This was another great collaborative YouTube hike with 4 YouTube channels all taking video during the trip. Please visit the other channels collaborating on this hike and see what they thought! This hike continues South from Wind Gap to Lehigh Gap along the Appalachian Trail in PA. This is approximately 22 miles long with some campsites at the Delph Spring blue blaze trail intersection 10.7 miles in the middle. Leroy Smith shelter was nice, although on the small side. We ate lunch there and continued our hike South. The trail to Stempa Spring was labeled as being long and steep, so we passed it by to stay on schedule. Delph Spring is labeled as intermittent in the guide – it was working fine on this hike but it has been a very wet year. Thr trail South of Little Gap (Blue Mountain Road) is very interesting. It is a recovering Superfund Site and mostly scarred from the Zinc Factory below. There are a few campsites and a very poor spring (contaminated with heavy metal) that should only be used in an emergency. The final climb over the Knife Edge and decent at Lehigh Gap is very difficult and quite epic. Put your poles away, you will want your hands free for CLIMBING! Part 2 of the video is actually Day 1. I'll put a link to that when I finish the video. It will feature some of my day with Michael Feyrer Jr. and our B-Roll video adventure. There is a sneak peek at the end of this video. 😊 Kurt Zitzelman Outdoors: https://www.youtube.com/user/KurtZitzelman See his awesome hammocks at Hemlock Mountain Outdoors here: https://hemlockmountainoutdoors.com/
This was a nice 15 mile in and out to complete this small section of trail between Pen Mar and Tumbling Run Shelter. I parked on the small, but very nice, parking on PA 16 just a couple miles North of Pen Mar and started North on the AT from there. There is a nice stream, picnic bench, and a nature trail located at that parking area. Goal for the day was to hike North up to Tumbling Run Shelter and stay overnight at one of the other shelters on the way back. I did manage to meet up with through hiker “Grumpy” at Old Forge Park. He got an early start and had made significant progress by early morning. I continued North to my goal while he went South. We met up again later at Deer Lick Shelter After seeing how wet Deer Lick shelter area was and weedy/buggy Antietam Shelter was, it was agreed to continue South of PA 16 to a primitive campsite at Falls Creek Footbridge. This was an outstanding camping area with plenty of nice flat tent sites. There is no privy here. Also, I’d say to beware of the water. The local trail angel we met at Pen Mar mentioned the Winebrenner Treatment Plant is just upstream of the campsite and there is likelihood of waste overflow in rainy conditions like we’ve had lately. He mentioned the “issues” were supposedly fixed a couple years ago. Treat your water well! The next morning I hiked the short distance to Pen Mar and called it a day.
