Route 309 to Hawk Mountain Road

Sunday, September 13

Tom, Shannon, Wyatt and Mike

11.5 Miles

About 300 million years ago, Africa and North America collided.  Today, my ankles hurt.  Is there a direct correlation?  Yes.   How so?  Well, I’ll get to that in just a minute.  First, let me tell you about “A Walk In the Woods”.

The new film of the Bill Bryson novel was just released and Mona, Tom, Shannon and Wyatt came into town on Saturday so that we could enjoy dinner and the movie. Joining us (including Hillary) were Cindy and Craig Dunn, and John and Carol Norbeck----colleagues (and their spouses) from DCNR.  Most of the group has spent considerable time on the Trail (Craig actually completed the A.T. and regularly organizes volunteers to keep the Trail in tiptop shape), so watching the Robert Redford/Nick Nolte film adaptation was really enjoyable for us all.   Go see the movie!

On Sunday morning, Mona dropped us off on Route 309, which literally straddles the border of Carbon and Lehigh Counties.  Heading south to Hawk Mountain Road, it’s really a 4-county hike as the Trail also enters into Schuylkill and Berks along the way.  For hikers, note that the elevation remains fairly stable at 1500 feet for the first 8 miles and then drops 1000 feet over the next 3 miles to Hawk Mountain Road.

Perhaps for the first time yet, we passed only one hiker along the entire 11 mile stretch.   (Surprising, as it was a fairly nice day, and because most expect the new A.T. movie to increase Trail traffic.)  Instead of humans, there was an abundance of frogs, some spiders on intricate webs and even a large Luna caterpillar that Wyatt spotted.  I’m guessing we saw mostly Wood frogs, a species abundant in PA forest lands.  You can go here to see the different kinds of frogs and toads found in Pennsylvania: http://www.paherps.com/herps/frogs-toads/

Now back to my ankles.  The trail was wide and level from Rt. 309 to the Allentown Shelter (where we took a nice break and read some hilarious journal entries, like the one posted here). And then, everything changed.   For the remainder of the hike, we climbed rocks, balanced on boulders, and tiptoed across them.  

For this, we can thank the Alleghanian orogeny---the collection of rock outcroppings that form Blue Mountain—which is a result of North America and Africa colliding around 300 million years ago.  When the Blue Mountain ridge was formed, Geologists claim that it was actually taller than the Rockies and the Alps, and maybe even higher than the Himalayas.  Erosion over the past several hundred million years has left us with a 1500 foot high ridge, many layers of exposed rocks, and sore feet.   You can find out more about the geologic history here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alleghanian_orogeny

 

Thankfully, Mona was waiting when we arrived at Hawk Mountain road.  The boots came off and we were taken back to civilization and flat Earth!

51 miles, or so, to go in Pennsylvania.