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The Pinnacle
On Thursday, September 17th, my friends Chris, Tere and I went out for a hike on the Appalachian Trail at the Pinnacle. The Pinnacle is hailed as the most famous view off the Appalachian Trail in Pennsylvania and it lived up to it's reputation.
We picked a good day as it was supposed to be raining all day so there was nobody on the trail except for the local Boys and Girls Club with their mentors and 2 thru-hikers. Even though the forecast said rainy, the day turned out to be beautiful and around 65 degrees the whole time. It was not extra sunny or anything, but you could tell the sun was gleaming from above those clouds. Either way, it led to a much more pleasant hike than expected.
We started off at the watershed from the Hamburg(Exit 30) entrance, South of both The Pinnacle and the Pullpit. Basically, if you follow the blatantly layed out Jeep Path to the observatory you found your way to the Pullpit. However, we always like to go our own way and went through the White/Yellow/Blue trail hybrid mix and found the Shelter closeby to the watershed, and some very fun and interesting boulders to climb along with some views that were not in the book.
From the Pullpit which gives you an East by Northeast view of the valley/rocks below you, continue on the whiteblazed AT, zigzagging Northwest to Northeast until you reach the Blue Trail and a giant hand made pile of rocks. This will be the entry to the Pinnacle. From there you can bascially pick any direction around and walk to the edge and admire the views of Cumberland Valley.
Due to the conditions of the weather prior to getting there, there was a lot of water. Small trailside ponds, swamps and slush that you have to find your way around and make through. We tried to stay to the rocks as much as possible for fun and footing, however wet rocks always create different dangers of their own. This made the usually fun climbing much scarier in most situations.
We did around 7 to 9 miles over the course of about 5 hours or so. This included stoppage time for resting, taking in the views and just having fun on the trail. The Pinnacle is a great hike with much of the usual Pennsylvania AT terrain (rocky) and I would return anytime I get the chance.
We picked a good day as it was supposed to be raining all day so there was nobody on the trail except for the local Boys and Girls Club with their mentors and 2 thru-hikers. Even though the forecast said rainy, the day turned out to be beautiful and around 65 degrees the whole time. It was not extra sunny or anything, but you could tell the sun was gleaming from above those clouds. Either way, it led to a much more pleasant hike than expected.
We started off at the watershed from the Hamburg(Exit 30) entrance, South of both The Pinnacle and the Pullpit. Basically, if you follow the blatantly layed out Jeep Path to the observatory you found your way to the Pullpit. However, we always like to go our own way and went through the White/Yellow/Blue trail hybrid mix and found the Shelter closeby to the watershed, and some very fun and interesting boulders to climb along with some views that were not in the book.
From the Pullpit which gives you an East by Northeast view of the valley/rocks below you, continue on the whiteblazed AT, zigzagging Northwest to Northeast until you reach the Blue Trail and a giant hand made pile of rocks. This will be the entry to the Pinnacle. From there you can bascially pick any direction around and walk to the edge and admire the views of Cumberland Valley.
Due to the conditions of the weather prior to getting there, there was a lot of water. Small trailside ponds, swamps and slush that you have to find your way around and make through. We tried to stay to the rocks as much as possible for fun and footing, however wet rocks always create different dangers of their own. This made the usually fun climbing much scarier in most situations.
We did around 7 to 9 miles over the course of about 5 hours or so. This included stoppage time for resting, taking in the views and just having fun on the trail. The Pinnacle is a great hike with much of the usual Pennsylvania AT terrain (rocky) and I would return anytime I get the chance.
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