Mt. Minsi, PA. Delaware Water Gap

If you have a free weekend and want to hike a section of the Appalachian Trail somewhere close to the Philly, New York areas I would highly reccomend this 7 mile two night, one and a half day trip.

My group and I which consisted of Me (Sticky), Derel, Recon Joe and Bluto. Derel and I meet Joe and Bluto at the Lookout Parking leaving their vehichle and then shuttling to the start on 191.

We parked on the south west side of 191 and accessed the North Bound AT by crossing the road, to the left of the tower. Fairly easy to access considering that you will have AT
markers, which are vertical white rectangles painted on trees and rocks making trail location simple. If you walk more than 1/8 of a mile than you just backtrack to the last marker seen.

Shortly after entering the AT we came across a bulletin board with a map of the AT and and we were on our way. Since we started around 3:30 pm. I planned for us to camp a half mile in the first night so we wouldn't have to set the tent's and bear bag up at night. Not that we would have had a problem with doing so, it's just much easier in daylight. Our first camp was made at Nelson Vista which is a big meadow were there may have been a homestead many moons ago. It is super cool in that it is one of the few meadows located on the Kittatiny Ridge in Pennsylvania where a group of section hikers can camp.( Kirkridge Shelter is near by and normally has water till it gets cold and the water gets shut off. I had figured the water would still be on and made my water calculations accordingly, but left enough room to have water for the day and we would slack pack to the spring of stream once at camp.) Nelson Vista or Overlook is also a launching ground for hang gliders. It's kind of cool to walk on the launching area and imagine how intense it must be one's first time hang gliding. We hung our bear bag and set up tents, and Bluto got a nice fire going in the fire ring. The night was beautiful the stars were vibrant and the cool night air was refreshing. All of a sudden Bluto says he brought a surprise and Paul pulls out all of these foil wrapped meals and we cooked the first nights meal on the coals. It was awesome..... burgers, onions, carrots potatoes, and corn. The foil was latter crumpled up and put in our trash, which was a 2 gallon sized freezer bag. That simple. I recommend bringing in a meal like this, wrapped in foil the first night of a short trip because it tastes soooo good! I don't recommend doing this for a week long trip because of the additional weight. The night was originally forcasted for 32 degrees, but we were fortunate that it only went down to 35 which is is warm in a 0 degree bag. The rest of the crew had 20 degree bags and they were warm also. I had gotten up just before sunrise and because Nelson Vista faces south east, I was able to watch a beautiful sunrise! Their all beautiful.

We then packed and started our hike. The rocks are evident pretty much the whole trip. You are better off loving the rocks than hating the rocks, because once you get into dis-liking the rock it seems that accidents happen. I try to get into a zone and go with the flow. Especially down hill. Recon Joe reminded me to go slow up hill and faster down. After a few ups and downs we came to Tott's gap, which is a dirt rd. that crosses the the ridge and I didn't know this at the time but there is supposedly a farm on the north side of the ridge down Tott's gap rd. that has water. I did not know this at the time of our hike but will look for the farm next trip. Apparently not many section hikers know about the farm with water. Considering how scarce water is on this last PA section of the AT, water is gold! After passing Totts Gap we meet a Bow Hunter who had no success, and we told him about the dear we saw about a mile back. He was just happy to be in the woods anyway, so he didn't care to much. Shortly after that we were already at camp and it was only 1:00 PM. The campsite was cool, but it looked like someone had beaten us to it, but it was a beautifal site. It is called Vista Overlook. We still needed to find either the spring of the stream, and given all the tourist on Mt. Minsi because of a beatiful 60 degree Saturday morning in October, we elected to have two people stay with the packs to do some recon on the Vista Campsite and find out if it is Backpackers or day hikers who have set up a picnic, while Recon Joe and I search for water. So, off Recon Joe and I go searching for water. Now, at this point I should be looking at a map that has the location of the spring, but I left it on the kitchen table, sooo....now a 3/4 mile hike turned into a 3 mile round trip. At first we were actually headed in the right direction, but if the spring was not running it would have added an extra mile to the trip, so I decided we needed to back track which was just the thing Recon Joe wanted to hear, becuase it gave him the oppurtunity to bushwack (we didn't have a machete', but we traversed steep terrain in a Rhododendrum Forrest. Recon Joe was lovin' being off trail. I had thought..cool, the perspective changes. It's a different world off trail. You can be close to a trail also and if the forrest is thick enough you can't even tell there is a trail. It's cool. Recon Joe and I find the trial and start heading straight down the mountain. It's a super cool trail that steps down Minsi. On the wasy down are a couple cool lookouts and forrest's. At the Eureka creek we got about 9 litres, and was surprised at the numbers of people with dog's and retired folks some of who hiked a third of the way which is hard in itself, and some that hiked to the top of Minsi. One of those families was chillin' at the stream, and it was cool because of thier age disparity. The boy was 10 and the grandfather was 73. I thought "Right On"! Recon and I started hiking back up the mountain at this point and we meet a couple different groups of people. I had to come crawl out of these Rhodededrums and I look up and theres a couple with a dog wondering where the heck I just came from. It was funny to see their facial expressions. The woman said, "That must be your tree". We meet an elderly couple and the husband makes his own Black Birch walking sticks. They were really dark, light and thin. They almost looked liked the circumfrence was too small, but when you put your weight on it it would bend ever so slightly. I should have gotten the mans bussiness card. We passed a number of groups, and when we finally got to the top Recon notticed that Dave and Bluto moved our equipment to the cool spot, but we had about 20 Japanese tourists at the Vista chillin'. It was cool because I knew that it wasn't easy for them to hike to the Top of Minsi, some of them were in there 70's. Dave and Bluto were happy to see us and the water and we joked about how it was feeling like we were having guests for dinner. The funny thing is that by 3:30 the number of people doubled! It was cool, but if you want privacy I would do this hike on a weekday. we had a beautiful Dusk and made an awesome fire, eat and woke up the next day to another beautiful sunrise!
Me, Recon Joe, Bluto, and Derel then set off down the steppe trail and Derel's foot got stuck on a root doing a flip and skillfully landing on his back using the backpack for a cushion, then sliding down the mountain. and Recon Joe and I were enjoying the trail for a third time and he say's "Threes a Charm".

Making Changes

Who are you? Who is this I we talk about? Are we a series of thoughts that are affected by experience? Are the thoughts, I'm not smart or I'm not good with tools true or are they self fulfilling profecies? Yes it may take person A longer than person B to figure something out, but it doesn't mean that person A can't learn more about the subject. Kind of like Forrest .Gump, being aware of the moment. Good thoughts, Bad thoughts, happy thoughts, sad thoughts are all changing moment by moment, but awareness stays constent (Buddhist teaching). Awareness is constent and with mindfulness one can be aware of the thought and without judgement and return their focus to their breath. So, I ask is awareness who we really are? The thoughts accumulate with experience and after layer upon layer of thoughts and definitions of who one is, one tends to accept the thoughts as who they are. Just thoughts though. Good, Bad, Happy they are still thoughts that can be viewed with ones awareness in a mindful way as to not give them the distinction of defining a persons being.

GOD WANT'S PEACE?

I was thinking about conversations I've had with various people about religion and philosophy. Many of these people have a belief that they think is truth, and I'm not talking about any one religion or belief, I'm talking about people who have differing beliefs, but think their belief is true. Now, I'm not speaking just in broad terms, like one person is a Christian and the other a Jew or Muslim, but also in sub sects of each religion.

So, I've been told I think too much, and I say to that, this is good thing not a bad thing. I've been told I question too much, and I say this is a good thing not a bad thing. If humankind did not have a large brain and have consciousness than we would not even be able to ask the question who, what, where, when.....and why. A dog does not sit around and ask...is there a god, or an afterlife, or spirits and angels, or demons.

To me it makes no sense that God would want human beings to kill themselves over what they deem to be truth. It does make sense that God would include all people and that just believing that God exists would not be good enough and that one's deeds would matter to God. It appears to me that we as humans are missing or not wanting to hear the message of Love and acceptance. Such a simple thing, yet such a hard thing for us humans to live consistently.

I was also thinking about how the strong survive and the meek perish. You see it everywhere, it is almost a law of the animal kingdom. With humans large brain and adaptability, do we not have the capability to change our thinking about this way of thinking? If we are closer to God in the way we live our lives and prayer will we not have compassion for the meek? Will only the strong survive still apply. It would seem that it wouldn't. It would seem that Christians, and Muslims, and Jews if they were living their live in accordance to the way God would want them to live would have compassion for each other and those who are less fortunate. It would seem?

WORLD PEACE

World peace. What a concept. Was watching the UN speeches, particularly Iran's president and Libya's president. I was thinking about the tension with all countries. Palestinian and Israeli tension. North Korean tension, Northern Ireland, Dar fur, all the major wars and some of the minor wars.

I look at my own life and notice the anger that I have experienced and almost likely not completed free of experiencing again, not that I want to be angry, it's that I am not enlightened. Or, should I say I haven't transformed or evolved to this way of being or existence. So, I ask myself, how can the world have peace until I and other human beings have peace within themselves?

It makes no sense to me to be violent in order to maintain that which is good or holy.

The sad part of this is that the proverbial we, are all to blame.

It seems that human beings want to make are beliefs fit our lifestyles, and we pick and choose what fits. I think we need to simplify and have inclusion rather than exclusion. I see it a lot with people that claim to be Christian. I don't think that if you think that you are born again and someone is not, that you should exclude them or judge them. Also, the other thing that I see a lot of is wealthy Christians validating their wealth, making statements like God wants me to be happy and have wealth. The first thing I think is how about if it is at the price of others and that it is based in greed. I recently had a Christian man tell me that a little greed is good for the country, because we are a capitalist country with a free market.

On the other hand you have Muslim terrorist who think that God wants them to kill all the infidels. Then you have other religious groups that see this and think all Muslims are bad. Were is the inclusion?

It seems that we as a world cannot afford to be right wing. Nor can we afford to be left. Maybe if we as as a world were somewhere in the middle, we would have more peace. More peace with are wife, our children, our neighbor, and other countries. Maybe we don't have all the answers and we should try to get along. If not for the reason of good, than for the reason of maintaining human existence.

Human Transformation

Find what you are passionate about and persue your dream. Get a life, a life that is fullfilling. That is the great thing about living in the US is that we can persue these dreams.

Not all of us though, because millions of folks are homeless and many millions more are poverty stricken. Can you help the adult who is poverty stricken? It is sad that many will never escape the life of poverty and many of their children won't either. It seems that it will not end.

Why are we not more compassionate as a species? Is it just survival of the fittest or are we evolving into something more enlighted, more aware, less driven by desire or greed. There is much compassion in the world, and I see it in spurts. Where is the compassion as a species on whole though. How do we treat each other overall. Will we evolve beyond the strong survive instinct, without being some communist dictatorship? Who wants that? It would appear that the more intellectual we become the less violent we will become.Then again, are we more violent than a gorilla? Damn, we are, so maybe that theory isn't as valid as I thought. So, it would seem that it will take more than an evolution, but a transformation. We need to transform, or I don't see how we as a species can survive on Earth for more than a thousand years from now. We may not last 5o yrs. . That's a weird thought, although it may not matter much in the overall scheme of life in the Universe and other Universes. Maybe God made enough worlds in enough Universes that some of them have suceeded where we have failing.

Middle Way.................

Some of my childhood friends have called me a dilettante. I forgot the exact definition, but something like, one who dabbles or has a superficial interest in the arts, blah, blah, blah. Something like that. I haven't mastered many things mainly because of the lack of self discipline. Grand Master Graham would say " not just discipline....but self discipline" . I would have the discipline of going to kendo, or tai chi class, but not the self discipline to practice at home.

At 44, I can look back on my life with many regrets at the poor choices I had made. There are many books that teach replacing good habits with bad habits like Og Mandino's Greatest Salesman in the World. Books on forgiving, how to love, etc. Without self discipline though you won't stay with a good habit long enough to replace a bad habit, or keep forgiving and loving. Like I said, I was thought of by a few friends to be a dilettante and I have been working on replacing that behavior. So, I think to myself.....what are some of the reasons I don't gain a mastery of a subject, and there are a couple of things that I don't like to admit, but I think get in the way of being or aspiring to becoming a master. One is that I don't listen and will wander in thought when someone is speaking. I personally get offended when someone does this to me, but I do it way too often, and am catching myself doing on a daily basis. Everyone likes to be heard and everyone has something to offer. The other thing I do that gets in the way of me gaining in depth knowledge on a subject or practice, is that I don't like to admit I don't know certain facts or bits of info and have somehow convinced myself I know more than I do. For example for a long time I thought I understood what backpacking was all about, because I went camping, read magazine articles, and loved being outdoors. I forgot that my knowledge was almost nil. It's weird...then you get in a conversation with someone who has expertise and don't gain a heck of a lot of knowledge because of my own ignorance.

This doesn't always happen. But it does happen. Ego..that's what I'm thinking, and don't have much knowledge on this subject, but Ego can be a double edged sword, and I think for me has prevented greater learning from taking place. I remember I thought I had an understanding of Buddhism, and my nephew and friends took a couple classes in college and I remember having to admit I didn't know much about the subject and listen to them discuss things like the 4 noble truths. I can't even remember them... all I remember is life is suffering. I thought I understood Christianity because I went to Catholic school. The truth is I'm no biblical scholar. I've been in the presence of these folks, like my nephew Stephen, and I realize wow, there's alot of info to process. The third thing is sheer laziness. Hate to admit this one, but it's true. I'm the epitome of a lazy American. Life's been good, maybe too good. Sometimes, I feel guilt about how good of a life I've had as compared to most folks.

Friends have found it entertaining to watch me eat, because I attack my food like a warrior. At times it doesn't look like I coming up for air, doing some kind of circular breathing technique like some Tibetan Monk, except that I'm eating meat on the bone, which is un-Monk like. So these are some of the reasons why I have not exercised more self discipline, and have swung like a long pendulum, eating nothing but beans and rice for a week because of something I learned from a book or person, to eating nothing but meat, like Atkins diet, to eating a whole pizza, because I hadn't eaten a carb in a month. At this moment in time I think Middle Way. I may not become enlightened in this life. May not be a Monk or a Priest or a Prophet, but I can do" Middle Way".

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