Leroy Smith Shelter to Kirkridge Shelter, 16 miles
A small group of Troop 406 Scouts and Leaders hiked a portion of the Appalachian Trail for an early spring adventure. Due to other obligations the participants left in two groups. The first with Mr. Houseal and Mr. Wozniak left on a beautiful warm spring evening, Seth, Frankie and Timmy traveled in this group, two Scout didn’t make it due to a tummy bug, Kenny and Zach two of our most avid hikers had to sit this one out. The first group’s destination was to drop off a car at the trail’s end and then return to the beginning point to hike up Blue Mountain to the Leroy Smith Shelter for a rendevous with the second group of later departing hikers. The second group consisted of Mr. Lamar and Mr. Partlow; they were bringing the remaining Scout, Brian, with them. There was a hiccup in the directions and after riding around in the darkness for quite a while and many dropped cell phone calls the actual rendevous took place in the State Game Lands parking lot at the base of the mountain. Now assembled the hikers started their journey straight up the mountain. Five hundred forty feet later they arrived at the shelter. Long gone was the warm evening now replaced by freezing temperatures making the sleeping bags the place to be. Morning arrived with gray clouds and cold temperatures. The hikers had their trail breakfast and began their journey northward. The first short break was an overlook toward the Pocono Mountains. This was provided by a power line right of way. The second short break was at an overlook in both directions. The visibility was very good even though it was mostly overcast. This clearing was for a pipeline. The next time we exited the woods was at the bottom of the descent into Wind Gap where we dropped 500 feet. The last ten or fifteen feet was provided by a crude wooden stairway. We crossed under PA Rte 33 utilizing the old highway, then crossed over that highway to regain the trail. We took a break before tackling the 620 foot climb ahead of us that would put us on top of Kittatinny Mountain where we would remain to the end of our trek. There was a weak attempt by Mother Nature to pelt us with some sleet but it just remained mostly cloudy. A few miles further we found an open grassy area at a power line access road making a pleasant location to take a lunch break. This is where the trail deteriorated.
Mr. Partlow had read a review on the web of the section that we were hiking. The review described it as very rocky and the worst hike the reviewer had ever been on. The trail lived up to this description. It was without doubt the rockiest hike the troop has ever been on. The difficulty was never being able to take your eyes off the rocks. If you didn’t watch your feet you would trip and fall for sure. To look around you had to stop. The biggest complaints were from those who had low top hiking boots, ankle support was very important for this exercise described as “Dancing on razor blades”.
The highlight of this relatively featureless portion of the trail is an outcrop named “Wolf Rocks”. While it was a vertical drop it was to a flat forest floor rather than a steep slope like “Razor’s Edge” It was an almost pleasant break to scramble across these boulders after all the rocks on the trail. The trail continued along the outcropping and occasionally through dense Mountain Laurel thickets that resembled a jungle. At the end of Wolf Rock the trail descended to the flat forest floor. The trail lead to a more rolling landscape eventually utilizing some trace roads devoid of the dreaded rocks. We arrived at Route 191 where we had a car parked and the leaders did the taxi thing to retrieve the vehicles so it wouldn’t be necessary to do this Sunday morning. Just eight-tenths of a mile more and we reached the Kirkridge Shelter. This is where we kicked off the Delaware Water gap hike in fall of 2005.
We had a great warm dinner meal and some desserts. There was some socializing but as the evening turned colder and the weary hikers felt the their tired muscles they all crawled into the warmth of their sleeping bags, this was before 8:30. This could be the record for “lights out” on any hiking trip I’ve been on. No one even built a campfire to sit around. Those who didn’t immediately fall asleep were serenaded by the music from seemed to be a Country and Western Bar by a lake far below and more than a mile away.
When the sun came up it found the hikers already having a trail breakfast and rearranging their backpacks for the short hike to the cars. As they left the shelter the rains came. First as a light drizzle and by the time they reached the cars it rained steadily. Perfect timing. It was a safe trip home.