View Full Version : Section Port Clinton PA to Rt 309 PA 3 or 4 days?
eabyrd1506
08-11-2016, 13:19
The section is ~ 27 miles so that says 3 but I want to add a loop through the Hawk Mountain Sanctuary so now I'm thinking 4 broken up like this.
Day 0 - Drop Car @ 309 Drive to Port Clinton, Camp in town
Day 1 - Port Clinton to Hamburg (Windsor Furnace) ~ 7 miles
Day 2 - Hamburg to Eckville via the Pinnacle ~ 10 miles (nice shelter to look forward to by all accounts
Day 3 - Eckville to a point north of where the Hawk Mountain reserve connector joins ~ 10 miles (The Hawk Mountain Skyline trail is [to me] tough going so I doubt I'll go much further north after reconnecting to the AT.
Day 4 - Hike out to 309 < 10 miles, have lunch / dinner at the restaurant there and drive home to Coatesville via PC.
Targeting the first weekend in October (3-day school holiday). Figure temps 60s over 40s.
Another option if I can't get mom to allow daughter to take an extra day off school for an "educational adventure" is to start at Hamburg.
Thoughts on the schedule?
Thanks in advance
Ed
Looks OK, depending on your daughter's age. From Port Clinton northward is where the rocks rule the trail.
I would say shoot for three days. This is not a real hard section but it will start to get rocky towards the end. I did not care for the section from the Pinnacle to Eckville shelter. It was what looked like a fire service road and easy but boring walking, at least to me. The Eckville shelter is nice but I prefer not to stay right along a road. I rarely stop and stay at a shelter for the night but this was a good one to stop Ned relax at. The toilet there is nice also.
You might want to think about reversing your route. That way you would have to only hike up one "larger" incline instead of the three headed north.
eabyrd1506
08-11-2016, 20:19
Hey hang. How would you slice it into 3. I think PC to Sackville at about 16 miles is beyond my current capacity
Only you know what your capacity is. If you look to stay at shelters this restricts your daily mileage. This section does have a lot of camping spots outside of the shelter areas so you should not have a problem with finding camping spots outside of the shelters if you want a couple of extra miles per day. Except towards the end of your hike and between the Pulpiit and Pinnacle that section of the trail is pretty smooth and you tend to do more mileage than you anticipated. I would try to hike just past the Pinnacle the first day. The second day you could reach around Dan's Pulpit with your side hike to Hawk Mountain and finish up on the third day. With you living so close to Hawk Mountain you could make it there almost anytime and spend more time up there without having to carry your pack along while scrambling on the trails around there.
Since you live so close you night want to hike the Pulpit Pinnacle loop hike one day to see how long that takes you. I believe this is close to a 10 mile hike. You should be able to increase your mileage from what you do in this section because a majority of this section is better than what you will experience here.
Only you know what mileage is comfortable for you. Don't push yourself based on what I said. I just believe that this section can be archived in 3 vs 4 days. I just know when I hiked the section between Lehigh River and Hamburg that it did not take the extra day that I thought that is would.
eabyrd1506
08-12-2016, 11:48
Hi Again Hanger - I've done the Windsor Furnace loop past pulpit and pinnacle a couple times (came back down the Furnace Creek trail both times) and I thought that there was no camping anywhere within the watershed area (which is about ~9 miles around the loop to Eckville). Maybe I'm wrong there I could call it anywhere west of Pinnacle. I'll dig deeper. Thanks
Rain Man
08-12-2016, 17:15
If you'd like to see some photos of that stretch, it's a part of my longer section covered by this photo album--
Photo Album Swatara Gap to Delaware Water Gap (http://www.meetup.com/NashvilleBackpacker/photos/all_photos/?photoAlbumId=14427972)
capehiker
08-12-2016, 19:00
You picked a great time to hike that section! I have done it during that time frame often. I just want to add that the six miles from the Pinnacle to Eckville is on a service road going down. You can cover it very quickly.
Factor in your planning that there are camping restrictions in the whole area around the Pinnacle in spite of what you may see there.
see http://www.whiteblaze.net/forum/showthread.php/83004-Camping-at-the-Pinnacle