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Library hosts talk on Appalachian Trail

| 14 Jan 2019 | 02:27
    PHOTOS BY JANET REDYKEOne of the presentation’s slide photos show a sign created by Vernon teacher Jim Quinlan’s special needs class. The students produced enough of these signs to be featured on the entire Appalachian Trail.
    PHOTOS BY JANET REDYKEOne of the presentation’s slide photos show a sign created by Vernon teacher Jim Quinlan’s special needs class. The students produced enough of these signs to be featured on the entire Appalachian Trail.
    George Lightcap spoke informatively and fondly of the AT at the Sunday January 13 presentation at the Sussex-Wantage Library.
    George Lightcap spoke informatively and fondly of the AT at the Sunday January 13 presentation at the Sussex-Wantage Library.

WANTAGE — The Friends of the Sussex-Wantage Library hosted an informative talk on hiking the 2,189.4 mile Appalachian Trail with marked interest on the New Jersey 72.2-mile stretch of the trail.
Former Vernon teacher George Lightcap and current instructor at Sussex County Community College presented a look at the trail built between 1920 and 1938 to an audience of 100 established hikers, those curious and future hikers. Using a Power Point combination of photo stills and video, Lightcap highlighted the 14 states that contained the AT from Georgia to Maine and expertly zeroed in on the New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania sections with which he is most familiar.
Roughly, 15,000 hikers have completed the entire trail, as has Lightcap, who refers to hiking the trail as a life altering experience.
“It is a total escape from the cities and a true communing with nature,” he stated. “I hike offline and unplugged.”
Lightcap spoke about the AT near the Delaware Water Gap, near Blairstown, along Route 206 and in the Vernon area, namely, the Pochuck Boardwalk, the 110-foot Pochuck Bridge and the increasingly popular Stairway to Heaven, which Lightcap said should have been named Luther’s Staircase in honor of old time Vernonite Luther Barrett.
Lightcap also spoke of the trail’s shelters, the warnings of rattle and copperhead snakes, ticks in all seasons, seeing glacier striations on rocks and never meeting an unruly bear on the trail. The lighthearted recap was extremely enjoyable, especially with audience participation.
“Many people are wonderfully surprised by the beauty of New Jersey,” said Lightcap.
Earl Shaffer was the first hiker to complete the entire trail. Some audience members were section hikers, meaning they hike the trail a section at a time and keep records on their progress. Audience member Lisa Weis-Miller of Connecticut, trail name Diet Coke, took 10 years to complete the AT and is proud to say she has her Finishers Badge. Wantage resident Terry Berntsen a.k.a. Charisma also completed her section hike experience of the entire AT.
The Friends of the Library, hikers and audience enjoyed refreshments and continued discussion and questions after the presentation’s end.