10/21/17 Scranton and Moosic Mountain Loop with Matthew Davis, Justin Gurbisz, Red Sean (Patrick Ó Ríoghbhardáin) Reardon, Ken Zaruni, Craig Craig, Doug DeGroff, Anne ?, Diane Rieder, Janet Lynn McCourt-Finsen, Daniel Trump, and Mike Guzzi
This next hike was one I’d had in mind for a long while. I wanted to make it really something special, a big start to a series committed to the Anthracite industry. It didn’t really pan out to be the big thing I wanted it to be, but aside from that it was still an excellent hike.
The concept for the hike started many years ago with a suggestion by Matt.
Matt and I both have family heritage that goes back to the coal industry; his grandfather worked the coal mines starting at a young age as a break boy, putting sticks in the wheels of ore cars to make them stop, and bragged that he was the only of his friends who still had all of his fingers, because so many would lose theirs in the process. He grew to work the mines.
My great grandfather and great great grandfather, possibly further back, were lumberjacks with land holdings in Delaware NJ and elsewhere, and their biggest business was producing mine props and railroad ties.
Matt’s concept was to follow the journey made by a single piece of coal, from it’s source at the mines on out to market. His vision was to follow the Delaware and Hudson Gravity Railroad followed by it’s sister canal, which I love. To start it off though, the Pennsylvania Coal Company had it’s own gravity railroad to the same canal, so I wanted to do that too. We used Matt’s concept, but sort of put this one out there first to get a feeler on the series. I have my 911 Memorial Trail series following the coal routes from November on until mid 2018, and so it’s all in that theme, but I thought it’d be good to start this one earlier.
Both the PCC and the D&H had two sets of tracks, a loaded and unloaded track for ore cars, and so I wanted to try to hike both of them. I scaled off a hike that was very similar to the one we had done early in March of 2017 looping from the supermarket across from Four Points Sheraton to the tunnel on the gravity line atop Moosic Mountain and back. I knew it would be an outstanding route.
I knew it was going to be an outstanding hike. We met by the hotel where we had before, with some of the starting route to be the same.
We moved cars over to the grocery store, and the manager came out and asked us to put them in the back lot. He was a nice guy, and fortunately some of the group patronized the place. He thought we were out there for “a game” that was going on.
We started walking from there out to River Street, up hill and across Interstate 81. The first order of business was to get on the old Erie Railroad Wyoming Division, but then the Salvation Army thrift store, who’s lot the tracks run through, was open. We of course had to go in.
So silly...
Red Sean purchased a wedding dress for Justin as long as he agreed to wear it for the hike. I was actually surprised he did! I looked around for a suit to wear for the hike, but they were all expensive and/or not a good size for me.
Wyoming Division and gravity railroad line
We then picked up the Wyoming Division, which still has tracks in along the store’s parking area. The clear path took us right off into the woods.
Now, this route is immediately parallel with the unloaded track fo the PA Coal Company Gravity Railroad. It went through the paved section of the present day parking area. This line was the predecessor of the Wyoming Division, and only co-existed with it a brief time until the Erie line was fully functional. Still, the two have totally separate rights of way.
Old PA Coal Co RR
We’d already walked the Wyoming Division on the past, and so this time we would simply follow the right of way where the gravity railroad ran parallel and see what we could find of the route. This hike was mostly focused on the “loaded track route.
While we walked, we reached an area near Nay Aug Gorge, above and separated from the park area by Interstate 81. Leading from the Wyoming Division to the west was what appeared to be a right of way, so I decided to try to follow it.
I wasn’t sure about the right of way at first, not until I consulted the historic map overlay on Google Earth. Some of the maps show that there was the PA Coal Company trackage here, as well as another Erie track. We followed it to where it cut off from the construction of Rt 81. On the other side, closer to the rim of Nay Aug Gorge and directly above the Lackwanna’s Nay Aug Tunnel, I could see some cinder dirt flow over from the slope at the other side of the cut. This was most certainly where the right of way continues on the other side of 81.
We continued on an informal path high above 81 with great views to the north, and the cut for the Erie Wyoming Division was behind us. We made our way down the other side of the slope of this rocky area and had to climb back to the Wyoming Division.
Another Erie Branch?
We continued on that right of way to the point of West Junction, and passed by an area known as “The Latches” where apparently the unloaded track of the gravity railroad crossed over the Erie. West Junction was I thought something to do with the Erie line, but it might have actually been the gravity.
When we got to another side path that went to the left, this lower right of way could be easily seen closer to back yards. I at first thought it might have been the gravity line. It may actually have been, but I’m not sure. When we came out to Bunker Hill Street, there was a definite former abutment of some sort.
Some maps make it look like the same route was later used by Erie as well.
Old rail abutment
I assumed that the abutment belonged to the Wyoming Division Loaded Track, but that was actually to the north of 81 at this point. Now, looking at maps it seems that this was a connecting track between the unloaded and loaded rights of way for the coal company rail line.
From this point, we turned to the left on Bunker Hill Road. Matt and I looked around for good pieced of coal, of which he found some and busted them in the road. We each were going to carry a piece of coal for our series on the Anthracite Railroads, as he had suggested several years earlier. We think we found good ones.
Coal!
We turned to the left down Bunker Hill Road, from a point where there appeared to once be a house or something. The steps and concrete wall for the front were there, along the embankment of Interstate 81.
At the intersection with Ash Street, we turned to the right, and passed under 81, which took us to where we were on the previous hike up there.
We turned right on Mark Avenue which took us steeply up hill, and then through a neighborhood to Kurtz Street. We turned right here. The edge of the end of this road was once the route of that connecting track to the PA Coal Co line and maybe later the Erie.
Red Sean picked up Justin in his wedding dressed and carried him toward an overhead white archway, which looked like the kind of thing you’d take wedding photos under, and so of course we had to try to take something there.
They got under the thing, we took our pictures, and then as we started moving had a guy holler down to us from the balcony of one of the houses.
Love
“Now there’s something you don’t see every day!” the guy yelled down.
Red Sean looked up at him pointing, and yelled “DON’T TALK TO MY WIFE THAT WAY!”
It was absolutely absurd.
There is a paved pathway that passes beneath 81 from the end of Kurtz, which we found out about on the previous hike, so we followed that under, and then turned to the left at the end of the path onto Sand Street. We then turned left on Gravity Street, which was not the gravity railroad route (the unloaded track was just up hill parallel with Erie Wyoming and Sand St.
Proposal
We followed Gravity Street down hill to the intersection with Lake Street and Mill Street where I started looking for where we could head across the Roaring Brook. The gravity line was on the opposite side of Interstate 81, but my plan was to head along a path I’d noticed on the north side of Roaring Brook, opposite the old Lackawanna Railroad main line. The path appears to at least be in part an old railroad bed, and passes through where the Quinn #6 Breaker used to be.
On the corner was a house on the previous hike, I think where I guy came out and yelled at me for being near the tracks by the brook across the street from him.
The house before
This time, the house was completely gone; it looked as though it had probably burned down. I couldn’t quite tell for sure what had happened there.
House demo
Thre was a large excavator wrecking whatever was left of the building. I suppose if we’d been earlier we might have seen something still standing.
House before
It was an old, pretty house. I was thinking to myself that it was sort of like instant karma if it was definitely the house where the guy came out and yelled at me for no real reason.
House demo
My dumbest move for this hike was going down to Roaring Brook and thinking it would be alright to wade across and then up to the Quinn Breaker site. Mill Street and it’s bridge were literally right there, and were crossing this mess.
Beaver dam
It was a beautiful section with a beaver dam across it. I waded through just above the beaver dam, and then started climbing steeply up the embankment to the right of way just above.
The others were having a harder time crossing, and Red Sean dropped his red label bottle and broke it.
When I got to the top of the slope, I emerged onto the right of way to find a police car sitting right there in front of me. I went up to him to let him know what we were doing, because it was going to look nuts as soon as everyone started emerging from the woods next to his car.
The officer told me that he was there due to an ATV crash that happened in the wee hours of the morning the previous night. A drunk couple were on at quad, which tried to cross an old rail bridge and missed the thing altogether. They went off into Roaring Brook, the guy walked away, and the woman was in critical condition not expected to survive, and she was only 33. He was meeting some tow driver to try to winch the ATV out of the stream. He said people ride ATVs there all the time, and it’s not really something they can enforce. He was a really nice guy and said he’d wished he could join us, but probably couldn’t handle it!
Quinn Breaker ruin
We followed what appeared to be a clear right of way to the east along Roaring Brook, with some masonry remnants that were probably part of the Quinn Breaker’s few surviving ruins. Most I’m sure were destroyed through the construction of Interstate 81.
The path was clear and very nice. We followed it along and soon came across the officer and the tow truck that we’d passed just a bit earlier. We stayed on a clear right of way up above where they were however. These paths might have been narrow gauge rail lines, or otherwise just roads serving the industries.
Roaring Brook
There was an obvious grade above the ruins, and then at least two or three more lower grades. The Erie had some trackage to the area where the access from Mill Street was, but my files don’t show that it continued in very far. It must have gone a bit further though.
A bit further along, there was a path leading down to a rocky section along the Roaring Brook, so Doug and I went to check it out. It was a really beautiful spot with a small waterfall, a deep swimming hole, and a large block that had a hook up on top of it. This must have been a cable system of some sort. I thought perhaps it had something to do with the Nay Aug Breaker, which used to be directly across the Roaring Brook at what is now the salvage yard.
Nay Aug Breaker site
From some of the paths, we got a pretty good view of the former Nay Aug Breaker site.
We continued parallel with the highway, some times in a narrow section. There was a clear utility right of way for a power line along the way, which made for a really nice walking route. Other paths diverged, which might have been rail line, but I’m not sure.
When the path diverged from the power line, there was a good view of the former Lackawanna main line just below, with it’s signal bridge. From this point, we followed a woods road a bit to the east, which I did not know until later was the gravity railroad.
Lackawanna old main
We had to cut off of it to the right because it went to someone’s back yard, but there was a parallel woods road that took us below, then back up to Erie Street beyond the house. We followed the road from there to the east. The gravity line, as well as I understand a later Erie line, were just to the north. We crossed over a creek known as Little Roaring Brook which had a waterfall just below us, and a small cascade just above the road. We crossed the gravity line unknowingly and then headed out to Drinker Street where we crossed the right of way of he Erie Railroad’s Jessup Branch. We continued ahead for a break at Joe’s Kwik Mart.
Stuff
We went in for drinks and snacks, and I can’t remember what kind of food I got. This would be the only thing we’d pass for quite a long time, so I wanted to get something.
The old Jessup Branch used to go along the back of what is now the parking lot of the building.
There was some free junk sat out across the street which Justin and Red Sean sat at. Justin by this point had torn his wedding dress up pretty bad. It wouldn’t last much fo the remainder of the hike unfortunately.
Gertrude Hawke?
We headed from there to the east a bit along Drinker Street. Just to the south of us, the coal co. railroad’s inclined plane #7 used to exist. That one is much obliterated.
To the left of the highway, Anne pointed out an abandoned restaurant that she said was where Gertrude Hawk first started her chocolate business. I had no idea that it was something that started that close by. Hawk began candy trade business after the passing of her father, at age 12. She started her chocolate business in 1936 out of her home in Scranton. Her son, Elmer Hawk invested his own money into helping the family business, and sold the chocolates through church sales and such. When Interstate 81 took their home, they purchased the piece of property in Dunmore and opened a factory, while a full service restaurant on the property became the chocolate shop.
Nice trailhead sign...
Gertrude Hawk turned into a ninety million dollar corporation, for which Elmer Hawk served as the CEO for years. He passed away in 2013, and his son David carries on as CEO, the third generation in the business his grandmother started.
We continued to a left turn on Tigue Street, passed under 81, and then turned right onto the abandoned Tigue Street route up hill. The Dunmore Reservoir Nature Trail is there, but this time we would not be doing this. We hiked up hill on abandoned Tigue Street from here.
Tigue Street
Just below where we turned was the head of Inclined Plane #7 on the gravity railroad, and the foot of plane #8. Much of that is destroyed through highway construction, because it crosses diagonally over.
We followed the road up, which provided us with some great views of the surrounding area. I’d explored this once before with Jillane on a short trip up Moosic Mountain on the former gravity railroad route. I didn’t know that much about it at the time, but read much further into it since.
View in Dunmore
We got to the top of the hill, and the pavement on Tigue Street abruptly ended at a muddy spot. There was a wide open area, with no visual remnants of anything, but this was the head of Inclined Plane 8. We kept to the left, over to the tree line, and got on a clear path which followed the right of way of the old coal co rail line.
Soon, we were at the base of former Inclined Plane #9, which started it’s ascent just ahead. I recognized it from the last time I’d been up there with Jillane a few years back. We headed to the base of the plane and started gradually climbing up hill. Mike Guzzi would wait for us at the top.
Historic image of Plane 9
These inclined planes operated with stationary steam engines, rather than scotch turbines like the ones everyone is more familiar with on the Morris Canal in New Jersey. Some of the planes did operate by water wheels, but most did not, especially on the loaded track.
The Pa Coal Company Gravity Railroad in the direction we were following lead to Hawley where coal could be unloaded onto boats of the Delaware and Hudson Canal. It operated in this fashion from 1850 until 1885 when it was replaced by the standard railroads.
The top of plane 8 and all of plane 9 are on private land, but open to public for their historic significance through the Lackawanna Valley Conservancy and Lackawanna River Corridor Association as the PA Coal Company Gravity Railroad Preserve.
The grade is really gradual, and I suppose it was around 1,500 feet long.
Plane 9 as it appears today
When we approached the top of the inclined plane, Mike Guzzi was there waiting for us.
It was really cool to finally meet him. I had been following his "NEPA view" website for a great many years, and used it extensively when we were doing hikes on the Wilkes Barre and Eastern Railroad, the Bowmans Creek Branch of the Lehigh Valley, and many others.
Mike at Plane 9 power house
I'd first found out about the site through Eric Pace who had happened upon it and told me way back.
We took a good amount of time for introductions, and Mike had a whole lot to show us. As stated, I'd seen these ruins before, but had no frame of reference for anything I was looking at. Mike knew seemily everything about how it was laid out. He pointed out where the fly wheel would have been, where the rails were, the ruins of the full power house, and then where there was a water reservoir off ot the far right, all with good intact masonry.
There was apparently some kind of car takers' house at each of these too the way canals would have had lock and plane tenders as well.
We walked with Mike back to his ATV, which he'd left at the property border of Lost Trails LTD.
Lost Trails is a private ATV park with tours and rentals, and much fo the former rail system now makes up some of the trail system. Mike helped us out here by talking to those in charge about us doing the hike. The riders were alerted that hikers would be in the park for the day, and Mike would provide a safety buffer for us in tight areas by parking his personal ATV in the way of other riders while we passed by.
Pa Coal Co Plane 10
At Mike's ATV, he opened his back hatch to reveal some of the artifacts he'd found, not only in the past, but on this very day.
There were all sorts of old spikes and nails, smaller than what we'd see on more standard railroad lines. He had some pieces that he admittedely did not know what they were, but others he knew without much doubt. One of the items he found was some of the metal bits associated with the cable system spinning. His pieces were broken, and he would really like to find an intact one.
Burnt out buggy
My personal favorites of his artifacts was the "strap rail" it is called.
When the railroad was first built, they were not using regular iron railroad rails. Rather, it was wooden rails with flat pieces of metal affixed to the tops, known as strap rail. I believe they switched to fully metal rail later on, but these early pieces of railroad industry are a great find. Some of the pieces he had found still had the nails which secured them to the wooded rails. Once we'd seen all the stuff, we headed onto the rail bed and soon connected with the ATV park section.
Power house ruin at the top of plane 10
We followed a flat area for just a bit, then reached the foot of inclined plane #10. We kept to the side on that, and I believe Mike stayed below us for a bit of the time to make sure no one overtook and ran over us. For the most part, all of he ATV park users are safe and respectful, but some of the out of towners not so much.
When it got most busy, we were able to turn off of the inclined plane for a short bit, at a spot called "Flat Rock", which was ctually a slant. The rock outcropping was just to the right heading up hill, and other trails branched off there to other locations. We'd return to that point later.
Top of Plane 10, fly wheel and rail site
At the trail intersection, there was a burnt out frame work of an old utility ATV, which Mike said happened when it was brand new. Probably just an idiot move by some novice rider.
A few people went by super speed, and Mike said they were out of towners. He and many others have their vehicles registered and insured complete with plates, but it's not required for the property, so they can act careless. Again, this was only a small amount of the other patrons.
We got back on the plane and continued to the top, where Mike had gone and parked off to the left. Just like at plane 9, we could see the similarly situated power house site.
Well behind plane 10
Mike again pointed out to us where the rails used to be, and where the fly wheel was. This time, we went down hill to the left of the plane however. There, there was what probably used to be an access road and another masonry foundation. I recall speculation that this was the care taker or tender's house for the inclined plane. Mike took us further from there into a wooded section to see a round, stone lined well still extant, which serves as evidence that this might have been the residence.
We walked back to the power house, and then to a wooded section behind it to more masonry ruins. These were another water reservoir, similar to the one he showed us at the top of plane 9.
Base of old and new plane 11
We continued on the rail bed from here on the next level section until we reached the base of plane #11.
This was one of the more interesting places up there, and I'm so glad Mike was there to tell us the history behind it. I'd not have guessed what we were looking at otherwise.
At the base, Mike pointed out that there were two inclined plane #11. The original one was to the left, and the later one was to the right. I wouldn't have guessed this either, because the one to the left is perfectly clear and used by ATVs, while the one to the right is overgrown at he top and full of water at the bottom.
Power house site at "new" plane 11,slightly larger style
From this point to beyond the tunnel above all ties in together. The original plane went up hill, then had to hook a hard right to the right, while the later one cut this corner with more ease, then approached the mouth of the tunnel.
The tunnel is an interesting low roofed bore intended for the ore cars, so it's much smaller than what we're used to for the locomotive railroad tunnels. Originally, as Mike explained, it was not the intent of the PA Coal Co. to bore a tunnel. The original intention was for another inclined plane over the crest of Moosic Mountain.
Historic view of the tunnel on Moosic Mountain
We started walking up from the bottom. I chose to walk new plane 11 up hill first. There were some ATV riders around, lounding at the base, which was admittedly a nice spot to stop. I walked directly through the giant puddle at the base of the plane, much to the surprise of onlookers. I then started walking the plane up hill.
The new plane was surprisingly only clear for about half or less the distance to the top. A path led off to the left where we could get over on the old plane for a bit. That one went through a much deeper cut through the rocks as it headed up hill, which I first looked on from above.
I got to the top of the old plane, and the ATV path hooked to the right following the original rail alginment. Mike ushered us away from that route along another path, through the woods to the newer plane site. I found a piece of metal in the weeds there, which I assume might have been one of the pieces used to hold together water piping.
The tunnel
Mike had just mentioned something about it earlier, so I gave him the piece. I did end up keeping some nails and an original small style spike.
It was obvious when we reached the power house ruins at the top of plane 11 that this was a reconstructed later plane, or at least to Mike, Matt, and I who notice these types of historic nuances.
The first thing I noticed was the size of the chamber which held the fly wheel, and on which the rails sat. This one was about double the width of the first two planes we saw.
In the tunnel
The masonry seemed to be built with more skill, and may have been a bit more finely cut. I think Mike told us that this was built in the early 1870s, maybe 1873? The principals were the same otherwise as the previous two planes.
We walked on from here and soon reached the lead in to the mouth of the old tunnel. It was a deep cut leading to it, and we began to make our approach. We let two ATVs pass us before we entered the narrow tunnel. Mike parked his ATV to block the path on the west side providing us with safe passage. The tunnel is a "one way" route for ATVs using Lost Trails, so we'd be alright.
In the tunnel
There was surprisingly little rock on the floor, so the structure is safe enough that no cave ins have occurred since it's abandonment in the 1880s.
Once we got through to the other side, we re-grouped. Red Sean was straggling behind for some reason, and so Mike picked him up on his ATV as he rode on through.
The other side was where we would turn around and start on our long trip back.
Mike drove his ATV out and around, but those of us walkign climbed steeply to the left, and then headed up hill a bit to the north. The next point of interest was what Mike described to us as the "Ghost Plane".
The tunnel
As mentioned before, the original intention of the PA Coal Company was to build another inclined plane over the crest of this part of Moosic Mountain. According to Mike, they went as far as to begin construction of the plane and rail line to do so, but then realized it was too steep.
The "ghost plane", which is now part of the ATV path system, is rather obviously graded similarly to the rest of the inclined planes we were on, but was never completed. It has a crest to the hill the same as the others, but is just far too steep on the opposite side. Mike pointed out where the trackage should have continued, and where the top would have been, then we hiked it down hill following him.
Tunnel
When we reached the bottom, Mike showed us around a bit more at the top of the earlier inclined plane 11.
He pointed out to us that the plane was built in such a way that it lined up perfectly with the "ghost plane", but that it hooked the hard right when the decision to tunnel was made, then later it was decided to move plane 11 altogether. It all makes so much more sense after seeing the entire route.
To the left of the plane path, Mike pointed out some of the masonry remnants of what was likely the original power house location. I wondered why it was in such poor condition compared to the other one, and Mike said that they might have used some of the original stones in the construction of the new plane.
Tunnel fun
This seemed against what I'd known of railroads; they usually construct everything new next to the old as not to have an interruption of service, but Mike raised a very valid point: the canal, for which the gravity line was constructed to deliver coal, was closed during the Winter months when it froze, which would have provided time between busy seasons for the switch to be made between old and new planes, and the old infrastructure could have been disassembled then.
The ghost plane
We walked from what appeared to be the ower house, in line with the plane to the left, off to the right, north, where there was more masonry ruins and then a large pit. This too could have been a masonry foundation that had been completely removed from the ground in favor of newer to the south.
In addition to the foundations and masonry, Mike also showed us yet another old round well hole he had just found for the first time on this day. He explained that even though he's visited this place so many times, he continues to find new pieces of history every time.
Pipe in the rail bed
We continued from here to head back down plane 11, through the big cut. This was nice because we got to see some of it that we hadn't before. Mike took the lead here again to help block other riders from plowing into us.
This time, we noted that there was a large metal pipe sometimes exposed from the surface. I'm not sure what the purpose of it was, but it might have had something to do with the railroad system.
We occasionally had some nice views from the old rail bed to the north and the Endless Mountains beyond the Lackawanna River valley.
Old ties still in place
Another surprising thing about the plane was that some of the old railroad ties were still in place. They were sitting off kilter by so many years of ATVs riding over them, but they were still recognizable holding it in place. I at first thought it was some kind of cribbing for the right of way until Mike told me they were actually the ties.
We continued to he base of plane 11 again, and Mike announced that he had previous engagements for which he'd have to take his leave from us. He gave us some directions on how to get to our next destination, an overlook called "Top of the World". We thanked him for all of the great information he provided, and we said our goodbyes.
The rest of us continued down from here and back to the burnt out buggy at "Flat Rock". At that point, we turned left to rather steeply climb over another path of exposed mantle rock heading south. When we reached the crest of the mountain, there were good views to the north toward the Endless Mountains again.
We continued down hill on another path, which took us past a giant vernal pool surrounded by bedrock, then up again to a secondary ridge. This took us to the oustanding overlook I'd been wanting to see that they call "Top of the World".
The group with our guide!
I'd known this rock outcropping would have an outstanding view from the first times I'd seen them driving the interstate through the gorge, and then later from the hikes I'd done along the Roaring Broook. The lighting was just perfect for the time we arrived.
View from Top of the World
The amazing view was upstream along the Roaring Brook, and the countours of the land revealed two hundred plus years of travel routes, striping along the valley edge.
The earliest was the Drinker Turnpike, the old road that passed through, much destroyed and covered over, but not completely, by Route 435.
View from Top of the World
The earliest railroad through there was the PA Coal Company's unloaded track, which was closely parallel with the Erie Railroad's Wyoming Division that came along just over thirty years later. On the other side of the brook was the Lackawanna Railroad main line that came through in the 1850s. Off in the distance, toward Moscow I could see the Elmhurst Reservoir.
We continued from here along the edge of the cliffs heading to the west. Justin of course went right out onto the edge of the things and destroyed everyone's nerves.
Crazy boy
The route along the cliffs came to a disappointing dead end, and we had to backtrack. We ended up going in a loop right back the way we had come in from the highest point on the Moosic Mountain. We then followed a path on the top out to another old woods road which began to descend. This looked much more promising.
Another side path went to the left, so I opted to follow it. While it unfortunately was a dead end, it too had an epic view from it. This one was looking more to the west, with the Interstate 81 bridge over the Roaring Brook gorge. The Erie Railroad Wyoming Division's bridge near the same was also in view (that was one of the sketchiest rail bridges I've ever crossed).
I-81 bridge
It was going to get dark pretty quickly, so I wanted to get down off of there. We backtracked back up hill a short bit, and continued on the woods road we'd been following. It led gradually down hill, with little disheartening bits of ups, but we eventually emerged right where we needed to at the base of plane #9 on the gravity line, where we'd first turned off near the top of abandond Tigue Street.
We headed back the way we had come on Tigue Street.
My plan had been to try to take a different way, maybe across the Roaring Brook and then west to Lake Scranton, but time was not allowing for many more experimental routes.
Abandoned Tigue Street
We took Tigue Street out, and then passed back under the interstate to Drinker Street and turned right the way we had come. We passed over the former Erie Jessup Branch, and then continued along Drinker. This was a slow going section. It seemed to drag forever for me. We were all talking about food for a bit as we passed a few establishments, but wanted to keep going in order to get to our cars. We took Drinker Street across Rt 81, then turned left on Meade Street.
Not all of it, but much of Meade Street is built right over or next to the loaded track of the very gravity railroad we had been trying to follow. I knew that ahead of time, but I didn't know all of the details of the infrastructure we'd be passing along the way.
Historic image of PA Coal Co. Gravity Railroad near Nay Aug
Meade Street pretty closely paralleled Interstate 81, but then turned away near it's west end. I wanted to cut corners as best we could, and I thought we might be able to head down hill from the bend and cut over to Mill Street at Bunker Hill a bit quicker.
Plane #6 site
I cut into the woods at the bend, and went down hill to a spot directly behind a billboard overlooking 81. It looked good enough to me to be worth the try. After all the thought of not wanting to do any other exploratory things and get directly back, I suppose I went a bit too long and was feeling antsy.
We headed down from he billboard, through an opening in the rocky outcroppings. This was a little sketchy because there was really only one place to go down, but we all made it okay.
I did not at all realize it at the time, but the exactly route we descended was the site of the gravity railroad's inclined plane #7! We emerged at the bottom into a garage site with a few tractor trailers parked. When everyone was down, we went between them to the west end of the lot looking to descend further. This was still part of the plane. There was no good way through, so we turned right briefly, and found a perfect access road took us right down to Mill Street near the entrance to the Quinn Breaker area where we'd met the police officer earlier!
We headed down Mill Street, crossed over the Roaring Brook, then turned to the right on Brady Street below Interstate 81, where there was another Erie Railroad branch.
Plane 21 on the PA Coal Co, further to the east to show how they worked
We turned to the left past a restaurant, and then climbed the slope under the highway to get us back to the paved path we were on earlier, which took us to the north back to Kurtz Street.
There was also another gravity railroad plane in this area, but it was too dark to see anything really at this point. We kept ahead on Kurtz, which sort of skirted the gravity line briefly, then turned left on Luke Street to Ash Street where we turned right.
As we walked down, there was a guy working on something in front of his house to the right. He asked us what we were doing, since we looked like a bunch of crazies walking the streets at night. I told him we were hiking the old gravity line, and gave him the basic run down. He asked "Ya's stopping for some beers along the way I hope?"
I reached behind my pack to reveal a bottle of Weyerbacher, held it up, and said "hell yeah!"."I don't know yas...but I like yas!" the guy said!
I remembered the way we had gone the previous time, and figured we'd do another version of that to get back. As soon as we passed under the old Lackawanna line and then crossed Roaring Brook, we turned left between some spruce trees to get on a path directly beside the water. This took us for a pleasant walk out to the corner of Myrtle Street and Richter Ave. We continued ahead just a little bit from there to get to the start of Davis Trail at Nay Aug Park. We followed that into the Nay Aug Gorge heading to the west.
Historic Nay Aug postcard image
We stayed on Davis Trail with the exception of one short cut section mid way through, and toward the end when we cut out to a parking lot instead of staying on the trail below. I got a bit disoriented at that point because I wasn't familiar with the turns.
We headed out the west side of the park onto Rosellyn Street, then to the Harrison Avenue Bridge. They were working on the new bridge parallel with the old one the last time I'd passed through there, and the new one still wasn't done yet.
From this point, it was only a few blocks to the end at Gerritsons grocery store. When we arrived, Pete Wilcox met up with us so he could at least join us for dinner.
Map showing the canals and historic earliest raillines as our guide
Craig had made plans to visit the historic haunted house jail thing I think it was in Philadelphia that night, which seemed like it'd be impossible to ever get to within reasonable time...but he made it!!!
My plans didn't really go as scheduled to have my slide show of then and now photos. I had originally hoped to do this hike as a full weekend event, maybe ride ATVs the next day at Lost Trails, visit a coal mine or museum, but unfortunately more people didn't sign up that'd justify doing that, and I really didn't try to promote anything too much bigger anyway.
Still, it was an outstanding hike and an incredible experience to have so much history and silly fun in one hike.
There was still a long way to go to cover this early historic canal and rail system routes, but it's all looking very exciting. I'm sure more great events can come together, and hopefully we'll be able to enlist Mike Guzzi's help for more interpretation on future trips as well. It promises to be an excellent time.
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