This is 'Samus', formerly (before Mt. Rogers) know as 'Silent Sam', whom I met today (Friday, April 27th) at the Bake Oven Knob shelter. Samus was number 7 to register this year at Harpers Ferry, and he says he's passed two of those since. But he's the first thru-hiker I've been able to identify as such since flipping north to PA. Yay! He left Springer Feb 28th and hopes to hit Katahdin in mid-June. Good luck, 'Samus'!
For the full report from today, time restrictions force me to once again copy and paste from my personal journal, with hopes I'll be able to insert photos. In any case all 31 selected photos taken today appear on my Every Trail link.
***********From my personal journal**************
Lehigh Gap parking
area. There I got ready for hiking; and
I was on the trail at about 7AM but the parking lot was not making me feel
comfortable. There was only one car
there and it was the same one I had seen when I scouted the lot after midnight
(despite the sign saying the area is closed overnight). And there was a creepy looking guy sitting in
the car, hood of a sweatshirt over his head, just sitting – didn’t do much of anything. As I started hiking, I quickly came into view
of the highway and bridge over the Lehigh River below and saw a gravel space at
the intersection on the east end of the bridge.
So I aborted my hike, returned to my vehicle and moved it there. But then I got uncomfortable with that lot
because there were two mailboxes beside the road and a walkway up from an
adjacent house, and the only vehicles parked there seemed to be associated with
the house. Still I did a short out and
back both ways from there, first back up to the lot where the creepy guy was
still sitting in his car, then the other way across the bridge where I found a small gravel
parking area that looked perfect, right where the AT starts the climb up the
south face of the gap and adjacent but distinctly separate from a private
driveway. So I returned to my steel tent and
moved it there.
Finally it was after 8AM
when I started up the hill southbound. I climbed to
Outerbridge Shelter, a very rustic old one, built in the 1930’s, the front of
which is literally on the trail. I
signed the register and moved on up the mountain, making various stops for
clothing adjustments as it was a windy day with cold air moving in. On the warm sunny wind-shadow side of the
mountain I was warm, but needed all my layers and my hood once I got to the
exposed top where the vegetation is recovering from the effects of the Palmerton
zinc smelting operations. The smelters
continued to operate even as all the vegetation on the surrounding slopes and
ridges completely died off down to bare rock and soil. Now the recovering ridge I crossed today is
remarkably pretty with clumps of trees returning but still many open vistas
where only low shrubs including tons of blueberry bushes and mountain laurel are
thriving.
I took my time through this
couple miles of very different, very pretty ridge top both to enjoy the views
and because the trail was fairly rocky.
Eventually I was back in the woods and walked a more than one mile long
arrow-straight section from a county line monument, along the boundary to near
Ashfield Road. There I met Laurie,
Husband and Elf for the third day in a row.
They were taking a rest under a tree beside the Road. We had a nice chat again and I took a photo
and Laurie, who seems a shutter bug, took lots of them.
Beyond Ashfield Road the serious big rock hit
me for the first time – a fairly short intense section through a power line
clearing. Then it let up partially for a
while. In this section I found a rock
right on the trail with the characteristic quartz striations running like lines
through dark rock – today’s hike seemed the epicenter of this distinctive rock
type, and the particular specimen I found had a very good natural AT logo in
it. Best of all the rock was of
manageable size – less than ten pounds.
I stowed it and marked the waypoint, so I could pick it up and carry it
back on the way ‘home’ – about 4.5 miles of carrying that rock.
On I went through more semi-rocky trail, then
a long very rocky stretch, 0.4 miles, through outcrops with no views. Another break from rock was fairly short and
included the section where Bake Oven Knob shelter is located. I stopped in and took a photo and signed the
register as usual. As I was sitting at
the picnic table with the register a hiker came in and sat down and dug a snack
out of his pack. “You’re Seeks It?” he
asked as he saw me sign the register. He’d
seen my entries farther south. We got to
chatting and I learned that he is a thru-hiker – the first I’ve encountered
since starting my leg north. ‘Samus’
formerly ‘Silent Sam’ (he changed trail names in the Grayson Highlands area)
started in Springer on February 28th. That means I should have encountered him
somewhere along the trail down south, but apparently we missed each other. He said he was the seventh to register at
Harpers Ferry, and now the fifth on the trail, as he had passed two of
them. I had been noting register entries
from two thru-hikers – T-Bone and Tolstoy.
He knew of Tolstoy, but T-Bone (came thru here March 15th)
was too far ahead.
****************End-o-Journal entry*************
Here's my walk plotted on a map and a link to the 31 photos, as promised.
EveryTrail - Find the best Hiking in Pennsylvania
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