We hiked this section on March 21, 2009.
We joined the Appalachian Mountain Club (AMC) Delaware Valley Chapter for their hike from the blue blazed Delps Trail to Lehigh Gap. The hike leaders, Roger and Carole, thru-hiked in 1998 just after Roger retired.
Python has been working with a personal trainer named Miyagi (aka Sharon) since December. Once a week Python is subjected to Miyagi's Mind & Muscle Confusion – after one hour the brain is tired and the body has been completely shredded. This hike will be the first real test of the new body.
Dirigo has been working with Body by Rickie for almost 2 months now. He has been beating her up pretty good. Now it was time to see if all that hardwork was worth it.
24 hikers met in the parking lot at Leigh Gap and then we took several cars to the parking lot for the Delps Trail. Since we had such as big group of hikers, we split into two groups – the fast group and the slow group. 14 hikers were in the fast group with Roger and we decided to join the slow group with Carole. The slow group also consisted of Dan, Noel, Dimitri, Lorraine, Tom, Jim & Teddy (dog), and another very tall gentleman.
Dan, Noel, and their sons Dimitri and Benton maintain this section of the trail so we enjoyed hearing about the local history of the trail and how it had been re-routed over time. Benton was in the fast group and he had been featured in the January/February issue of the AT Journeys magazine.
The hike started with a 1.1 mile ascent of the blue blazed Delps trail up the side of Blue Mountain.
Delps Trail
About 20 minutes into the ascent, everyone started to shed layers of clothing. At one point, we climbed about 200 stone steps. We also passed a piped spring that is not always reliable. Dan told us that the spring is also called the Sometimes Schwartz Spring. Python easily ascended the Delps trail and the legs still felt fresh by the time we reached the AT. Dirigo was winded but it was nothing compared to other ascents we have done.
We reached the intersection of the AT and the Delps trail in about 40 minutes. From this point on, the trail was pretty flat and not very rocky. We took a blue blazed trail to a nice overlook of the valley and took a short break. The fast group was just leaving the overlook when we arrived. Just before the overlook, we came upon a big fire ring. Dan told us that people are not suppose to be building fire rings up here and they will have to tear it down. He said each year they build it higher and higher. One year he said “it was taller than he was.” During the break, Carole reminded everyone to drink plenty of fluids.
The AT is very close to the Blue Mountain Ski resort. During part of the hike, we could see snow off to the right and several times we could see skiers coming down the slopes.
During one of our “separations,” Carole found a bunch of trash on the side of the trail. Yep, it does happen!
The slow group caught up to the fast group while they were taking a break. Apparently, one of the hikers in the fast group had fallen and had a nasty cut above his lip and he said his knee was hurting pretty bad. We continued another 10 minutes to another overlook and everyone had lunch on the rocks. Both of us took some vitamin I during lunch because our feet and knees were starting to ache plus we knew the hardest part of the hike was after lunch. Noel and Benton had to leave early because Benton had a horseback riding lesson that afternoon (their car was parked at Little Gap).
The real PA rocks started just after lunchtime and continued until we reached Little Gap. We just took our time and carefully picked our way through the large quartzite rocks.
Python's legs still felt good after descending Little Gap but descending down rocks was hard on the knees. Dirigo enjoyed the descent but wished her feet would stop hurting. At some point during our descent into Little Gap, a member of the fast group joined us because his knees were aching really badly – his name was Girish. He had to slow down on the rocks and decided to stay with us the rest of the hike. Someone offered him some vitamin I but he politely declined. Who refuses vitamin I?
The climb out of Little Gap was pretty easy and once we reached tree line, the landscape changed completely. The land was barren.
It was like a wasteland. Off to the right side of the trail, you could see views of Palmerton.
According to our guide book “The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency closed the Palmerton zinc furnances in 1980 when they could not meet clean air standards and declared the area a Superfund site in 1982.” The trail was littered with small shale-like rocks that easily shifted when you stepped on them. Carole told us that they use to burn the blueberries on top of the mountain and the town people feel that this and the vapors from the zinc was to blame for the look of the mountain.
The trail used to follow the ridge of the mountain but had been recently re-routed. We followed an old road for several miles until our descent into Lehigh Gap.
The descent into Lehigh Gap was a steep 1,000 ft rock scramble!
This was the part that Dirigo was not looking forward to. The rocks were fairly large and stable so we had good footing and plenty of places to hold onto while we steadied ourselves. Once again we took our time and slid on our backsides when necessary.
Dirigo thought it was fun instead of the feeling she thought she might have – scared, heart attack. It was actually pretty fun scrambling on the rocks and Python's legs still felt strong after hiking 10 miles.
Near the end of the descent, we saw 2 members of the fast group waiting for us to help us down the rocks. They took our poles so that we could hold on to an outcropped rock with both of our hands while we slid down to the next rock. Wow, we love PA hikers!
We were elated when we finally reached the bottom of the mountain and joined the rest of the group. Hooray we made it!