[at-l] My trip report, again...By FJM

[athiker at smithville.net (Felix)]

(Here's what I had saved before the rest of this trip report was lost in cyber-
nothingness)


Well, as you may or may not know, Pilot and I did a little section-hiking last 
week in PA. Here is some of the stuff I remember about it. (Part of the beauty 
of getting older is that as your memory deteriorates, your imagination improves)

We left home Sunday evening, 12/4, after further review revealed that Denver 
did not, in fact, achieve a muchly needed first down. We drove through the 
night, stopping occasionally to sleep in rest areas and seedy parts of towns. 

We stopped at the Port Clinton P.O. to mail ourselves our maildrops...to the 
Port Clinton P.O. The woman clerk weighed my box and charged me $4.62 to turn 
around and sit the box on the floor in the exact spot it would remain until I 
was to pick it up some days later. I was able to talk her into a '2 for 1' 
deal, however. Was still worth it. 

We headed on to Delaware Water Gap, arriving at the parking lot a little before 
noon. After many minutes of preparations, we headed up the side-street trail. 
It was crisp and cool; mid- to upper 20's. Slightly overcast. 

The small road that takes cars to the little parking lot for Lake Lenape was a 
sheet of ice and had one car sitting sideways, half on the road, half in the 
ditch. From this point on, it is possible that we had less than two hundred 
total feet of hiking that weren't on snow or ice. Those two hundred feet were 
at road crossings and a muddy/boggy area. 

The hike up Mt. Minsi was very pleasant. Nice wintertime scenery across the 
river made early-hike pack adjustments worthwhile. Once on the 'summit' of Mt. 
Minsi, we took a quick break and started our first ridge walk. We made it to 
Kirkridge Shelter just before 2:30 and were proud of our nearly-mile-an-hour 
pace on icy snow with full packs.

After finding out that the water source for the shelter was a spigot that was 
now probably laying in someone's garage a long way from where we needed it to 
be, we had to carefully plan our evening's dinner and the next morning's 
breakfast. I had less than a liter of water and a half liter of soy milk. Pilot 
had a litle more than a half liter of water, but was soyless. 

For dinner, I had something that I am really excited about; the right size 
serving of Betty Crocker AuGratin potatoes!! They are now packaging my favorite 
hiking food in 2.5 serving foil envelopes instead of 5 serving 'have to break 
it down' boxes. I could never eat a whole bag of them and was always having to 
carry some with me. The 2.5 servings is just right to allow for proper 
desserting. I digress.

After dinner, I read parts of the USA Today I'd taken for that purpose. It was 
cold, upper teens, when we went to sleep, still tired from the overnight drive. 
I found the football game (Eagles-Seahawks) on the radio of my iRiver, but fell 
asleep before the kickoff. I woke at 2:28. 

When I woke up in the morning (Tuesday), I had a tinge of what I believe to be 
a Gingivitis headache. (A by-product of being a once-a-week brusher? Perhaps) 
It wasn't horrible, but was nagging all the same. As we made breakfast, the sun 
began to rise from behind a mountain across the valley. It was nice to see the 
orange orb glowing. It was nice, indeed. 

An insertion that must, at this moment, be made: I am CRAZY about my 
Antigravity Gear alcohol stove!! It burned perfectly the entire trip. (This 
isn't entirely true. It burned perfectly when I wanted it to. The rest of the 
trip, it was snuggly tucked away.) The only problem I ever had lighting it was 
because my lighter was frozen. It didn't even seem to take any longer 
to 'blossom' in the cold temps. Alright...back to the report.

We left the shelter in 20? air with sun shinin' through it. There was no wind 
and it was quite pleasant. Pilot had no water and I had less than a cup. (an 8-
oz. cup...not a coffee-maker 6-oz. cup.) When it's cold, though, you don't need 
as much water. 

About half-an-hour after we left the shelter we encountered our second orange 
orb of the morning. We ran into a roly-poly deer hunter dressed, head to toe, 
in blaze orange. He was a pleasant enough guy. He looked at my bare legs and 
hatless head and asked "Aren't you cold?" I explained that I was "...too dumb 
to feel pain" and told him that with no wind, it really isn't that bad in 
shorts. 

He told us there was a spring that we couldn't miss by the side of the trail. 
Boy, was he wrong. Either there was no spring, or we DID miss it. I think it 
was the former, though. 

As we hiked on, my headache got more noticeable and the pounding louder. We got 
to Wind Gap and went to the Gateway Motel where the woman there gave us water. 
That was nice of her. 

After we left the motel and started the climb out of Wind Gap, my headache was 
nearly debilitating. 

-- 
Felix J. McGillicuddy
ME-->GA '98
"Your Move"
http://Felixhikes.tripod.com