Nights 299 and 300!

Hi and welcome back!

From now on I am going to list the temperatures of when I went to bed and when I woke up. 

Saturday night: 39 degrees

Sunday morning: 38 degrees

Sunday night: 46 degrees

Monday morning: 29 degrees

On Saturday night I slept in my bivvy/shelter. Even though it was mild (as you can see from the temperatures above), I slept in a 20 degree bag. did that because the bivvy/shelter sits about 6 inches above the ground, so I was susceptible to the wind. Around 1:30 I woke up and realized that I was outside of the bivvy/shelter. I think since the top of my sleeping pad is slick I must have slid off, and the wall wasn't low enough to block me.

About 2 hours later I woke up again with my head against the pole. Again, I must have slid off of my sleeping pad. I was surprised that the bivvy/shelter didn't collapse on top of me, because while I was setting it up I noticed that it seemed as if it could fall over easily. It must have been stronger than it seemed. Considering that I made the bivvy/shelter out of a bivvy sack, an extra pole from my tent, and some duct tape, I was very impressed by it!

On Sunday afternoon I went hiking at the Lehigh Gap with my friend T.S. and his family. The trail that we went on was called the Woodpecker Trail, and it went up the mountain and along a ridge at the top. We started on the Woodpecker Trail around 1:00.  It started out as a gradual switchback, but it became steep and rocky once we got in the woods.

We were hiking on part of the Appalachian Trail, so after about 20 minutes in the woods we came across one of the shelters they have along the trail for thru hikers.  We decided to go into the shelter for a few minutes.  About two feet above the ground it had a wide platform where you could probably fit three adults.  There was a fire pit outside of the shelter and also a small fire ring inside on the floor next to the platform.  There were even a few grates you could put between the platform and a windowsill so you could cook right next to your bunk.  After that we continued going up the trail.

Rock Seat

When we got to the top, it was a large, rocky slope.  I had checked the altimeter on my dad's Highgear watch in the parking lot, and it read about 100 feet above sea level.  At the top we were about 850 feet, so we gained 750 vertical feet, which I thought was kind of a lot for just an hour of hiking.

Since there are so many rocks at the top, T.S. and I decided to make a seat overlooking the other side of the valley.  We made it by finding a couple flat rocks and putting one behind a large, round rock and one upright behind that to make the back.  Here's a picture.  It wasn't very comfortable.

Thanks for reading!