9/13/17 Whitehall to Bethlehem with Justin Gurbisz and Celeste Fondaco Martin
This next hike would be a point to point in the Bethlehem/Allentown area of PA. I’d been looking at the Thomas Ironworks site for some time now, and I’d not hiked it in several years.
I decided to slap together a hike that would include some new stuff, but also have some other places I’d not visited, in some cases in many years.
I made the meeting point the Wegmans off of Rt 512 in Bethlehem. I’d been there a few times after Appalachian Mountain Club meetings with Rich Pace, because they carried a lot of stuff, and they had the kinds of chocolate milk I liked. I wanted to find a site that I could come up with a good route to, but not have it be all the same stuff we’ve done. This looked like it’d work out pretty well.
I was surprised based on what I had posted in the trip write up that only two showed up.
Cemetery
This was really looking like it was going to be a great one. Maybe the weather scared people off, because it was drizzling quite a bit. I had two black umbrellas from the last Coney Island hike, and so I let Justin use the smaller one, and I carried the larger one.
We shuttled in my car to Whitehall area and parked in the lot near Burger King and Burlington Coat Factory. We simply started walking from there to the north, through the parking areas and then out and around along Rt 145 north. I’d hoped to go through the backs of businesses, but it didn’t work out that way. We continued on the road the short distance to the large cemetery off of Eberhart Road and headed down hill to the north.
LERCH
We passed a few tomb stones with the name “Lerch” on them, so of course I had to take some shots of them. I planned to use them for the trip postings for an upcoming weekend, where Lerch was filling in for me. I was planning to be backpacking for about nine days, and Lerch posted a hike in Norvin Green State Forest in my absense for the Metrotrails group members. A tomb stone with the oddly spelled “Lerch” the same way he spells it was great. It must be a local name because I also found it in Easton Cemetery.
We took Glenside Drive to 7th Street, and then saw the old railroad bed, I think former Lehigh Valley Railroad, which headed east towad the Ironton Railroad.
Old LV right of way
I last tried to go through this section on one of the Buckettfest hikes. That time we went to the right of an ice skating rink there. This time, we’d skirt to the left with hopes that we’d get through easier.
We started walking on the grass, and immediately Justin and I were disgusted at what appeared to be millions of shit droppings from Canada Geese or something. We were carefully walking with the feeling of dismay that some water foul borne malady would befall us. I think Celeste was the voice of reason, that this was in fact leftovers from a lawn aerator, not shit.
Old LV line
When we got to the tree line on the other side, we had to skirt drainage and retenion area before heading into the woods on the railroad bed.
The rail grade started out okay, but it got pretty overgrown. I kept getting those awful hitch hiker things on me, so we were not going to continue much longer through the mess. We made our way down hill and were soon on the paved section of the Ironton Trail. It was a relief to be out of the brush and onto that. We spent a while on the trail just picking off the things.
Jewel weed seed
I noticed that there was a lot of jewel weed along the rail bed, so I went up and threw one of the bloated seedlets that was ready to pop at Justin. I was blown away that Justin and Celeste had never popped the seedlets of Jewelweed. When I was little, I would spend insane amounts of time with my grandfather popping these things.
I find that I’m regularly surprised at how few know about Jewel Weed at all. It’s fun to throw the seeds at people to make them pop, but the other thing is that it’s a natural cure for Poison Ivy. I have Jason Itell and Lyz and Ric using it a lot.
Wheel trucks
Some things had changed since the last time I was on the trail. More displays, such as a nice one with a set of wheel trucks on a piece of rails was a good touch.
We headed along the trail to the east, and then it cut to the north parallel with the Lehigh River. We passed under Lehigh Street also, which I recall looking different when we’d done it in the past.
One of the spots we passed through, which was now noted on a park bench, was “Darktown”, an interesting place name for which I am not familiar with the origin.
Darktown bench
The area we passed into heading along the Lehigh is called Hokendauqua. It’s also the name of the creek that flows into the Lehigh a bit to the north on the other side of the river.
The word, in the local native American language, means “Landing”. The name is believed to have been applied to the place by surveyors who were laying out lands in the 1730s. They applied names to places from what they heard from the local natives. The most significant thing we’d see in this section, and maybe for the entire hike, was the old Thomas Ironworks, which were laid out in 1854.
Lehigh Canal Guard Lock #6 an Dam #6 with Thomas Ironworks
The Thomas Ironworks were named for David Thomas for his contributions to revolutionizing the iron industry through the use of coal. The process was far more difficult in earlier years, with colliers producing charcoal in the hills, and later with the hot blast bellows. The production of coke from coal fast became the best method.
Thomas Ironworks and Dam #6
Transportation was good in the area. The Lehigh Canal was directly across the river from where we were approaching. Dam #6, above which the Lehigh River was canalized for the Lehigh Canal, crossed at this point. Lehigh Canal had a guard lock on the other side (which we’d just hiked on the Musikfest hike).
Thomas Ironworks
The plan for the ironworks was laid out in Easton in early 1854, and things progressed quickly. The Butz Farm, on the west side of the Lehigh, was chosen as the best site for the industry. The town was laid out soon after, with streets and homes for employees, as well as a spring with pumped water, a school, and a church.
Historic map of Hokendauqua and the Thomas Ironworks
The railroads showed up also in the 1850s. Lehigh Valley Railroad on the west side of the Lehigh, and Central Railroad of NJ (Originally Lehigh and Susquehanna) on the other. The Ironton Railroad, which we were walking parallel with the Lehigh Valley line, was constructed in 1861 to serve the Thomas works as well as the Crane ironworks on the other side. The line carried iron and limestone with branches to Ironton and Orefield.
Thomas iron ruins
The focus of the rail line shifted to cement in 1884, with major production going on to the north side in Coplay PA. As the iron industry dwindled in the area, so did use on the line. The Thomas Ironworks were purchased by Bethlehem Steel in 1938 when the historic black and white photos were taken, and they were mostly demolished soon after.
Thomas Ironworks, 1938
When the business was still growing, they acquired many more lands and ironworks including the Saucon Ironworks we had recently hiked through and other sites.
Thomas Ironworks
I knew Justin would be into going through these ruins, because the property is pretty extensive, and the decay of the once amazing industry is incredible. We followed the Ironton Rail Trail and I watched closely to the right for where we should turn. I didn’t want to keep my phone out because of the rain, and it was kind of tough to remember where to turn. I hadn’t been through the site I don’t think since February of 2010.
Thomas Ironworks
I didn’t do the full grand tour of it. We went down hill from the rail beds, and I pointed out the big concrete building that’s most obvious first. We didn’t bother going in yet because I knew we’d be coming back to that the fun way...
Thomas Ironworks
To the right of where we were going, there is a structure with concrete steps and an upper level, but I decided to try to make a beeline toward the bulk of the structures to the north. The first thing we saw ahead was an old furnace kiln straight ahead.
Thomas Ironworks
There was a structure with a single door and two windows. I led the way into there, which has a long corridor leading to a graffiti laden room on the other side. I wish I knew in detail what all of this used to be. I look at the historic photos and can pinpoint where about I was, but I’m just not familiar enough with the function of everything.
Graffiti
We exited the hallway structure and headed down to the left, then through a brief swath of woods before reaching the next structures. There were stone ones with arched roof shapes, but nothing remaining on top. To the left of the building, concrete steps, which obviously date from the later days of industry at the site, climb to the top.
As we climbed, I was only slightly startled by the sight of two guys hanging out at the top. I had smelled marijuana before, but figured whoever it was probably wouldn’t bother us. I don’t recall that the two guys we happened upon were smoking, but it was likely them.
Ruins
The structure they were on had bases on it that looked almost like benches. I’m not sure what it would have held. I talked to the guy a little bit, who was nice enough. He didn’t know what any of the structure was, so I told him a bit, trying not to bore him beyond what he was interested in hearing. He said something about the property ahead, and I mentioned we were going to go through the tunnel next. He said he started to, but he wouldn’t do that!
Thomas Ironworks ruins
We went back down the steps, where Celeste stayed rather than climb up. She said immediately that she did not plan to go through the tunnel, and I told her it was alright, that this was not a mandatory thing for this hike. There was a way past.
Tunnel
When we reached the mouth of the tunnel just a little further to the north, which juts up from the ground with vegetation growing all over it, Justin and I immediately went on in. Celeste could have headed up following the route of the tunnel to the main building we were heading to, but she surprisingly followed us righ ton in. She was nervous about it, but handled it like a champ, especially considering how difficult it got before coming out.
Since the last time I had been there, a lot more trash had been thrown down the hole we had to climb out from the main building back by the main line rail beds.
Ohhh my knees...
There was no standing up in the tunnel near the end any more. I got down on my hands and knees to climb through toward the end. It was here that I somewhat regretted wearing shorts. The ground was absolutely covered with broken glass bottles. I was soon too late, as I was already majorly cut up and committed to getting through. I emerged in the hole, and then pulled myself up using a hand and foot hold on the right of me. Justin had very little trouble pulling himself out as usual. When Celeste came through, we didn’t consider that her dog Benny would have to get up too.
Celeste climbing out
We helped to pull Benny up without too much problem, and then Celeste got up on the same side that I had climbed on. I assured them that this was about the worst we’d have on this hike, everything else should be totally easy. My plan was to head north from here into Coplay, and then cross over the Lehigh on the 9th Street Bridge, or if Justin came we might do the old rail bridge that connected the Ironton Railroad with the Nor-Bath Railroad and CNJ lines on the other side. Of course, Justin wanted to do the abandoned trestle.
Along the Lehigh
Inside the building, we took a few photos, and then started heading on our way. When I went to take another photo, I noted my camera was missing. I knew that I’d had it when we got out, and remembered throwing it into my pack side pouch. It gets lost out of there too easily, and I figured it happened when I roped it over my shoulder. I went back to look, and there were some kids walking around in the old building frame. I first thought maybe one of them took it, but then they were looking around helping me to find it. I couldn’t believe I didn’t see it anywhere, and then all of a sudden Justin found it...in his own pack.
Trestle
It was a similar color, so I put the camera by accident into Justin’s bag’s side pouch.
Relieve, we headed on and went down to the edge of the Lehigh River, which had a brilliant fog looming over it. I walked a ways out into the river, which was refreshing. I wanted to clean my knees and lower legs off from the butchering I’d just given them.
From here, my plan was to head to the north a bit and get to the old railroad trestle. Celeste indicated that she was fine walking to the road bridge to the north, and she’d meet Justin and I on the other side. We had our phones, and so Justin and I started across the bridge.
The bridge in February 2010
When Justin and I reached a ways out on the bridge, I looked in shock to the north. The bridge we sent Celeste to cross was almost gone. The upper arches were already destroyed, with only the main arch frames remaining across the Lehigh.
The arch as it appeared to us
I paused for a second to think, then realized we couldn’t let Celeste go on too much further. I was ready to call her, but then realized she was probably still within earshot. I yelled out, and could clearly here here answer.
Trestle
I told her the bridge was out and to come back. I walked back toward the end of the bridge, and figured we would have to go a ways out of the way to change the hike to a loop. Celeste had already said there was no way she was doing the trestle. Then, she did it anyway, and handled it great!
The toughest part, and the most nerve wracking part, was making sure Benny would go across. He likes getting up front with me, but the bridge is a bit different. There are a lot of missing ties on this one making it more unnerving. It’s one thing when you can’t fall through, but this one you have to stay above the iron braces.
Trestle and wrecked bridge
When the ties were missing, any of us could fall through, so for Benny it would be that much easier. We had to sort of direct him to go on the metal sections, and when he got going he did just fine too. I stayed back a bit, and Justin was walking on the edges of the girders making it seem like it was nothing.
For a good part of the bridge, there were girders to the right and left, so it felt like a safety zone, but then they disappeared. We had a good long stretch without them. On either side of the bridge, trees and vegetation grew through making navigating through it that much tougher.
Trestle
We came out to the other side of the bridge near the actie tracks, and the rails still on the bridge were growing well into some trees there.
Most of the rails of this line and on the Ironton Railroad were removed completely by the 1980s, and a lot of it was taken out with Conrail in 1976.
We turned left on the tracks, and soon approached the bridge that was being torn down. I was kicking myself for not remembering. We had gone under the constructino site at the bridge on the hike to Musikfest, and I should have known it would be closed to us walking over it when I planned.
Fortunately, we made do with it.
The truss bridge over the tracks was without a deck on it now. I’m sure that bridge will likely fall with the concrete arch one. The frames to the concrete arch looked to be in alright shape, so I’m not sure why they’re tearing it down.
The span on the edge of the river is a Parker Through Truss, and the arch was a Concrete Open Spandrel Deck Arch, both built in 1930. Articles on this bridge state that the replacement will not be opened until June of 2020! The whole thing reeks of a corrupt deal truthfully.
Craziness
Justin had a closer look at the old structure while we went by, meanwhile a guy in an apartment parking lot watched him and took photos. I wasn’t hanging around, so I hurried to the junction with the former Nor Bath line, which is still an active spur there, and headed past the pharmacy where my late buddy Kyle Zalinsky used to work.
The old bridge over the Lehigh, known as the Chestnut Street Bridge, is reportedly being replaced for several reasons, among them the need for better pedestrian access. I have a few problems with this.
Pedestrian access does not justify the costly replacement of such a huge bridge, especially when pedestrian accomodations could have been made to the existing bridge, or a trail could have been placed on the rail bridge we had come across on. Further, the closure of this bridge severs the D&L Trail below, which is on the Lehigh Canal, for four more years. This is a major failure for the trail, but not only that, the bridge incorporated an historic walkway beneath from the active days of Lehigh Canal for the towpath. There are federal grants involved to cover much of this bridge project, and my suspicion is that the county is using the money to pad their own employee time sheets to balance their budget. When there is grant money involved, an employee can just code their time to say they were working on this project, whether they were or not. No feds come out to monitor this stuff. No one ever fights pedestrian improvements because they’re synonymous with “green” or “eco-friendly”.
Another argument is that the repaired bridge would last fifty years, but if they built a new one, it would last 100 years. They had last refurbished the bridge in 1998.
Old Northampton Station
The station used to sit right by the junction where we turned onto the Nor Bath line, heading to the east in short order, at the junction with the CNJ line.
View with the old bridge
The Northampton and Bath Railroad started out in 1896. It connected the industries of the area and quarries to the east, and made connection to the Bethlehem Branch of the Lehigh and New England Railroad in Bath.
The old Nor Bath Railroad station in Northampton, destroyed 1974
There was a lot to see on this hike up to this point, and so it was good to have this trail as a part of it for a bit of an easy time saver. I’d only ever hiked the Nor Bath Trail once before, in 2006 for one of the March on Musikfest hikes.
Nor Bath Station
The old station would have stood about where Newhardt Pharmacy stands today.
When I hiked this line last, the trail wasn't really in place at the lower end. Since that time, there is a trail parallel with the section of the line that is still an industrial spur.
Rail with trail section
The trail took us across Washington Ave, and then along the west side of Clear Springs Drive, away from the railroad for a bit. It skirts the edge of the Atlas Sports Complex fields, and then cuts across the active trails and into the woods heading up hill. I don't think this section was ever the railroad, but rather a dedicated trail route that keeps people away from the road for a bit. I think it joins with the rail bed near a parking area just up the hill a bit. The grade was rather steep for a railroad at that point.
Nor Bath Trail
The lower portion of the trail was paved, but it was crushed stone beyond the railroad bed for a bit. We didn't get to stay in the woods for very long from here, and the path emerged right into a new development. It's not THAT new, as it was there the first time I'd hiked this too.
I'm pretty sure that the railroad went along some of what is now Horwith Drive followed by Hollow Lane. The trail emerges along the edge of Hollow Lane and is marked along that road for a few blocks, but still has trail signage.
While we walked, there was a brown Nor Bath Trail sign to the right, right in the development, stating that this was the site of "Plant #3) from 1898 to 1937. I wasn't able to find anything on this site when I looked it up unfortunately.
We continued past two intersections, then crossed over Phylessee Drive. From there, the trail was obviously the railroad bed again. It went off into a rather deep rock cut, which had been disturbed greatly on the development side. Much of the railroad bed had been filled over. the cut must have been longer during the days of the railroad operation.
Nor Bath Trail in the development
This line never went the way of Conrail as I understand, and remained in service owned by Steelcorp or something until 1979.
The rail bed took us through a short section of trees and such, and then had connections going to the right, then left, and straight, to Savage Road. There was a parking area there on the other side. There was at one time a bridge to span the road, now long gone. We climbed to the other side past another parking area. There were still a few people using the trail going by, but most others were starting to leave.
Historic postcard image of the cut after the development
The next section was very pleasant. We had woods and farms to our left, and some developments beyond the trees to the right, but it was like they were hardly there.
The rail bed getting darker
The sun was just starting to really go down, and I could see some bats flying above in the open area, where a power line followed a bit of the right of way and kept it clearer.
I had found one of those friendship stones, or whatever you call them, with happy little sayings painted on them, sitting along the way somewhere. Or maybe I found it on a previous hike and still had it in the side pouch of my bag. I forget. Whatever the case, I pulled out the rock and threw it straight up in the air when I could see the bat was coming to watch it swoop down after it. This was another thing I guess Justin and Celeste had never seen, which I've been doing since I was little.
Nor Bath RR train
It really makes me realize that there are so many people, even if they are inclined to spend time outdoors, really don't know so much about it. So much of these little things I don't even impart to my groups because I think of them as so commonplace because I grew up with it.
We continued to the east on the clear rail bed, which was very pleasant walking. There were a couple of side paths along developments to the south I'd like to follow on future hikes, which I made note of. I could easily use some of this route on another night hike again.
We crossed Bullshead Road on an intact former railroad bridge; after that things started to get even more secluded. We continued then across Weaversville Road, one of the busier ones we crossed. We then paralleled Bicentennial Park, which was one of my stops the last time I'd hiked this line.
We passed a business, and then crossed Airport Road, another really busy one. The trail was the least used of the entire route beyond this point, probably because of the lack of good access points from there.
When we reached Jacksonville Road, we turned right for a bit along the farm lands heading east. We continued to the crossing with the former Bethlehem Branch of the Lehigh and New England Railroad, which is still active through this area.
Tracks at dusk
We turned right to follow the tracks for a bit, which run rather close to the Monocacy Creek. The creek has rather obviously been trenched alongside the tracks, either by farmers of the past, or by the railroad to make for easier maintenance.
After a bit, we came to where the railroad crossed over the Monocacy Creek. I don't recall it being that warm a night, but for some reason I was feeling warm enough that I had to go and lay in it briefly. Just north of this spot was where the LNE branch broke off and headed west toward Catasauqua. I'd hiked that line in 2006 as well.
From there, we headed to the south and soon reached Rt 512. The crappiest part of the hike was the part on the narrow shoulder through here. I was dreading some of it, but it soon turned out really good.
We switched back and forth from shoulder to shoulder of the road depending on the traffic. People were blowing by at stupid speeds. After a bit thought, there was a good wide swath to the right, after a billboard. We kept on that, which was almost like walking a trail anyway, many feet away from the roadway.
Corporate center view
As we neared a development to the south, there was a hillside that separated 512/Bath Pike from the development. I figured we could walk up that and see if it would make a good route.
This route turned out to be the perfect strange walking route for the hike. We were on a very narrow hillside. Lines of evergreen trees of sorts were below us, and we could see off into people's back yards to the right. It was kind of odd because we felt a bit like voyeurs; I would never have attempted to walk this route in broad daylight, but it was really cool with the ambient lights from the houses shining up at us. On the opposite side of 512 was some large corporate center building, with obnoxious bright lights.
When we approached Hanoverville Road, the next intersection, the route atop the crest of the privacy hill was losing elevation, but the trees continued. We kept to the right along the edge of the development, but back away from Hanoverville Road for a while, until we passed the intersection with Karen Drive heading west. There, we cut to the left across Hanoverville Road and into a wide open grassy swath. We kept to the right, near a nameless tributary that barely flows through. I fond a safe spot to cross the trench, and then we emerged onto a paved path that pierces the development we were walking into. These routes are awesome at night.
We weaved to the southeast, then south through what maps show as Crawford Park. The houses were a distance away in both directions left and right. The paved trail took us out to Crawford Drive where I figured we would just cross and continue through grass to the next trail section, off of Grace Avenue. This did NOT quite work as planned.
The route along the creek ended up having a fence along it, which soon was directly along the back of homes. These were townhouse buildings, not apartments, which each seemed to have their own private back yard, so emerging onto any of these roads felt weird. When I saw a good opportunity to head out to Grace Ave, we went.
We turned right on Grace for a bit, and the trail picked up again at a cul de sac at it's end and headed south. The fence lines continued here too. This was not the wide open trail like we were on before, it was intimately lined with the fences on both sides to keep people from going off trail.
The path came to an intersection where we could go left or right. To the right, there was a substantial bridge over the tributary, which I walked over to check out more closely. More pathways lead further into Hanover Township to the right there, but that would have to be reserved for another future hike. This time, we turned to the left, and the trail led us through another nice little development area to Southland Drive. We turned right there, and it took us pretty much directly back to the Wegmans where we'd met.
Justin offered to get me back to my car; both he and Celeste seemed to forget that we had a car at the other end of the hike, but it wasn't too far off.
Before heading back, Justin and I went into Wegmans to get some snacks. He was craving some sort of potato bread, and I forget what else. I didn't know what I wanted, but I settled on some sort of pre made deli sandwich.
We walked around the store goofing on how weird it was. There were all sorts of products that we figured no one would use, and out of this world terminology in terms of grocery. For example, the garbage can read "Landfill" on it. No one says "Landfill can". It always says "garbage", "trash", or even "cesto" or something, but never "landfill".
There was an entire aisle devoted to Jelly Beans. This was just unbelievable. Who likes jellybeans that much, and how is it so important that an entire aisle is set aside for their different flavors???
Even the construction of my sandwich was totally weird. On a normal sandwich, you get layers of meat, cheese, and then vegetables, with some leaf or shredded lettuce, and slice of tomato. On this one, the tomato was on one half, the lettuce on the other!
I don't even remember what other crazy crap we came across there, but it was worth many laughs. We were happy at least to see that they had Bethlehem Steel apparel for sale at the front.
Ham
I really enjoyed this one; there was a lot of stuff I liked, more memory lane stuff but also stuff I'd never done before. Some of the most exciting part is finding places that no one would bother walking otherwise. Places where even closely studying an aerial image cannot begin to reveal how interesting it will end up being.
Maybe I'm one of only a few that sees the wonder in it all, but I can't be alone because people keep joining me.
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