3.9 miles | 650 ft gain | Difficulty: Moderate | Rating ★★★

We camped. And I survived. Besides glamping on the Inca Trail, I’ve never really camped before. Unless sleeping in a tent in my friend’s backyard counts. It’s something we’ll have to do as we get to the more distant Adirondack High Peaks – we just aren’t fast enough to conquer 20+ miles in a day – so decided to start small with car camping by the Delaware Water Gap.

Nothing traumatic happened. It rained overnight; we learned our rain cover worked. Though we do need to do something about the sleeping pads. I prefer a bit more cushion than a 1.5″ foam pad and honestly am willing to sacrifice a point or so to get it. Hands down the worst sleep of my life. Luckily, it was moderate trails with short distances that we targeted, not a giant climb.

We arrived at Stokes National Forest in the early afternoon and set up pretty quickly. With some time to kill we decided to hit Normanook Fire tower, just a few miles away on the Appalachian Trail. I actually witnessed my first “trail magic” in the parking lot. Trail magic, performed by “trail angels,” is the act of supporting through hikers with things like rides, showers, and most popular – food. Apparently July is prime month for AT through hikers to come through the Delaware Water Gap, this guy is there every day during July with tasty snacks galore for hikers. It was great to witness the community I’ve been so intrigued by, but didn’t want to intrude, so observed from afar.

Heading up the trail, we started on a road for 5 minutes or so then immediately started climbing up the AT. We intentionally chose the went counterclockwise to get the climb out of the way. The first .7 miles were slightly steep, but then reaching a clearing that overlooked Pennsylvania, things started to taper off.

Overall it was a pleasant forest trail. Nothing special, though I would love to map one day how many pieces of the AT I’ve actually traversed. The firetower itself was on a slightly obstructed hill, but climbing up to the top offered beautiful views to the valley beyond. We even met some through hikers at the top.

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The path down the tower trail was pretty steep – I’m glad we didn’t go up that way! At about 2.25 miles we hit Sunrise Road again (missing the extra mile we were supposed to journey in the woods) and headed back to the car. A short 2 hour hike, perfect for an afternoon before heading back to camp.