I just did a short section of the AT in Pa between Lehigh River by Palmerton hiking south to the Hamburg Reservoir. I left the night of 10/24 and finished up the afternoon of 10/26.
After leaving work early I drove and dropped my car off at the Hamburg Reservoir and was picked up by a friend who dropped me off at the trail near Palmerton. Since it was late I only hiked to the George W. Outerbridge shelter to set up before it turned dark. With the weekend temperatures expected to be colder than normal i was not expecting to run across too many people on the trail so I was surprised to run across two people at the shelter. One was a section hiker heading north and the second was a thru hiker finishing up in Port Clinton.
The first night was good except that I did not quite set up the foot end of the hammock quite high enough and I woke up in the middle of the night finding that I migrated towards the foot end a little bit. I was able to try out my new 20* UGQ TQ. It was awesome!
I broke camp and hiked to the Bake Oven Knob shelter for brunch. The weather was cool and windy especially as I crossed over the Northeast Extension tunnel. I found the spring at Bake Oven Knob dry and I had to hike to the New Tripoli Campsite to find water. Knowing that I did not want to stay at this water hole for the night I pushed onto the Allentown Shelter. It was a good 16 mile day and I got to camp in plenty of time to set up and eat before dark. The bad part of this shelter was that the blue spring was dry and I had to hike down to the yellow spring to get water.
I broke camp Saturday morning and headed to Eckville shelter for brunch. I got there just in time as they were getting to winterized and shut off the water to the bathroom due to the colder temperatures. I was originally planning on staying out till Sunday but I covered more miles than I planned and decided to surprise my family with coming home early. I was able to finish out the hike early in the afternoon and be home before dinner.
The springs were not the best in this section but it was an enjoyable trip. Next trip I will take pictures to post.
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