creekcrossings: AT Lehigh Gap to Eckville

This is a recent trip I took Just a couple of weeks ago, November 2014. My friend Jacob and I planned a trip on the AT here in PA. We did a 25 mile section, between Lehigh Gap to Eckville. We had great weather with lows in the 30s and highs in the 60s, with a good rain storm the second and final night.

We climbed up from Lehigh gap, going south. Towards the top we decided to take the North Scenic trail that ends up meeting back up with the AT in 2.2 miles. On the North Trail we were able to get spectacular views of the other side of the gap and I also took a detour down to the Devils Pulpit. The whole North Trail was beautiful with views in every direction.

We eventually met back with the AT and enjoyed a pleasant walk through the wood with faint views off the ridge. We hiked for a few more miles and ended up making our dinner trail side, and at this time light was fading fast. We probably walked for another 45 minutes in the dark when we found a perfect campsite just off trail. We setup our shelters and collected fire wood and enjoyed the evening gear talking and what was in store for the next day.

We woke the next morning, made breakfast and coffee and tried out my tree table from 2QZQ. We got our stuff around and hit the trail. With out getting in to to much detail through the day, we walked to Bakeoven Knob shelter and found a dry spring. We then continued over a rocky climb with some good boulder scrambling to the top of Bakeoven Knob. We took in the Views and continued on our way, we made it to Bear Rocks and climbed to the top for a good snack. Pushed on we went over the Knifes edge and onward to 309. We ended up getting to the Blue Mountain Summit restaurant right around dark. We had our dinner at the restaurant, and prepared for another night hike. It was a 4 mile walk to the Allentown Hiking Club shelter.

When getting to the shelter Jacob decided to sleep in the shelter and I began to set up my hammock. We enjoyed another fire, had some cocoa, snacks and I enjoyed a little night cap, We hung our food and at about this time it began raining and didn't let up till early morning.

The next morning we enjoyed breakfast again but this time in the comforts of the shelter. The rain has stopped and we began our hike to Jacob's car, not before some more boulder scrambling and another great view at Dan's Pulpit. We eventually made it back to the car.