2021 Allegheny Front Trail – Epilogue

Sunday, 18 July

From my photo, Bob identified the snake we had seen earlier as an Eastern Milksnake.

The Allegheny Front is the major southeast- or east-facing escarpment (steep slope or long cliff that forms as a result of faulting or erosion and separates two relatively level areas having different elevations) in the Allegheny Mountains in southern Pennsylvania, western Maryland, and eastern West Virginia. Wikipedia

The Allegheny Front Trail was a pleasure to hike. The trail was well marked with blazes and signs. The few places we got off trail were because we were not paying attention. There was almost no road walking on roads open to vehicles. Elevation changes were much less than our previous hikes. Long stretches of flat ground. The scenery was varied with rhododendron thickets, pine groves, hardwood forest and bogs. Water was plentiful and campsites were available as needed.

In five days of hiking, Bob and I saw three day hikers in the first hour and one other day hiker our last evening. One person riding a bike, so it was five days with virtually no other human contact.

I picked up a Garmin Instinct Solar watch during Amazon Prime Day, mostly for other activities but I thought I would seen how it worked for hiking. Turns out it is a good replacement for my Casio watch with altimeter, barometer and compass. Links to the tracks and elevation profile of each day are below. The Garmin temperature info is not useful since it measures the temperature of the watch while on your arm. However, the tracks include some weather information in the top right corner. Temperatures in the table are from a thermometer I carried.

Day	Miles	Ascent	Descent	Net Elev Change	High Temp	Low Temp
1	9.1	791	1,394	-603	74	58
2	9.9	1,299	1,555	-256	79	54
3	9.7	1,348	988	360	77	58
4	8.8	581	584	-3	75	58
5	5.7	1,417	981	436	64	46

I am quite pleased with my Tarptent Moment. The quick setup was invaluable before the thunderstorm. Two doors and several other pitching options give me plenty of ventilation. I had one drip inside the tent during the rain and it is easy to seal that. My only complaint is the net pockets that you use at night. Bob gave me a great idea to hang a microfiber glass case on the hook at the top – problem solved.

Lastly, I added a tiny electronic thermometer that connects with my phone to my gear. This provides temperature while we hike when attached to my pack. At night I leave it outside my tent to be able to record low temperatures. Kind of fun to use and only slightly heavier than the alcohol thermometer that was too tiny to read and did not record temps.

Looking forward to the next excursion.