Hiking, the Community Garden, and a Request

Life is goin' good. Meg is in her third trimester and doing amazing. The photo above was taken about two weeks ago at Rickett's Glen. 

This past weekend we went on a full-moon hike on the AT. On this trip we hooked up with a local AMC hike leader and made the four mile trek to the Pinnacle to watch the moon rise. The weather was beautiful and the view was stunning.

Work on the Community Garden is still going strong. The sketch above is what we may accomplish in the next five years. Right now we're just focused on year one.

This is a sketch of what we may have going in the Spring. I have a detailed look of the hex plot below. What we're looking for is something small with a shit load of wow.

I've started a blog for our project and if you would like to follow our progress and give us your suggestions (please), we'd greatly appreciate it. The new site began as a place to keep the committee updated, but I told them, and they agreed, that our garden would benefit if we could get the input of a larger audience.

For the time being, I will be posting at the new spot more often than here, but I will keep the baby, hiking, and backyard garden updates on the future house.

The Summer so far (part 5)

Three weeks ago Meg and I started taking a class (I'm not really sure why they call it a class) called Five Local Hikes. The "course" is five weeks long and we do exactly what its title says we'll do. We knew there were a boatload of places to hike around here, but maps and info can be pretty hard to come by.

On our second hike, the group leader said something along the lines that some years back, Pennsylvania passed an initiative to ensure there would be a state park within 25 miles of every resident. I haven't done any fact checking to test the validity of what he said, but after three weeks of this class plus what I know about the rest of the state, I think he may be spot on. Pretty cool.

The Loyalsock Link Trail

I think somewhere in Bill Bryson's A Walk in the Woods he mentions something to the fact that he couldn't find a single decent trail map for the PA AT. I would like to extend his aggravation to the Loyalsock (and Link) trails at Worlds End State Park. About two weeks ago a buddy of mine and I went out for a two day trip, and whoa boy, their maps suck.

But all was not lost. Although we got turned around more times than I would like to admit, the weather was sweet and I can't remember the last time I saw so many stars.

I think I like the old trail blazes better.

Lehigh Gap

About a month or so ago, Meg and I went for a hike with a few friends at the Lehigh Gap. We took the AT on the western end of a ridge line and looped back on a blue blaze trail on the eastern side of the mountain. The overall length of our trip was only about seven or eight miles, but the difference between the two sides of the mountain made if feel like we journeyed across two completely different regions.


While we were on the AT, we were tucked into the conifers and the ground on either side of the trail was pretty thick with ferns, brush, mountain laurels, and other kinds of vegetation. When we crossed the ridge, almost all of the trees and other plant life were gone. And the wind, holy shit was there a lot of wind.

A gentleman I work with, who does a great deal hiking in the area, told me about this spot and gave me the low down on the strangeness of the place. Apparently, east of the Lehigh Gap there used to be a zinc plant that bellowed clouds of sulfur dioxide which eventually burnt out the whole side of the mountain (The Lorax anyone?). If you want to read more about what happened, check out this pdf.

Now I'm not completely familiar with the area so I don't know how windy it typically is, but we were completely exposed and it was amazing. We often found ourselves stopping, when the wind got exceptionally strong, to stand facing it with our arms stretched out with the half-childish hope that we could use it to fly. I know that may sound a little hokey, but the experience was very raw and exhilarating.


Sadly, we knew the experience had come at the price of some dirty fuckers doing some dirty things, but the zinc plant is now long gone and efforts of reclamation are beginning to show. So if any of you all find yourself in the Carbon County area, make the time to take a hike.