Dates ........ THUR MAY 6, 1999
Miles ........ 14.6 miles
From ........ Tentsite past Bake Oven Knob, Over PA Turnpike Lehigh Tunnel, Through Lehigh Gap
To ............. a tentsite just past LITTLE GAP
Weather ... 50’s to 80, sunny, breezy, cool - feels like rain coming

THUR MAY 6, 1999

Every time I drove through the Lehigh Tunnel on the PA turnpike, I wondered and wanted to see what it was like on top of the mountain it passed through. I found out today as I hiked over the top. It was very rocky with lots of scrubland, blueberry bushes, grassy areas and a few small pine trees. Flat, level, very difficult hiking, exposed and windy, and mostly - what else - rocks. Lots of rocks. Very distant hazy views of the turnpike and Palmerton below. I descend into and cross LEHIGH GAP on a bridge over Lehigh River. Looks like a helluva climb on a barren mountain ahead of me. Call home from motorcycle shop near bridge. Climb 1100 feet over loose rock, very steep and barren. Reaching the ridge, the trail traverses BARREN RIDGE above PALMERTON Zinc Mines - looks like a bombed out war zone with red rocks, stunted pine trees and tree skeletons everywhere.

Easy walking once on top, but only the river valley below is pretty. The mining has ripped up the adjacent mountain - its just plain ugly. The ridge is desolate, barren and windy. Trail is hard to follow in places as blazes on the rocks are hard to pick out. Pack broke another ring again. Met a solo through hiker who had just fallen on the rocks and had a bruised and swollen arm to show for it. He’ll try to see a doctor in Palmerton. After nearly 3 miles of desolation, the trail heads into woods, twisting and rocky, down the mountain, through LITTLE GAP, then 500 feet nearly straight up a rock slide and back on Blue Mountain’s ridge. Getting dark fast, I select a tentsite and camp for the night along the trail.