Enough with the snowshoes

Traversing the Knife Edge

Started out at route 309 where we tried to hike last weekend but this time  wearing snowshoes.  Went pretty good at first but snowshoes are heavy and do tend to sink some into the snow.  Lost my snowshoe and sank up to my knee when stepping on the snow without it.   So while it would have been impossible without snowshoes, it was very tiring with them.  Hiked 13.3 miles, which took 9 hours.  Saw two skiers who were moving along much easier than we were.  In fact one of the was whistling as he went along.  It was windy but not bitterly cold as it was last weekend.  Finally hit the downhill into Lehigh Gap and it was never ending.  Just kept going down seemingly forever.

The car is down there near the bridge

Sunday - we decided that we would only do 5 miles since it was so tiring the day before.  Started at Little Gap and went up a short incline to the top of the ridge.  The trail took us over a Superfund Site where all the vegetation had been denuded by toxic fumes from a zinc plant.  The snow was really deep and the going was hard.  Had a lot of trouble finding the trail.  I think it was mostly due to the fact that there were no trees to paint blazes on so they painted them on rocks which were covered with snow.  Going down again into the Lehigh Gap from this side was really difficult.  It was all rocks and boulders partially covered with snow and ice.   Took off the snowshoes and carried them the rest of the way to the car.  Five miles took five hours.

This is the trail.  Note the white blaze on the rock.

Monday - neither of us wanted to go the snowshoe route again so we hiked in the only place we could where we didn't need to use them - across the Delaware River into New Jersey, about a two mile hike.  But it was better than a zero day.  The weather was beautiful, warming up nicely and sunny.  Walked around the NJ side a bit and had a snack at Turtle Beach where we walked on the frozen river and then retraced our steps back to PA.