Appalachian Trail: Little to Lehigh Gap and Back (10-May-2016)

The original plan for today was to do a recycling day. I have over a months worth of collected recyclables to go through and take down to the recycling center. The rain made me decide against it and I ended up going to Little Gap. I do go to this area often and there always is trash. For this hike I wanted to go out to Lehigh Gap and back and did so by taking the access road out and the Appalachian Trail back. 

Every hike up this mountain I seem to find something old that I have missed on all of the other trips up. This time it was a Zima bottle and I don't know how I missed it on other hikes up. The other bottle was new, didn't find much else on the ascent.

Often there is new trash at this big rock pile on top of the mountain. This time I found very little. A couple bottles and a few cans. 

 Again there were old items that I missed before and newer items.

Green Briar is one of my favorite plants. Picking trash out of it isn't something I like to do. Didn't loose too much blood, however some was lost in retrieving this item. 

Looking back towards Little Gap on the Northampton County side of the mountain. I checked this rock outcrop for trash, but like the last rock pile there wasn't much. 

Went to get the Gatorade bottle and I found the brush. It looked as though someone was trying to paint the rocks with blue makeup with that brush. Glad they didn't have paint. This section of rock is one of the few in this section without graffiti.

Took the AT back, a long portion of it overlooks Palmerton.

This was not something I expected to find today. It looks like a trail log box, but instead it is a geocache. I am not a fan of Geocaching. In many cases new trails are made where they shouldn't be to get to the boxes and I have found a good number of caches in sensitive areas. What is the appeal of finding a box in the middle of the woods with moldy items in it? This particular box would be much better suited as an owl box.

Looking towards the Lehigh River on the Carbon County side of the mountain. 

The factory at the base of the mountain was used to refine zinc and is the reason this area is considered a superfund site. The process released heavy metals into the air which fell on the mountain and surrounding area in rain. For many years there was little to no vegetation on this portion of the mountain. Recovery efforts are still being made, but as you can see there is a lot of green on the mountain now. 

Some of the original trees that were on the mountain still stand. Preserved and protected by the heavy metals they have been dead and standing for decades. Only about ten years ago the entire mountain side and top looked like the photo on the right with a little less green.

This was the most I found at any one spot on the entire hike. All of this was near a campsite.

The rocky path back to the bottom of the gap. 

Filled my pack. I thought there would be more. Always a good trip when I find less trash than expected. 

This isn't the greatest photo, but it is the first Scarlet Tanager this year for me. It wouldn't come down into better lighting, I really was just happy to see it. 

Prairie Warblers were the most common birds on the hike. Heard and saw them all over the top of the mountain. 

Throughout my hike I found several large ant mounds. All had a lot of activity with hundreds of ants moving in and out of the mounds. The ones above are specifically, Allegheny Mound Ants. They are common in this area. From what I have seen they are only found at higher elevations with somewhat sandy soil. 

You too can help with taking out the trash! If you get out hiking take a grocery bag with you, give it a second use and fill it with trash while you are out! Every bit helps. You can also help contributing to this project here: Help Fund Taking Out the Trash

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