Day Two: On foot by Lucas Wessner

I awoke on the second day of the trip to the quiet muffle of highways in the distance and the sun's rays just barely peeking above the horizon. I closed my eyes, for what felt like a second. I opened them again to a bright sun and most of the corps moving about. We heated up some water for oatmeal and cleaned up camp. After refilling our water bottles, our journey on the famous Appalachian Trail had just begun.

The idea of the Appalachian Trail was brainstormed almost a century ago, in the year 1922, by a man named Benton MacKaye. Unfortunately MacKaye died before he could follow through with these ideas. Myron Avery followed up MacKaye, making the construction of the trail possible. Avery became the first to hike on the trail in 1937. The trail stretches from Maine to Georgia, an entire 2,181 miles.

Our trek on the Appalachian Trail began with a brief ascent, before we were cruising along the top of the ridge. To pass the time, we decided to play a few word and spelling games. Several hours and about 9 miles later, we arrived at Bear Rocks for a much needed lunch. Summer sausage and cheddar cheese wrapped in a tortilla hit the spot. With a full stomach, I laid my pad out and relaxed.

After about two hours at Bear Rocks, our trek proceeded. It was another two hours of hiking until we filled up our water bottles for the first time since the morning. We had arrived Blue Mountain Summit Restaurant. We went inside to see two south bound thru hikers we had seen the previous day. The two have hiked 945.3 miles so far. After drinking some raspberry tea and listening to a few of the thru hiker's stories, we went on to hike the last stretch of the day.

After hiking a total of about 18 miles total that day, we arrived at the Allentown shelter. We set up tarps, started a fire, ate our dinners, and spent the rest of the night begging David for gummy worms.





Lucas Wessner

Every Day on the Trail is an Adventure by Skyler Fussner

On day two we woke up at around 8 o'clock and started to boil water for our oatmeal breakfast.  While we were making our meals we saw a few guys pass by that looked like they could be through hikers.  After a warm and filling bowl of oatmeal, we headed out on our 18 mile hike.

Our pace was very fast (4mph) but we kept it up for a long time.  After about an hour or two my shoulder straps started digging into my shoulders and they gave me some real bruises.  By that time, we took a quick break to drink some water and rest. Before heading out I adjusted my pack so it wouldn't dig into my shoulders any more.  As we headed down the trail my pack seamed to be rubbing my hips and it started to become painful.

A few miles later we took another quick drink break at Bake Oven Knob. We headed back out.  A few minutes down the trail, we stopped at Bear Rocks, our destination for lunch.  Lunch was a great break for all of us and gave us a second wind. We ate cheddar cheese and summer bologna wrapped up in tortillas, delicious!  We spent another hour there just relaxing and taking a quick nap. It was very hot that day, but we found some nice notches along side the rock face that were very cool and relaxing.  Just before we headed back out onto the trail, I put some band aids on my feet because I was getting blisters.  Four miles down the trail we came up on route 309.  Here we stopped in at the Blue Mountain Summit restaurant.

As we walked in, we noticed that the guys we saw that morning were inside the restaurant.  As we talked to them, we got some raspberry iced tea and learned that they were in fact through hikers and had started up north in Maine.  They told us stories about how hard it was in the Hundred Mile Wilderness. They also told us about how they got tons of pizza, ice cream, and cake from a lady in New Jersey.  Their stories were very interesting and it was great to listen to them.

The Appalachian Mountains are the oldest mountain chain in North America. The base rocks for the Mountains were formed billions of years ago. The name Appalachian comes from the Apalachee Indians. Many people come to the mountain range as tourists. Every year many people take day hikes on the trail as well as overnight adventures. Many people even try to through hike the entire thing from Maine to Georgia. The Southern terminus of the trail is located at Springer Mountain in Georgia. Mt. Katahdin in Maine marks the Northern terminus.It is a very hard feat to through hike the entire thing because it is about 2180 miles long. This is the reason it was so cool to hear the stories of the through hikers.

Before we left the restaurant, we filled up our water bottles and I readjusted my straps again. As we walked down the trail to our destination for the day, we played word games to pass the time. This time my shoulders and my hips felt great and we were soon at our camp site for the night. For protection from rain we connected two ropes between two trees and put tarps over them. We had no fuel and it was getting late so, we improvised and built a fire. We then boiled a pot of water so we could eat dinner. Lasagna and meat sauce is what most of us had. It was sure great. It was then time to get ready to go to bed. We set up our sleeping pads and changed out of our clothes that were drenched in sweat. It was time to get some rest so we would be ready to do it all again. Every day on the trail you meet new people and it is always an adventure.

Skyler Fussner

Starting off by David Welsh

Waking up painfully at 6:30am, we all stumbled out of our sticky sleeping bags with our hair sticking out in every which way. After packing up our stuff and walking down Schaumbochs Tavern, our eyes lit up at the sight of cheerios and bananas. After a sleepy drive to a drop off point about two miles above Jim Thorpe, and an interview with a stern serious park ranger, we were on our way and in Jim Thorpe in no time.

Walking down the busy streets as five sweaty young men our eyes spotted a restaurant called "Bear Feast".  The worst part of the trip that day was definitely the long twenty minute wait for our food.  Finally, we all sighed with relief as we received our gorgeous looking fries, burgers, chicken wraps, and salads.  After everybody's plate was licked clean, we were off in our canoes again.  Crashing through rapids and passing many playful tour groups.

Hearing thunder chasing us for the last three miles of the canoeing, we hurried.  We arrived at the Lehigh Gap Nature Center to be greeted by Nancy Taras. Right at that moment it started to pour down raining.  Nancy took us inside the Nature Center and warmed us up and fed us with chocolate.  Later on, while making dinner, both of Ryan and Todd's stove malfunctioned and wouldn't work. Luckily, I had brought my own personal stove just in case, we used it to cook the meals until at least one of the stoves had been repaired.  We filled our stomachs on freeze-dryed food and hiked a mile up the trail until we arrived at the shelter.  When we arrived there, we decided to set up shelter somewhere up the trail more, being that there were four bearded sweaty thru-hikers filling up the shelter.  We set up our tarp canopies in a flat grassy area and all laid underneath them, all with the same thought in mind.  "I hope it doesn't rain tonight...."

David Welsh

First Day Out by Liam Baldrige

It was near the end of our day on the river when dark clouds started rolling in.  We weren't sure how long they'd hold up. Luckily, we were notto far from our take out so, we hurried up and finished the last half-mile or so. We got to the shore and met Nancy Taras, a volunteer at the Lehigh Gap Nature Center. Seconds later it started to downpour.  We all loaded into the cars and went to the Nature Center.  Nancy treated us with chocolate and snacks while giving us a tour and a little history.

The Lehigh Gap Nature Center was created in 2002 with the purpose to rejuvenate the land because zinc mines had destroyed most of the natural habitat.  The Lehigh Gap Nature Center is relatively new but has made a substantial difference to the land. Within ten years, this area has changed from a barren rocky area into a developing grassland.  All sorts of new life has sprung up, including many animals and hardwood trees.  This hardwood trees consist of species in the Red and White Oak groups, the Chestnut, birch, and maple.  This forest is called The Appalachian oak forest.  The Chestnut tree was once a dominant species in the Appalachian forest. However, in the early 1900s, the Chestnut Blight, which was a fungus called Cryphonectria parasitica, almost caused the Chestnut tree to become extinct.  At this time new shoots from old stumps develop but the thriving Chestnut forests of earlier times no longer exist.  One new sign of animal life that we spotted was a luna moth caterpillar.  It had a vivid green color to it, it appeared to be basking on a hot rock in the sun.

After our visit to the Nature Center, we had a delicious Mountain House di

nner and headed up the Appalachian Trail for a mile in search of a shelter.  Once reaching the shelter and seeing that it was full, we pulled out our tarps and made a canopy to sleep under.

Liam Baldrige

First Day

After waking up at 6:30 in the morning, packing up our bags, and eating a quick breakfast of Cheerios, we were on our way to Glen Onoko. There we met up with a park ranger and asked him questions about his job, while Todd and Ryan set up the transportation part of the trip. After they came back we set out on the Lehigh. I was riding in the canoe solo for the first time. We had a short 2 mile downstream to Jim Thorpe. I learned how difficult it is to ride solo in a canoe as opposed to being with another person. I was much more unstable traveling through rapids, and it required much more effort to paddle and steer then when you are with a partner. It was a great experience though and taught me more about how to become a better paddler. There is also a greater sense of freedom when you are traveling solo.

In Jim Thorpe we got lunch and explored the historic town. Then continued the last 11 mile river portion of our trip. Along the way we met rafters, kayakers, and more rapids. Storm clouds rolled in as we landed at the Lehigh Valley Nature Center. It seemed as if the storm was waiting for us to get of the water before it unleashed its wrath, because as soon as we did it began to lightning, storm and torrential downpour. We went inside the center and learned about its purpose and history. Eventually the storm subsided and we cooked dinner in the outside pavilion. Then we continued our trek on foot and hiked a mile before setting up camp.

DAY ONE

HMCC is off!  Lehigh Gap Nature Center here we come.  More to follow so tune in!

Just Practice

We arrived tonight and started our preparation right away. We measured and cut rope to specific lengths, and tied them to the four corners of our three different tarps which we will be using to make a makeshift shelter for the following two nights. We decided as a group how much food we would need for the trip per person. We devided breakfast and lunch into two different stuff sacks which were given to two of us to carry along in our packs. The others carried equipment such as stoves, fuel, tarps and rope. We lined our bags with garbage bags to water-proof them . Tomorrow we will painfully be waking up at 6:30 in the morning with bags under our eyes and the thought of how much sleep we would have had if we stayed home. After breakfast we will then be driven down and dropped in the Lehigh River and finishing at the Lehigh Gap Nature center as five starving young men that will gorge ourselves on freez-dried meals and trail mix untill we fall asleep exhausted from our trip, getting more excited for the "real" trip in December. After all, this is just practice.