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View Full Version : Port Clinton – Palmerton Weekend Hike



kolokolo
07-30-2013, 21:33
I’m finished with Pennsylvania! I hiked the last section this past weekend with a buddy, and I’ve got to say that it was the rockiest section in a rocky state.
I had the Port Clinton to Palmerton section to do, and it’s a long weekend hike, being 40 miles. I’m kind of a high mileage hiker, but I wanted to give it 3 days. I’m from Northeast Ohio, so it took about 6 hours to drive to Palmerton, where my friend and I had lunch. I parked the car at the West end of the Lehigh River bridge, and our shuttler, Janet, picked us up there. We had a pretty good conversation during the half hour drive to Port Clinton. Janet dropped us off at the parking lot on route 61 where I had ended a previous section, and we headed down the stairs on a blue blaze to the AT. It was about 2:00 PM when we got underway.
The first part of the hike NB is along the Schuykill river, then a pretty good climb up about 1000 feet. It was a sunny day, not too hot, but we were sweating by the time we got to the top. Some smaller ups and downs, and after a couple of hours we arrived at Windsor Furnace and the Windsor Furnace shelter. I had thought about staying here for the night, but it was only about 4:30, so we pushed on.
The view at the Pulpit was clear and we could see for miles! There was a young couple there taking in the scenery, and I remember the woman complained about an ant that was crawling on her leg. We later found out that there were a couple of copperheads sunning on the rocks there earlier in the day. I wonder what she would have thought of that!
We pushed on and arrived at the Pinnacle a little before 6. Another stunning view. I got some great pictures, and wandered over to check out the small buildings nearby. I was surprised to find out that there was an amateur astronomical society that had an observatory there (it’s a great place for one). It was just past 6, and with 5 to 6 miles to go we knew that we might have to hike past sunset if we wanted to make it to the next shelter.
It was pretty rocky at first as we left the Pinnacle, but then the trail joined an old woods road and the going was fast and smooth. After a while, we stopped for a quick water break, and I could see a figure a few hundred yards behind us. We stopped again a few minutes later to put on headlamps as it got dark, and Ridgerunner, a NB through hiker, passed us. She was also headed for the Eckville shelter, and we soon lost sight of her as she pressed ahead.
It was dark when we got to Hawk Mountain Road, and the Eckville shelter a few hundred yards to the right. What a beautiful place! It is clear that the caretaker has a lot of pride in the upkeep and maintenance of the shelter area. I really appreciated the running water, shower, etc. It was dark by the time we got there, so we cooked a quick dinner and quietly went to bed.
Saturday we were on the trail by about 8, and it was rocky! Sometimes it seemed like we were following a river of rocks (just rocks, no water) through the forest. We stopped for lunch at the Allentown Shelter, and then hiked on.
I generally liked the trail in PA, but there were a couple of places where I thought the rote was poorly chosen. One of these places was called “The Cliffs” (I think) in my guidebook, and was referred to as “Knife Edge” on my map. I thought that this section was needlessly dangerous, and was more rock climbing than hiking. I think a better route for a hiking trail would avoid this formation. IMHO.
We encountered some men doing trail maintenance as we passed Bear Rocks. After thanking them for their work, we continued on to Bake Oven Knob shelter. It was an ok place, and we had our own private little camp area up the hill from the shelter. But getting water was a real pain! There are 3 springs, at increasing distance downhill from the shelter. Springs 1 and 2 were dry, and it must have been a half mile downhill to spring 3 (at least it felt like it!)
We ate dinner and decided to be in the sack by dark. Funny how things work out, because it started to rain right at dusk. It rained most of the night, and was sprinkling off and on in the morning. When I got up, I overheard someone in another group saying that the hard rain would start in about two hours, so we ate quickly and packed up our stuff.
Just as we hit the trail the rain picked up, and about an hour later it was really coming down. It increased over the next hour or so, but we had 7.4 miles to the car, and were determined to get there as quickly as possible. We had to negotiate a couple of rocky sections in the rain, but after a while it stopped. By about 10, we were at the Outerbridge shelter, and had less than a mile to go.
We completed our hike by about 10:30, and were home in Ohio for dinner that night. We both enjoyed the hike very much, and are making plans for another section this Fall, probably in Virginia.