Day 103-Some Views, and More Rocks

June 29-16.5 miles-Windsor Furnace Shelter to Allentown Hiking Center Shelter-AT mile 1242.4

I could have written and uploaded this post yesterday, but I was just too tired and wrung out. So I’m writing this tonight (June 30) from my tent in the backyard of a trail angel in Palmerton, PA. I’ll explain how that happened in the next post. 

So, the morning started out pretty easy. There was a climb up to The Pulpit and the Lehigh Valley Astronomical Observatories. 

There were rocks, but kind of stair stepped. 

The Observatories



The view from The Pulpit. 
 
The trail was okay for awhile. I stopped for a snack and looked at Guthook. I saw I was just .4 from another view called The Pinnacles. I only ate half of my snack, deciding to eat the other half at the view. I was walking along, and I thought I was probably getting close. I looked at my phone again. I was .4 past the view! Now, I’ve gotten pretty good at knowing when I’ve gone a few tenths of a mile. There was no way, in the amount of time I was walking, that I had gone .8! Anyway, I was not going back almost a half mile, so I missed that view (I’m sure it was similar to The Pulpit). My only concern was that I figured Sure Foot and Dusty were waiting for me. Oria caught up to me near a spring where we got water. Then Dusty caught up. I told her I had missed the turn for the view. 

The trail was very easy (actually a road) all the way to Hawk Mtn Rd, and Eckville Shelter. We did a short road walk to this shelter that is on the paved road. 

The caretaker lives in the house on the property that is owned by the ATC (he’s a bit of a curmudgeon).

The bunkhouse is behind the house.

Eckville has more amenities than most shelters (as you might expect). There’s piped water, trash cans (have not encountered another shelter with trash cans), and outlets for charging. We only stopped there for lunch, but it was enjoyable. 

The second half of the day started with a climb up Hawk Mtn. I didn’t think the climb was too bad. It was after that my day kind of went to hell in a hand basket. The rocks just kept coming and my feet were killing me. I stopped to take a break, and Andy (Oria’s hiking partner) caught up to me. We suffered the rocks together the last 2 miles. That lifted my mood considerably, but I was still exhausted when we finally arrived at Allentown Shelter. On top of that, the water source was another 1/4 mile down a hill. 

There were a bunch of hikers at the shelter, probably more than we’ve camped with for a long time. Besides Sure Foot and Dusty, I only knew three of the other hikers (Jet, Oria, and Andy). More and more hikers are getting out on trail. Seems like more section hikers. 

Anyway, I ate my dinner, and went to bed. 


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