Pinnacle & Pulpit – September 6, 2014

Known only for these particular summits and the gigantic Cabela’s, little Hamburg, PA hosts one of the best hikes in the state. Pinnacle and Pulpit Rock can be climbed in an 8.7-mile loop from the Hamburg Reservoir, offering a respectable 1,300 vertical feet of climbing, rock scrambling, and even some cave exploring.

The hike starts unassumingly at the Reservoir office, but quickly intersects the Appalachian Trail and starts a nice walk through the woods. Today was the most summer-like it’s been all year, and even our early morning start was uncomfortably hot & humid. Even so, the path up to Pulpit Rock is pretty and offers mostly soft footing.

Starting at about 2 miles, the trail steepens and gets rocky, with some beautiful trailwork on the last boulder-strewn stretch up to Pulpit Rock. From Pulpit, it is a mostly-rocky ridge line hike over to Pinnacle’s peak.

On a last-minute tip, we explored the area around the summit and found a cave which traverses underneath the summit. The kids (me included) explored the length of the cave, but decided not to try the climb up and out the back side of the summit.

The walk out is mostly over dirt or gravel roads, and we returned to the parking area just about 4 hours after starting.

So we went to Cabela’s.