omfg that was one heck of a hike

Next time I read something about a hike, I'm going to email and ask for details.

I don't know remember what I revealed in the last post.

The Whip-Poor-Will hike was at Lehigh Gap. I took my headlamp.

With me was my friend Pam (l-r), her son Nate and his girlfriend Amy, and her husband Ron.

I picked up Lydia and we headed to the Nature Center in Slatington. It's about 15 minutes from her house. We arrived at exactly 7:15. The Lott-Ticho's had been there since 6:30. They came up earlier and biked 9 miles before hiking.

We waited at the Osprey House for at least 15 minutes, before carpooling to the start point. Then we waited there for the person leading the hike.

At 7:45-8:00 we finally get going. It's up hill. No, it's up mountain. We climbed the freaking side of Blue Mountain.  Single handed the steepest hill I ever climbed. Made that hill in Palmerton look flat. (It was 79 flights on my Fit Bit. In actually the grade was steeper. I stopped. A lot.)

When the back of the pack met us they said Lydia had turned and gone back to the van to wait. They also said we weren't supposed to go back to her. She'd be fine. We quickly realized that Lydia had the water. And the phone.  We couldn't call to find out if she was okay. I called Bonnie's house from Pam's phone. I thought she could call Lyd. But she didn't answer. That's the problem with caller ID. Then we decided to try and email her. But she didn't reply.

It was hell getting to the top. If you travel in that area you've probably seem the three microwave towers on the top of the mountain. Kind-of to the left of the turnpike tunnel. That''s where we were. You could see Palmerton, Lehighton and even Jim Thorpe. From the other side you could see the Lehigh Valley.

We waited about 15 minutes before starting down. In the dark. No flashlights allowed. They had recordings of whip-poor-wills that they were using to attract them. We were 3/4 of the way down the hill before it worked. Yes, Lydia could hear them in the parking lot. We climbed the hill for nothing!

Once we heard them we could turn on our flashlights and aim them to the ground. I can't tell you how happy that made me.

Whip-poor-wills like new growth forest. This area is the old zinc mine. In 20 years it will be beautiful. I took video of the whip-poor-wills. Not to see them, you couldn't, but for the audio. Alas, it didn't work.

I got home at after 11.

Tomorrow, it's a Volkssport walk in North Bethlehem.