Friday, July 31, 2009

Where zinc grommets used to come from...

We spent a good amount of time hiking in Pennsylvania - known for it's horrendous rocks. We've been hearing about these rocks since day 1 - actually since before ever hiking I had heard about these notorious. But just to clarify - the rocks are only the last 25% of the trail. Most of PA in my opinion was nice, flat, easy - what VA was rumored to be (a false rumor).

If anyone has ever read A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson, you've read about the beauty of Lehigh's Gap. The mountains in the surrounding area of Palmerton, PA are completey naked - stripped bare to it's rocky core...no trees, no plant life, just rocks. And maybe a couple flies. The mountains in the area, including Lehigh's Gap, used to be part of a zinc smelting industry. Since then, the EPA has provided funding to regrow what was lost using seed infested sludge...there's a little more to it than this, and I'm sure wikipedia or some online source can give more info about it...

The 2 pics below is after the Superfund went into the area...so the space between the rocks have been filled in and that is why there are flowers and grass and such. We did hike along this ridge 10+ miles and at least a 4 mile section which is currently getting superfunded is still bare on top, minus the rocks. It's weird.


Pyrofly hiking up the treeless Lehigh's Gap. This gap is known for it's exceptional heat during the summer, but thus far summer has been unexpectedly cool (I'm sure August will change that). Anyway, I was rather surprised at how much a enjoyed this gap and the surrounding exposed areas...makes me excited about being above treeline in VT and NH. It's a nice distraction from steep inclines to constantly having beautiful scenery around you that you can actually see.
The town of Palmerton is visible peeking out the side of the mountain at the top right of the photo below. This town was a very pleasant surprise. We ended up hiking a 25 mile day and weren't planning on going into town. Some of the friendliest people so far on the trail...and for some reason the layout of the town sorta felt like we were in a small coastal town in FL. Pyro ordered Scrapple for breakfast one morning...the pride of PA - something like a homemade gooey Spam product made of the rest of the pig not used for bacon or pork chops. pleasant. really pleasant. i tried a baby bite and that was enough for me.
The town provides a place for hikers to sleep for the night in the old police station (below is a pic of The Jailhouse - the name of the hostel). There were also showers in the old courthouse that still used the same water pressure before efficient, environmentally friendly shower faucets came about...it was a nice HOT shower!

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