April 1, 2021
New Year's Eve at the Allentown Shelter: An AHC Tradition
by Barbara Wiemann

Al and I were married in 1976 and we wanted to do something different on New Year's Eve to end that Bicentennial Year. Since we met on an Allentown Hiking Club Appalachian Trail hike, we decided to backpack to the Allentown Shelter.

It was a bitterly cold night. We slept with our boots and water bottles in our sleeping bags. Al is an amateur radio operator, he carried a 2 meter handheld radio and, using a repeater, was able to make a phone patch to place a phone call to Harold Croxton, AHC's Trails Chair. In the morning, we discovered that it was so cold and windy that the Philadelphia Mummers Parade had been canceled.

We had so much fun that in 1977 we placed the backpack on the club schedule. Two hearty members joined us. As the years went by, more and more people ventured out with us, providing entertainment and conversation far into the night. One year a teenager brought his guitar, serenaded us, and led a sing-along. We had human joke machines to keep us in stitches, and storytellers to regale us. And we could always count on fireworks down in the valley at midnight.

Naturally a highlight of our evenings was food and a fire. Each year, different participants brought new choices. We fried steak sandwiches, roasted potatoes, cooked hot dogs, and even feasted on the traditional Pennsylvania German pork and sauerkraut, we drank cocoa and toasted in the New Year with sparkling juice served in plastic flutes.

In 1994, when she was 12, our daughter Liz joined us. Three years later, with a nice snow on the ground, she was the first person to reach the new club shelter and snapped a photo that was selected for the Appalachian Trail Conservancy calendar. And in 2016, our 5 month old grandson Curtis made it a three generation event when Liz carried him to the shelter.

After 30 years of backpacking, in 2006 we switched to a day hike format. As a result, the group size increased dramatically. Some years, 30 to 40 people have trekked to the shelter. This, of course, has provided for plenty of socializing and even more noshing choices on the picnic table. On occasions when I have not been able to lead the trip, other club members (MaryAnn Wagner, Karen Gradel, and Paula Uhrin) have stepped up as leaders.

Over the last 45 years, through snow, icy snow, rain, freezing rain, wind, and, occasionally, balmy (temperature above freezing) weather, the Allentown Hiking Club has celebrated the New Year at the Allentown Shelter. Plan to join us in 2021 as AHC marks its 90^th anniversary!

April 1, 2021
50,000+ Miles... On Foot!

Since 1985, Ginny Musser has kept track of her miles walked on trails and around town.

Virginia (Ginny) Musser, a longtime member of the Allentown Hiking Club, has been keeping track of miles hiked/walked since 1985. Her first hike with AHC was in 1978 with the venerable Earl Raub on an A.T. hike thru St. Anthony's Wilderness. Earl was known to schedule hikes on the A.T. in Pennsylvania so that if you did all his hikes you'd complete the A.T. in the Commonwealth. Although this hike was in Earl's series Ginny did not get in on the beginning of the series. But as a result of getting hooked on hiking she picked up the missing sections and completed the PA section with the rest of the club on July 13, 1980.

Ginny credits Earl with teaching her everything she needed to know about hiking and safety on the trail! Although Earl passed away in 2005 she still maintains contact with his wife, Anna.

It wasn't until 1985 that Ginny began recording the miles hiked/walked on a calendar, totaled at the end of the month and then a final tally at the end of the year. At the end of 2019 she realized that if she kept her pace she'd hit 50,000 miles by the end of 2020. Actually she passed the 50,000 mile mark back in the spring but didn't realize it because she doesn't total for the year until the end of December.

Included in those 50,000 miles are the A.T. from Georgia to Maine completed over an 11 year period as well as the 18 state hiking trails in Pennsylvania, the Allegheny Trail that runs the length of West Virginia, as well as the miles accumulated doing trail work around the State as well as on her AHC assigned section of A.T.

She also tracked the number of miles on various pairs of hiking boots!

Included in those 50,000 miles are her daily jaunts around town and on local rail trails.