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Looking back to our hikes throughout the year I’m excited to remember all the places we’ve been and energized about what hikes are yet to come in 2024.

Throughout the year we had hikes on the rugged and rocky Appalachian Trail, treks on city streets, maintenance activities to keep our trails clear and passable, and everything in between. Hike leaders continually gather like minded individuals to take them on a journey, in some cases to places they have not yet visited. And whether it’s a familiar trail or something new, it’s always fun to explore new places with folks who share the same appreciation of the outdoors. That’s what the Allentown Hiking Club is all about.

Enjoy these snippets from our year in hiking/trekking and keep watching the club calendar for upcoming activities. If there are hikes you would like to lead and share with others, please reach out or, better yet, come to a monthly meeting and the Club will help and support you throughout that process.

And I could not conclude the year without expressing a heartfelt thank you to Ed Ritter who recently stepped down as the Club 's Trails Chair. His support throughout the decades has been invaluable. I also want to say a big thank you to Kerry Snyder fo r stepping up to assume the responsibilities of Trails Chair. I know our club's maintenance activities will continue to be in very good hands. And an additional thank you goes out to Cyril Quatrone who has stepped up to take on the role of Programs Chair. We can look forward to presentations at our monthly meetings in the upcoming months. If you have ideas for a program please reach o ut to Cyril.

Happy New Year to all and Happy Trails!

October 1, 2021
Clarissa Krommes / Chris Muth

The Allentown Hiking Club is celebrating its 90th anniversary in 2021. A club history written for the 75th anniversary is on the club web site. For this anniversary, I am profiling some early club leaders.

Clarissa Ann Agnes Krommes was born March 30, 1907. She lived on North 19th Street in Allentown, graduated from Allentown High School, and in 1930 was employed as a stenographer in a machine shop. She must have enjoyed walking, because she attended the first meeting of new club in December 1931 and took an active role in establishing the club. At the end of 1932, when the club tallied attendance, she was recognized for having participated in the greatest number of hikes that year. She also led hikes and served as club vice-president for at least five years. But in the late 1930s, her name suddenly disappeared from the club records.

When I joined AHC, one of the club's active members was Chris Muth. She was a dedicated hiker and hike leader, helped organize social activities, and participated in the "litter crew" that kept the Club's Appalachian Trail section clean. In 1967 she had completed the club's series of hikes on the Pennsylvania Appalachian Trail and in 1969 the New Jersey Appalachian Trail series. She was awarded the Keystone Trails Association's Merit Award. During the winter of 1975, Chris was scheduled to lead two hikes, but she died unexpectedly on January 3, 1975. Her obituary described her as an "avid hiker".

What I did not know was that Chris Muth and Clarissa Krommes were the same person. Sometime in the late 1930s Clarissa married Bruce Muth and became the wife of a poultry farmer in Upper Macungie Township. Her first child was born in 1939; they had two more children in 1941 and 1944. At some point Clarissa adopted the nickname Chris, and when her obligations as a wife and mother permitted, she again became an active club member.

As far as I know, Clarissa is the only club member who was active in the 1930s and the 1960s and 1970s. Does anyone know if there are any other original members who remained active in the club in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s?

October 1, 2020
AHC Records in the Morning Call Archive

Recently, we had the opportunity to search the Allentown Morning Call's digital archive for every mention of the phrase "Allentown Hiking Club" in the newspaper. Imagine our surprise when my search returned 4,851 hits!

That averages out to about 54 times each year over the past 90 years.

However, the number of mentions varies greatly. In 1980-1989, the decade with the most hits, there are 1,666 mentions, or an average of 167 per year! Next was 1990-1999, with 1,361 hits. After this, the numbers of returns per decade fell off significantly - 456 for 1970-1979. Totals for other decades were 356 for 1954-1959, 352 for 2000-2009; 228 for 2010-2019, 204 for 1931-1939; 193 for 1960-1969; and finally 35 for 1940-1943. Due to World War II restrictions, AHC suspended operations in the Spring of 1943 and did not reorganize until February 1954.

The types of articles include announcements of hikes, descriptions of competed trips, human interest stories, informational pieces, Appalachian Trail work trips, as well as mentions in obituaries, and notices of events and meetings.

Obviously, we were not able to read every article. But in searching for the earliest mention of AHC, I discovered that it was in the newspaper of October 30, 1931. This was a surprise, since our club records begin with a meeting on December 2.

As the newspaper articles indicate, AHC can trace its history back to October 29. The following clippings tell the previously unknown story of our first weeks.

October 1, 2020
Who Was George W. Outerbridge
By Barbara Wiemann

...and why is a shelter named after him?

George Whitney Outerbridge was the second person to hike the entire Appalachian Trail. George was born in Philadelphia on May 12, 1881, the only child of Alexander E. Outerbridge, Jr. and Mary Eli Whitney. His mother died seven days after his birth. His father had worked with Alexander Graham Bell to demonstrate the telephone at the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition in 1876.

Perhaps because his mother and maternal grandmother both died after childbirth, George chose to become a gynecologist. He graduated from Harvard University in 1905, received his M.D. from the University of Pennsylvania in 1907, served as Chief Gynecologist at the Methodist Hospital and Chief Surgeon at the Gynecean Institute, and taught at the University of Pennsylvania.

During World War I, he served in France with the Pennsylvania Hospital unit, he was in charge of a venereal disease clinic. After the war, George left academic medicine and concentrated on his gynecological practice. He never married.

George was a charter member and a club leader of the Philadelphia Trail Club, which was organized in 1931. His first AT hike was Oct. 30, 1932, from Lehigh Gap to Bake Oven Knob. Joined by Martin and Mildred Kilpatrick (also PTC leaders), George section hiked the entire trail, completing his journey at Damascus, VA on June 22, 1939. An account of his adventures was included in volume 1 of Hiking the Appalachian Trail, ed. by James Hare (Rod ale Press, 1975).

In 1960 the Philadelphia Trail Club added the maintenance responsibility for the 5 miles of the AT between Lehigh Gap and Lehigh Furnace Gap (the club was already maintaining 21 miles of the AT between Wind Gap and Lehigh Gap). In 1965, when the club constructed a shelter near a never-fail spring on this section where George began his AT hike, they named it for him to recognize his club leadership and commitment to the AT.

George died on Jan. 16, 1967, age 85.

January 16, 2020
Things Change - But Not Our Love of the Outdoors
by Karen Gradel

For a while now Barbara Wiemann has been organizing and digitizing the Club’s archives. I was interested in seeing how the club has changed over the years, so I took the 1st box that covered 1931 to 1943 home.

The box is filled with meeting minutes, pictures, membership lists, newspaper articles and more. I started reading the first minutes and found that the first meeting was held Wednesday, Dec 2nd 1931 at Allentown City Hall. At that meeting the first officers were elected and the members picked the name as Allentown Hiking Club and set the fee to join the club at $1.00. They decided on a schedule of 2 Saturday hikes, one Sunday hike and a business meeting every month. The club’s first hike was Dec 6th to the Pinnacle. They were informed they were responsible for maintaining of the Appalachian Trail from New Tripoli-Tamaqua Rd seven and a half miles west to Tri County Corner.

A big difference is how the hikes were scheduled. There was a Program committee comprised of 3 members that would create a hike schedule for the next 3 months. The upcoming hikes were announced at the meeting and ‘sketches and descriptions were distributed to the members.’ If there was a change in the schedule a postcard would be sent to each member detailing the change.

Photo from a hike on October 11, 1936

While reading through the minutes of the first few year’s meetings, one of the most frequent subjects for discussion was transportation. We take for granted how easy it is to get to a hike. We just get in our cars and go but back then not everyone had a car. At the January 1932 meeting it was voted that everyone on a hike give 10 cents to the treasurer for a gasoline fund. In August 1932 the club decided to hire a truck and driver who would transport hikers a distance of fifty-seven miles for $5.50. At the August 1933 meeting a motion was approved to put out a box at each hike that required a car and every one could put in what they can and then it would be divided evenly among the drivers. And in September 1934 it was agreed that the cost of transportation to the hike would be determined during the planning and be announced with each hike.

While there was a lot different there were also some things that were the same. The most obvious is our love of the outdoors. One of the other similarities is the effort to recruit new members. Today one of our main sources is Social Media but back then it was more of a word of mouth approach. At the January 1938 meeting when it was announced there were 62 members the President urged members to ‘try to interest other people and to make our club sound so interesting that other people would think it is a privilege to join.’ And in January 1939 the Club President suggested everyone bring a non-member friend to the next hike to encourage new membership. Both are also good ideas for today.

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