Day 112
Start: Tentsite Near Ashfield Rd
End: Leroy Smith Shelter
Miles Hiked: 22.0
Miles on AT: 1277.3
Follow my journey on Instagram (@jenbrownhikes) for more updates!
The thing about the AT is that clothes rarely get dry once they’re soaking wet. It takes a day of high temperatures and direct sunlight, so hanging wet clothes overnight doesn’t get the job done. So, I woke up today to damp, cold clothes and put them on to start my day. Refreshing!
All of us were headed to roughly the same place today, hoping to find a stealth site about a mile after a water cache that we would hit later in the day. We all set off on our days at our own paces.
The first few miles of the day brought me to a beautiful section of trail that traversed along the side of a ridge and looked down on the town below. It’s so rare to get an unobstructed view of the valley below for a substantial amount of time. I stopped so many times to just take in the sights and enjoy the breeze.
I stopped for a morning snack break and called my aunt to chat for a while before moving on. Coming up was a climb that I’d heard a lot about but really I had no idea what to expect. It was the climb out of Lehigh Gap. I’d heard that it was a bit of a scramble, but after the fear-mongering about Knife’s Edge, I figured it wouldn’t be as bad as people said.
When I got there, the scramble rocks were large but manageable. But then, the climb started. And let me tell you, this was way more than hiking, this was a short crash course in rock climbing. I had to find hand- and footholds, get a good grip on the rock, and hoist myself up the vertical ascent. I wasn’t mentally prepared for this, so I had to take a few deep breaths and remind myself not to look down. Overall, it was definitely a fun challenge, but I was grateful to be on solid ground when I got to the top.
For the climb, I was rewarded with a relatively new trail that provided great views of the surrounding valleys. I ran into a man who had worked on this piece of land for a long time and he told me the history of it. Apparently, a metal processing plant was located here and it polluted the area so much that everything died and it became a Superfund site. Decades of dedicated restoration work brought back the trees and wildlife and made it a suitable place for thru and day hikers to explore. It was pretty cool to see real, meaningful environmental work in the real world.
Soon, it was lunchtime and I knew just where I wanted to go. A ski resort was located just 0.2 miles off the trail, so I took the unofficial blue blaze and enjoyed a hearty lunch of a hamburger, fries, and ice cream – yum! I spent a good amount of time there, drying out a few things (including my tent) from yesterday and last night.
It was a bit later than I’d waged for when I got back on trail, but I decided I would go for as long as I could today. The trail was actually pretty nice for this section, so I made good time. I reached the water cache that served as my “1 mile left” marker and ran into Stretch. Since we had the same idea about camping just after the water cache, we kept our eyes open for a spot that might work for both of us.
Unfortunately, there weren’t any good stealth sites in this stretch; the ground was too rocky. Instead of 1 mile, we ended up going 3 miles to the next shelter. It was dark by the time we got there and way past the time when I wanted to stop. In addition, there were sooooo many people in the area. There were people in the shelter, at least 5 tents and hammocks near the shelter trail, and another couple of tents at the shelter tent site.
It was a full house and I had a hard time finding the ideal place to set up, especially given that it was dark outside. But, both Stretch and I eventually found a place. I scarfed down a few snacks in the dark since I didn’t get the chance to eat dinner and called it a night.
And that’s day 112.
A version of this post originally appeared on TheTrek.co.