North of Palmerton, July 18
Palmerton's ridgelines are nude - devoid of trees from decades of soil chemistry alteration at the hands of a zinc smelting smokestack. P-ton is a former company town, where the zinc operation paid for and built most everything. Now it's a Superfund site. I could try to describe the moonscape this ridge resembles, but no words can bring to mind the image my eyes behold. Remediation efforts have succeeded in bringing some green back to the slopes, as this has been an EPA project for over a decade. It's a rough reminder of the technological costs and how far man must grow to come to understand he is part of nature, not master of it.
Once you hike a couple of miles, the hardiest of trees still cling to the terrain -- the younger ones. Others that tried to make it die after a while, standing nude timber. Some grasses pioneer back in the less polluted soils. Eventually life will reclaim this land -- just not in my lifetime. While there were some 'water sources' up here, one would be crazy to drink from them. Zinc chelation was not one of the selling points of my PUR filter kit. Would iodine precipitate it out of solution?
This night, I'd make it to the Leroy Smith Shelter. Sheltered with Sourball, Memphis, Yeti and Model T. The ladies pushed on - Sherbear hypermotivated to make DWG. Nearly out of this state - 20 miles left. M=16; C=1245.3