A Lovely Night at the Lookout Hostel

This morning, we got up around the usual time and began packing up in the shelter. I was a little bit tired from yesterday, especially considering we didn’t get a ton of sleep last night. But I’m excited to get into The Lookout Hostel tonight, so we just got up and moving. Once we were packed up, we walked back to the trail and continued through town. Then the trail picked back up into the woods.

There was a climb out of town, but it wasn’t too bad. Honestly, it was so cold out that it felt pretty good to warm up. And it was just pretty regular walking to start the day. The terrain wasn’t too rocky or anything like that. Once we got up to the top of that climb, we were just riding along a ridge for a while. It was smooth sailing, and I passed the time by listening to a podcast.

Packing up in the pavilion this morning.

Over the course of the morning, there were a few sections of the trail that were rocky. We also passed a blue blaze which I remembered from a 2023. There is an alternate route which cuts off a couple miles of the AT. It basically just shaves off a rocky climb and some elevation gain. In 2023 it was super rainy coming through here so we took the alternate route just to save ourselves some time and navigating through slick rocks. But this year we aren’t doing any cut offs or blue blazes so we just followed the red line. It actually feels kinda good to be a purist on the AT this time around.

Around this section of Trail, I got a little bit of service and attempted to call my mom. We were able to catch up for a handful of minutes and then I lost service again. That was too bad but I was just glad we got to talk for at least a second. I’ll just have to try back another time when I have service and when my mom‘s not working. Then I just continued along and made my way up the next climb. The trail went through a thick stretch of rocks, but was actually really beautiful. I’m glad that we got to see the section of trail and that I’m not doing the alternate route.

Walking alongside the river this morning.

Once we got on top of this climb, the rocks continued for a while. But we enjoyed some really incredible views. It’s a little bit cold out today but otherwise much better than yesterday. I’m just glad that it’s not raining considering how cold it is. That would’ve been another very difficult day. I kept my wind layers on for most of the morning. Even with the climbing, there was still a chill in the air and it was definitely in the low 30s for most of the day.

After a while, the trail leveled out and it was pretty cruisy for the next hour or so. At one point, I switched from a podcast over to an audiobook. I listened to that for a while, but just couldn’t get into it for some reason. Every now and then I turn a book on and even if it’s good, I’m just not in the mood. So I switched back to Music and just continue along the trail.

The trail was pretty rocky this morning.

Eventually, we popped out at the road by the Ekville Shelter. The shelter is just off the trail and has a caretaker. There is a shelter behind the caretaker’s home and it’s very nice. But sadly, the national Park service is planning on destroying the shelter. I know people seem to be attempting to petition online or reach out to the park service about this. It’s a really nice shelter and it would be very sad to see it go. Especially considering the shelter is in great shape so there’s really no reason to destroy it. Other than the park service attempting to potentially save some money.

We didn’t go down to the shelter and just continued along the trail instead. Once we got off of the road, another climb began. I kept my layers on for a while, but eventually got too hot. So I had to take my wind layers off to make my way up the rest of the climb. Up towards the top it was actually pretty steep at times. But I just kept chugging along and was feeling it pretty good. Then once I got up to the top of the ridge, I had to put my wind jacket on almost immediately. It’s super cold today and it was really windy on top of the ridge.

A wide open overlook we walked past this morning.

Time was going by surprisingly fast. Sometimes when I’m headed to town or a hostel, I can get a little bit impatient with the mileage. But today I was just trying to roll with it and not be too eager. I knew we would get there when we get there. And lucky for me the time just happened to be going fast. We spent the rest of the day on top of the ridge just doing small ups and downs. This section of the trail has a lot of rocks though which can definitely slow you down.

Yesterday the rocks were so slippery from the rain. It took me maybe an hour today to realize the difference. I was still being very careful on the rocks when I jumped between them. Then randomly, I had the realization that the rocks were all bone dry. Which meant you could actually hop between them pretty easily. The only main concern there would be that some of the rocks might not be as sturdy as they look. So you want to be careful which rocks you hop onto and how much of your force you put down on them. I usually try not to put all of my weight on onto just one rock if I can avoid it. Or I just try to  play it safe by choosing large rocks, which seem immovable.

Rock hopping along this morning.

All in all, though, I really enjoyed Pennsylvania on the AT. I think the rocks are really beautiful actually and the train is super unique. When the rocks are larger, I don’t mind navigating between them whatsoever. It’s really just when the rocks are small that it becomes irritating to find your footing. It’s uncomfortable when your feet are sliding down between small rocks. But when the rocks are bigger, you can just hop and skip around.

In the last few miles, there were some down trees to go around. But all of them were pretty easy to navigate around. By around 2:30pm the temperature dropped significantly. It happened really quickly just like it did yesterday. Then all of a sudden I was absolutely freezing. I was wearing my shorts and just had my montbell winter jacket over my sun hoodie. At this point I definitely wanted to stop off and add some layers. But we were so close to the end of the day that I didn’t want to stop and cool down. I knew that we would be getting to the hostel pretty soon and I could get warm in there.

The beautiful mural outside of the hostel.

A couple of miles before the road down to the hostel, we passed the dirt road. And Yard Sale had actually left two sodas there for the two of us. That was such a wonderful surprise and really got me going for the last couple of miles. Because the trail was so nice and flat, it was easy to drink the soda while I walked. Then I just hustled to the road because it was so cold.

Surprise sodas by the road!

When you get out to the road, you go past the Thunderhead restaurant. It’s just off the trail and has incredible food. But I know that there are lots of good goodies, waiting for us at the hostel so we didn’t need anything. We just continued down to the road and then you can turn right and walk to the hostel. You can practically see the building from the trail. That’s how close it is. It really doesn’t get much better than that.

There’s a beautiful mural on the building beside the hostel. We walked past that and then continue to the main building. Yard Sale created us when we arrived with her husband Greg. The two of them are so incredibly nice and we met back in 2024 when I stayed here before. I actually stayed here when I was living in Philly. My roommate, Road Soda and I did a 20 or so mile section of the trail with our buddy Mudbag. We went southbound and then finished the day at the Lookout Hostel. They weren’t open yet for the season because it was so incredibly early. But they still let us stay there, which was amazing.

My biggest challenge left… the whole gallon!

When we got inside the hostel today, there were so many goodies left for us by one of my blog readers. Yard Sale kindly coordinated with them and bought tons of goodies for us to enjoy. She also made a shepherds pie for us to eat for dinner. So once we got there, we got settled in. They are adorable dog Summit was there so we got to give her some love. It always makes me so happy to be able to pet a dog. It’s the little things in life.

A cake for day 98!

The four of us enjoyed a dinner together, which was delightful. Then I got my things sorted and took a nice hot shower. I’ve been dreaming about the shower for the last few days as we’ve walked through a lot of rain and cold. The person who put us up for the night, kindly put me in a private room so I had the opportunity to get some editing and video work done. it’s so much easier to get work done when I’m in a separate space where I can do audio recordings, and things like that. Stuff that I would normally have to walk away to do so that I don’t bother anyone else. Being able to do all of that from a bed is the best case scenario when it comes to combining work and relaxation.

At the Lookout Hostel for the night.

After that I just spent the rest of the night writing and getting a ton of video work done. This last week has been so eventful that my weekly vlog actually had to be split into two parts! So when you’re reading this part one should be up and ready to watch on YouTube. You can check that out at @madisonblagden on YouTube. Part two of the video will be up on the normal day, on Thursday. I also have a couple bonus videos that I made over the last week which will be going up over the course of the week as well. I’m hoping to be able to do about three YouTube videos a week from here on out. I’ll be doing the weekly vlogs every Thursday still. But then hopefully I’ll be posting it to other videos throughout the week that focus more on gear and other components of the thru hike.

I have my work cut out for me with this milk.

Later on in the evening Mary Poppins came by to say hello. She owns a hostel in Palmerton and we’ve been corresponding a bit online. It doesn’t look like the mileage is going to work out for us to stay there. That would just mean doing a shorter day. But there’s some weather rolling in Thursday and Friday, so I’d like to get as far ahead as we can before that comes in. If we’re going to take a day off, it just makes more sense to save it for a bad weather day at this point.

The private room at the Lookout Hostel was really nice.

Over the course of the night, I ate so much food and got a ridiculous amount of calories in. I drink a ton of chocolate milk, ate a bunch of snacks, and some ice cream. Then I had a hot chocolate later in the evening as I continued editing. It’s been so nice to just rest and relax here. This hostel is delightful and I could not recommend it more if you’re passing through. Yard Sale and her husband, love hikers and are so accommodating. The lower level of the building has a bunch of bunks, laundry, and a shower. Then there’s one private room upstairs. The room was so spacious and the bed was ridiculously comfortable. It felt so good to just lay down and get some work done for the rest of the night. Like always I wound up staying up way too late. I always just wanna rest when I’m in town. I always have so much to do.

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