Hike #817; Lambs Gap to Duncannon

Hike #817; Lambs Gap to Duncannon

12/14/14 Lambs Gap to Duncannon with Gregg Hudis, Jen Berndt, Justin Gurbisz, Julie Strohmaier, Daniel Yu, Bridgitte Benedict, Liam "Tubby" ?, Maria ?, and Matt Beckius.

The group near Miller's Gap on the AT

Our next hike would be a point to point in the area of Duncannon PA, following the Appalachian and Darlington Trails in the ridges and valleys just to the south and west of the town. This would be yet another very important connection to me for the hikes, as it connected about 100 miles we'd explored backpacking in September with the other 13,000 plus miles of connective hikes to the east.

This hike would be the furthest continuous west I've ever one on the connected, but with the connection of this from where I left off in Duncannon a month prior and the backpacking trip, the furthest west would now be Shippensburg PA.

This had been a tiring but also thought provoking weekend for me. On Friday, Jillane and I went to NY City to visit our friend Jeff who was visiting from Utah. We wandered the city and saw some sights, only to get home pretty late. On Saturday, my old buddy Jason Aquino married Cindy Carbonaro. I'd been friends with "Quino" since I believe 1994, and I'd really been looking forward to attending his wedding.

When there, I caught up with some great old friends including "Bill Bill" Jacqmein, Andrew Hughes, and Brian "Salad" Julius, among many others. While standing around talking, I was told by some of these friends that they considered to be the most successful of our group. This just blew me away. Sure, I'm happy with my life overall, but that is quite a bold statement. So many of my friends have things that I do not; they're home owners, have high paying jobs, good cars, and families. I'm not jealous, but rather very happy for all of them.

In my time alone, I began to consider what the true meaning of "success" is. While talking, my friends were happy for me, because I host a non profit, have a good job with state park service, hold the title of Chairman of Warren County Board of Recreation. It was much the same way that I am happy for them. I pictured each of my friends who stood in that circle with me, each one of us smiling and enjoying each other's company after all these years. We are indeed all successful in our own ways.

As I was driving, I found a napkin on which I would write my thoughts on what success truly is.

• To be free of the envy of others
• To be happy with what we have
• To fight for the things we want
• To achieve the things we need
• To feel empathy
• To feel gratitude
  
• To love
• To be loved

During the course of this hike, I made a new friend in Matt Beckius, the only newcomer this time. He had been a part of Appalachian Mountain Club and knows my long time friend Rich Pace. We of course covered the topic of my expulsion from that organization, which led to the topic of their annual high mileage awards. I considered how so many might consider themselves a success for achieving this award, and during my tenure with AMC I took the award every year. Still, it was not something I strove to receive,unlike so many other chapter members. It seemed to me that an award for simply doing what I love, and what I had always done prior to my membership in that club, was just an added bonus. Or was it?

My taking of the award came at no additional effort on my part, but it caused me grief because other members who wanted it sought out ways to usurp that position of supposed grandeur. Differences in direction, mainly because I am not very "by the book" eventually led to my departure from that group, and the quality of the hikes vastly improved, in my opinion. The culmination of the group to the size and quality it is now is a success, because I see it as such. Whether or not something is a success boils down to how we interpret it personally.

I met my group in Duncannon, on Anne Street, where we'd finished the last hike, then shuttled toward our beginning point. Justin, Jen, Julie, and I carpooled with Gregg, and so we had to use his car to reach the start point as well. My plan was the shuttle to the current eastern terminus of the Darlington Trail on Blue Mountain, at a parking area for State Game Lands 170.

The distance between where my backpack with Jillane began in September and where we last left off in Duncannon was only about 11 or so miles, so I decided to tack on a section of the Darlington Trail to the beginning, which I'd also been wanting to do.

The Darlington Trail is a very historic trail that pre-dates the Appalachian Trail. It dates back to the early 1900s when it was developed by the Alpine Club of Pennsylvania. It was named for Bishop Darlington who was the Secretary of the now long defunct club. The trail reportedly once spanned from Cowan's Gap PA to somewhere in the vicinity of Manada Gap east of the Susquehanna. When the Appalachian Trail was fist developed in the 1920s and 30s, it utilized existing footpaths as much as possible, and so it was superimposed onto the Darlington Trail from Manada Gap area to Dean's Gap west of the Susquehanna. Darlington Trail was reportedly completed in 1908.

The trail made it's way across the Susquehanna by way of the Rockville Bridge, which was and remains the longest stone arch bridge in the world, still in use for trains today.

Original Rockville Bridge

The original bridge to cross the Susquehanna at this point was built in 1849 for the Pennsylvania Railroad. The current Rockville Bridge was completed in March of 1902. The Appalachian and Darlington Trails passed over this bridge for many years until operations at Fort Indiantown Gap Military Reservation forced the re-routing of the Appalachian Trail further north into St. Anthony's Wilderness.

Rockville Bridge

Certainly, the roaring of an old style steam locomotive in close proximity while hiking across this massive bridge would have scared many a hiker, but I would love to have the opportunity to walk across such an amazing bridge. It's so heavily used I doubt we could easily get away with it. I believe the current alignment has three tracks.

After the Appalachian Trail was moved, the Darlington Trail was pretty much abandoned, save for a section near to the Appalachian Trail. Some of the western portion of the Darlington Trail, from the Appalachian Trail, became the present day Tuscarora Trail. The section to the east has been somewhat re-routed, but continues orange blazed to Tower Road. The section east from Tower Road has been closed by land owners, but apparently led to place called "Overview". East of the Susquehanna, some sections of the old Darlington Trail survive in Boyd Big Tree Preserve and another municipal park. I also have a map that shows the Horse-Shoe Trail until somewhat recently followed a portion of it at Manada Gap (The Horse-Shoe Trail also used to terminate at the AT in Manada Gap, but was extended north when the AT was moved).

We shuttled our cars south to Tower Road in order to begin the hike; however, when we arrived, we found Tower Road to be less than suitable for driving standard cars. We tried driving up a portion of Tower Road, but Gregg's car was bottoming out badly. Before we even reached the parking area we were looking for, we decided it best to head back down and make our way to the next most convenient parking area. Fortunately, Brigitte was with us and knew how to get to the Lamb's Gap area with more parking. The hike I had originally planned would have been 18 miles or so, but we'd chop some three miles off of the beginning.

I carefully drove Gregg's car back down, because I'm pretty good at taking cars over rough stuff without bottoming out (I used to take my Camaros over horrible terrain I should never have tried). We followed Brigitte to a much better lot to the west. Lamb's Gap Road said there was no Winter maintenance, but it was at least clear and paved. The lot was a little hairy to get into, but we managed.

We didn't know exactly where the Darlington Trail made it's way across Lambs Gap Road, but Brigitte led us down hill slightly and we found it. There was some blue trail leading away from the parking lot that might have taken us there. The trail was pretty easy, remaining either on the ridge top or just below it. For the start, we had some nice seasonal views into the Cumberland Valley to the south. The original Darlington Trail likely remained on the very ridge top, where today there is a woods road, but the current orange blazed trail now switches sides of the ridge after a bit and goes to the north side. There was a trail intersection here that Brigitte told us was locally known as the "lollipop". The original Darlington Trail still had some faded orange blazes on the upper portion. We followed the current alignment only this time.

We soon crossed Millers Gap Road and remained on the north side of the ridge for a bit, following both well constructed side hill foot path and an old woods road. The trail eventually climbed to the top of the ridge, then over to the south side a bit where it picked up another old woods road. The trail continued on this smoothly until we got to ground I recognized. I saw the side trail to the right, unmarked, which I knew led to Darlington Shelter. Jillane and I had camped out our first night backpacking here in September. We continued on Darlington Trail ahead to it's current western terminus at the Appalachian Trail.

Cumberland Valley View

I had everyone re-group, and we all took a side trip on the southbound AT to a wonderful overlook of the Cumberland Valley. We had good views of the expansive farmland and South Mountain beyond in the Highlands. It clouded over a bit while we were up there, and striations from the sun shone through beautifully to the valley. One of them went straight down to the valley, like an alien spaceship was trying to beam something up.

I got to the overlook first to find two other hikers enjoying the view. When I walked up on them they made a comment about me being a well dressed hiker. I was wearing a suit I'd recently picked up at Family Thrift in Easton for $3.93.

Beam striation over Cumberland Valley

We continued back on the AT up over Blue Mountain, past the northern end of the Tuscarora Trail, and bypassed the Darlington Shelter as I'd already visited that before, and continued northbound, descending. Originally, the Appalachian Trail crossed Blue Mountain west of this point, in Dean's Gap. The route now remains mostly footpath a bit to the east.

We descended to the north, into a little valley, then ascended Little Mountain, a smaller secondary ridge I wasn't anticipating climbing at all. It was hardly noticeable when I looked at the map prior. There were seasonal views through the trees of Blue Mountain toward Sterrett's Gap. It was interesting seeing it from a different perspective, because I'd seen it from so many to the south. We made the climb, and cut to the left along the top of the ridge briefly, then continued to descend until we came to open farm fields. There was an old foundation to the right of the trail before we reached the fields. The trail turned right here across the middle of the fields, then crossed Miller's Gap Road.

Appalachian Trail

We descended further through the fields, stopping along the way to try to pet a lovely white cat (it didn't care for our attention). The trail led us down across Rt 850, Valley Road, and then further to cross Fishing Creek on a foot bridge. Brigitte and Tubby had spotted a car here, because they had anticipated we'd be doing more mileage, but we had taken off the start of the trip. They decided to head to the end of the hike and walk backwards to meet us again, cutting off a little in the middle instead.

I had to lose a thermal shirt I'd put on under my suit because it had gotten so hot. I thought for sure I'd need it with all of the ridge top winds and such, but even after switching to just the suit and not the thermal, I was still sweating like mad. The trail took us into the woods, over some puncheons and a couple of bridges, then began ascending Cove Mountain via an old woods road.

While walking up hill, I started ridicules conversations, like asking James how often he thought about Kermit the Frog, and comparatively how often he thought of Steve Guttenberg. I also went on a tirade about James K. Polk, 11th President of the United States. When I asked how often anyone thinks of James K. Polk, Gregg chimed in "I was just thinking of James K. Polk the other day..." and he went on to talk about how he got us Oregon Territory. I started hollering "F'IN A RIGHT JAMES K POLK!".

View of the narrows of the Susquehanna from the AT on Cove Mountain

We took a break and talked silliness at the top of an ascent, and waited for everyone to catch up. We then moved on a bit more until we reached the crossing of a buried pipeline. The clearing offered us great views both to the west and the east. To the east, we could see the Susquehanna River between the narrows, with the southern end of Cove Mountain lining up with Second Mountain on the other side of the river. Cove Mountain is two ridges coming together with a valley in between, which is what we were seeing, toward the river. To the north, Cove Mountain lines up with Peter's Mountain on the other side.

View of Blue Mountain from the AT on Cove Mountain

We walked the other direction on the pipeline to the view down the Blue Mountain to the west. I had hiked this ridge on the Tuscarora Trail with Jillane. Again, I could see how bumpy it was from a distance. That entire section was extremely difficult beyond Sterrett's Gap, and each time seeing it from afar reminds me of what that was like.

View toward Schubert's Gap from the AT on Cove Mountain

Further off, I could see where the Doubling Gaps began. Blue Mountain curves on itself at Schubert's Gap, which I could see the beginning of. I can't wait to explore more out there. It's a wonderful, very natural area, and extremely secluded. We sipped some really crummy red wine that Jen had bought (because it had a silly bible type picture on it, with "Our Daily Red" being it's name). She didn't notice that it was a "Vegan Wine" with "No recognizable sulfides", and "gluten free". Needless to say, it was pretty crappy wine, but potable!

We continued along the top of Cove Mountain from here, without too many bad changes in elevation. There were some seasonal views to the northwest as we walked. One blue trail descended to the left, which apparently leads to a water company road, which can be used for a loop. We continued on the AT at ridge top, and made our way to the side trail leading to Cove Mountain Shelter. Gregg, James, and Sarah were far behind us, so we decided to take a side trip to see the shelter while they caught up.

Cove Mountain Shelter

The shelter was nice, and had an upper bunk level like a few others I'd seen in the past. Jen climbed up into it while the rest of us checked out below. i signed the trail register, and we took a little break before making our way back to the AT. Unfortunately, this shelter was quite a bit downhill from the AT itself, which meant we had to make the climb back up. When we got there, James, Sarah, and Gregg had all passed us, but we didn't realize it yet. Eventually, they called us and we figured out that they'd gotten ahead. We caught up pretty quickly.

Soon, we met back up with Brigitte and Tubby, and we all continued along the northbound AT toward Duncannon.

View toward Duncannon from Hawk Rock

We came to a promontory where we'd begin our descent toward Duncannon. I went to the right first, where I had a little bit of a view through the trees at the down stream Susquehanna. We then descended to the left and made our way to Hawk Rock, the best overlook of the day. Hawk Rock offered us some great views of the town of Duncannon, and the Susquehanna up stream. We could see the confluence of the Susquehanna with the Juniata River, and the bridges that spanned both, which we crossed on our previous hike out here.

View of Shermans Creek from Hawk Rock

Below us, the beautiful Shermans Creek weaved around through a deeply cut ravine with only a few houses in view. There were pathways on a hillside down and across from us. The drop off from the rock was very very steep. We could also see farmland in the Juniata valley to the north, and a bit to the west as well. We had to take a good, long break here.

Justin on Hawk Rock

Although I could have spent a good long while here, I eventually had to get everyone moving. I didn't want to be coming down some of this mountain in too much darkness. The trail descended on nicely laid stone steps in many places. It's kind of rough on the knees while descending over the steepest spots.

Appalachian Trail descending Cove Mountain

We made our way down hill on the steps, switch backing somewhat, then continuing on a gradual descent to the east. The trail made it's way over a few more stone steps, but also passed over an interesting steep section of talus slope. It continued to get dark as we lost more elevation. The lights from Duncannon were soon the only thing we could see of the view nearing the bottom. The trail became a woods road as we went further down, and before reaching the bottom, the woods road continued, but the AT turned right and ascended once more. That was a bit annoying.

Descending Cove Mountain at a talus slope

The trail took us over a knoll, then descended more. We made our way out of the woods soon, and emerged on what appeared to be the former main road called Inn Road. It was an old poured concrete highway with no traffic on it now. Gregg was behind us in the woods, and we had him come down the other woods road to the nearest road to meet us at the gas station in town.

The AT turned left to follow the old highway north across Shermans Creek. I'd wished I could see it in daylight for more pictures. The railroad across from the road crosses Shermans Creek on a handsome stone arch bridge I wanted to have a look at. We kept walking through town, and the trail passed the Sunoco Station where we'd gotten drinks and snacks before starting the hike. The trail then goes into town and right under Rt 11, then turns left to follow I think High Street several blocks through town. We instead continued straight, past the famous Doyle Hotel, and to Anne Street where we'd parked to complete the hike.

At this point, I had connected more than another 100 miles to my contiguously explored mileage. It's always a feeling of relief for me in some ways to make these physical connections by foot. For me, this was a huge success.

It wasn't the most incredible section of the AT I'd ever done, but it was nice, and certainly superior to some of the other sections I'd done with no views whatsoever. There was a good amount of diversity in fields and ridges we'd crossed. We passed a few other hikers who just smiled or chuckled at our attire (Justin and Gregg too had formal jackets on). It was also nice to have a rather natural hike to contrast with the NY City hike coming the next week.

Dinner time...pretty good pizza place Brigitte introduced us to

The places I have scheduled to see the Winter ahead are more exciting to me possibly than any Winter hikes I've ever planned in the past. NYC, Bowman's Creek Gorge PA, Bivalve NJ, Royalton PA, Camden NJ, all coming up over the next month. I've gotten somewhat used to what kinds of hikes are best to post in the Winter, and these all look very promising, and I will certainly count among future successes.