Appalachian Trail Portable at Mt. Minsi

 by Martin Gillen, VA3SIE.

 

Described as one of the most rugged sections of the Appalachian Trail in

Pennsylvania, the hike up Mt. Minsi is a short but fun climb up 1000′ above

the Delaware River to a spectacular view of Mt. Tammany on the New

Jersey side of the river.

 

As we started our hike at the Lake Lettini trailhead off Mountain Road in

the town of Delaware Water Gap, the weather could not have been better!

Warm and sunny and early enough in the year that the bugs had not yet

awoken :)

 

 

 

 We started by inadvertently hiking up a spur trail however it was a short

trail and it afforded us a great view of Mt. Minsi and the hike ahead.  We

met an Australian couple on the spur trail whom we encountered again

later as we approached Mt. Minsi.

 

 We walked past Lake Lettini and the pack-in/pack-out point up to

the A.T. and I found one of those white blazes which run along the trail,

the last time I saw one of those was up at the Catfish fire tower, it

felt good to be back on the trail!

 

 I couldn't help but wonder as we walked past blaze after white blaze, how

many others had walked this section of the historic trail and how many

of those, like me, carried a small battery powered QRP transceiver in

thier backpack!

 

 We reached Council Rock pretty quickly and got our first view of the

I-80 bridge over the Delaware river.  Further along the trail we

crossed Lookout River stepping on rocks and then we came

across a beautiful view from Lookout Rock.

 

 

 The trail becomes more vertical as it nears Mt. Minsi, so we got a nice

workout in that last section.  I had my eyes open for a nice spot to

operate the radio from as we approached the intersection of the

fire tower road and the A.T.

 

  There's a false summit on the trail with some large rocks and it's a great

spot to stop and look over to Mt. Tammany on the New Jersey side.  We

stopped and grabbed a well earned water break!

 

 

 

 I walked back into the rush near these big rocks and I found the perfect

spot to set up and operate the radio.  We had an hour to spare so I

tossed a vertical 28′ #24AWG wire into a tree and threw a 16′ and a 32′

#26AWG counterpoise up into the lower branches of another couple of

trees.

 

 

  Lat. 40° 57′ 45.2″

  Long. 75° 07′ 37.6″

  Elev. 1395′

 

 I started out on 40m and heard an Ontario station and I thought it would

be a hoot to work him as a /W3 station, but although I had not a trace

of QRM up on the mountain, the VE3 station has bad QRM and couldn't

pull my signal out of the noise.

 

 

 I switched to 20m and sent a single CQ call near 14060kHz and right away

I got a call from Gary, AB0BM in Quimby, IA.  We had a nice QSO, Gary was

having no trouble copying my 1½W signal.

 

 I was using my KX1 and a set of energizer batteries from the trail, chatting

to Gary.  After an hour on the summit, it was sadly time to pack up and

continue our journey to New York City.

 

We hiked back down the fire road