Hike #1147; Wennersville to Bethlehem Musikfest

Hike #1147; Wennersville to Bethlehem March on Musikfest

8/4/18 Wennersville to Bethlehem with Tea Biscuit (Scott Helbing), James Quinn, Jennifer Berndt, Steve Sanbeg, Kralc Leahcim (Lerch), Ellie Zabeth, Sy P. Deunom (Martyn), Wilma Vargas, John Pershouse, Craig Craig, Daniel Trump, Amanda Lance, Jeffrey Di Bernard, Denise Saraseni Pangborn, Jennifer Tull, Justin Gurbisz,Michelle Bradley, Susan L Duncan, FlipFlop Duncan, Jack Lowry, and Sarah Jones.

It was that time of year again, for one of our most haphazard crazy hikes we do all year.
I was almost dreading it this time. I start to feel enslaved by the routine of annual hikes.

Cemetery near the start

Still, a ton of people look forward to doing this, so I try to get in the mood for it.
Every year it’s my goal to include something in the hike that I’ve never done before, and so I figured I would try for some weird stuff over on the Allentown side, and then do some of the Jordan Creek greenway. I’d done bits of this with Commando Tom and Eric Fay a few years back in the warm weather months, and really liked it a lot.

Lerch cooling off

The weather around this time was deathly hot. We had storm after storm, and it rained pretty much every day. This made the humidity level get unbearable each time.
In Pennsylvania in particular, flooding was a major issue. Out in coal country, it was nuts. Towns were getting sink holes and all the rivers were swelling over their banks. The Allentown area wasn’t as bad, but it was bad enough that a lot of the greenways I had planned to use would be completely under water. As it would turn out, this made it that much better.

Lerch cooling off

I put together an idea for a route that I could slap together much in the way I do the night hikes. A lot of it was just little pockets of parks and such we could wander through.

Nice veterans section

I figured we could finish with Walking Purchase Preserve because there’s still so much of that I haven’t explored yet, and then end up on the south side of Bethlehem. For the starting part, we would do Jordan Creek Parkway, but also a bunch of other weird stuff to get to it.
The theme for this entire hike was that things wouldn’t go as planned, but actually worked out better. Right from the start, things were a mess.

Cemetery wandering

When I first started doing the Musikfest hikes, all of them met at the Brodhead Lot on the south side, but then they closed that off to patrons of Musikfest. Then, we started parking at the Martin Tower, which has a huge lot.
Before I even arrived in Bethlehem, I was getting calls from my friends that the tower lot was blocked off. It wouldn’t be used for the Musikfest parking this year. Sure enough, I got there and we could’t even pull in due to some sort of construction going on at the place.

Cemetery walking

I had to get everyone to head over to the pharmacy across the street. I went out and stood at the entrance to make sure people could find it. Some went up the street to the “new” Musikfest parking, which was way up on the other side of Rt 22. This just wouldn’t work for our purposes at all. It was too far.
I could have had the meeting point at Iqor at the south side, which we’ve been using more often, but it was too late to be doing that kind of a shuffle. We all decided to go to the pharmacy, then we would shuttle the cars over to the nearby Lowes store. No one would bother our cars there.

Development path

Once most of us were together (of course not all of us were together, some always run late and have to meet at the start point), we started shuttling to the start.
I decided on the Crest Plaza Shopping Center, where there’s a Target and a Rite Aid, as well as Applebees and other stuff.
I had originally figured we would drive out there and I’d figure out the actual starting point while we were driving around out there, but since Jen and James were late, I decided to make that the start point because it would be an easy point.

Not usually wet...

This didn’t quite go as planned either.
As it turned out, there are more than one Target and Rite Aid in the same lot locations on the same street, Cedar Crest Boulevard. Jen ended up at the one farther to the south rather than the one we were at.
Fortunately, it didn’t take her more than a few minutes to get to us. We were already starting a bit late because of the debacle with Martin Tower anyway.
The area we met in was known as Wennersville, also on some old maps as Eckert.

Hippo

We started walking from the shopping center across Cedar Crest Blvd, and through Roma Corporate Center, which was parallel with Office Center Road.
We followed this north and came to Walbert Ave.
Craig brought me a “Collaberations Are For Lovers” drink, a coffee mango stout of over 16% ABV I had right away, since it didn’t look like any kind of special drink can. I needed to mellow out already!
We turned right only briefly on Walbert Ave, passed an old house which looked to be maybe a caretaker’s house, and entered Grand View Cemetery to the left.

Fun with a hippo

We skirted the left side of the cemetery. The grass was super saturated with wetness, and there was just no avoiding getting our feet wet right from the start.

Development path, Fernwood Park

We walked to the rear where there were mausoleums, and then turned to the right on the access road along the north side of the place.
As we headed to the east a little bit, there was water running off in the paved access roads, and so Lerch laid right down in it. It looked quite refreshing so I joined him for a moment.
We sampled here some “Stone Farking Wheaton Woot Stout”, a delicious bourbon barrel aged imperial stout for which Wil Wheaton, who played Wesley Crusher on Star Trek, was one of the brewers. We didn’t believe it for sure, so Tea Biscuit looked it up.

Development run off

I got lucky buying this one. They only charged me $9.99 for a six pack. You never even find imperial stouts in six packs, let alone for that price. It turns out it was a mistake too. Even at normal price, $15.99 for a six pack of beer that’s 11.5% abv is pretty great.
We headed to the east a bit more, and there was a guy sitting out there. I wanted to avoid him, so we cut through a nice arced veterans section of the cemetery, then passed near the east corner of the cemetery where we regrouped for a moment.

Flooded development pool

From here, we cut through a line of trees and into an empty field area. We continued to the right, and then came out in back of another cemetery. We walked around that only briefly, and then exited it’s main entrance off of Coolidge Street.
We walked through a couple of blocks of development streets to the intersection of Huckleberry Road and Molinaro Drive. We walked only a short distance up Molinaro.

Goofy crew

A paved trail cut off of the road to the left through Fernwood Park. We followed it as it skirted a runoff brook in the center of the park.
Lerch and I got right into the runoff brook to cool off, though we didn’t lay in this one.
We soon found a playground to goof off on. Our Woot Stout drinks were no doubt helping with this. Ironically, Craig brought me a bottle of the same stuff (I had drank one bottle the night before, so I was short one in the six pack, but Craig replaced it for me!).

The pathways continued through the park section in the middle of a development to terminate at a cul de sac on a road called Kris Drive. We continued through the grass from here just barely to the north to come out on Focht Avenue. We crossed directly, walked through a bit of water, and skirted an electric substation.
We continued north on the mowed area and emerged at the corner of Auden Ave and Jenny Lane. The area we had been in at the start of the path was Greenwawalds, and this one was Scherersville.

Overflowing creek into parking lot

Some maps also refer to the area as “Ringers”. We took Albright Avenue to Orchard ave and crossed what used to be the Allentown and Slatington Electric Railroad, a trolley line. I didn’t notice it at the time because I didn’t think there was ever a railroad there.
We continued walking on Prima Avenue to the east away from the residential area, which soon was on a high slope above the Jordan Creek, which was flooded.

Prima Road under construction in 2011

It was interesting to walk this road now, because when I was last on it the contruction was going on, and the road was completely closed. That made this time a quite different experience.
We continued on down the road to the intersection with Mauch Chunk Road and turned to the left, across the bridge over the Jordan Creek.
It was obvious the creek was overflowing from first sight, but we didn’t quite see how bad. We turned right ahead into a parking area for Jordan Creek Park, and we could see that the water was spilling over into the parking area.

Flooded Jordan Creek

There was the old road route, former Mauch Chunk Road, going off to the right to the earlier bridge site, and beyond the water was right up through the lot. Lerch and I walked right through it, and he told me he was looking forward to the entire creek being under. I thought we’d remain more high and dry for the entire way, but I ended up being quite wrong. The first part was okay, but it wasn’t long until the only way to continue was through the water on the path. Fortunately, everyone was a good sport about this and went through.

Jordan Creek Greenway

It still didn’t seem like it’d be too bad at first. We had to walk through some water, but the trail came back up out of it. We soon made our way to a foot bridge over the creek, but we decided to stay on the north side. There was a side path down which Lerch and I saw something we wanted to check out.
The water was flowing ridiculously strong, so walking into it wasn’t necessarily the smartest thing to do, but we were able to hold ourselves up. It turned out we had seen something of a frisbee golf course.

Flooded trail

We continued along the trail ahead, and it remained a wet mess without being too deep until we got to a wider open area of a field to the left used for the disc golf course. There, the main trail went under much deeper. Still, it wasn’t much over knee deep. Everyone still followed us on through.
Tea Biscuit had his dogs, Tinkerbell and Waffles on leashes, and it was just starting to get to the point where they were swimming to continue on rather than just walking through it. The signs for the golf course were just barely sticking up.

Flood

The group dispersed a bit in order to find the more shallow ways of getting across this expanse. Lerch, Dan, and I were well ahead of everyone through it, all pretty much loving every second of this.
Lerch climbed up on the #9 tee thing.
This section of trail is an unpaved one, which remains on the west side while the main paved route is to the east. We bullied through the water, and Justin was flipping me off every time I turned and looked at him! Overall, everyone got a kick out of this mess.

Flooded

The trail started coming out of the water, and then climbed up hill a bit steeply to the height of land on the north side of the creek.
We got to the top of the hill and took a little break before moving on ahead.
We descended very slowly on the other side, and emerged where another foot bridge carrying the main paved trail emerges from the right. We did not cross the bridge, because we’d have probably remained dry, but rather stayed on the north side of the creek following it down stream.

Flooded

Below this next foot bridge site, the water was much stronger, and the current was running more strongly over the paved path. It wasn’t that deep, so it wasn’t going to pull us off of our feet. We decided to just continue on the tougher way along the pathway.
This section of the trail pretty much remained right along the edge of the creek, and was always under water. Only at a couple of brief moments did it emerge at all. We continued, and at one point it got to be really sketchy. Walking with the current seemed totally fine.

Flooded

The problem was, when I turned around to help someone else, I could almost feel myself getting pulled down. It was kind of frightening. In this section, so close to the main flow, if I had fallen in I would not have been able to swim back out. The current was just far too strong.
We continued on, and as we neared an apartment complex on the left, the water started getting deeper, and the current stronger. I felt that I was getting swept if I turned around to help anyone else. The rest of the group started heading in.

Flooded

It required bushwhacking through some rather nasty weeds to get away from the current. When just about everyone was in, Lerch said he was going to try to still walk the path. I decided I would give it a go too, and for a few moments it was still really sketchy, but we made it.
The rest of the group were bushwhacking through to get to higher ground for a while. Once we got to a wide open area, we thought it looked like we were in trouble. Maybe we would have been if we were moving up stream. But in the opening, it got shallower.

Flood

Everyone made their way out to where we were, and we continud along the trail down stream.
The trail passed through a swath of woods along the creek, and then emerged at a small parking area that was also under a good amount of water.
We walked along and came out to Mickley Road where we tried to figure out what we were doing. Susie called me at around this point, ready to meet up with the group. I figured that she could meet us in the section ahead, and directed her an area to park.

Flooded tee 9

Around the same time, Jack and Sarah were showing up and ready to join. I had them meet near the White Castle that was a little bit further ahead along our route.

Where's the trail?

We turned right along Mickley and then turned left into the grass along the edge of the Jordan Creek. This bit wasn’t under water yet. It was a break in the wet walking.

Flood

We passed by a parking area, and across from us on the right was the Helfrich’s Spring and an historic stone farm house and barn.
This area was settled in 1799 by John Helfrich, and it remained in the Helfrich family until 1912 when Sylvester Helfrich moved to Allentown and leased the farm out.
The pond on the property in front of the house was built by the Minsi Fishing Club in 1908. Their home base was up the hill from the farm and barns.

Flood

The fishing site did not live up to the club’s expectations and they disbanded.
The property was then purchased by William E. Erdell for use as a floral business.
The property was purchased by Horace McCready Sr. in 1944 for his floral business that had started about a decade earlier in Allentown. The farm has now been in the McCready family for more than half a century and is well maintained. It has an outstanding aged ambiance even with all of the flooding. I thought Helfrich’s Spring pond was flooding from the river, but it turns out that’s just how it looks. Which is nice.

Helfrich's Spring historic farm

We walked just a little further, and came to a rather new foot bridge built over the Jordan Creek. This, and the official trail on the other side, were not in place when I was here last.

Tee 10!

There was a sign on the bridge that read “Trail Closed”, but we decided not to pay it any mind and go across anyway. In fact, this warranted a good group photo.

Wet

The dogs were having enough trouble with the messy situation, and Amanda had a previous engagement to do some dog walking or something ahead of time, so she had to Uber out at this point.
We continued on from here across the bridge and then to the right. The trail was out of the water at first, but that didn’t last for long.
We went beneath Route 22 bridge, and the trail went into the water some more.

As we emerged closer to the apartments and then the places of business up hill to the right, we were able to get out of the water to walk in the grass if we wanted to. By this point, everyone was so accustumed to walking in the water that most of us just stayed there even though it might have been easier to get out.
Susie showed up at the high and dry area after a bit of walking, off to the left. I think she soon got in the water too.

Flooded

She always recognizes when something looks too fun to pass up!
We continued a bit further ahead, and got out of the water near MacArthur Road. Jack and Sarah were there when we arrived, in their crazy yellow Metrotrails shirts they had made for the anniversary hike earlier in the year!
Jack was already playing something on his carbon fiber guitar, and he had just gone to White Castle. He handed me a slider, which was great, and we all hung out a bit.

Flooded

This was a good spot for everyone to be able to use the restrooms and to get a little food. White Castle was right there in front of us, but there was also more upscale stuff further off. There was some kind of quality burger place further away that Martyn decided to head to. I think it might have been a food truck thing or something, because I recall it took a while for everyone that ordered something. We ended up hanging out there for quite a long time. Since we were hanging out, Tea Biscuit suggested we get more to drink.

Flooded

He and I walked up to MacArthur Road and turned right across the bridge over the creek. On the other side, the Jordan Park Beverage place was a short distance away. We went in to have a look around, and I was rather surprised to see that they had some of the Dogfish Head World Wide Stout, which is the only one I’ve yet to try, and the Dogfish Head 120 Minute IPA, which I hadn’t tried until this time.
These beverages go up in ABV percentages with age, and the 120 Minute was over a year old.

Flooded

This stuff typically goes for about ten dollars a bottle, and the aged stuff that I’d seen in my local store was being sold for 17 dollars a bottle.
Tea Biscuit and I discussed it briefly, and decided that at that percentage, and the fact that they were selling a four pack at the price of about $8.50 a bottle, this was probably the time to get it. I was having a great time and in high spirits, so I figured this is the right occasion to get it.

Flooded

The beer was even chilled.
I sat down next to Jack and Sarah on the lawn and sang some songs with them, and shared some of the 120 Minute IPA. It was quite good. These stronger ones are actually much more potable than the less strong IPAs. I like them with a meal, but the bitterness isn’t quite as good alone to me.
Jack was playing some songs he hadn’t played while walking with us in quite a while, among them “Please Please Me”, arguably the Beatle’s first real hit (Love Me Do was moderately successful, but became a bigger hit much later after they had other hit songs).

Flooded trail

It didn’t seem that everyone was getting too impatient, thankfully, and we eventually got to moving on down along the creek to the east, or south at this point.

Deep

The way we went about it at first was to remain on the same side of the creek, the north side.
We walked across the street and headed straight down into the grass of an apartment complex. There were sidewalk paths around the outside of the buildings, and out to Jordan Drive. There were more apartment buildings beyond, but there was no way down to the creek on this side. We ended up having to turn back to MacArthur Road again.

Flood

We crossed the creek on MacArthur Road, and then turned to the left into Jordan Park East. This was almost entirely under water. We knew where the paths were supposed to be, and could follow our progress on aerial images, but the current was pretty strong here again.
It’s a super wide flood plain, so we had to be careful not to step off where there is a dip and get washed down stream into the Lehigh.

Craziness

Jack was thoroughly entertained by all of this and continued playing the guitar all the way through the mess, which was great.

Flood

When we reached the far end of this park, the current was rushing around the corner in the creek pretty strong again. Everyone made it through okay, but many went further inland than where I was walking through.
Lerch was exceedingly amused beyond capacity the entire time walking along the creek. Something in him snapped and he was just smitten with the chaos of the swollen creek. Every chance he got he was on a picnic table, a grill, or down in the water in some weird place, completely amused.

Flood

There was some kind of trail on the other side of the creek, but we were not going to be following that this time. It would be a muddy, under water mess.
We had to climb up to Summer Avenue and walk that.
The route I had planned before was to continue following the Jordan Creek further down stream to near the confluence with the Lehigh River. It bends several times just before this area.

Flooded Jen

I’d explored this area many times, and we used it on several past hikes through the area.
In the vicinity of the turns, the abandoned Barber Branch of the Lehigh Valley Railroad broke off of the main line, and there are at least two, maybe three old railroad bridges over the creek right in that nearby area.
The problem was, this was so close to the confluence with the Lehigh, and all in flood plains, it was certainly under water.

Flood

Because that entire area is informal pathways, and because it was not paved surfaces, walking through a current with no grip could be deadly and I wasn’t going to subject the group to that.
I figured if we rerouted, we could get on the D&L Trail, which mostly follows the Lehigh Canal route on the other side of the Lehigh River.
Along the way, Jason Itell messaged me that he and Megan were going to try to meet up with us. I didn’t think they’d be close by the time we got to Sumner Avenue.

Flood fun

We continued down Sumner Ave to where it crossed over the Jordan Creek again.

Flooded

We continued out toward the rather new American Parkway Bridge.
This bridge had never been there until the recent couple of years. The first time I had ever laid eyes on it was on one of the night hikes two years prior when we were jumping off of the old railroad trestle adjacent to it. The ambient light from the bridge made it so we weren’t just jumping into the dark. I figured this time we would revisit the railroad bridge just because it’s always more an interesting way to get across than the road.

Flooded

We walked out past a church, and then reached some houses with some small streets behind it off of Front Street.
We went behind these houses, turned to the left, and then at the corner I saw a pathway into the underbrush. I didn’t know what it would end up being, but it was going the direction we needed to go.
We followed it slightly up hill, cut to the left, and then down hill to come out on Jordan Drive.

New foot bridge

Directly across, there was another thing that looked like it might be a future trail or some sort of access or something. We walked ahead into that as well.

Super crazy fun

We walked through more weeds, and then came to a steep stone wall, which used to be the edge of the Lehigh Valley Railroad.

Passing under 22

The first time I had walked this section, the tracks were still in place through here.

Flooded

We took our time in this area and let everyone climb down, and Jack and I did another singalong thing while everyone was gathering.

22 underpass

While Jack was playing, Michelle pulled out her spinny things she had put in her bag and started doing a dance with it, which was impressive. I got a pretty good video of it.
When everyone was pretty much good to go, we started following the old Lehigh Valley line to the north.
Now, the entire areas to the right was fenced in and most of the stuff that was out in it had been removed. We used to just turn right and walk across the clearing to get to the abandoned railroad bridge.

Flooded

Actually, there was always a fence, there, but it was far less secure looking in the past.

Where Susie joined...

The trestle was reportedly part of the Allentown Terminal Railroad. The bridge allowed Central Railroad of New Jersey trains to cross the Lehigh River and serve Allentown. It is referred to by many as the “WK Bridge”, but I’m not sure what that stands for.
The Lehigh Valley Railroad was on the west side of the Lehigh here, and the Central Railroad of New Jersey was on the east. The bridge connects to the former site of Lock #39 on the Lehigh Coal and Navigation System, also known as Kimmett’s Lock.

Caught a high five

We followed the tracks north for a bit, and sure enough we eventually came to where there was a cut hole in the chain link fence heading over toward the river.

Susie couldn't resist joining the fun...

We could see the tops of the trusses sticking up from beyond the vegetation, so we headed straight to it. There was another chain link fence blocking this edge of the bridge.

Steve is loving it.

We worked our way through the weeds and around the edge of the bridge on the left. We then got on the deck of the bridge and started heading over.
I don’t now what Lerch and I were thinking, but we were talking about potentially jumping off of it. Fortunately, we both were sensible enough not to do so. He went down to check out the water below and said “Aw, hell no!”, and said the water was really incredibly fast. If we jumped we’d never fight the current to get back in land, or maybe even to resurface.

120 min. IPA

We slowly made our way across the old bridge, which still has both rails and ties in place on it. I get across the things pretty quickly, but this took the rest of the group a good long while. I was slightly concerned because the new American Parkway bridge is so much more in view of the bridge. This used to be a pretty secluded bridge where no one would bother you.
We all managed to get across and climb through the fences on the other side. We then regrouped when we crossed over the active railroad tracks and reached the parking lot at the former site of Kimmett’s Lock.
The lock is mostly gone today, with I recall a bit of one lock wall still intact along the parking area.
The lock was apparently badly damaged during a flood in 1942, and some time after it was filled in and turned into a public boat launch where there’s a good access to the river.
Kimmett’s Lock was the upstream end of slack water navigation used by the Lehigh Canal in the pool withheld by the Allentown Dam. We took a short break here to regroup.

Sing along!

The Lehigh Canal below that point is inaccessible now. The tow path is right along the river and overgrown to the point that we can’t currently use it.

Lehigh Valley Railroad in 2008

We started walking out of the parking lot, and down North Dauphin Street.

The same scene in 2018

We passed beneath the new American Parkway Bridge, and then continued to the intersection with North Bradford Street. We turned to the right here.

Fun!

Bradford is the official route of the D&L Trail because the towpath is either overgrown, destroyed by railroad fill, or otherwise inaccessible for whatever reason.

Flood

We passed beneath the bridge that carries Union Blvd on the east side and Tilghman Street on the west across the Lehigh. The bridge was being worked on and covered with blankets.
We walked onward along the road, past a humorous sign that read stuff about no trespassing, etc, and then another sign “except bikes”.
The trail continues on the road through this section until we came to the intersection with the somewhat new bit of the D&L Trail that goes along the slopes above the tracks.

Flooded

To the west of us is Adams Island, and the Lehigh Canal passed along the river between the island and the main land. I’ve read that towpath remnants are down there somewhere.
The trail section took us up hill, and there was a bit of a view off into Allentown. We skirted an apartment area. The trail then descended on the other side down to North Albert Street. The trail officially turns right there and heads down to a grade crossing over the former Central Railroad of New Jersey (active).

This picnic table had a reservation on it!

We turned right, but then hopped the railing and went directly down over the tracks to reach Lehigh Canal and the Allentown Dam.

Jordan Park

The lock still has water flowing through it today at this point. It was Guard Lock #7 and Dam #7 back in canal days.
We usually stop and take a break at this point, because it’s such a nice spot for a swim. The problem was that this time it was terrible fast moving water. By this point though, not everyone cared, or at least I didn’t.
I made my way to the water and pushed over the rocks below the dam toward the fish ladder.

Jordan

I managed to get to the exit of the fish ladder, and despite mad currents, pull myself in. Last year, we all swamp into it, but this year no one wanted to follow me but Tea Biscuit.

Flood

While I pulled myself into it and went up a level or two, Tea Biscuit climbed to the top of it and decided to jump in.
He had some kind of trouble getting through it and I don’t remember what, but I do remember him complaining something to Lerch on the lines of “why did you let the fat kid do it?”
I decided I was going to try to shoot myself out of the thing, but the water was way too rough. I ended up getting sucked to the right toward the main river current trying to get out, and I barely pulled myself back.

Jordan Creek

I don’t quite recall how I got out of there or what exactly I did, but I think I had to go far to the left and be very careful as not to get caught up in the current. d
I got out an joined the oothers at the old lock site before moving on.
One good thing that we found just below this point was that the Lehigh Canal towpath below the guard lock had been cleared. For years, it was getting to be in horrible shape. I led a hike on it in 2004 where we could pass through pretty well, but son after it started growing in and we would go around.

Jordan Creek

We managed to bully through it last year, but it was pretty bad. This time, it was good to see that someone took it upon themselves to clear it off again.

Flood

We continued to where the railroad bridge crosses over the canal and the Lehigh into Allentown, went under it, and soon reached the Lehigh Canal Park. From here, the towpath is clear and easy all the way back into Bethlehem and beyond.
As we neared the park, on the other side of the canal, I spotted a cop car on the other side. I had an obvious bottle of 120 minute out and so I hid it against my back between my pack.

Jordan

I thought to hold everyone up for a few moments, but he went off to the right and didn’t appear from there. We crossed the access road and continued on the canal towpath ahead. The access road came to it once more as we passed below a pavilion, beyond the next canal lock site.
We walked along this section, and the police car cruised in behind us. I looked back briefly and saw him there, and so we just continued walking. He continued slowly behind us as we neared the gate. We walked around it and he moved to that point.

Flood

We continud walking on through, but he stopped at the gate and didn’t open it. I thought for sure he might try to drive the towpath further, but he didn’t.
We all continued on the towpath ahead, and skirted the gravity rail yard on the left side. The constant shrill sounds of the brakes are eerie through this section.
The group started to segment in this section as some were moving along faster, and some of us went a bit slower.

Above: Historic view of Lock #39, also known as Kimmett’s Lock on Lehigh Canal.

Craziness

While we were walking this section, I got a text message from Jason Itell and his wife Megan.

Wet!

It turns out, they went ot the Walking Purchase Preserve directly across from us in this section, hoping to intercept us!
They were literally right across the river from us, but didn’t know that we had to stay on the north side because of the bad flooding.
We ended up not seeing them on this one unfortunately.
Also unfortunately absent for the first time since 2008 were Commando Tom and Laura Cunningham, who love this hike.

Where's Commando Tom?

Unfortunately, Tom had suffered a leg injury that had kept him off of the hikes, and he was getting better, but stuck working the majority of the day for this one.

LV Railroad bed

We had found a sign at the beginning in the frisbee golf course that read “Commando?” pointing out toward the water, so we got a photo of Lerch looking confused with it and sent it off to Tom and Laura. They ended up at Musikfest later, but we missed them before we left. Jason and Megan ended up meeting them though.
We continued walking the canal to the east for a bit, and eventually found a spot where we could stop and swim. There are surprisingly few paths down to the river in the section.

Climbing down to the rail bed

There used to be a shelter along the river in this section, with a mowed grassy are and river access, but someone burned the top off of it and then the area was allowed to grow over completely with weeds. One can barely tell it’s even down there any more.
After stopping for a swim, we continued on along the trail to the east and eventually reached the Sand Island area. This was where the main concert venue used to be before they shifted it to the south side. I’d seen quite a lot of acts at this spot.

We soon crossed under the railroad bridge that connects the lines on the north side with the former Reading Railroad branch on the south side.

Dance!

Just after that we passed under the Hill to Hill Bridge, one of my favorite bridges in the area.
A strange curiosity as of late is that they no longer allow pedestrians over it during the Musikfest. It’s probably because people throw things off.
We headed into the fest over near the Jersey Central Railroad station, and people imediately dispersed looking for tickets and food and such. From that point, my job is typically over.

Rail bridge

I got the group to Musikfest, it was up to everyone else to decide what they want to do.

Trestle

I think the main performer that night was Dautry, which I wasn’t really interested in. I didn’t know what everyone else wanted to see or do.
Jack and I sang “Across the Universe” as we walked into the fest. I can’t quite remember what else was on the list of songs this time. I never really felt drunk, and I never got a hangover or anything, but between the Woot Stouts, the collaboration thing, and then the 120 Minute IPAs which were probably around 22%, I was understandably cloudy.

Trestle

I don’t even remember where we walked to first. I know we were walking through the fest there.
I recall walking by the Hill to Hill Bridge entrance, and then up through town.
We met up with the group in the restaurant for dinner. I don’t recall for sure which place it was, but I think it might have been Tapas on Main.
I only ordered an appetizer because I didn’t feel all that hungry, but then next thing you know I have tons of food in front of me. It sems everyone had something they couldn’t finish!

Bridge work

While we were there, Mr. Buckett (Jim Mathews) and Eric Pace showed up to hang out for a bit.
I had to get a ride back to my car, so I had to follow everyone around that would be able to take me either way. Fortunately, I didn’t have to wait long at all. I forget who offered to drive though. Regardless, I was able to get a ride back, and we’d have to just walk back to the cars. We left the place and headed I think maybe down into the fest first. I recall following Jack and Sarah around a bit. They had the obvious yellow shirts to see!

Bahaha

We eventually headed to the end of Main Street and turned to the left on Broad Street. I recall walking by the spot where Brandan Jermyn and I saw prostitutes being picked up.

Canal

We followed Broad to the west until we got to 8th Avenue and turned right on that. This took us north and over Rt 378 and then on to the parking lot at Lowes to finish our hike.
This one had really been something different. In terms of covering new stuff, yes we did some, but most of it was familiar. What wasn’t familiar were the conditions, and this made it something really pretty awesome. I could repeat this hike almost any time and it would be an entirely different trip.
We did the right hike to do on the right day for it to be what it was. Exciting, but with a level of danger that wasn’t too far. It was right about where it needed to be for it to be glorious.
There will be no shortage of new hikes for future Musikfest hikes, that much is certain. There’s still so much to see in just a small area.