| July 24, 2005 |
|
A beautiful Sunday morning! Starting
on a washed out rocky trail going back into the state game lands.
Interesting how thinks turn out. Yesterday evening I over to
the restaurant about 7:30pm. Got myself some cream of broccoli
soup and a cup of coffee and pay the owner for the dog food. I
sat at the bar because I think he thought I wasn't going to buy
anything and another lady came in and sat along aside of me, the
owner said something to her about hiking today and he said that I
was a through hiker also. The we carried on a conversation about
different places that she had hiked and I asked her questions about
the terrain that I was going to be hiking and if she thought that
Simon could handle the rocks OK. Things are just meant to be,
she gave me a lot of valuable of information about the next couple
of days or so. I was worried about the water shortage and
still am. I thought if I started out early this morning I
could at least make the 17 miles. She told me to take the
winter trail because the rock were really sharp and deep drop offs.
Before she left she gave me her telephone number where she could be
reached in case I needed her for something. She may even come
hike with me on Monday. |
|
I'm hiking on a road situation now that's
not very rocky. I'm only supposed to climb an altitude of only
1,400 to 1,500 feet. When I see a lot of laurel underbrush, I
know I'm getting higher up. The sun looked really pretty
coming through the woods. It looks it's going to be a fairly
clear day. |
|
I've already hiked 2 miles and in another
mile I'll be coming to what they call the cliffs. That's
probably the beginning of the big huge rock in this area. The
ones I'm hiking on right aren't so little, they're ankle busters,
but there are some big ones in it too. I'm now climbing
straight up big boulder steps. I have a gorgeous view of the
farm lands, but a little hazy today. The wind is blowing which
is good. |
I'm not at the cliffs yet, but I sure have
come through a terrible rock pile. Simon
seems to sense whenever I need to have him give me directions.
He always goes in front and when he get a little ahead he sits down
and waits for me. Or I'll hear him whine so that I know where
he is. It's amazing how he operates. |
|
A lot of poison ivy and briars growing
close by and big fern patches. I like going through the fern
patches because they smell good. I must be into the cliffs
areas because there's nothing to my right but big huge boulders
stacked high about 15 to 20 feet above my head. |
|
The trail goes right over the top of the
cliff. Sheer boulder hiking, laying on diagonal. Man it
certainly is beautiful from up here. The sky is pretty, the
sun is out, grasses look like golf courses. Huge big farms in
the area through the valley. I know why they never farm these
hill sides, they could never plow through the rocks. The
cliffs is so far the hardest rock pile I've to go over. Big,
big diagonal boulders, boulders that you had to hike between,
around, some I had to crawl up and sit down and slide down them.
Still in a lot of rocks, but it flattened some, just when I needed
it most. |
|
Sling Shot came up behind me, he had left
from Allentown and he said that there were times he couldn't tell
where the blazes were. He waited for me to make sure I got
across those steep boulders which I thought was awful nice of him. |
|
I took a water break on top of the
cliff looking out over the valley, in about a mile I'll be going
through what they call Bear Rocks, I guess that's very tricky.
I'm taking a little rest so when I get there I'll be steadier on my
feet. |
|
I must be getting into the Bear Rocks area
because there's big huge rocks to my left. There must be a
view area on top of these rocks, they've got it painted blue and it
goes straight up. There's no way I going! The view must
be awesome, but there is to mush danger of falling. |
|
I can't believe this, I'm back on a
dirt road with a lot less stones and even grassy at times. I'm
surprised that since I'm in a game life area that I don't see any
animals. All I see are snakes and chipmunks. No
squirrels or rabbits. |
|
I'm coming into what appears to be Bake Oven road.
The smooth road leading up to Bake Oven Shelter turned out to be a
rock pile again. A lot of limestone in here. I'm
standing at last on Bake Oven Knob. I'm going to sit down out
on the rocks and take a look at the view. 2 views one to the
west. To the west you can see farmlands for about 50 to 60
miles out. On the east side I can see farms, a man plowing his
field and I can again see 50 to 60 miles out. Way off to the
North I can what looks like a small town. This side of the
cliffs really hangs out and you've got tremendous views. |
|
Coming off Bake Oven mountain to Bake Oven
shelter was a challenging rock maze. All big boulders, very
difficult to climb down. The trail was very narrow, very rocky
going down hill with lots of poison ivy, and briars. I just passed
Bake Oven shelter, it's one of the older shelters on the AT.
From the looks of it not very many people use it. It wasn't
cut out very well, and even if there had been water I don't think
I'd stayed there. |
|
Have an AT relocation! Wonder which
rock pile it's going to take me over now. That's exactly what
they did, they took me up and over the @#!# rock pile they could
find. Now hiking on an old rocky road that could have been an old
logging road which kind of just washed out. Now back into the
weeds and blue berries. I picked a hand full of blueberries
off one little bush and ate them. I just passed two monster
ant hills, I assumed they're red ants. |
|
Simon and I got into George W.
Outerbridge Shelter around 4pm It's been a rough day, I'll
talk to you tomorrow. |
|
Swing'n Jane and
Simon |
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