TripReport: Too drunk to see ghosts on the PA AT

“I just got home. I had to make a stop in Reading to see family.

I had an absolute blast of a time! Last night was a great trail party and today's hike was outstanding.

I am working on the TR and I will have some pics to post as well. The fall colors are late this year in Pennsylvania. THe trees are still predominately green in southern PA, but we fortunately had some good color in the mountains and the Gap looked great.”

“It was a nice time despite long sections of rocky terrain. Great trail party along with a nice bonfire. No rain and cool temperatures, but constant wind the whole weekend. It was funny to see everyone get chased around the campfire from windblown sparks yelling "fire in the hole".”

“Yeah guys it was a lot of fun. As CrazyPace put it, the friday night festivities, Saturday night, and the first ever after hike brunch, were all awesome. The trail, not that great. HAHAHA!”

“Yes, the trail wasn't one I'd plan on hiking again, still another great TT trip. All I remember about some sections of the hike was looking at the ground trying not to trip over endless rocks.
last edited: 10/30/05 7:51:14 PM”

“I'm right there with you Rich. You look up for more than two strides, you're on your face. My feet are not at all happy with me.”

“Crazy man, crazy. I'll have to post some pictures...”

“Oh yeah, and congrats to ENS on his completion of the AT in Pennsylvania. May all your future hiking endeavors steer you clear of those rocks from hell found on the Kirkridge section of the AT between Wind Gap and Delaware Water Gap...

(My legs are so sore right now...)”

“Hike ? I dont recall no stinking hike. All I remember was "fire in the hole" and "man down" along with "we drank all the beer"

Ps: the final # for beers killed was 49. My recycle bin exhibits an overflow condition.”

“ENS should go for completion of the West Virginia section of the AT now!!!

You'll have to train up for that, dude!!”

“Friday October 28th

Phantom Soul, Ox and I met Crazypace at his estate in Lehigh Gap, PA. We immediately commenced to beer pounding. WE ate lots of horsraddish cheddar and ring bologne (we were in PA Dutch Country and the stuff is good). The only thing that was missing was Pennsylvania Schnaps and potato salad, but the beer Ox, Phantom and CP supplied more than made up for the absense of Dutch culture.

We attempted a game of pool and I'm not even sure who won, but somewhere during the game, someone turned on the TV and put in The Big Lebowski and all attention deviated from the pool game to the movie. We then were reduced to laughing drunkin fools until we noticed Phantom Soul was passed out still holding his beer.

It was after twelve so we all decided to crash for the night.

Saturday morning.

We packed the cooler full of beers and loaded up the gear, along with the cooler into the vehicles and then shuttled, dropping the beer cart near our campsite 3/4 of a mile north of PA 191.

We then met Pennsy and RichB in Water Gap and shuttled back to PA 33 trailhead in WInd Gap.

Commence Hike: Forward March:

We geared up at the Wind Gap trailhead and were on the trail by 10am. After a 600 foot steep rise to ridge of Blue Mountain, the going was fairly level with the exception of a few minor rocks here and there....

errrrr, I mean every where... errrr I mean, you barely ever touched soil and they were the pointy kind that are like daggers through the most rugged of boot soles. Still we hiked on, and we maintained an agressive pace of more than 3 miles per hour. We soon found ourselves Wolf Rocks, which was a pretty cool narrow and long rock outcropping. It offered a weak view to the north, but the rock formations were cool and we got to do some minor scrambling.

The fall colors, which have been fairly weak in southern PA, were nice in the mountains.
To our surprise we found ourselves at PA 191 at 1:45. We only had 3/4 of a mile left to hike.

Ox and Crazypace drove the beer cart up the driveway to Nelson's Lodge which would get the cooler to with in a 1/4 mile of our campsot at Nelson's view. The rest of us stayed on the trail and hiked past the Kirkridge Shelter, which was empty at the time and onto the grassy and open Nelson's view. It was windy, but the view was very nice and looked south towards Easton.”

“pics anyone? anyone?”

“Saturday afternoon and night:

Ox and Crazypace strolled into camp shortly there after, complete with cooler of beer. We set up our camp and then Crazypace, Phantom Soul and myself headed down into Bangor, PA for some grub. We were also going to see if we could find some fire would. Pennsy, Ox and RichB opted to remain in camp.

After some cheesesteaks in Bangor we returned to camp sans firewood, since there was none for sale in town, but to our surprise, Pennsy and RichB had 4 huge piles of firewood and a fire going upon our return. Ox was fast asleep in his new Mountain Hardware tent.

It was around 4 and we had nothing to do other than drink ourselves silly and that is precisely what we did.

The beer that Ox brought was 11% alchohal and had clever names like Blithering Idiot and Biatch Brew. The rasberry was the best! The appricott was good too. It turns out that the beer was brewed in Pennsy's hometown of Easton.

The wind was strong and kept us all on guard since it was flaring up the fire constantly and blowing smoke around. We talked and laughed our asses off in drunkin debochery until about 11 when we noticed Phantom Soul was once again passed out. We decided that it was a proper signal to go to bed.

I saw a mediorite, but no one believed me. We all made fun of Pennsy's down booties, but he didn't flinch because his feet were warmer than ours. I also finally got to use my whitegas MSR wisperlite.”

“I did this stretch in the spring and we hiked in from 191 to stash beer near Kirkridge. It's a good plan :-)”

“

this is the only pic I have up so far. This is a photo of the cooler full of empties right before everyone finally called it a night!”

“Ihave Sunday's TR yet to post, but I must return to my dayjob. I should have pics up tonight.

Nogranola, we ascertained that Nelson's view should be the site of the next DF.”

“It's a great spot as long as there's no hiking involved . . . bring your hang gliders kiddies!”

“Glad ya'll had fun! I was family camping this weekend in Harper's Ferry. Since that was the last family camping trip of the season I might finally get out to join you guys soon.

Hope the hangover fairy was nice to you the next day.”

“Good work on the TR. Nice evil little bit of AT. Glad you like our neighborhood. We brew good beer out here too, huh? ;)

Looking forward to the rest of the story.”

“To say that to 4 drunk people while your drunk is the equivalent to seeing a pink elephant with a backpack walking by.

Also: He skipped the part about the boy scout
who scared the $itz out of him by hidding next to the cooler, then jumping out when he went for a beer. Which we all agreed wasnt a good idea considering our condition. Because as we all know, Boy scouts make good firewood!”

“they were probably stealing our beer”

“C'mon ENS, You know I'm not one to bring regular beer. Without me who is going to culture you in the ways of a good beer? Someone has to do it, and I have the credentials.*



*Flying Saucer Nashville, Wall of Fame #57
http://www.beerknurd.com/media/pdf/beerlist_7.pdf

Ahhhh, I miss that place
last edited: 10/31/05 1:56:04 PM”

“an dhen?”

“WTF is a "mediorite" ??”

“Its like a misspelled ball falling from the sky”

“Nice report - glad y'all had some fun and some good beer (as well as that fruit flavored crap - lol!).”

“Congrats ENS...and belated congrats to Crazy Pace on his completion, too (I'm only a couple of weeks behind, sorry about that) :)

Sounds like a fun way to finish up the PA AT and good beer choices!”

“Huh, she got a weak behind??”

“I've got a pair and I wore them this weekend about the house. You fools can laugh all you want but I'm backing Pennsy on this one. Down booties kick some super-serious ass.”

“NG, Are yours feathered friends, which is what Pennsy has? It wasn't so much the booties themselves as the colors involved, and how the colors are opposite on each of his booties”

“Its not that fact he had down booties. Its the color choice he made. Pictures have been taken. When you see the pic's you might not want to use the word's "backing Pennsy" or
"super-serious ass".”

“Ahhhhh! Mine are just plain blue SD booties . . . and I believe Pennsy's super-serious ass was backed down by the fish damn below the CKT trailhead so no worries there ;-)”

“ok. so there WAS hiking involved.

sounds (and i mean it literally sounds...i saved the voice mail) like you guys had a whopper of a trip!! :)”

“Sunday Morning:

So Saturday night we went to bed before 11PM, since it was daylight savings time, it was really before 9PM, but we were all in a drunkin oblivion at this point and it had seemed liek we had been in camp for hours upon hours since we got to camp before 2pm.

So we all sacked out fairly early Saturday night. I was the first to wake up that morning. I crawled out of my bivy sack at 6am right as the red glow from the sun was starting to color the eastern horizon.

The wind was still whipping and swirling. All was otherwise quient in camp nelson view.

I went down to the edge of the look out and watched the sun rise. About 7am everyone else started to emerge from their respective tents and shelters.

We all packed up. I lugged the cooler of empties back to Crazypace's truck and we then set up on a northerly course on the AT towards Watergap.

This particular stretch of trail was alot nicer than the prior section. There were more views and the views were better and there was less rock. Much of the rock was slab, so it made for easy scrambling.

The first view was Lunch Rocks, which provides a nice view to the north and overlooks the ridge as it rises up towards Mt. Minsi. I really enjoyed that vista, probably one of my favorites on the entire PA AT.

Shortly after that, we dropped down into Tott's Gap and then started the long lungbuster climb to Mt. Minsi. It's not a hard climb, but it's enough to warm you up in the morning.

We stopped at all the views on Mt. Minsi and took a break at the vista that overlooks the gap and then descended down towards the trailhead in Watergap.

The trail descent starts off steep and then grades out when you get towards the bottom.

There are a few more vistas on the descent that look up at Minsi and Tammany (NJ side) and then down into the gorge. All very nice views.

Towards the bottom is a small cascade on Eureka Run. The cascade was flanked by rhodes and looked very pretty with the fallen leaves resting on the rocks. I stopped and enjoyed that scene for a while.

At the trailhead was another pretty scene. There is a small shallow pond full of lilly pads and surrounded by color trees. It was a very nice way to finish the hike.

I walked out into the parking lot and that meant that had finished the entire 234 mile Appalachian Trail in Pennsylvania. That was a pretty cool feeling. I worked hard on that this year. Crazypace, Pennsy, Ox and Phantom Soul were huge in helping me get that done. Especially Crazypace. He and I spent many weekends this summer chalking up sections of the trail, lots of times in the broiling heat!

There were some funny stories and memories that came out of those weekends, like the attack of the mosquitos and the Roast Your Ass Off Trip with the 110 degree heat index.

Or the night that Pennsy got drunk on cigar smoke in Caledonia.

We had our post hike dinner at the Water Gap diner and then said our good byes. Did the final shuttles and parted ways.

Everyone hated those pain in the ass dagger rocks in the windgap section, but I think everyone had fun on this trip. I know I really did. I think I laughed my ass off more on this trip than any trip this year. That campsite was really nice too. I also enjoyed the hike inspite of the rocks.

pics to come soon”

“I second it. By far the most fun had on a trip this year.”

“NO an den! No an den! or at least no more hiking the Wind Gap to 191 section. 3 times the charm for me. Yes, this trip was an absolute blast and I'm proud of ENS for finishing Pa, but I really really mean it when I say I won't do that section again. Don't I?

I loved that Weyerbacher, especially Blithering Idiot because it's soo me, and I can't believe the brewery is only 3 blocks from my home. Who'da thunk? Thanks for the beer Ox, but you still suck.

"and I believe Pennsy's super-serious ass was backed down by the fish damn below the CKT trailhead so no worries there ;-)”
- nogranola

Woah, that's just wrong granola boy. That really hurt (no pun intended).


Yammy saved the voice mail? Rut Ro!!”

“Hey, at least I'm with you on the booties. Ugly is ugly . . . but who cares as long as your feet are toasty warm?”

“plus they are not ugly at all. They're just a bunch of jealous bastards.”

“Knowing the value of high fashion, full function gear I guess I can't really blame them :-)”

“Wait till the pic's.


an den,”

“i recongize, Magic Hat #9, mmmmm apricot”

“I got the Feast of Fools variety pack from Magic Hat Breweries. The Weyerbacher was something called The Strongman Variety pack. The alcohol content on all of them was at least 8% with Blithering Idiot being the highest at 11%. I love good beer”

“Sounds like a lot of fun!!! I so need to get back on the trail before I go crazy!!! Down Booties are awesome,just don't get them in yellow or everyone will call you big bird, right LT? ;-), Pennsy also has down socks, how cool is that?”

“Here are my pics...

http://community.webshots.com/album/492632754LuXPXR”

“this is why everyone complains about PA and particularly the section from Windgap to Kirkridge.
http://community.webshots.com/photo/492653545/492653545RzgDvn”

“Where's the Pennsy bootie pics ?”

“I have to post mine tonight”

“Hey ENS, congrats to both you and CrazyPace for completing the PA segment!!”

“I'm starting to worry about Crazypace's infatuation with my booty.

Sweet pics Ox! Ok, you don't suck (for now).”

“Great Pics ENS. Looks like you guys had a blast.”

“Nice pictures and trip reports.”