Appalachian Trail via Lehigh Gap East Trail

After feeling the hiking fever since coming back from Arizona, I kept looking at the mountains out my front door.  Those same mountans form the Lehigh Gap and are also home to part of the Appalachian Trail. So after taking my two dogs for a walk feeling the temperature of the air and realizing it was a great day to be out I look at the eastern mountain and decided that I was hiking a small part of that today! So I called up my brother to ask him if he wanted to head out for a quick hike, he obliged. 

So we drove up PA 145 to access the parking area, grabbed our gear, locked the car and headed out on the trail. There are a few access points but we went north to the last access point so it would be a loop. As we ascended through switchback and steep climbs we reached a flat area overlooking The Lehigh Gap and Palmerton. It was a nice place to take a quick break and then we decide to hop back on the trail. We passed the Appalachian trail which if followed would lead to Blue Mountain ski resort but we headed south which was marked with blue markings following the blue marks they changed to white and it led to a very rocky but easily navigated through lookout point to where you could see all over. 

From the lookout point (Palmerton, Lehigh river) 

We spent some time up in that spot and said hello to other hikers and the we decided to descend back towards the parking area which still looked far away. The trail was easy to navigate due to the white markings on the rocks. As we passed the rocks it became a rocky trail and led out the the parking area. The trail had an elevation gain of over 1,000 feet and was about a little over three miles long.