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About
halfway up the mountain, the trail crosses Eureka Creek, a small brook
which cascades down through the rhododendrons. A short distance beyond
this creek, the trail turned sharply left, climbing more steeply, and then
emerged from the forest for some nice view of the Delaware Water Gap and
Interstate 80, which follows along the river's east bank for a few miles
until crossing into New Jersey.
The
trail entered the woods again, and began to get rockier. Some of the rocks
were partially hidden in the fallen leaves, so I had to be careful not to
catch my foot and trip. There was also a bit more snow on the rhododendron
leaves up here, but it never really collected on the ground.
Finally,
the trail met up once again with the Mt Minsi Fire Road, which entered
from the southwest. The merged trail continued the short distance up to
the summit. Along the way, the views opened up again. There was a
particularly good view of Mt Tammany from one vantage point. It would be
nice to see this area again in the summer, as the landscape was fairly
brown and bleak in mid-November.
After
taking a couple of summit pictures (one of me and one of Muffin), we
started right down, taking the Mt Minsi Fire Road so as to make better
time. The fire road wasn't quite as interesting a route as the Appalachian
Trail, but it was fairly smooth and much less steep, and we were able to
run part of the way down.
Back
at the car, we drove back to the campground, where Toi and Holly were now
up and glad to see us back again safely. Then we quickly took down camp,
packed up the car, and headed off to find a restaurant to eat breakfast
at. |
Eureka
Creek. About halfway up, the trail crosses this small creek. |
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