Mountains Under Foot

From Hazard’s notes:
Day 69: July 17, 2009
Travel:
From: Port Clinton, PA
To: Allentown Hiking Club Shelter, PA
Beginning: 10:30am
Ending: 7:45pm
Number of miles hiked:
a) Trail – 22.6
b) other – .4 to and from Eckville shelter
c) AT Mile Marker – 1229.8 cumulative
Weather:
AM: The morning sun was killer and I just wanted to get out of town to avoid boiling.
PM: Clouds rolled in and the rain came starting as a drizzle and then bounced from steady to downpour for a couple hours.
People: Left a whole bunch in town. Walked with Crocstar today and ran into Grizzilla at Eckville. Prof. Mark was at the shelter.
Animals: Black snake in the middle of the trail and lots of chipmunks and other animals rustling along the trail.
Money: $11 for breakfast, $1231 cumulative.
Notes of the day:
AM: Eighteen wheelers flying by the Pavilion at 60 mph is not a great way to wake up in the morning. In fact, it sucks. Luckily the Three C’s diner down the road cured my morning woes with its Nibbler Platter that was basically a little of everything on the menu. Crocstar, Spoon, and I all enjoyed a huge breakfast that would sustain us almost the whole day. We waddled back to the Pavilion for our packs and headed to the post office on the way out of town. Crocstar had a mail drop that consisted of 4 dozen cookies, topo maps, and a replacement camera. After stuffing all of the cookies in his pack he exclaimed, “There’s definitely no need to resupply now.” The climb out of Port Clinton, unlike the decent down, at least had switchbacks to make our lives a little easier. Then it was down to Winston Furnace Shelter for water and prepare to take on Pulpit Rock & the Pinnacle.

PM: After that we came down a gravel road for a really long time which is never fun because the whole time you are thinking that this isn’t the trail, that you somehow missed the turn back into the woods. But it was easy walking and at the bottom was Hawk Mtn Road and Eckville Shelter. The shelter was actually a converted building behind this guy’s house which had bunks and electricity. We stopped in for lunch and to dodge the rain that was starting to hammer us. We hung around trying to keep dry and chatted with Grizzilla who had stopped earlier to take a nap but was deterred by the rain. When the rain finally let up a bit we pushed onward. The weather didn’t hold out for long and soon we were getting soaked while fumbling over slippery boulders. Good times. We stopped short of our goal today in favor of the shelter, but tomorrow night we will have to camp out if we want to make it to Delaware Water Gap by Sunday night. Tasty dinner, then sleep.