One Week to Get Through Pennsylvania on the AT

This morning I slept in at the Lookout hostel until almost 7AM. The bed was so big and comfortable. I had a really great night here. The bunk room is awesome and it’s super spacious. But if you’re a couple hiking together or just want a night to yourself, I would definitely recommend the private room at the hostel. The windows faces the beautiful overlook behind the house. And it was just a really nice stay.

Eventually, I got up and began getting ready. When I’m in town, I start my day by combing through my hair and putting my hat back on. Then I began putting some of my food and various items away in my backpack. I got a new trash bag liner for my pack. I actually found these clear plastic bags on Amazon that are intended to protect your luggage. They’re thinner than a normal trash bag, but are even stronger than one. I’ve had one liner bag for the last 2500+ miles. But I decided to have another one sent out because I was already having shoes and contact lenses sent out.

Breakfast at the Lookout Hostel!

Glenn and Yard Sale arrived just after 7AM and began making breakfast. A little bit before that Iceman arrived and parked beside the hostel. Then he wound up coming in and everybody hung out in the hostel for a while. There was so food and snacks from yesterday.
Being able to show up at the hostel and not have to worry about resupplying or anything was amazing. I packed out a ton of snacks and goodies. There was a massive bag of those mini Cadberry eggs, which I love. Then a bunch of crunchy cookies with M&Ms, Oreos, sour patch kids, crackers, goldfish, hot chocolate and coffee, and just about everything else you could imagine. I packed out way too much food, but I couldn’t resist.

Glenn, myself, Punisher, and Yard Sale! (Left to right).

I wrapped up my packing after that. Then the five of us all sat down to enjoy breakfast together. Breakfast is definitely a meal that I typically struggle with. I don’t have a huge appetite first thing in the morning. When I’m on trail I usually like to walk for an hour or two, maybe even more, before eating a large breakfast. But I managed to eat a couple eggs, toast, some sausage, and some bacon. Then I had one pancake and put some work in on the gallon of chocolate milk that I’ve been drinking for the last day.

Breakfast at the Lookout with Glenn, Yard Sale, and Iceman!

Once we finish up eating, we said goodbye to Yard Sale and Glenn. I had such a wonderful time staying at the Lookout hostel. I could not recommend this place enough. They have all kinds of stuff in the fridge in freezer to purchase, as well as a very large pantry of resupply items. Plus, there’s actually a restaurant open down the road many days out of the week. So this would be a perfect place to stop off and do a short day or do a zero. If we weren’t on a time crunch, and there wasn’t bad weather rolling in in the next couple of days, I definitely would’ve wanted to take a zero day here. It was just so comfortable and relaxing.

Punisher climbing up a rocky section of the trail.

Then we set out and walked back down the road to the trailhead. It was just before 9AM so it certainly wasn’t an early start. But we still plan to go about 30 miles for the day. Fortunately, we’ve had plenty of late starts over the last few weeks. Typically if we stay in a motel or a hostel, we won’t leave until sometime after 8AM. But in doing so we’ve learned that even if we start pretty late in the morning, we can still get 30+ miles in for the day. We’ve had some days where we started after 9AM or even after 10AM and still got really big miles in. Typically that doesn’t require walking late into the evening either.

When we got back on trail, the first couple hours of the day were delightful. There was basically no elevation gain, and the trail was wide open and flat. There were very few sections of rocks, which made it easy going over the course of the morning. I just listened to some music and finished getting a couple things uploaded for the day. I just put up part one of my week 14 vlog yesterday. If you want to check that out, you can find it on my YouTube @MadisonBlagden. The second part of the video will be going up Thursday, which is the day that I always put my weekly YouTube videos up.

A long rocky ascent on the AT.

After walking for a couple hours, we did wind up going through some patches of rocks. But for the most part all of the rocks were fairly large, which made it very easy to jump between them. I’ve always thought it was funny that Pennsylvania gets such a bad rap on the AT. I think Pennsylvania is delightful and personally I don’t think the rocks are even that bad. There’s a really good balance between segments of trail that are rocky, and segments which are pristine. Typically you won’t go more than a quarter or a half mile on incredibly rocky terrain in Pennsylvania. There will always be some kind of a break in between.

I loved this cute AT sign along the trail.

After we walked for about 8 miles we got out to the next road. Iceman was set up there waiting for us and he made some chili because it was cold out! When we first started walking this morning, it was freezing out. I could see my breath it was probably in the low 30s. I know last night it was down around 28°. So it was pretty cold getting started, and I kept most of my layers on and my gloves. But by this point in the day, it had warmed up a little bit.

We sat there with Iceman and had some chili with crackers. He also had some cheese and crackers to snack on and I drank Mountain Dew and a bunch of chocolate milk. I was just laughing thinking about the war zone that is my digestive system on trail. Most people probably couldn’t fathom consuming Mountain Dew, chocolate milk, and chili, all in one sitting. But somehow I eat it and it doesn’t bother my stomach whatsoever. I’m pretty grateful to have an iron gut. I’ve met people on trail in the past who have to be very careful about what they eat because a lot of of things upset their stomachs. So it is certainly a blessing to be able to eat anything that I want.

Chili for lunch on a cold day!

We hung out there with Iceman for a little while before continuing on. And from there, we had about 5 or 6 miles to get down to the parking lot near Palmerton. It’s possible to hitch into Palmerton to supply. This time though we have no intention of going into Palmerton. We just got everything that we needed and then some at the lookout hostel. And it’s only about 51 miles to get to Delaware water gap. So we’ll do about 30 miles today and then have a short day into town tomorrow. The stretch between the two roads was really nice and once again we had hardly any elevation gain. The trail wasn’t too rocky and we were just riding on top of a ridge for a while. The trail was so well manicured and the sun was actually coming out when we were up there. I really enjoyed this section of the day.

When we dropped down to the road, Iceman was set up there again. We didn’t hang out for too long, but I drank some chocolate milk and ate some Texas sheet cake. Iceman’s wife actually made it and it was some of the best cake I’ve ever had in my life. Sometimes I think cake is almost too sweet. Cake usually has so much icing and can just be a lot. But this cake wasn’t overly sweet, and seemed just right. It was utterly delicious and we had a piece of it at the last break and then another piece of it while we were here.

When we left that parking area, we had about 6 more miles to get up the mountain north of Palmerton. Then we would climb along the ridge and descend down the other side to another parking area. Iceman planned to meet us there at the next parking area. Then he would meet us at one more road before the end of our day. That really helps to break up the day and always seems to make things go by quick quicker.

There was some construction on the bridge as we crossed over. But the construction guys actually moved some things out of the way to make room for us. Which was very nice. Then we crossed over a highway and the trail picked up on the other side. It was sad to see the remnants of the burn that happened in this area last year. I hiked through this section in 2023. Then I did a short section through this area with Road Soda and Mudbag in 2024 when I lived in Philly. And since then there was a pretty substantial burn through this part of the forest. The smell was still strong in the air and many trees were burnt. I guess it’s fortunate though that there wasn’t as much damage as there could’ve been. Sometimes you walk through sections of forest like this which get completely decimated by wildfire. There are still plenty of healthy trees and plants in the surrounding area. So at least that was good.

Crossing the bridge before the road into Palmerton.

I loved the climb coming off the road to Palmerton. It starts just like a regular climb along the trail. But then you get high enough to get out onto the rocks. And the rest of the climb is super rocky and exposed. This may be the first time on the Appalachian Trail where you climb like this prior to the white mountains in New Hampshire. There were a bunch of sections where you have to use your hands and pull yourself up. It was very fun honestly. And like every climb this year, it was so much easier than I remembered. Lately I’ve been feeling incredibly strong. Even if the climbs might get me breathing a little bit heavy I really don’t get the urge to stop anymore and rest. I know that I can just keep push pushing and get up to the top of whatever it is.

Heading up the climb out of Palmerton.

When you get up to the top of that rock climb, you’re basically just on top of the ridge for the next handful of miles. It was still pretty rocky terrain intermittently. Every now and then you’d have to pay more attention to how you were walking and things like that. This was one of the sections with more small rocks, which I think can be even more slow going than the larger rocks. But there were also a lot of segments were the trail got open and flat. I was able to do a little bit of multitasking and get some stuff done on my phone.

For the next couple of hours we just maneuvered along the very nice trail. There were intermittent sections of large boulders. And some sections with some small rocks that you had to navigate along. We passed by a couple cliffs with overlooks. And this section of trail was actually rerouted in a bunch of different places. So there was some flagging and some new blazes to mark the route. When I was here last time, you continued along a dirt road for at least a mile or so. But of course, the trail now goes off the road and it is a bit longer in doing so.

We wound up passing a couple day hikers in that next section. Then just continued on down to that next road. When we got to the road, I saw Iceman. But then I was surprised to see someone standing next to him. I figured that this individual might be someone off of Instagram who had reached out, but I hadn’t fully coordinated with or gotten back to.

A picture of me heading up the rocky climb out of Palmerton.

I’ve definitely been trying to coordinate with everyone and respond to everyone. But it wound up taking a lot of time and energy this last week to coordinate with the handful of people who we did see. It was so amazing to meet all of those people and I really enjoyed it. I’m also so grateful to all of them for wanting to come out and meet us and support us. But juggling all the hiking, social media, and then responding to so many messages last week just had my social battery a little bit drained. So I stepped back a bit from responding on social media. Just to give myself a chance to get recharged and stay focused on the primary goal.

Punisher and I at trail magic, thanks to Money!

When we got up to Iceman‘s truck, he was standing there with a guy who looked super excited to see us. His name was Rich and he had reached out on Instagram maybe a week or so ago. We had exchanged back-and-forth a bit, but then I had never followed up with him. Our mileage is super predictable though typically. So he just had a feeling where we’re going to be today based off of my post from yesterday. Rich did the Appalachian Trail in 2023 and his trail name was Money. He actually also met my roommate Road Soda that year, which is cool. It’s such a small world.

Punisher, Money, and myself!

Money brought us so many goodies. I wished I hadn’t had so much food already so I could’ve taken more! But my food bag is filled to the brim right now. He had brought a cooler filled with soda and other drinks. He also had a bunch of Wawa sandwiches and loads of snacks and other things. We wound up sitting with him and each eating a sandwich and talking for a bit. He’s a super nice guy and it was incredibly kind of him to come out here and surprise us with some trail magic.

Pennsylvania has hands-down had more trail magic than any other states I’ve been to. I think we got trail magic legitimately once or more every single day that we were in Pennsylvania. It’s honestly hard to wrap my mind around and never in my life have I received more trail magic before. Considering how many miles we did this last week and how rough the weather was, the magic couldn’t have come at a better time. All of the support definitely made it much easier to get big miles in and push through some very cold and rainy days.

After sitting there in the parking lot with Iceman and Money for a while, we had to continue on. We still had about 11 miles left to go for the day. And it looked like we’d probably be getting to camp around 8:30PM, so it wasn’t going to be an early night. That’s because we had a later start to the morning.

Punisher and I continuing on after trail magic.

We said goodbye to Money and took some pictures with him. Then made plans with Iceman to see him further down the trail at the next road crossing. That would be the last road crossing of the day and the last time we would see him this evening. It was about seven or so miles to the next trailhead and road. I don’t know why exactly but this next section really dragged on for me.

The first half hour or so went by pretty quickly. I listened to some music and did some stuff on my phone. But after a while, it just felt like the time was hardly moving at all. I ended up singing along to some music. But I haven’t really been singing a lot lately so my voice was incredibly hoarse and squeaky. It’s not even really fun to sing when your voice is that squeaky. But the great irony is that the only way to make your voice less squeaky is to sing.

The trail in Pennsylvania. 

It was a little bit after 7PM when I arrived at the road. Punisher was already there hanging out with Iceman. I’d slowed down a bit and was just daydreaming and singing to myself. At this point it was super cold so I put my Sambob Alpha top on under my wind gear. I put my wind pants on too to stay as warm as possible. Then we each ate a piece of that delicious Texas sheet cake before continuing on to the shelter for the night. Iceman made plans to see us first thing tomorrow morning. From the shelter in the morning, we would only have to go about 4 or 5 miles to the first road crossing of the day.

I think tomorrow will be the last day that we get to see Iceman! We are getting close to leaving his region in Pennsylvania. It’s a very close drive for him to come out to the trail in this area. But the further north we get the further we probably are from him and where he lives. I’m very grateful for all the support he’s given us through this past week. And also a couple weeks ago when we were near the Virginia triple crown area. He is such a ridiculously nice guy and I have had a really good time just hanging out around him and laughing.

The trail continued along this rocky ridge for a bit later on in the day.

After we ate a little something there and got bundled up we continued along. There were just shy of 4 miles remaining to get to the shelter for the night. And the trail was pretty much entirely flat. The only thing that really slowed us down was that the trail got a bit rocky as the evening went on. So once it was dark out, I was going a bit slower just to be safe. Earlier today I actually tripped on a rock and started to fall forward pretty fast. I could tell that I was gonna land on a bunch of rocks on the trail. But last minute I was kind of able to fling myself to the side so I landed on my backpack in a bush instead. There are some thorns in the bush but those barely hurt at all. It would’ve been way worse to fall down onto the trail on my knee again. I was glad that I had the split second to react and flung myself in another direction.

I didn’t need a repeat of that, so as the night went on I just took my time. We wound up getting over to the Leroy shelter around 8:30PM. We had to go down a spur trail to get to the shelter, but it was a pretty flat trail. And I was so glad that when we arrived at the shelter, it was empty! I think we’ve already gotten past the small bubble of flip-floppers around Harper’s ferry. I figured the trail would be busy for a little while after we passed Harpers Ferry. But the crowd seemed to thin out very quickly actually. There are still plenty of people out on the trail section hiking though. But there are very few thru hikers out. I figure we’re still going to see some people over the next couple of weeks, but probably not very many.

Once we got to the shelter we got set up for the night. I blew up my pad and got everything situated. Then I did my stretching and had some snacks. I didn’t wind up having very much energy to get writing or video work done. But I know we’re going to be getting into town pretty early tomorrow. So I’ll have plenty of time to get some work done once we get into town. There’s also a good chance that we will do a relatively short day on Friday and stay in town again. Friday and Saturday looks like there’s going to be some really bad weather. It’s supposed to rain a lot both days and the temperatures are going to be really cold. If it’s anything like the other day when it rained all day and we did 42 miles, it has the potential to be rough. The only saving grace from the other day was that we had so much support and the rain was fairly light. If the rain had been much heavier, it would’ve been really cold because we likely would’ve gotten soaking wet.

The spur trail for the Leroy Smith Shelter.

I got a little bit of stuff done on my phone but not much. Tomorrow I’ll get caught up on everything and by the time that you’re reading this the second part of my week 14 of vlog should be up on YouTube @MadisonBlagden. So you can check that out on there if you would like to!

If you enjoyed this blog and would like to support my hike by buying me a soda or a snack along the way, there is a “Tip the Author” button below! It links directly to my Venmo. Any and all support is incredibly appreciated!