Sunday was the big day.

Sometimes, when planning a hike, you just look at the map and say, whoa! You see a climb or mountain or something that grabs your attention. You look forward to it (or dread it) as the hike gets closer. On this hike, we would cross the Lehigh Gap. A 1000 foot descent, followed by a 1200 foot climb. That in itself isn’t that extraordinary. But 700 feet of that ascent are climbed in less than a quarter of a mile. I was looking forward to this challenge. The Uber-Bot was dreading it. She hates steep climbs.

I made myself a quick breakfast, and packed up my gear. We headed back up to the shelter and filled our bottles at the spring. And then we hit the trail. We descended through the trees. The sunlight shining through the leaves was quite a contrast to the overcast skies of the day previous. The temperature was comfortable and the trail was easy enough to walk. It was a good start to the day.

We descended until we came to a break in the tree line. Ahead of us we could see the Blue Mountain slope down to Lehigh River. Mist still rose off of the river, where shade had prevent the morning sun from burning it away. On the far shore, a mountain jutted up from the river. The top third of the mountain was completely bare of trees. There was nothing but rocks and cliff. I challenge to be sure.

We descended to the river and crossed the bridge, along side the Sunday morning traffic. We started up the other side, which quickly became a series of steep switchbacks. I pushed ahead, although I had stop to catch my breath a number of times. Finally, I came out of the trees and stepped on to a rock field that led to the base of, for lack of a better word, a cliff. As I looked up I saw those familiar white blazes painted up the side of the rock wall.

A closer look did show a place to step here and a hand hold there, and soon a was standing on a narrow ledge 10 feet above where I began. We continued like this, climbing to the next ledge, soaking in the view, continuing. Eventually we gave up on our trekking poles and strapped them to our packs, to free up our hands.

We climbed till we reached the crest of the ridge. We stopped and surveyed the view. We could see clearly the mountain we descended early that morning, the Lehigh river snaking between the mountains from Palmerton down to the south and then around a bend and out of sight. I took out my camera and snapped a few shots, even though I knew that would not, could not, do justice to what was before my eyes. After a while, we moved on. Because that is what you do when you go backpacking. You move on.

We made our way up the ridge, until it leveled out. I sat down. My legs were screaming from the exertion of the climb. Once again the gnats were on us. The Uber-Bot pushed on to keep the gnats off of her. I mixed up some Gatorade in my water bottle, dug some Jerky out of my bag, and then headed down the trail myself.

The ridge was wide and flat across it’s crest. The trail followed what might have been an access road. On either side of the trail there was nothing but rocks and the occasional skeletal remains of a long dead tree. The landscape was completely desolate. As I walked I speculated on what could have caused this. As I walked more sign of life began to appear. Small shrubs and grass mostly. I caught up with the Uber-Bot after a mile or two. We compared notes and decided that it must have been a forest fire. But one that happened long ago.

We walked down the road until the trail went away from it to the left. We wandered down the mountainside into Little Gap. We sat our packs down and waited by the side of the road. We were early, but we knew Captain Shutter would be there soon to pick us up.