Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Púlpito del Diablo

Greetings again - this particular entry is about a hike we did back in November.  I know I'm a few months behind, but I felt it was a worthy hike to write about.  Our destination was Devil's Pulpit, which is found off the Appalachian Trail just south of Lehigh Gap in PA.  I had never been to Devil's Pulpit before and this one did not disappoint.

We started off from the parking lot at the Lehigh Gap Nature Center, which can be gotten to off of Route 873 right on the outskirts of Slatington.  It was a nice clear day and a bit on the cool side, but not too cold.  We got started and made our way through the deciduous forest at the base of the mountain.  A half mile or so up we met up with the George Outerbridge shelter.  A few guys had been camping there overnight and we walked past them, greeting them and their breakfast fire, which smelled pretty good and inviting.  We wound around the trail and met up with the top ridge of the mountain, then began heading up the North trail.  There were a bunch of spots along this trail where beautiful vistas opened up to the valley below, offering a full view of Slatington and Walnutport.  All of these spots also offered perfect photo taking opportunities.  We were able to see all the way to the Pinnacle from where we were.

As the trail wound around and continued north, we passed a few more hikers who appeared to have had quite an interesting night the night before.  They were laying out on the ground, covered with afghans, and there was a boom box and empty beer bottles scattered around.  They had to be cold - it was probably around 30 degrees out when we were hiking if I had to guess.  Once we got past them, we ended up on top of the mountain ridge, looking north to the old zinc plant which was responsible for the stripping of this entire section of mountain.  We were also able to see down into Palmerton from there too.  As we made our way further along, we started the descent.  I did not realize that we were not yet at the pulpit, so I thought we were descending back down the mountain but I soon found out we were actually making the descent to Devil's Pulpit.

The descent itself was fairly steep and wound through pine and other evergreen trees.  After about 15 minutes we were down at the Pulpit itself and the view from there was nothing short of awesome.  A look at a few of the pictures below will give you a good idea of the visuals.  We hung out for about 25 minutes just soaking in the view and then it was time to get going.  Mat and Brian who had been on the hike before let us know that we either went back up the steep hill we descended on, or we could go back down the side of the mountain.  The thought of going back up that steep unstable path was not appealing, so we opted for down the side of the mountain. This would prove to be an interesting adventure, to say the least.

We made our way south a little bit and around a small patch of evergreens, and to the left the ground dropped off quite steeply, probably at least 20-30 feet or more.  We got to the end of the little path we were on, and had to start shimmying our way down the mountain side.  By this time of year we were deep into autumn, so the floor was covered with leaves, and the ground underneath those leaves was pretty loose and crumbly. Shortly into our down-the-mountain journey we had ended up unintentionally splitting into two groups.  Mat and Jen had taken off ahead of the rest of us, a little more sure of their footing, while Mel and I hung back, taking our time going down.  Brian hung back with us too, but I think just to be the one bringing up the back of the group.  Soon enough we were on our butts, sliding down over dirt, leaves, and rocks.  I didn't feel safe enough walking down the mountain with the pitch of the ground, so I decided to stay on my butt the whole time.  It was a bit more challenging than I was thinking it would be, but we made it to the bottom in about half an hour.  My jeans were covered in dirt, but we were at the bottom.  A short stroll south from there along the old railroad track and power lines and we were back at the Nature Center.  Total hike time was about 3 hours. 

If you've never been up there, I highly recommend going.  I probably would not do this one in the winter, but once spring and summer roll around, definitely go check it out.

Happy hiking!




LOOKING SOUTH TO THE PINNACLE


LOOKING DOWN INTO SLATINGTON


UP TOP - LOOKING NORTH TO THE ZINC PLANT

 
VIEW NORTH INTO PALMERTON

 
JEN AND MEL PAUSE BEFORE THE DESCENT TO THE PULPIT


PALMERTON


BRIAN AND MAT AT THE EDGE OF THE PULPIT


LOOKING OFF THE EDGE OF THE PULPIT TO THE LEHIGH RIVER


FROM THE PULPIT ALONG THE RIVER INTO PALMERTON


THE SIDE OF THE MOUNTAIN WHERE WE CAME DOWN



Complete photo set online here.