“Because
in the end, you won’t remember the time you spent working in the office or
mowing your lawn. Climb that … mountain.”
~ Jack Kerouac
~ 1922-1969
While
walking on the Delaware and Lehigh National Heritage Corridor (D&L Trail)
at Lehigh Gap on a late May evening, I looked across the Lehigh River and
spotted this man hiking along the Kittatinny Ridge, also called Blue Mountain.
In the shadow of the Kittatinny Ridge, the Lehigh Gap in Slatington, Pennsylvania,
is a crossroads where the Lehigh Gap Nature Center’s trails connect two
historic trails – the Appalachian Trail and the D&L Trail.
The
Appalachian Trail, a foot path, follows the ridge on both sides of the Lehigh
Gap, running 1,245 miles south to Georgia and 930 miles north to Maine. Running
from Wilkes-Barre to Bristol, the D&L Trail passes through the Lehigh and
Delaware rivers and their canals in Pennsylvania.