July 10, 1999 - Allentown Pa.
Hello folks,
I'm here in Allentown Pennsylvania. No it is not a trail town, but I'll
explain the circumstances later.
Some of the things I want to talk about are:
email responses
how I ended up in Allentown
Pine Grove stopover
New Boots
Pennsylvania
the heat
Thank you all for the email. I read it all, and I save it . (Yes Maria,
even the jokes :-) ) However, recently I have not had much time to
spend at the individual computers. Pennsylvania seems short of small
town libraries, and it is harder to find internet access. So often I won't
be able to individually reply to your email, unless it is a joke , and I
can easily forwarded it.
I spent last night, and will spend tonight here in Allentown. It is about
35 minutes away from the trail, and for those familiar with Washington it is
about the equivalent of being picked up at Harts Pass and being
driven for 35 minutes through some very urban areas. My wife Jan, the
outgoing one of the family, met some folks through her travels with the
Boeing Travel Club, who mentioned that her daughter lived in Pennsylvania
and was hiking the trail next year. I received some email from Michelle
about three weeks ago, and set up a tentative schedule and a list of
alternative pick up points. Well it all came together yesterday ( Friday )
at Bake Oven Knob Road, and Michelle brought
me into town to spend the next two nights. Here trail name is "Texas Red"
and it seems to fit her very well, although I think she has lost a large
amount of her texas accent. Michelle provided everything that a true hiker
could hope for:
A can of Dr Pepper when she picked me up.
Laundry facilities
Supper
Shower - including a a set of clothes to wear while mine were
washing. That way I didn't have to put on my rain gear.
Breakfast this morning.
Today I hit the post office, and Michelle took me to the grocery
store and a tour of the town. Tomorrow I hope to hit the trail and
finish up Pennsylvania in the next few days.. I have offered to
take MIchelle out of eat as a way of repaying her hospitality.
Michelle and her friend Eric hope to start the trail next February, South
to North. Eric has already completed a southbound hike.
In the middle of the heat spell I stopped over at Pine Grove (PA5010) for
what was supposed to be a one night stay out of the heat. I spend 3 nights.
I seemed to have some sort of low grade flu. I would spend about 3 hours
laying on top of the bed very hot, and then 3 hours laying under to covers
very cold. This lasted about 24 hours. As far as I can tell the illness is
over.
As most of you know, the new boots won the first round of the mike/boot war.
I war the right boot for about 15 miles and the left boot for about 30
miles. I then bumped the boots up from Waynesboro to
Port Clinton. Well yesterday was the second day of the second round of the
mike/boot war. This time I seem to be winning. This morning
I bumped the "old" boots up to Delaware Water Gap ( 3 days from here ) and
I hope to just forward them home if all goes well. I experienced only about
10% of the problems that I encountered in round # 1.
Pennsylvania is the 7th state on the AT. When I finish it, I will have about
1270 miles in. I have about 44 miles to go. New Jersey-Nork is the next two
state combo with about 160 miles to go. May 70 of those miles are in New
Jersey. That will bring the total to about 1432 miles.
I passed the half way point on the 27th of June. It was just me and the
sign. This is just the traditional half way point, since the trail changes
each year and the sign is at a fixed location. Tradition states that your
are supposed to eat a half gallon of ice cream about 4 miles before the sigh
at the Pine Grove Furnace State Park, but since I know I can't even finish a
pine, I chose to skip even trying. I think that there is only a 80% success
rate, and some of these folks are hungry young kids.
In the halfway way register I said something to the affect.
"Half the steps are gone, never to be seen again. "
Pennsylvania is known for its pointed rocks. This is also similiar to
stories about other tough areas and other easy areas. They always seem to be
ahead of you. However this time there are several areas on the map pointing
out the rocks in the next 50 miles so we will have to see. yesterday I went
through a section called "the cliffs" this has been my personal scariest
section so far. It was not that long, maybe a few hundred yards, but it had
a knife edge about 3 or 4 feet wide in places, and I had a full pack on. I
believe that this was the scariest US trail section that I had been on, and
was even worse than the Boucher trail at the Grand Canyon. About 70 % of the
trails in Pennsylvania are OK, with 20 % marginal and the rest requiring
boulder hopping for some period of time. The rocks are supposed to continue
for a short period of time ( 20 miles ? ) into New Jersey and then I will
be waiting for the next horror story. The most common one seems to be the
steepness of the White Mountains and the bogs and roots of Maine.
The nice thing about Pennsylvania is that altitude seems to be binary. It is
either 1500 feet or 600 feet , with the 1500 feet being present about 95% of
the time. This corresponds to Virginia where you could come down 3000 feet
cross a river and go up 3000 feet.
Pennsylvania has one other feature not previously encountered. These are
shelters with caretakers. The caretakers live near the shelter and provide
soda ice cream and advice. I spent one night at such a place, loaded up on
pop, and the caretaker provided hamburgers and hotdogs. Donations are
requested, but I don't know how much of the expenses are covered, but hikers
are a generous lot as a whole, and much more appreciative of people who go
out of there way to help the hikers.
The heat is really oppressive. As they say, its not the heat, but the
humidity. I have had several days where the heat was in the high 90's
and the heat index was in the 105 to 110 range. Of course this is in the big
cities, so I don't know how different it is at 1500 feet. The worst part
about the humidity is that you sweat under most any circumstances , and
especially when climbing. The sweat collects in the small of your back and
runs down your back and soaks your hiking shorts. When the shorts get wet
and they rub above your knees you can start to develop heat rash along with
that soaking feeling. I also have hear rash where my pack straps come over
my shoulders and on my upper chest.
Some of the springs are drying up here in Pennsylvania, and I have started
carrying either extra water, gatorade or soda too help fill the void between
know water sources.
Happy Birthday to:
Kathy 18 July
Jordan 21 July.
"Mike on the AT"
"No Rain No Pain No Maine"
http://www.engel.org/ihwm (Courtesy of my friend Glenn Engel)
email --- mike_aken@hotmail.com
"I hike alone sometimes.Its during these Mike Aken
solo hikes that the number of arrogant N7OUJ
and ignorant people I have to deal
with is reduced to one."
Jack Hampson
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Copyright © 1999 Mike Aken