Date: May 6, 2011
Total Distance: 5.64 miles
Time: 4:38 (HR:Min)
Elevation Gain: 778 feet
Type: Loop
Hello there! My name is Michael. Pleased to meet you.
Starting anything always tends to be a bit difficult, whether it's a new job, a new blog, or a new activity. On May 6, 2011, my future wife - Francesca - and I decided that we were now hikers. We had the nice new backpacks, hydration bladders, moisture-wicking clothes (including underwear!), hats (with vents!), a GPS, compass, hiking boots, and a flashlight to prove it. We had all of the 10 essentials that our friendly neighborhood REI had recommended. We read some articles and - only two days before - taken a class on how to read a map and use a compass. We were ready for anything!
This was our fourth hike - our fourth hike as hikers, I should clarify.
After our 2 and 3 mile hikes at Peace Valley Nature Center in New Britain, PA, we decided that we had not only risen from mere walkers to bounding hikers, but that we were also ready to tackle Hawk Mountain. A very good friend of mine had recently shown us pictures of his son sitting on a boulder looking out into the distance on the summit of Hawk Mountain. It was a beautiful picture! We became obsessed. We would have the same picture (with us in it, not our friend's son!) by the end of the day.
I had went on Backpacker Magazine's website, and found this suggested route: Hawk Mountain Route. The rating on it was a 6/10. Now, what you will learn about hiking, my dear beginner friends, is that there is no published scale as to what the difference between a 1/10 and a 6/10 exactly may be. In my mind, if it wasn't an 10/10 or higher, there was no danger that Francesca and I would have any problem whatsoever completing the journey.
A stone stairwell on the River of Rocks Trail
We arrived at Hawk Mountain around 3:00pm in the afternoon. Sunset was 8:00pm. Plenty of time!
After visiting the nature center welcome area and paying our trail fee, we made our way up the Lookout Trail to the River of Rocks Trail. Let me say it now: this place is absolutely wonderful. It is overwhelmingly gorgeous! The mountain air, the vistas - this is the experience that makes hiking great! I want to be clear about this: you need to go to Hawk Moutain. The (abridged) tale that follows should not deter you from either going to Hawk Mountain or taking up hiking, because while I consider myself to be of above-average intelligence, my brain was set to faulty this day.
Backpacker magazine's website clearly labelled this hike a 6/10. While no scale exists to compare the various difficulty ratings, anything over a 5/10 should've been a tip to a recently more adventurous couch potato that he had little business embarking on this journey. Further down the website's page, I passed over the words "8-foot" and "rock scramble". A reviewer's words found at the end of the article - "you are walking along the spine of a mountain" - would flash through my brain later. Even the wonderful people who work at Hawk Mountain, and the map they provide which clearly delineates the trails we were going on as "moderate" & "most" difficult did not register in my brain (see: Hawk Mountain Trailmap).
Why? Because I was a hiker, and a hiker knows no fear. But a hiker is not stupid either.
Boulder Field
After making our way through the River of Rocks trail, we turned onto the Golden Eagle Connector Trail - a climb that caused our unfit quads to scream in agony. But we persevered. Sweat poured down my body - wearing a 100% cotton tee-shirt under my moisture-wicking shirt did not help (although, I would learn how dangerous that exactly is around hike #7). But we made it! Up to the Skyline Trail. The Skyline Trail!! Which connects to the Appalachian Trail (Hike #TBA)! Amazing!
After reaching the Skyline Trail, we began slowing down. We were tired. We were hungry. And then it happened - a nice hike turned into a nice rock scramble. At a height of 1447 feet. Did I mention I'm afraid of heights? Never have I moved more deliberately, carefully measuring each and every step. I kept glancing at Francesca as we nervously picked our way along the spine of the mountain, praying that I would know when to turn around. Turns out that moment was after I sprained my left ankle which then caused me to pitch forward banging my legs, knees, butt - pretty much everything - against some fairly large (and some small) boulders. But I picked myself up. Gimping along the spine of the mountain, we came to the 8-foot high rock climb.
Skyline Trail
We could not figure out how to get up it, and we did not want to go back! By this point, we were not only hungry, but we were exhausted and hurting everywhere. We heard voices. We called up. Two teenage girls - couldn't have been more than 17 - dressed in short-shorts, with no backpacks, no hydration bladders, no hiking boots, no hats, no moisture-wicking shirts and no flashlights, bounded over the 8-foot tall rocks. They saw us, scared and clinging to the boulders, and tried their best to direct us up. But our bodies firmly said no. We figured out that there was another Golden Eagle Connector Trail that we could take back without having to scramble over many of the same boulders again. The young ladies bid us adieu, and I continued to gimp along. I would re-injure my ankle two more times. At one point, Francesca had to pull me up as I lay on the ground. We had been out there for over 5 hours - nothing to eat, almost finished our water.
But we made it! After almost five hours of active hiking, we made it back to the parking lot. We stripped ourselves of our backpacks, took off our boots, reached for a couple bottles of water from the cooler we had stowed away in the trunk, and drove away. We drove away feeling like we had accomplished something. We hiked Hawk Mountain. We didn't use the Satellite Messenger (see Essential #11) to call in the rescue team. And, we did not throw ourselves down to the ground, and cry like little babies. We were hikers now.
We'll be going back real soon. And this time, we're going to try to be slightly less stupid:-)
Lessons Learned:
1. Always pack the 10 essentials: http://www.rei.com/expertadvice/articles/ten+essentials.html
2. Always heed difficulty warnings
3. Always make sure you give yourself enough time so that you won't be racing the setting sun! (It was pitch black by the time we made it out of Hawk Mountain)
Hawk Mountain Website: http://www.hawkmountain.org/
Lookout Trail