Hike #1125; Reading to Birdsboro

Hike #1125; Reading to Birdsboro

5/5/18 Reading to Birdsboro with Jim Mathews (Mr. Buckett), Renata Stosik, Renata’s friend (sorry I can’t remember the name UGH), James De Lotto, David Goldberg, Sharon Daley Kelly, Craig Craig, Eric Pace, David Campbell (Captain Soup), and Justin Gurbisz

This next hike would be the next in the 911 Memorial Trail series, but also sort of a weird turn of events happened just before I had planned this route out.

Outside the Berkshire Mall

When we reached the Reading area, I was planning the next hikes ahead of time. I was concerned that it was all road walk to Lebanon, and then from there, after a rail trail section, all road walk but also a section through the Dauphin Narrows north of Harrisburg where pedestrians are not allowed.
I wasn’t going to be able to do that. Even if I could get away with walking the Dauphin Narrows, it would ruin the entire group initiative, because no one wants to do a boring farm road walk three times.

Delotto in the mall bushes

I was concerned that I might have to hold off on the series until cooler weather, but first I wanted to consult with one of the planners, Robert Thomas, who laid out a lot of where the trail would be going.
The way the official map shows it, the trail will follow all of these roads, but Mr. Thomas had a plan that was not included for pedestrians. He gave multiple options, and I was aware of most of them, but I wanted to go with the way he thought I should do it officially for the series.

911 Memorial Trail route

We still have an extremely long way to go to get it done, but we’re moving along, and with Mr. Thomas’s suggestions, I am much more excited about the next handful of hikes.

The Union Canal

I was delighted to hear that the plan was to follow the Union Canal westbound to the town of Lebanon, even for the main multi use route eventually. This is outstanding.

Union Canal

The entire Union Canal is not a trail yet, but the section into Reading is, and I got to follow most of it on the previous hike. I’m a canal aficionado, so following that will have an entirely different level of interest, and other people will be interested in it too.
From Lebanon, rather than going to Harrisburg, his plan was to head up the Swatara Rail Trail, cross the Appalachian Trail, and take the Stony Valley Rail Trail in through Saint Anthony’s Wilderness. All of these things are on my “to do” list, so I was extremely happy to hear that this was going to be the plan.

Map of the Union Canal trail

I had a very long conversation, which left me excited to plan out the next several hikes.
In addition to the route, he offered some other alternatives as well. One of them was to follow the Horse-Shoe Trail west to Lebanon, then take Lebanon Valley Rail Trail north. This would have been an attractive option if I hadn’t already hiked the entire route of that already. However, he made me aware of some new connections to it from below Birdsboro that I might throw in with this series anyway, because they’re just interesting.
I had already had this hike planned out ahead of time anyway, and so I wasn’t going to change it. A lot of it was the official 911 Trail route, but I would also throw in a few side trips and other interesting things along the way, as I do with any hike I’m running. We’ll simply change trajectory on the next hike after this one.
This time, I had everyone meet at a grocery store in Birdsboro. We’d then shuttle to the north, to the west side of Reading, to start at the Berkshire Mall.

In the Berkshire Mall

My plan was to start at the south end of the mall on walk on through it. These malls are fast dying, and so I wanted to try to experience them before they’re gone.

Mall walkin

I’m sure some of the group would say “What? A mall”, but they might understand it one day.
When we went to do the car shuttle, Mr. Buckett was going to lead the way, but then my GPS told me to go a different way, which ended up being a bit faster. He and the group he drove in went right by us when we arrived at the lot, and they parked at a different spot at the lot than the rest of us. We ended up going in and walking a section of it ahead to meet up with them. We got to a stair area to try to regroup.

Mall

Delotto went and bought some mall pretzels, because he said it’s a tradition, and you just can’t go to the mall without having a mall pretzel. We kept getting slowed up because someone would have to keep using the restroom or something. Eric and I checked out some retro benches on the one side around a pier.
I was surprised to see some of the stores still holding on in there. One of the anchor stores was Sears, with it’s dual level areas and an escalator in the middle, but some of the smaller ones surprised me more.

Mall

One of the big surprises to see was FYE (For Your Entertainment). They were a music store that took over for “The Wall”, which was popular when I was in high school because there was a little sticker that gave you a lifetime music guarantee. You paid a higher price, but then if the CD broke, you could just get a new one. What a farce that turned out to be when they closed up all of them and none of those stickers were good any more.

Retro

We made our way further through the mall to the north side. We walked through the Sears, which felt like a museum. We exited at that point to make our way to the north for a bit.

Mall

Just before exiting the mall, I popped a Polish beer Renata had given me, and shared it with Captain Soup. It wasn’t as strong as the ones I usually drink and so Captain Soup liked it more. He usually hates my beers.
We headed north and west through the parking area, and made a steep climb down to the main road out of the complex to the north. As we looked off to the left, we could see the Toys R Us, which was also closing.

FYE???

The Toys R Us warehouse near where I live, in Flanders NJ, had just closed or was about to close, and the percentages on clearance were going up all the time.
We continued north on Berkshire Blvd, which was relatively busy. We crossed over Routes 222 and 422 on a bridge, and when we got to the other side turned left into a grassy area.
I waited for everyone to catch up, and Craig gave me a can of “Molotov Heavy”, a delicious IPA beer that is a whopping 17.2% alcohol content. The highest I’ve seen in a beer.

Mawl

When everyone was together, we turned left along the edge of the grass heading east. There was a ball game of sorts going on, I didn’t pay attention to what kind.

Mawl

When we got to the edge of the fields, we turned right and then left onto a paved path that led into the Penn State Berks campus.
There are lots of little paved trails that bisect the campus, but we had too many people around, so we kept to the right. We descended somewhat, and soon reached the edge of Tulpehocken Road. We turned left briefly, then right into a grassy field area of the Gring’s Mill Recreation Area and skirted the right.

Mall

We followed the edge of the open area, and soon came to a spot where there were tennis courts or something. Private land was on the right, so we had to go left for a bit, around the courts, and then to the open area approaching Gring's Mill itself.
Mills used to be everywhere along the Union Canal, and this is one of the few still standing.
We made our way down to the Tulpehocken Creek and crossed the bridge, where the Union Canal towpath is on the other side.

Mall

Gring's Mill has an interesting dark story behind it. It was in 1875 the site of a horrible murder-suicide at one of the canal locks, but I'm not sure which one. Lock #49 East was to the west of Gring's Mill, and Lock #50 and 51 East were close together to the east, but I think there may have been another mill site there, so it was probably 49.
Louisa Bissinger had her children, Mollie, Lilie, and Philip, gather rocks for her in a basket.

Our group

Her husband, also named Philip Bissinger, was President of the Reading Brewing Company, and considered a sort of aristocracy within the town.

Closing...

Bissinger was said to have been the most powerful man in Reading at one time, and so with this came rumors of extra-marital affairs.
His wife was inconsolable, and threw herself, her three children, and the fourth she was expecting, into the waters of the canal with the basket of rocks to weight them down somehow. It became a front page news story, and Mr. Bissinger denied the affairs, then blamed his wife for believing.

nom noms!

Today, there are ghost stories associated with the area, of people seeing children wearing hand made clothing, who abruptly disappear.
We got to the other side of the bridge at Gring’s Mill, and stopped to regroup. While there, there was a building on the bridge I decided to have a look inside. There was an entire train layout inside, and this turned out to be the home apparently of the local railroad historians.

Union Canal map

There were several other nice buildings around besides the mill; there were German type buildings on the other side, all rather attractive.

We continued along the canal towpath, which after Gring's Mill becomes a bit more obvious of what it was.

Union Canal

I had walked this section on the previous hike, and liked it so much that I wanted to slap a portion of it on as an overlap for this one.

Penn State Berks

The Union Canal is interesting to be me because it was so substantial. It connected two major rivers over land, much like the Morris Canal did in New Jersey, which makes it all the more surprising that it was abandoned so early on. Reportedly, it was the first canal in the US to begin construction, and President George Washington turned the first shovel of dirt himself.
The route between the Schuykill and the Susquehanna was 81 miles long with 93 locks.

Gring's Mill

Additionally, the 22 mile long feeder canal was also used for navigation and had 14 locks of it's own.
For a time, towns and businesses prospered along the canal. Civil War veterans found jobs on the canal.
Like all of the other American Canals, the Union Canal was too late on the scene to really be profitable. Like the Lehigh Canal, it was severelyd damaged during a flood in 1862.

Grings Mill

Repairs and maintnenance were costly, and the arrival of more railroads took away canal business.

House at Gring's Mill. We commented that the work vehicles ruin the ambiance.

Despite the fact that it was the first canal started, it was among the first abandoned. It closed by the 1880s (sings read that it closed diferent times).

Railroad display

It's amazing anything still exists of this old canal at all heading into busy Reading PA, however the section is probably the best preserved of the entire length, save for maybe the tunnel mid way in Lebanon.

At Gring's Mill

The Union Canal Tunnel was the second one I believe, after Auburn Tunnel on the Schuykill Navigation, and remains the oldest transportation tunnel in the US.
The Schuykill River Trail follows the Union Canal for now, from the road crossing down into Reading. Eventually the plan is still to have the Schuykill River Trail remain on the Schuykill River, but for now they don't have that route.

At Gring's Mill

Some of the local politicians were worried that if they moved Schuykill River Trail, something bad might come of the Union Canal, but that shouldn't be the case since it connects with popular Blue Marsh Lake.
The canal continued through a nice section along the Tulpehocken Creek, which got a bit narrower and more intimate with it’s edge in a very pretty area.
Soon, we reached the former Lock #50 East. Here, a trail turns to the right and goes up over the Tulpehocken by way of a prefabricated metal bridge, while the rail we followed, the Schuykill River Trail official route, goes right into the lock chamber.

Lock #50 East

The walls of the lock are so badly deteriorated that one could just walk right through it and never realize that it was once the lock.

Old Reading RR bridge

The masonry is only barely in place in some areas that one might be able to tell there was something to it. The trail continued on from here, where the canal would have entered a slack water section of the Tulpehocken Creek. There is a bridge abutment that was that of the mule bridge, where the towpath crossed to the other side of the creek. Also at this point, as per a sign, was the site of Lock #51 east, although I did not see any remnants of it. It must have been a guard lock for slack water to get boats across.

Old Bushong mill site

We walked on from here, along the river side, and there was some masonry on the left, remnants of other stuff that was in the area I'm just not sure about.

At Bushong Mill being weird.

We followed the trail beneath the Warren Street Bypass, and continued into Stonecliffe Recreation Area. There were a few people around hanging out, but not too busy.

Bushong Dam

From here, we could see the former Reading Railroad grade towering above, with a stone arch off to the left. We kept to the right, parallel with the Tulpehocken, and soon reached where the trail passed beneath. There were piers and abutments to the predecessor of the current deck girder bridge, and a utility wire, probably old telegraph, utilized the old crossing.
We continued from here and soon reached the old Bushong Dam. This was associated with the Bushong Mill, which sits to some degree in ruins along the trail.

Bushong Mill ruins

The mill race had quite a great deal of metal infrastructure in place that made it quite interesting, and the old paper mill smoke stack was still intact there.

Bushong Dam

Down stream from the Bushong Dam was a pier in the river, which I found was actually the site of Bushong's Bridge, which was built in 1866.

Bushong Mill ruins

It connected the Glenside section of Reading to the Berkshire Heights section. I'm not sure how the bridge was finally destroyed.

Bushong covered bridge site

I went down to get a closer look at the dam and the ruins, and Justin was already out on the metal infrastructure, ready to cross the raceway.

Bushong Mill ruins

He did so, crawling over the metal which sat cattywumpus across the way. Between the river and the raceway was a reasonable path.

The stack

I looked at the dam and tried to see if I could see any remnants of the old canal on the other side, but all I could see was the pier to the old Bushong Covered Bridge.
I walked back up, and decided I would follow Justin out onto the raceway. Craig also followed him over.
For whatever reason, I wasnt' feeling too scared, and I walked the sideways metal without ever getting down low or using my hands. I walked the top of the concrete, and Justin was aleady out on more of the old workings when I got to them.
The gears through there were quite amazing. Absolutely huge. There were remnants of the buildings still below the level of the trail, and on my previous visit I did not realize that we were actually walking on top of old chambers. They were busted all open, so we were able to get in and have a look around, which was pretty cool.
There was no more infrastructure really to see inside the things, but the old stonework was impressive. After having a look around, we made our way along the ledge and the raceway, and climbed back up by way of a path that was much easier than the way we got there.

Kiln at Bushong Mill

Just ahead, where the giant brick stack stands, there is more metal stuff down below.

At Bushong Mill

I remember there being a question about why, with all of the water power there, they would be using something like this. I forgot what it was, but I think it was petroleum powered or something. I can't quite remember.
There were also old furnace kilns on site. It's surprising more of this stuff wasn't taken down.
This is near the mouth of the Tulpehocken, where it hits the Schuykill.

Bushong Mill race

The first paper mill to open at this site was the Tulpehocken Paper Mill, a branch of the Reading paper mills started by Jacob Bushong in 1856 on the site of the earlier old Kissinger Grist Mill. The paper mill was operated by Bushong for twenty years, but I'm not sure on the later history of the site.
We climbed in to have a little look at the kilns, and then moved on along the trail to the east.

Bushong Dam and mill race

The city of Reading wants to remove the Bushong Dam, which was reportedly built just after the abandonment of the Union Canal.

Aerial view of the Bushong Covered Bridge, Tulpehocken Pumping Station and Belt Line Bridge across the Tulpehocken Creek on August 17, 1931. Bushong’s Covered Bridge is seen to the right. (Dallin Aerial Survey Company).
Thanks to Greg Pawelski for doing so much work to preserve this history.

The mill race

Although they have said that the dam is in no danger of collapse, they consider it a major liability for the city if anyone were to fall off of it.

In the ruins

I think it’s about fifteen feet high. Other groups have gotten involved, and I believe around 2015 they got the approavals necessary for the removal of the dam, but obviously nothing has happened yet. It would certainly be healthier for the stream, but I hope they keep at least some of the historic infrastructure in place.
The trail turns abruptly north to follow the Schuykill River up stream from the mouth of the Tulpehocken. There's no good crossing as of yet.

Tulpehocken mill site

It then makes it's way up to parallel Blair Avenue before stopping. A road walk is required from here to the north until the bridge on Schuykill Avenue.
This is where we had finished the previous hike in the series. I was much looking forward to covering this next section.
The trail has a little intersection, where the right fork just ends. It was like they expected to be building the trail through, but it never happened.

Former Schuykill Canal

We followed the road up to Schuykill Ave, then crossed over the bridge on the walkway. Good views from there of the Schuykill.
On the opposite side, we turned a hard right and headed down to River Road. We followed River Road to the left, parallel with the down stream Schuykill, just up hill from the former Schuykill Branch of the Pennsylvania Railroad.
Near the intersection with George Street, the trail cut to the right, and headed down hill to cross abandoned tracks, followed by active ones. It then descended a bit further to reach the former bed of the Schuykill Navigation System.

Rope swing

I had seen this section on the previous hike, and was hoping it would take us onto part of the old canal.
The trail weaved back and forth for almost no real reason, taking up the entire former canal from towpath to what was the prism.
We walked along, and there were side paths down to the Schuykill to the right, so we decided to check out one of the wider ones.
When we got down by the river, there was a lovely rope swing out onto the water.

The abandoned Pennsylvania RR tracks

It was hot enough out, and I can't quite resist a rope swing, so I decided to give it a try. It felt pretty good to cool off for sure.

Just a little down stream from the rope swing was a tree fallen out into the river we went out to walk on briefly as well. The path continued down stream along the river, which we walked for a short bit before climbing back up the hill to what was the canal.
Back up top, we continued south for just a short distance, and then came upon the spot that was once Lock #45. As mentioned on previous hikes, each canal section (the Schuykill Navigation was roughly half canal, half slack water navigation along the river behind pools created by dams) was usually given a separate name to differentiate.

Historic image of Lock #45

We'd hiked the Hamburg Canal, and the Duncan Canal. This section was known as the Reading Canal, about 2.59 miles in length.

Filled in Lock #45 today

The Reading Canal section began at Kissinger's Dam, also known as Dam #22. The dam was 296 feet long and fourteen feet tall. Lock #45 had a lift of six feet.

Swimmer's hanging out at Lock 45

When the Schuykill Navigation was abandoned, the lock doors were left open. In the years to follow, coal silt gathered in and silted the former canal prism closed, creating the more level graded, wide swath we were walking on earlier.
When we approached, I didn't recognize it as a lock until we got right up on it. The tops of the lock walls were protruding from the grass and it was quite obvious.
We continued walking the trail below the lock site. From the lock, we could see the railroad bridge down stream. This was formerly the route of the Lebanon Valley Railroad.
We continued walking, and just up hill to the left of the bridge was the former site of the Keystone Furnace, later part of the Reading Iron Company. Some abandoned trackage on the Pennsylvania Railroad to the left was probably the access to the old industry that's long since vanished.
The original bridge at this site was an arched wooden structure, with lovely stone arches on the east side, the side we were walking along.

Scenes from about the same point showing the Union Canal on the near side, Schuykill Navigation on the far side of the river, as well as Lebanon Valley Railroad (later Reading) bridge replacement and original structures, before and after Union Canal abandonment.

The original bridge was destroyed by the railroad riots of 1877. The next incarnation of the bridge kept the stone arches, but replaced the central section with a deck truss bridge.

Lock #46

At some point after that, the stone arches must have been demolished in favor of the bridge that stands there today, with the simple concrete piers and deck girder structure that stands today.

Rail bridge

It became part of the Reading Railroad system, and eventually Conrail like everything else.
We passed under the railroad bridge, and soon past it we came upon the former Lock #46. Lock #46 was known as Gille's or Reese's Mill Lock. There was a 1.65 mile level between locks 46 and 48. Lock #47 was a guard lock and had no lift.
During the original 1824 construction, a four lock combine existed in Reading near the intersections of Court Street and Penn Street. All of these locks were enlarged in 1845-46.

Lock #46 remnant

There was a leakage problem with Dam #19 and locks 42 through 48. Dams 20, 21, and 22 were built, and the canal was slightly relocated, and locks 43 through 47 were built in 1834.

The base of Lock #46

As we approached Lock #46, I had no idea that was what we were looking at. Only one lock wall remains on the inland side, and so it just looks like a bridge abutment or something.

Lock #46 and Buttonwood Bridge

I looked at it more closely, and went I went over the side of a wooden railing and looked into the water, I could see the footings of the other lock wall.

Former Pennsylvania Railroad, now Schuykill River Trail

I thought that was pretty interesting.
We continued ahead beneath the Buttonwood Street Bridge, which was built in 1931. It had some interesting art under it depicting runners.
The trail continued parallel with the Pennsylvania Railroad tracks ahead. We were parallel with River Road, and we soon came to a parking area on the right. I believe all of the buildings were part of the Reading Area Community College.

Former canal crossing?

Somewhere in this area was the four locks, and probably the later site of Lock #47.
Off to the left, there was some sort of festival going on, which looked quite interesting. Among vendors and such, I saw a truck that advertised tacos. We absolutely had to go over and check it out.
We went over to the truck and my friends bought me empanadas.
We sat down in the grass, and had a really nice break. I think others went over to another food truck that had something different.

Union Canal on right, Schuykill Canal on left

The above stereoscopic photo by Charles A. Saylor shows the Schuykill Navigation on the left turning inland at Lock #47, near the center of the photo. Site of present day Yocum Library. The Union Canal is on the opposite bank.

They were working on the Penn Street Bridge as we walked by. In the canal days, there was a through truss bridge here over the Schuykill River.

Pennsylvania Railroad Station adjacent to Penn St. Bridge

Today’s bridge is very much like the Cottonwood Bridge we had passed a bit further north. Same style construction, and it was in the process of being refurbished.

The trail on the road in Reading

When we were done eating, we walked back over to Schuykill River Trail through the walkway under part of the Yocum Library across the street.

More of Lock 25

We stopped here again briefly so everyone could use the restroms before moving on.
Just ahead, the trail went onto the former Pennsylvania Railroad grade. There was a double track through girder bridge basically over nothing. I assume that this bridge must have once spanned the Schuykill Navigation.
The trail continued ahead on the trail, which apparently left the Schuykill Navigation here.
Somewhere in this area was the four locks, and probably the later site of Lock #47.
Off to the left, there was some sort of festival going on, which looked quite interesting. Among vendors and such, I saw a truck that advertised tacos. We absolutely had to go over and check it out.
We went over to the truck and my friends bought me empanadas. As I recall they ended up being quite tasty. Delotto was actually the first person to introduce me to empanadas when we were hiking through Perth Amboy back in March of 2006. Prior to that, the only kinds of the things I’d tried were the caramel apple ones from Taco Bell.

Lock 47 area

Stereoscopic photo of Lock #47 vicinity, where the canal turned inland. The lock tender’s house was a strange octagonal structure at this point.

Several mule sheds were in Reading aera

We sat down in the grass, and had a really nice break. I think others went over to another food truck that had something different.

Spring thaw on the Schuykill Navigation in Reading

When we were done eating, we walked back over to Schuykill River Trail through the walkway under part of the Yocum Library across the street.

Crossing the Schuykill on the old Pennsylvania RR bridge

We stopped here again briefly so everyone could use the restroms before moving on.

The old Pennsy bridge

Just ahead, the trail went onto the former Pennsylvania Railroad grade. There was a double track through girder bridge basically over nothing. I assume that this bridge must have once spanned the Schuykill Navigation.
The trail continued ahead on the rail bed, which apparently left the Schuykill Navigation here.
The canal south of this point was highly industrialized, even during the days of the canal. There was an island, known as "Long Island" in the Schuykill on the opposite side of the Penn Street Bridge.

Schuykill River Trail in Reading

The island appears to have been on the far side of the river on what is now a highway interchange. The other side of the island must have been filled in.
In canal days, workers lived on the island, the the children would attend the Franklin Street Public School. It is said that the children from the island were quite problematic and required disciplinary measures from teachers.
We approached the Schuykill River, and the trail continued ahead on a repurposed railroad bridge, formerly double tracked, of through girder construction.

New bridge, old abutments

The trail utilized the former eastbound, on the right side of the bridge, while the left was unimproved and grassy. Of course, Justin had to climb over and walk that section of the bridge instead.
Just before the bridge, a secondary path went off to the left, which apparently follows more closely to the Schuykill Navigation. I could easily do another entire variation on this series concentrating mostly on the Schuykill Navigation. There is so much more to see, it's amazing.

CRAIG LINK!

Once we got to the other side of the bridge, the railroad bed is obliterated, and the trail skirts to the left around an industrial site.

New bridge, old abutments

We followed it out, and then crossed over a pedestrian bridge, closely parallel with the former Reading Railroad line, still active at this point. The bridge was built on the abutments of the old Pennsylvania Railroad's former bridge. The bridge spanned the Wyomissing Creek, a substantial waterway which continues a ways west from Reading.
I had looked at this creek and it's associated greenway when I was looking for a good off road route to head west on, along what the website shows as the official 911 trail route.

Old Wyomissing Road underpass

I'd have used it, up until I talked to Mr. Thomas and we hashed out a better route.
There was an interpretive sign there showing the connections on the Schuykill River Trail, and apparently the connection was called the "Craig Link", so of course this called for a photo with Craig.
We continued over the bridge and along the former Pennsylvania Railroad, which closely parallels the Reading on the same side of the river from here for mostly the rest of the hike.

The trail leaving Old Wyomissing Rd

We reached Old Wyomissing Road where the trail turns left, and the link goes right, then we turned right on the continuation.
There was still a very handsome old masonry culvert that carried Old Wyomissing Road beneath the Reading Railroad tracks.
We continued to follow the trail, with a more pleasant gravel type of surface ahead, parallel with the old industrial sites. The section was very close to Rt 422, the Benjamin Franklin Highway, but still wasn't right up against a road to where it would suck.

The trail in West Reading

We came to the business Rt 222 crossing, Bingaman Street, which we went over on a bridge. A connecting path goes down from the trail to the street, and apparently this crossing can be used to access the canal trail route on the other side again, but the way we went was the offiical route for now.
The next section was up slope and parallel with Morgantown Road. Bingaman Street is Lancaster Avenue on this side of the river, and there used to be a covered bridge that spanned the river at this point, connecting the West Reading section to the main part of the city, which would have made this an important point.

Along the trail

Reading was first settled in the 1680s, but was formally made a town in 1748.

Old Fix Gerber Bitting Cemetery

It was for a very long time one of the largest cities in America, between Pennsylvania's other largest cities, Philadelphia and Harrisburg.

Fix Gerber Bitting Cemetery

It became a strategic point during the American Revolution with iron industry, and helped to put America above Great Britain in terms of iron production.

Hiking Reading

Today, it's still quite a huge city, and as of a 2010 census, it had more poverty than any other city in the nation.
This bit of the city was actually very nice, as was the majority of it along the trails. We barely ever saw anyone on them let along any shady characters. We joked as we were walking about one guy whow as criticizing our choice of hiking in Reading. Bear Arborgrast, who comments on our facebook page regularly, has his own hiking group of sorts, and tried to convince us not to do the hike at all.

Old kiln back along the Tulpehocken earlier

He posted on the event something about how we would get shanked and it's not worth it. I think Craig commented something about him needing help or something. He actually seems like a cool guy and I would like to coordinate with him on something, but right now I have far too many things going on at once that I'll never be able to finish! As we walked the trail ahead, we came upon an old cemetery to the left side of the trail. There was an information sign that caught our attention, reading "The dead have no rights".

Old kiln at Bushong Mill earlier

This is quite an interesting little spot. The cemetery was first established here in 1816 by friends and neighbors John Gerber, an Amish farmer, and Daniel Bitting. The cemetery was extended upon in 1873 by John Fix, who had purchased Gerber's farm, and added his own family plot adjacent to it.
The cemetery was originally large enough to have 200 interments, but when the Union Canal was developed (where Rt 422 is today), they needed land down lower to build, and so they bought some of the cemetery lands.

Schuykill River Trail

I do not know if any graves were moved for them to do this.
After the Union Canal was abandoned, the right of way became the Reading Railroad's Union Canal Branch.
There was a small brick structure along the one side of the cemetery, which to look at you would think was either a caretaker's shed or an old mausoleum, but it turns out that it was a dynamite shed. Hardware store owner Joseph Stitcher, a family friend to the Bittings, built the shed on the cemetery land in 1871 with permission in order to store dynamite safely away from the City of Reading.

Here's Captain Soup scratching his back

This was not nearly the end of the odd cemetery uses and development. The railroad continued to expand, including the one we were walking. The Pennsylvania Schuykill Valley Railroad needed land in 1884, this time on the south side of the cemetery.
Samuel Fix, in his 1894 will, directed his executors to build a house adjacent to the cemetery. The house never ended up getting built.

Pennsylvania Railroad in Reading

This is because the attorney to his heirs filed a petition that stated "It was impracticable to carry out...as it was impossible to get to the cemetery because of the building of the Pennsylvania Schuykill Valley Railroad."
Fix descendants later stated that access to the cemetery was created in the way of a dirt road coming from Bingaman Street to the west, and passed along the eastern border of the cemetery.
Again, I am not sure if the construction of the railroad overtook more of the graves either.

Deres duh scookill.

Finally, the highway, the 422 bypass was built. In 1963, the state got permission to dig up the remains of Joseph Santee and Marion Murphy, who were interred where the bypass would need to go. Marion was an infant who died in 1867, and nothing is known about Santee. They were re-buried less than fifty feet from where the original graves were.
In a 1991 article on the history of the cemetery, by J. Early Ruthardt, John J. Fix, a family descendant, stated "Fifty years ago, there were headstones in the corner, where the bypass went through. The state took a pretty good chunk of the corner. I still think some bodies are under the bypass".

Old railroad booth

I would tend to agree that it seems likely. There may be some under the railroad bed as well. I suppose there's no real way of knowing without digging it all up.

The trail...

Just ahead, development and such must have ripped up the railroad bed a bit, because it went off to the left, just after we passed one of those old concrete phone booths we often find.

On the trail...

The trail became paved up on the hill above everything, and we saw some sort of new development stuff below. There was some amazing art on the sides of the buildings we could see to the right.
The trail weaved around and crossed Brentwood Drive, then regained the old Pennsylvania Railroad bed again. There was a side path that went down hill again to the left, the route of the Angelica Creek Trail, another side greenway I'll one day have to check out.

Art in Reading

We continued ahead, and the trail crossed over the Schuykill again on another high refurbished old railroad bridge.

Art in Reading

Below us, the Schuykill Navigation's Lock #49 used to exist somewhere in there on the east side.

Art in Reading

The Union Canal terminated in the river just a bit south of this point. We continued onto the swath of land at sharp bends in the river known as Poplar Neck.

Former PRR bridge

We continued on along this swath and passed beneath another branch of the former Reading Railroad, which I think is the belt branch or something like that.

Rt 422 bridge

I forget what it was, and I just haven't had the time to read into everything.
We continud and soon crossed over the Schuykill by way of a more modern former railroad bridge. This wasn't the original at this site, as most of them were replaced in the later years of the railroad. We didn't get a good look at the outside of the bridge, just crossed over.
Dam #23 was in the area below the previous bridge we crossed, and over a mile long slack water pool existed above it for canal navigation.

View of the Reading RR bridge

Dam #23 was also known as Little Reading Dam and Poplar Neck Dam.
We had more good views from the rail bridge, north to the Rt 422 bridge, and south to the former Reading Railroad bridge, a deck girder structure.
After we crossed the Schuykill again, the trail turned away from the railroad to the left a bit.
There was apparently a land fill built over the railroad grade in this area in later years.

The bridge...

The trail passed through an area with a lot of giant rock outcroppings, mostly which must have been strewn about there. We went up hill just a bit, got closer to Rt 422, and weaved through the woods a bit. We then paralleled an exit lane, and descended ever so slightly to parallel the Pennsylvania Turnpike, I-176, known in this area as the Morgantown Expressway.
In the area just east of here once existed Lock #50 on the Schuykill Navigation, as well ad Dam #24.

Another bridge...

It was also known as the Big Reading Dam or the Lewis Dam. From this point, the Schuykill Navigation went from slack water to canal again, known as the Girard Canal. This was a very long section of canal without slack water navigation, which stretched all the way from the east side of Poplar Neck to Parkerford to the south, about twenty miles or so. Also, the canal switched sides of the Schuykill at Dam #24, so it would be much closer to where we were walking again. There are some interesting remnants through this region.

Bridge view

We dipped down and passed beneath the highway where it goes over the former Reading Railroad tracks, and on the other side regained the Schuykill Branch of the Pennsylvania Railroad bed.
We continued south on it through an industrial area and soon crossed Angstadt Lane. We continued through the open area south to cross Rt 724, Philadelphia Avenue. This was mostly right on the former railroad bed it seems.

Bridge view

We continued to walk south for a bit, and reached a stream I know not the name of. It passed beneath the railroad grade, and to the right there was a nice set of steps going down.

The rail bed

We continued to walk south for a bit, and reached a stream I know not the name of. It passed beneath the railroad grade, and to the right there was a nice set of steps going down.
We headed on down to have a closer look, and it was a very nice little spot where we could view the lovely stone work of the bridge. I got down in the stream to have a better look at it. It was a beautifully crafted stone arch in fine condition, probably original.

Stone arch

While there, I had a look at my phone GPS. My plan was to make a stop at the Ridgewood Winery, which is just barely off the trail to the north, but I hadn't been paying close enough attention and we'd passed it.

The culvert

We had to backtrack along the trail a short distance to Rt 724, and then head to the north just a bit.
We made our way out and followed the highway a bit to the Ridgewood Winery.
I was expecting there to be maybe some sort of yuppified place, a prefabricated building with a posh tasting area or something, but this was a beautiful old colonial style farmhouse, well kept and restored.

Steps

The Ridgewood Farm was built by the Lewis family, and later the Dick family, from 1725 to 1811. The buildings are on the National Register of Historic Places, and notes the federal style sandstone farmhouse as having been constructed in 1810, a sandstone bank barn built in 1809, as well as a Summer Kitchen and storage buildings built at about the same time. I’m not sure if it was a formality that they say 1810 and the website for the winery says 1725, because often these old homes are added on to, and they officially go with later year.

Wine tasting!

We put our bags down and went into a very nice tasting room with a counter.

Ridgewood Winery

It was cozier than a lot of wineries we'd been to, because it was a bit smaller. It was really just the right size for our group, and there were only a couple of other people around, so it wasn't too invasive. There were also no wine snobs, just people having a nice time.
They gave us the choice of dry or sweet wines. I used to go for the dry ones more, but lately I've been feeling like a little kid going for the sweet ones again. I like them when they're not too overpoweringly sweet. That was how this was.

The maypole and a lovely giant tree

After our tasting, we made our way outside and lounged at the lovely little seating area they had there.

Maypole dance

We were just about getting ready to leave when a lady dressed in Pennsylvania Dutch (German) clothing said they were just about ready to do the "Maypole dance". I didn't know what this was, but then I think I'd heard about it from my grandmother or something. It was much more familiar after hearing about it.
The Maypole is a traditional European folk festival event that usually takes place on May Day, May 1st. I would guess that this was happening May 5th because it was a weekend, and because we'd had such rainy weather this Spring anyway.

Maypole

It is also on Pentecost, or Whitsun in England and Ireland, ten days after Ascension Thursday. Other cultures celebrate it at mid Summer.

The Maypole dance

The Maypole is primarily recognized in Germanic European nations, as well as places influenced (Pennsylvania Dutch being actually German).

Maypole!

Some speculate that the Maypole is a leftover from Norse Paganism that survived into Christian tradition.
The Maypole involves the playing of music while several people hold strands of fabric and dance around. One ducks under the other, and every other person dances clockwise or counter clockwise. If done right, the pole will be braided with colorful fabric in the proper way. If someone makes a mistake, the unraveling of the Maypole will be a bit of a mess.
The earliest mention of a Maypole in America was in the New Plymouth colony when a number of people broke free of indentured servitude and erected one.
We figured we'd just go over and see what it's all about, and see the Pennsylvania Dutch folks dance around. We did not expect them to pull us in to ravel the things ourselves. Six of us ended up joining in on this crazy dance thing, weaving around and trying to get it right. There was a little girl who was just too small to hop over and go as fast, and she kept going through the wrong way, otherwise we might have not done too terribly!

Ridgewood Winery

A in traditional attire explained to us what the Maypole was about, and then explained that we were to unravel it. It looked kind of cool standing there with the ribbons all around it, it seemed sad to just let it unravel, but it was also fun.

Maypole

One of the ladies was telling us that it's uncommon to hear of it today, but that when she was in school, they still did the Maypole dance every year. She said a few schools still do it.
After our Maypole fun, we were invited back into the winery, but in the rear entrance, to have more FREE wine for participating in the event! They had a specially made fruit one in a big dish, so we indulged with that, and I believe I filled my regular water bottle with some of it before we moved on!
We headed from there back to the railroad bed, back over the culvert we had crossed before, and continued to the east.

WANT CARROTS ERIC?

The Pennsylvania Railroad and the Reading Railroad continued right beside each other in this area. The active line moved in toward us on our left, to the north, and we continued out to cross Seyfert Drive followed by Green Hills Road. We even crossed the Allegheny Creek with barely any space between the two bridges of the rival railroad companies.
I had been hoping that the trail would keep us a bit further north when we got to the Allegheny Creek, because the arched aqueduct that carried the canal over it is still standing and in remarkably good repair.

Bridges together

Oh well, we'll have to come back and visit another time. I've only ever seen it from the car.

Historic photo of the barn

The trail section ended when we got to Proudfoot Drive. We had to continue from there along Old River Road, parallel with the south side of the railroads.
We continued to the intersection with Schuykill Road, where the trail route turns left. Here, there was once a crossing of the two railroads, and there was the ruins of a barn over on the corner. Greg Pawelski, a facebook friend and historian, had a photo in his collection that showed it still standing, which was pretty cool.

The barn now

Crossing Rt 724, it looked like the former Pennsylvania Railroad and the Reading Railroad traded places. The line to the south was active, while we could see an obvious abandonment to the north side of it, closer to the highway. There was a concrete abutment where a line crossed over Indian Corn Creek ahead. I would imagine in the Conrail years, they probably decided to keep one or the other, just like they had done with the Central Railroad of New Jersey and Lehigh Valley Railroad back closer to where I live.

Old abutment

We began walking Schuykill Road, and soon crossed over Indian Corn Creek. We crossed what used to be the Schuykill Navigation on the way, but it was not immediately recognizable. To the right, at Indian Corn Creek, there was an old stone arch bridge to the right. I wondered if it had anything to do with the old canal.
We continued along the road and passed some lovely old stone barn and homestead buildings. Across the river, we could see a train going by at a clearing on another active track.

An old bridge at Indian Corn Creek...canal related?

We continued walking, and it looks as though the old canal came back closer to the road again, but I'm not sure of the structures that used to be associated with it.

PRR 2-8-2 #4130 passing over the switch for East Birdsboro Siding on July 4, 1942. Track to the right was the freight house track, some of which is still aside of the freight house that is still there. (Robert Thompson)

We could see an old stone shell of a building through the woods at one point, but there were no signs or anything.
Someone on their porch asked us what we were doing, and we chatted briefly about the hike. At this point, we were not very far from Birdsboro at all. We arrived at Rt 724 just before the main street into town, Rt 345. We turned to the right here up through town, and we passed abutments for where one of the tracks used to cross. I would assume it's Pennsylvania Railroad at this point, because the Reading Railroad had a spur to the south toward Elverson we had hiked a previous time, and they'd have needed a connection.
We passed by the station that was still standing, then turned to the right, up some steps to get back to the grocery store where we'd met in the morning.
There's just so much to see and learn about in the area. I spend time reading into these hikes both before and after they're finished, and I can't get enough. There is just not enough time in a lifetime to learn it all.

Birdsboro Station historic image

I'm enamoured with all of this, and I want to keep reading, but I also want to keep experiencing. I suppose if I were ever to be crippled, someone should remind me I still have this to live for.

Fini

Now, I have both the 911 Trail route heading west on Union Canal to focus on, but also the wanting to finish what little of the Schuykill River Trail I haven't done, and after that, the Schuykill Navigation itself. It's maddening. Still, I'll keep moving, I'll keep reading, and I'll keep sharing, whether anyone is listening or not. Some day they may want to.