Hike #812; Joseph Ibberson Conservation Area to Duncannon

Hike #812; Joseph Ibberson Conservation Area to Duncannon

11/11/14 Joseph Ibberson Conservation Area to Duncannon with Jennifer Berndt, Jamie-Lynn Taylor, Paul Ferlazzo, and Maria ?.

Group at Flat Rock, shot by Paul.

Our next hike would be a point to point, mostly on the Appalachian Trail, between Joseph Ibberson Conservation Area and Duncannon PA. This would be another of the hikes intended to connect the otherwise unconnected hikes I've done.

Over the years, I have hiked connected routes of well over 9,000 miles. Probably closer to 10,000, and that is only the ones that are not repeats of the same hikes, which I've done many of. All of my total connective hikes equal about 13,000 miles covered. As of now, there are only five areas of hikes that I have not yet connected with that other 13,000 miles (One more hike in Kingston connects about 150 connective miles of exploration with the rest of our body of work, two more hikes connect to a section in Harrisburg, three more hikes to connect to Hancock NY, one more to connect to our Pennypack hike, and two more, counting this hike, to connect to 100 miles explored in Cumberland Valley).

Each long day hike I organize gets a number and a journal entry, as seen here, and is posted for my friends to view in detail. Some of these trips were only 15 miles, but many of them were 20, 25, 30, or more. One of them of about a year ago at this time, was the longest we'd covered in a day, 63.4 miles. Each backpacking trip of about 100 miles each are numbered as one hike, so the mileage is considerable.

I had last hiked the AT westbound the previous Winter, in a loop hike between Clarks Valley and Peters Mountain. There was a time I was pushing west on the AT route more heavily, but I had stopped in favor of other interesting things. As of late, I realized that much of the AT both north and south of where I had left off were mostly linear routes, which are not as open to loop hikes, and so they get lesser use. They're more in line with the sort of thing I would want to do. We had recently had a group trip on the AT in NY, north of Bear Mountain which was quite nice. Pushing west would be one of two sections needed to connect the recent backpacking trip Jillane and I had done through the Cumberland ridge and valley area.

Sadly, this great day is loomed over by the unhappy fact that I had lost my favorite camera I've ever had at the end of it, simply doing car shuttles it must have dropped at the end.

We met in the morning in the town of Duncannon, a lovely little town along the Susquehanna that prides itself on the AT passing through. It seemed rather desolate when we arrived.

We all shuttled in my car from the end to the beginning point, the Joseph Ibberson Conservation Area. This was a donated property to the state of PA managed under DCNR out of Little Buffalo State Park. It has a looping system of trails that connect in two places to the Appalachian Trail. We had utilized some of this system on a hike we'd done in February of this year, at the turn around point of a loop. This time, we made our way along some of the trails at the lower portion of the preserve, including Pine Trail, which took us soon up hill to Old Saw Mill Trail, named for the last steam saw mill to operate in Dauphin County. The trail followed an old woods road. We continued on this to the White Tail Trail, a pink trail that leads up Peter's Mountain to the AT.

The White Tail Trail followed a woods road at first, then crossed the blue blazed Victoria Trail. This trail is actually an old woods road that once was a cross mountain route. We used this last time. Across from here, we made our way onto the foot path section of White Tail Trail. The last time I had done this trail was in the snow, so I could not see the fine craftsmanship of the stone steps leading in switch backs up the mountain. I wish I could share my photos here to do them justice, but they were nice.

There was an overlook about 3/4 the way up to the AT, through the trees with a stone bench built into the hillside, looking out over the Powell Valley. We soon reached the AT and took a quick breather. Jamie was all psyched out because she hadn't hiked in months, but I convinced her she'd be able to do it. This was the worst climb of the day. The rest was mostly ridge top with minor ups and downs for the remainder.

The trail led us along the ridge, and out to Victoria Trail, which departed to the left first on a foot path, then to the right at the woods road. For whatever reason, the trail was re routed away from the woods road leaving the north side of the mountain.

Dauphin Narrows

There were occasional views off of the trail. I had brought my map and guide book, but the Pennsylvania guide is not nearly as good as the one for NY and NJ. There's not as much detail and historic notation. I recall the first point of interest we came across was a nice overlook to the north, into the narrows of the Susquehanna farther into the ridge and valley district. We continued up hill from here, and there was a bit of a view to the left into the Clarks Valley. It was rather hazy, but still nice.

In Peter's Mountain Shelter

We took a side trip over from the trail a short distance to the Peters Mountain Shelter. This was quite a nice little shelter, with a lot of space. There was an upper bunk level with ladders, and a good trail register and box. Built in the 1990s, it's one of the nicer, newer shelters. We sat down at the picnic bench for a nice little break and I drew in the trail register. This might be my only chance of ever getting my camera back. I took a photo of the page, on which I put www.metrotrails.org as well as facebook.com/metrotrails and meetup.com/metrotrails

Hopefully, some good soul will find the camera and try to reach out to me, wherever it is. I'm not keeping my hopes up, but it would be very nice to have it back. I drew a lot of silly stuff in there, like a parakeet, a duck, and a shipwrecked hamburger. Jamie went up into the loft of the shelter and said she could have a dance party in there. Literally only she could have a dance party up there because of her height.

Dauphin Gap from Flat Rock on the AT

We moved on along the AT, which was actually pretty easy. It had a few rocky spots, and passed over one view of the Dauphin Narrows with the Susquehanna coming into view, but for the most part it kept to the sides of the knife edge sections of rock that followed the tops of the ridges. We continued on pretty quickly, and I got ahead a bit until Paul and I reached Flat Rock, an overlook to the left with a view into the Clark's Valley. Some of the local communities were coming back here. It was quite nice. I recall we could see out to the Dauphin Gap was in view to the south, and we could see the tops of the ridges to the south of us, Sharp Mountain, Stony Mountain, and Second Mountain were in view, and Blue Mountain beyond was not visible.

Break at Flat Rock on the AT, Peters Mountain

I didn't realize how far Paul and I had gotten ahead. We were moving along at a really good clip and left the others in our dust for a bit. They weren't that far behind though, and we all had a nice break. It was really cool to see the Dauphin Narrows from this angle. It really puts things in perspective how far we were moving along.

I pointed out to everyone the longest stone arch bridge in the world, the Rockville Bridge, which despite the haze on this sixty degree day, was still clearly visible. We could even see the Amtrack train going over it.

The bridge was completed in 1902 as part of the Pennsylvania Railroad. The bridge is 3,820 feet long, and utilizes forty-eight seventy foot arch spans to carry it over the Susquehanna between Rockville and Marysville. The site has been an historic railroad crossing since 1848.

Closer to the gap from the Rockville Bridge, we could see four remaining piers of the Marysville Bridge.

Historic inside view of Marysville Bridge

The Marysville Bridge was completed in 1858 for the Northern Central Railroad to cross the Susquehanna. It made a connection with the Stony Valley Railroad, part of the Schuykill and Susquehanna Branch of the Reading Railroad, for coal trade. It was a covered bridge, which was usually a problem on railroad lines as this meant common fires when steam locomotives would pass through. Trains would also throw sparks that could ignite the bridges like a big match stick. This was not the fate of this bridge; when the NCR line came under control of the Pennsylvania Railroad, the new Rockville Bridge made the old Marysville Bridge, now unused for a couple of years, obsolete, so it was demolished by 1903. We could barely see the white replica of the Statue of Liberty that local activist Gene Stilp erected on one of the remaining piers in 1986.

We hiked on from Flat Rock, and saw a few other little views from power lines and such. When we'd reach a power line, the view was usually in one direction, but a short climb in the opposite direction would reveal a view that way. We got a good view of Dauphin Narrows from just such a power line as well. To the north, the Susquehanna was now in view, but it at first looked like fields. It took several times looking to recognize it as the river, which was very wide and with an island in it.

Rock passage on the AT on Peters Mountain

The lines had some interesting rock formations at them, and one of them had a sort of natural cave we could crawl through. A woods road left from one of them and out to a parking lot, but the trail descended to the left, then back to the right on a foot path parallel with it to have one more view toward Clarks Valley.

When we reached Rt 225, we didn't even have to cross at grade. There was a nice foot bridge over the road, which had a bit of a view to the north. The road was closed from the top of the ridge over the north side for some reason, and there was a road worker in his truck there. Even Google Maps show this entire section of road as being closed. I wonder if it's supposed to be a permanent thing.

View toward Clarks Ferry Bridge and Duncannon

We crossed a small power line right away, and passed another overlook to the left of the trail as we continued on along the ridge. We got to where we could see the Clarks Ferry Bridge, which we would cross when we got to the bottom, when we reached another power line crossing. It still seemed so far away, but we were doing pretty good on time.

We also took a brief side trip to Clarks Ferry Shelter. The shelter was down a short side trail, and wasn't really as nice as the Peter's Mountain Shelter, but still nice. I signed the trail register here as well, and we climbed onto the roof. Someone had taken a ladder from a deer stand and placed it against the back of the shelter.

View of Juniata River coming in to the Susquehanna at Clarks Ferry Bridge.

The trail made it's way along a narrow bit of the ridge for a while with some really interesting rock outcrops. There were a couple of good views to the right of the trail, where we could see the Clarks Ferry Bridges and the lovely Juniata River flowing into it's confluence with the Susquehanna. The Juniata is quite beautiful and I've always wanted to hike along it. This would be the first time I'd cross it's waters on one of my hikes.

We descended by way of some tight switch backs, and there were nice views through the trees as we grew closer to the Susquehanna.

Taking a break on a foundation near to our end point.

The trail leveled out and reached the dead end of a woods road, then joined another woods road to an old stone foundation which the guide says was the site of an old barn from 1910 called Berkenheiser Barn or something. We took a short break at the ruin site before continuing our descend down into the valley.

After leaving, there were good views toward the bridges again, and the trail was narrow with some really steep drop offs toward the railroad tracks. The blue blazed Susquehanna Trail, which follows the former AT route, re-joined in this area after having broken away from it near a previous power line. At the end of the last switch back, we descended on stone steps to the railroad tracks.

Nearing Clarks Ferry Bridge at the Susquehanna.

We crossed the tracks, and then crossed Rt 147. There was an historic marker here on the Eastern Division of the Susquehanna Canal, something I'd not followed yet. I had been to the beginning of the canal, at Wrightsville where the Susquehanna and Tidewater Canal, the private company ended, and the state owned Susquehanna Canal began. This canal was completed in 1833 and operated until 1901. At the site of the Clarks Ferry Bridge, there was once a mule bridge over the Susquehanna that made connection with the Wiconsisco Canal, leading north along the east bank of the Susquehanna. The Eastern Division continued up the west bank of the Susquehanna while the Juniata Division followed the Juniata River some 127 miles from the Susquehanna!

PA Canals map

We crossed the road and made our way onto the off ramp for Rt 22. There is a good walkway for the AT to follow across this bridge on the west side. There were really nice views down the Susquehanna, but the sun was in our eyes so it wasn't really good for pictures. We made our way across the long bridge, then on the other side passed a seedy looking strip club that was closed. The trail then crossed the walkway of the bridge over the Juniata River, which was lovely. There were natural rock outcroppings in the water clearly visible from the bridge. It would be rather easy to just walk across this section of the river from what I could see.

We walked the AT along the road into Duncannon, beneath a railroad underpass. The AT apparently turned left to follow through the main part of town, but we stayed on Market Street for the most direct route back. It was a neat little section to walk, and a nice relaxing home stretch for the day. The road went to two levels, with residences down below at one point, and we passed an indoor flea market place I wished was open. I went in once with Jillane and it was cool.

Culvert at the end beneath the tracks

We continued on to Anne Street, where we turned left to Maria's car, who would shuttle us back to the beginning. I first went out to the Susquehanna by way of a lovely stone railroad underpass to take some more dusk photos of the river. It was the perfect time to get them. My camera had been dying badly the entire day, but I still managed to get it to work for all of the photos I had wanted. That's what makes it worse that I somehow lost it between getting in Maria's car and getting out, then back into mine. I had had the camera strapped to the front chest strap to my pack, and I put my pack in Maria's trunk. I usually put it in my pocket when I carry it, but I can't recall what I would have done with it. I wouldn't have put it on her roof because it's high. I must have lost it somewhere between hers and mine, and maybe sat it on my own roof. If that's the case, the only hope is a good samaritan tracking me down.

I have to try and focus on the fact that other than the loss of my camera, it was a great day with a good group. We again finished well before dark and saw some beautiful places. I was also one hike closer to one of my remaining goals. Fortunately, Jen, Jamie, and Paul all got some great pictures that captured the best of the places we'd visited for the day.

My next trip out to this area will connect me with 100 more miles to add to the growing 13,000. It's sure to be another amazing trip.