The Pennsylvania segment of the Appalachian Trail – An improvement of mood – General observations on the AT in Pennsylvania – Evening statistics
A long-term goal was completed today: I hiked the segment of the Appalachian Trail between Lehigh Gap and Ashfield Road, so that I now have completed hiking all of the AT that runs through Pennsylvania. I did not undertake this hike in precisely the circumstances I had anticipated. Originally my plans were to drive to the trailhead, complete the hike, and stay somewhere nearby overnight, so that I could drive back home at leisure on the following day. The trailhead is about 3½ hours away from my house, so that driving there and back on the same day would amount to 7 hours in all. But staying at hotels has latterly become very inadvisable, so I made up my mind simply to get up early, start the hike in the morning, and drive back on the same day. It worked out extremely well; the lateness of the season and the unpromising weather resulted in fewer people being on the roads for outdoor excursions, and the drives in either direction were trouble-free, allowing me to use cruise control for most of the way.
As for the hike itself, I thought that it would be a somewhat anti-climactic note to end upon, for the weather was forecasted to be cold and damp and cloudy, with rain coming on during the evening, and no views of note were mentioned in the guidebooks. But here again I was agreeably surprised. The weather was rather chilly but not unduly so, there was no mist or fog, and the skies were not so overcast as to interfere with the views from overlooks. I had learned, as I mentioned in the entry for the beginning of the month, that shuttles are now available. Nonetheless I decided to do a there-and-back hike for this segment, for a couple of reasons. In the first place, it hardly seemed worthwhile to drive 3½ hours to complete a hike of less than six miles, and also I had learned about a certain trail, the North Trail, that diverges from the AT in this area and rejoins it later on, which was said to be more scenic and which in any case would make the hike more of a loop. It was 5½ miles each way; using the North Trail adds about ½ mile and some additional elevation gain, but the total ascent for the entire hike was no more than 2000 feet.
It turned out to be an excellent way to complete my goal. The trail in this area does not have any of the boulder fields that were such an irritating feature of several other sections of the AT in Pennsylvania; there were some rocky areas, certainly, but nothing that approached a perpetual struggle to maintain one’s balance. The hike goes along a mountain ridge and there were glimpses of the Lehigh Valley throughout. The views from the North Trail were wonderful: sweeping vistas of the valley with the Lehigh River winding through it and numerous towns clustered within the expanse. Palmerton, an old zinc mining town located within the junction of the Lehigh River and Aquashicola Creek, was especially prominent in the panorama as I moved from west to east. I can thoroughly recommend the loop (it’s about 5½ miles total without the additional distance I covered there-and-back to Ashfield Road after the two trails converge, with 1200-1300 feet of elevation gain) to anyone who is visiting the area.
I was very glad that I chose this option and that I made up my mind to complete the Pennsylvanian section of the trail at this time, for several reasons. Not only did I complete coverage of the AT for the state, but the North Trail – as the name indicates – skirts along the north side of the ridge and is greatly afflicted by storms in the winter, so I was thankful that I was able to undertake it before December. Then, too, my general outlook was materially affected, and greatly for the better. My temper, as I am well aware, has been souring as a result of the antics of our President to retain his office illicitly and of the continual expansion of the COVID virus. They have had the effect, as well, of transforming my journal into a continual anti-Trump diatribe: a worthy cause, to be sure; but after all there are many such on the Internet already. But today, after the pleasures of the exertion and of savoring the loveliness of the views, my state of mind became a great deal more serene. So elated was I by the time I was making the final descent that if I had encountered Donald Trump himself in person I would have been inclined to pat him on the head, utter soothing words, and give him some candy in order to comfort the poor child (OK, he’s 74, but he has a mental age of 10) for the disappointment he sustained as the result of the recent election. I’m not certain exactly what sort of treat I would supplied under the circumstances: an all-day sucker, perhaps, would have been the most appropriate.
General comments about the Appalachian Trail in Pennsylvania: Throughout Pennsylvania the ascents along the Appalachian Trail are not very high; more than 1,000 feet at a time is quite unusual. The southern half of the trail, which passes through the northernmost portion of the Blue Ridge Mountains and Cumberland Valley, is comparable to the AT in Maryland in terms of difficulty. The northern half is a different story. The greater portion of the trail in this part of the state goes along the ridgeline of Blue Mountain and the alterations in elevation are not enormous. But it is cluttered with boulder fields, sometimes as much as a mile in length, and walking on them is a frustrating experience. Few of them feature rocks with flat surfaces; for the most part they are jagged and stick up at acute angles several inches above the trail surface, making balance quite precarious. Some through-hikers consider Pennsylvania to be one of the more difficult areas to traverse on this account.
The AT goes through St. Anthony’s Wilderness, the second largest section without roads in the state, so that is all to the good. This area includes some ghost towns from former mining communities that are of historic interest. But it also passes along some busy state routes, sometimes involving road crossings without walkways where drivers pass by at 60 MPH and more. On this day’s hike, for instance, I had to cross Rte. 873 (and Rte. 246 as well, but that road at least has a stoplight that pedestrians can use), which is a high-speed road. There are some parts that involve road walking, and in a few cases the roads do not have sidewalks. The section of the trail from the last block of Duncannon up to the Clark’s Ferry Bridge, for instance, is one of the most disagreeable I have ever experienced on the AT.
I hiked the greater part of the northern half of the trail while the virus was causing various trail maintenance groups to cut back on their services, and how it is maintained during normal conditions I do not know. Some portions had blowdowns and others had so much overgrowth that at times it was difficult to make out where exactly the trail led – that is only to be expected. No doubt under normal circumstances trail repairs are made more frequently. More troubling, however, is the paucity of blazes in some areas. In several instances the trail is crisscrossed by other, unmarked trails, and the intersections frequently lack blazes to indicate which way to choose. On occasion of course I experienced similar difficulties in other states as well, but never as frequently as I did in Pennsylvania.
The majority of the towns that the AT passes through in Pennsylvania are somewhat drab. Lickdale, Port Clinton, and Walnutport are fairly non-descript villages, Duncannon is shabby and clearly has seen better days, Wind Gap (which the trail just skirts by in any case) is an unprepossessing collection of strip malls, and even Delaware Water Gap, though pleasant enough, is not especially striking. Boiling Springs, however, is delightful. It contains many fine examples of 19th-century architecture, an old grist mill, and a lake that is crowded with waterfowl. Like Harper’s Ferry, it is worth visiting for its own sake.
A distinctive feature of the trail is the portion that goes through the Cumberland Valley, which separates the segment running through the Blue Ridge Mountains from the trail along the long ridgeline of Blue Mountain. This section goes through numerous farms and meadows, forming a contrast to the more usual mountain scenery of the Appalachian Trail generally. The trail does pass through farmland and meadow in other states, but not to the extent one finds here. It provides a welcome change of pace and if, as I did, one has the good luck to go through the area on warm, dry, sunny days, it is an invigorating experience.
Hikers expecting views with the dramatic impact of some of the more spectacular areas of the trail, such as McAfee Knob or the summits of the mountains in the Presidential Range, will be disappointed. With the exception of the Pinnacle and Pulpit Rock, there is little approaching such vistas in scope. But there are numerous lovely views of the valleys adjacent to the base of Blue Mountain that are well worth the effort needed to see them.
The logical progression after completing the AT in Pennsylvania is to attempt the segment that goes through New Jersey. For that, of course, I would need to stay in a hotel for a few days, and it is now impossible, in light of the state’s quarantine restrictions, to determine when such a course will be available again.
Today’s statistics as of 8:00 PM – # of cases worldwide: 58,969,491; # of deaths worldwide: 1,393,225; # of cases U.S.: 12,587,627; # of deaths; U.S.: 262,694.