Slack Packing and Flip Flops

For this trip, every plan we have made ended up changing.

When we got to Swatara Gap, roughly the halfway point in through Pennsylvania, the plan was to do a flip-flop. What that means we were going to change directions by getting a ride to the northern end of the trail where it meets New Jersey, and then hike south back to Swatara Gap.

The problem came when we got to Swatara Gap last evening and our ride north would not be available till this evening. With that in mind, we needed to try to get miles in without wasting the day.

We decided to do a little Slack Packing. Slack Packing is hiking a portion of the trail without a backpack. We started at Swatara Gap and hiked north, with water and some trail mix.

Without a backpack the miles go by quickly, we covered 11.2 miles in just under 5 hours. Just before we got off the trail, we got to see some beautiful views to the south from Kimmel Lookout.

About 0.2 miles later, we reached Highway 501 just as Lynn pulled up to get us and take us north. What should have been a 2 hour drive became almost twice that because of an accident on the Interstate that forced us on to an alternate route.

We are now settled in to a very low budget hotel right near the trail.