Hiking the Appalachian Trail in Lehigh Gap

I took Heidi back to the rock slide near Palmerton for the first time in 6 years.  We had a nice hike up (WAY up) the mountain, then came down and jumped in the Lehigh River to cool off.

We hiked up the Appalachian Trail side, with the white blazes, which is about a half-mile to the top of the ridge, with a vertical climb of about 450 feet.  The first half of that is wooded, but the second half is wide open rock face, some of which is pretty steep.  From the ridge, it's about another half mile (and another 450 vertical feet) until you come to Winter Trail (blue blazes) on the left, which we took back down to the bottom.  This trail is mostly wooded, and it was quite overgrown in many sections, but fortunately the overgrowth is mostly soft grasses; we didn't encounter any poison, and few pickers.


That's a dog on top of the world. What you can't see is me on the other side of the camera, with the exact same expression.


Looking down at the Lehigh River and Slatington.



Looking north through the gap towards Palmerton.



On the A.T. at the top, past the rock face.


On Winter Trail, on the way back down the mountain.



Near the bottom of Winter Trail.



The trailhead.