October 22, 2013
Look at those curly locks! Yikes! I recall wondering if I was still in NJ because I never knew NJ could have such great views. This was the last day of this hike for me. Almost 15 miles. I’m making progress!
October 21st, 2013
I crossed the Delaware River after descending Mount Minsi (which was not easy). Interstate 80 is the AT for the bridge walk across the river. It’s very noisy and a bit scary walking along an interstate but it was a short walk. I entered New Jersey and climbed about a thousand feet over four miles. It wasn’t a steep climb but I still struggled with it. There were lots of day hikers out that day. Kids, families, a couple on a date. I passed a pretty cool rock garden and encountered a section hiker at Sunfish Pond who I later ran into at work in the trauma bay. He was a resident at LVH. Small world! I continued on past Mohican Outdoor Center and hiked several miles with an unusual fellow who I remember carried some weird items in his pack, although I can’t recall what they were. Maybe a large skillet or something. It rained a bit and I was grateful to have someone to climb the rocks with. We parted ways for some reason, but I remember seeing him again the next day as he slept on a picnic table by the Catfish Lookout Tower.
October 20th, 2013
The second day of my two day hike with Cody. A pleasant stroll through the rocks and leaves. A very enjoyable time with my son. He took a little spill on the Wolf Rocks bypass trail but otherwise finished unscathed. I very much was looking forward to our next hike together. It was such a terrific experience. Cody’s mom picked him up on PA 191 (Fox Gap) and I finished the day on my own. As soon as he left I missed him. It was very emotional for me. I continued to Mt Minsi on my own, second guessing myself and losing the trail once. I found a nice camp site and spent my first night on the AT by myself. I was awakened around 11pm by a loud noise that sounded like it was directly outside my tent. I immediately thought it was a bear… it definitely sounded like a large animal roaming around. I don’t remember if I hung my food or not, but whatever it was it left me alone and I woke up alive six hours later.
October 19th 2013
This was a weekend hike with my oldest son Cody, who had just turned five years old twelve days prior. Our plan was to do 8.6 relatively easy miles over two days, which we did successfully. It was an amazing time with my son that I will never forget. I hope one day I can spend some more time hiking the trail with him and his brother Gideon. I’ll let the photos speak for themselves.
The rocks… that’s all I remember. Deliriously belting out every song we knew containing anything to do with rocks… For Those About to Rock, I Wanna Rock, Like a Rolling Stone… etc. It kept us occupied until we reached our extraction point at Hawk Mountain Road by the Eckville Shelter, which I hear is quite lovely.
This was the end of my first outing on the Appalachian Trail. I knew it wouldn’t be my last. I was still curious about it and wanted to experience more. A few weeks later I would be back on the trail heading north… with a different companion.
September 30th, 2013
This part of the hike is more difficult for me to recall. More rocks… highlights were Bear Rocks and Knife’s Edge. I recall being informed that this area is known for the rampant rattlesnakes.
Sept 29th, 2013
This was the day Bauman dragged my bruised and bloodied carcass over/through the rocks at Lehigh Gap. By the end of the day he’d given me the trail name “IWET” (which didn’t stick) because I kept yelling ahead to him, “I wasn’t expecting this!” The rocks were very unexpected and very fun and a bit scary. We descended without dying but I did fall a few times and I think bent a pole. I was very exhilarated when we reached the bottom. My exhilaration was short-lived though because I learned that “What goes down must go up” and we now had a thousand foot climb ahead of us as we crossed the Lehigh River bridge.
The following morning we got up way too early and after Bob made us coffee we headed south towards Blue Mountain. That night we stayed at a stealth site just above Blue Mountain. We were fortunate enough to get pizza delivered to our site by my boys and their mother. It had only been 30 hours or so since I’d seen them but it felt like an eternity. They hiked a few hundred yards up the rocks from an access road to our campsite and spent some time with us. I felt very proud. I know there are photos from this visit but I’m not sure where they are. I’ll dig them out someday.
I guess my first day hiking the AT with Bauman was on 9/27/2013. I believe he was working at Ringing Rocks Campground at the time and had just completed a short section hike of his own a few months prior. On this particular hike he was hiking southbound from somewhere near the Delaware Water Gap, and I met him at the Wind Gap trailhead on the afternoon of September 27th. I knew nothing at all about backpacking, and had purchased a Jansport Katahdin 50L pack online simply I think because it said “Katahdin” on it and I knew that had some relevance to the AT. It fit very poorly and as we climbed 500 feet headed southbound out of Wind Gap I new I had made an awful mistake agreeing to join my friend on what was certain to be a fatal expedition. Bob took the time during our climb to educate me on the white blazes and how they worked. Single blazes mean go straight. Two offset blazes mean to turn. When we reached the top of the climb and I caught my breath determination set in and I told myself I would finish this hike if it killed me. Bob had neglected to mention that the PA section of the trail was famous for its rocks. (“Rocksylvania” “The place where boots go to die”)
We made it 4.6 miles to the Leroy A. Smith Shelter where we ran into some thru-hikers who had apparently made use of the kitchen at The Beer Stein in Wind Gap, where allegedly you used to be able to prepare meals for yourself if you were a thru-hiker because they let you camp there and gave you access to the kitchen. I’ve heard this is no longer the case…something about getting in trouble with the department of health or something… (Update: I have learned that The Beer Stein is now permanently closed.)
We knew they were thru-hikers because one of them commented on the luxuries of section hikers as Bob was unloading his gear from his pack. Neither of us were sure what exactly he was referring to. I was curious but too embarrassed to ask him because I’d never interacted with a thru hiker before and didn’t want to look foolish asking a question that probably had a clearly obvious answer to anyone that had hiked more than a day in their life. I was intimidated.
The hikers took over the shelter while Bob and I set up camp in a nearby grassy area. I’m not sure if Bob was using his hammock yet at this point or not. I had borrowed a Skyscape Scout tent by Six Moon Designs from a co-worker who had previously attempted a thru-hike. It was a very light tent that I’d practiced setting up before our expedition. It didn’t have a frame (wasn’t free-standing) but rather used trekking poles to support it. Brilliant idea, but it was required to be staked down in order to stand and the rocks in PA didn’t allow much for a place to hammer tent stakes into the ground. Lesson learned.
Be yourself; Everyone else is already taken.
— Oscar Wilde.
This is the first post on my new blog. I’m just getting this new blog going, so stay tuned for more. Subscribe below to get notified when I post new updates.
As I approach what I assume (and can only hope) will be the midpoint of my life, I’ve been reflecting more on what I will leave behind. I’ve always wished that I had more knowledge/information about previous generations of my family so the idea came upon me to start documenting significant events in my life, and a journal about the Appalachian Trail seemed to be the easiest place to start. I do cool things sometimes and rather than just take pictures I’d like to have something more organized to share with family and friends and mostly for future generations of my family to look at when I’m gone. Kind of like an online time capsule I guess. I had an online journal once but I don’t know what happened to it. It was on a site called livejournal. I kind of miss it and hopefully I can use this as a continuation of that journal. I have some pretty awesome hobbies and I’d like to share thoughts along with my photos. I think it will be fun to one day look back and see how things have evolved. I’m a pretty private person so exposing myself like this feels a bit awkward but hopefully it’s worth it. I’ve got no experience at this sort of thing so any suggestions are welcomed. My mom always said I was a good writer! Mike Culnan told me about twenty years ago that I should start a website and learn how to code. I should’ve listened to him. Hopefully in addition to hiking this can be used to document my progress as a guitar player, skier, parent, concert goer, traveler, homebrewer, etc. Again, it’s completely self-serving but that doesn’t mean I’m not open to suggestions. I’m definitely not out to impress anyone or rise to the top of the seventeen million other bloggers with mindless musings. This will likely be just a hodgepodge of thoughts mindlessly strewn together in a somewhat accidentally organized fashion. It will probably be too wordy and boring for most readers… but “most readers” aren’t my target audience. If anything I say, share, or post on here offends anyone or violates any rules or laws and could potentially get me or someone else in trouble please bring it to my attention. Pardon my ignorance.
I hiked some miles in northern Virginia at the beginning of the year and after that I started listening to Mighty Blue’s podcast from his AT thru hike last year. I’m not sure I’m ready for a video blog or a podcast yet but I think that might be what inspired me to get started with this idea. I’m approaching the six hundred mile mark on the AT and don’t have any sort of organized record of my travels, which I feel like some people (at least my parents) would probably be interested in.
Wherever I May Roam