My Travels up a Mountain

Back in March, a friend of mine and I climbed a mountain to find a signal station. I didn't realize that when she said, "Climb a mountain", she meant "CLIMB A MOUNTAIN". When I saw the mountain I realized that this was the craziest thing she had ever dragged me along to do and it was, by far! This is why we are known as the "Lucy and Ethel" of the battlefield.

Well, we arrived at the Grotto in Emmitsburg, Md and walked through the Grotto until we came to a hidden little bridge that crossed a small creek and led to a trail up the mountain. The little bridge is sealed off....so we had to walk across the creek, which wasn't too bad. Then we went up the mountain.

The trail that leads up there is a sunken road, more or less. It was easy finding the trail and staying on it but the real problem were the leaves. The leaves came up to our knees. Because of this, we couldn't see what was UNDER the leaves...boulders, holes, etc. This made walking this part of the trail very treacherous. Also, it was like walking through a foot of snow....not easy for moving. This part of the trail is fairly steep and with the leaves, I was pretty much breathless after a couple of hundred yards. But it gets easier. What we found out was that this was the hardest part of the trail.

We continued up the trail and eventually you get out of the sunken road and end up on just a plain mountain trail....nothing fancy....just a trail. Thankfully, someone had marked it with red paint and we were able to follow the paint. The path became less steep, although you will still walk uphill. This went on for what seemed like forever. It took us about an hour to walk up to the top of the mountain. At one point we saw a sign that told us the lookout was 1 mile ahead. I really didn't think that I could go another mile, but I really don't think it was a mile....a couple of hundred yards, maybe. But, who knows, we had NO idea how far we had gone.

Well, we finally reached Indian Lookout. Now, what was the significance of Indian Lookout? It served as a Signal Station during the Battle of Gettysburg. The view from up there was magnificent. We could see forever. We were told that you could see Little Round Top, Big Round Top, the Peace Light, and all sorts of things from up there. The more we stood and looked, the less we saw. I have no idea where these things were. But when we got back, one of the pictures that was taken was examined and sure enough, you COULD see all that. Now we have to go back up there and see just where all this was.

I feel for those poor men who had to climb all the way up there in order to use it as a signal station. What a climb that was for those poor men! But, I'm sure they were used to it. We certainly weren't.

The climb back down the hill was about half the time it took to get up there. There are all sorts of trails at the top of that mountain and unless you know exactly which trail you came up to it from, you can easily get lost. We started to go the wrong way, but soon straightened ourselves out. One good thing to do is mark the trail when you reach the top because the red paint doesn't start appearing until about 100 yards down. It's really easy to get lost up there.

Overall, I'm glad I went up there. It was quite the walk and my feet hurt so bad that when I got home I couldn't even have my blankets on my toes. But despite the pain, I would do it again....but only in the wintertime and with LOTS of water with me.