Chapter Twenty-Six: Sun Up to Sun Down thru the Keystone State

Day 147 November 14, 2020 Saturday

Stealth campsite (near Lehigh Furnace Gap), PA to stealth campsite (near Dan’s Pulpit), PA

Once more, my 3:30-AM constellation-alarm cried out, waking me up for yet another day. I made my standard breakfast, packed up and was soon on trail by 5 AM. The morning was cool and clear as I started out in the dark with my trusty headlamp leading me steadily downhill to Lehigh Furnace Gap. Here the footpath crossed Blue Mountain Road. Some wonderful trail angels left several liters of fresh clean water near the AT sign by the road. This was much appreciated since up on these ridges water was hard to come by.

As I was trekking towards Bake Oven Knob, I noticed the path to the shelter was to my left. As many times as I had been to Bake Oven, I never went to see this structure, so I thought I would go and check it out. It was an average AT shelter, and seeing all the gear lying around, I figured hikers climbed up the rocks to watch the sunrise. Returning to the trail, I continued up towards the summit. It became increasingly rockier the higher I climbed, and I had forgotten what a prominent point this was along the ridgeline. I used to come here quite often with friends and family, both on overnight hikes and afternoon excursions, just for the views. As I approached the knob, I could see several groups of hikers perched at various optimum-viewing points on the knob. When I completed my scramble up to my chosen perch, the sun had already come up over the horizon; I missed the fire-orange pre-dawn sky. It was still a glorious sight as well as a stunning view of the Lehigh Valley from this vantage point. All of the boulders here were Silurian Tuscarora sandstone left in this pile by plucking action from advancing and retreating ice sheets during the past 2.6 million years. I remained there for about 10 minutes, just peering off into the distance, looking for specks of familiarity in the panorama before me. I soon returned to the trail where I ran into several day-hikers coming to spend the morning watching hawks and other birds. One of them said to me that this was as good as Hawk Mountain for watching hawks, and the price was right too: free.

At about 10 AM I arrived at Route 309, a bit early for my rendezvous with Dave and Mom. I was anxious to see both of them and eat some good food. I sat down by one of the signboards, leaning against my pack for a short rest. After several minutes, I still didn’t see anybody and I texted Dave. It turned out they were waiting for me in a parking lot across the street. I walked across the road and found them talking with a few other hikers who just came off the trail for some water. It was good to see Mom and Dave, and they brought three ham sandwiches, orange juice, apples, soup, and radishes. We sat in Dave’s car and talked while I feasted. After about an hour we said our goodbyes and I was back on the trail.

The next shelter I passed was the Allentown Hiking Club Shelter, which I also had never seen; I decided that I would check it out too. A few folks were there when I arrived, we chatted a while, and then I was back on the trail. I heard the incessant echoing of of gunshots all day long. It was a Saturday and bird- and small-game season was in. Hunters were out six days a week shooting rabbit, squirrel, grouse, pheasant, and quail very close to where I was hiking. For this reason, I generally wore a bright-yellow pack-cover, and a bright-orange Gore-Tex rain-jacket. Archery season in Pennsylvania began before I arrived as well, so there were also lots of bow hunters out for deer. I rarely saw any of these well-camouflaged archers other than in parking lots, or along the trail towards the end of the day. Fortunately, opening day for regular firearms hunting for deer was not until the Saturday after Thanksgiving, so I didn’t have to worry about that…