth, 3. My 52nd birthday. Goal - Allentown Shelter or spring .3N. 16.5 or 16.8 miles.
2. Day 4
3. Morning temp: 45
4. Weather: cool in am but beautiful all day
5. Time start: 0700
6. Time stop and miles: 1815 - 20.6
7. End point: Blue Mountain Summit B&B. Camping behind
8. Events: turned 52. Blisters.
Log: A crazy homeless guy came in near dark with a dog. Spent the night ranting in the shelter and left us a manifesto of utter crazy. Nice hiking today. Some cool views and two long climbs. Rocks, rocks and rocks, but some good trail too. Got to shelter and decided to move on for water and a shorter day tomorrow. Developed a couple blisters on both feet, but all is good.
Shared from the trail
So I lived long enough to turn 52. Continuing with where I left off. I got up about 5:30 or so and checked out the shelter. On my way there, I found a Ziploc with a notebook page in it. Written on that paper was the most bat shit crazy stuff. The Wolfman of Helltown had written a little manifesto when he was ranting in the night and he mentioned things like being Appalachia's most notorious murder suspect and winner of some malicious wounding case. What a crazy fuck. He also mentioned how people out here "Obama enablers"??? wouldn't give him or his dog food. Oh well. I thanked the gods that the shelter was empty.
We were very glad that he had headed South and we were continuing North. We headed back up the mountain and before long we were at Pulpit Rock. This was the location where Lisa and I had did some repelling and ascending during an Adventure Race several years ago. The drop looked scarier this time. I could see Blue Rocks where we had camped and the view was nice. We met a couple who were out on an overnight and they mentioned encountering the Wolfman.
After passing the Pinnacle we came to a forest road that made the next few miles very easy to travel. We eventually moved off of Blue Mountain and up onto Hawk Mountain, then back to where Blue Mountain continued, which would take us all the way to Palmerton. At Dan's Pulpit there was a register at the view and inside was another rant from our favorite crazy guy. In this one he mentions not being able to get grain free dog food for his dog or some such nonsense. It is a conspiracy I tell you.
As the day wore on we had decided to move past our scheduled stop of the Allentown shelter, where water was listed as scarce. Any amount of distance traveled would save us some of our 18 miles planned the next day. After checking the shelter (another rant awaited us) we headed on and the spring listed nearby was dry. We didn't bother checking the lower one, but decided to head for Rt 309 and Blue Mountain Summit. I had remembered that there is a B&B, restaurant, bar at the road crossing and you could maybe camp behind the building and get water if you had permission. It would make our day a 20 plus miler, but we were feeling ok and the trail was pretty good. I had developed a couple small blisters, but they weren't too bad (yet) and we made it to the road around 6 pm.
We circled around the building and I found a guy stacking wood. I asked him if he could grant us permission to stay and he introduced himself as Ken, the owner of the place and yes, we could stay.
He quickly asked if we would help with the wood and offered some food and maybe a beer if we would. We agreed and quickly set up our camp and returned to work. He first said "never mind", but I had already set my sights on a meal that I didn't have to prepare, and it was my birthday after all, so I kind of insisted that we help him. A B-day beer was certainly called for.
We spent about 20 minutes stacking and Ken made each of us a very good sandwich. I enjoyed a nice Yuengling along with the food and we had some nice conversation until about dusk, when we retired to our camping area, finished setting up and hit the hammock.
My feet were aching this night and the road noise had me putting in my earplugs for the night. I still slept ok, but needed some Motrin to cut the pain down some. The ball of my foot was hurting pretty bad.
So we did 20.6, had a nice meal and were bedded down next to the woods on some nice grass. All was good. Tomorrow would be a much shorter hike as we headed to Palmerton, PA.
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| View from Dan's Pulpit |
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| The rock we repelled off of during an adventure race |
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| At the Pinnacle. A big ass pile of rocks. |
We circled around the building and I found a guy stacking wood. I asked him if he could grant us permission to stay and he introduced himself as Ken, the owner of the place and yes, we could stay.
He quickly asked if we would help with the wood and offered some food and maybe a beer if we would. We agreed and quickly set up our camp and returned to work. He first said "never mind", but I had already set my sights on a meal that I didn't have to prepare, and it was my birthday after all, so I kind of insisted that we help him. A B-day beer was certainly called for.
We spent about 20 minutes stacking and Ken made each of us a very good sandwich. I enjoyed a nice Yuengling along with the food and we had some nice conversation until about dusk, when we retired to our camping area, finished setting up and hit the hammock.
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| Selfie: l-r, Sequoia, EarthTone and Ken |
My feet were aching this night and the road noise had me putting in my earplugs for the night. I still slept ok, but needed some Motrin to cut the pain down some. The ball of my foot was hurting pretty bad.
So we did 20.6, had a nice meal and were bedded down next to the woods on some nice grass. All was good. Tomorrow would be a much shorter hike as we headed to Palmerton, PA.
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