Hike #897; Shamokin to Sunbury

Hike #897; Shamokin to Sunbury PA

Hike #897; Shamokin to Sunbury

11/22/15 Shamokin to Sunbury with Jillane Becker, Pete G. Wilcox, James Quinn, Timothy Kovich, and Euin Gonzalez.

This next hike would be a point to point between Shamokin and Sunbury, and my most important missing connection at the time.
I had done two connective backpacking trips with Jillane, one from Shamokin Dam through Sunbury to Penn’s Valley and areas north, and then another on the Mid State Trail from Penn's Valley to State College. I had done a backpack with Jillane in 2010 from Ashland east to Lehighton, and then the previous month we did a day hike from there to Shamokin. Jillane also would have more connections on this than any other one, having done the three backpacking trips, previous Shamokin hike, and other connections to the east.
We met in the morning in Sunbury. Jillane and I spent the night there at the Hotel Edison, which was the first electric powered hotel in America. We had a wonderful dinner and a very nice stay, and were only about ten minutes from the meet location in the morning.

We headed over, and there was some miscommunication on the meet location based on where GPS said it was, but soon we were all there.

There was initially a large number of people signed up, immediately after the previous trip through Centralia, but in the days leading up to it, the numbers dwindled a lot. No matter, we headed in two cars to Shamokin and parked at the same point we finished the previous hike, in the middle of town along Independence Street.

There were still active tracks here, and just beyond them, in the parking lot on the opposite side, were the tracks that used to be the Pennsylvania Railroad. The ones that are still active used to be Reading Railroad.

Historic Philadelphia and Reading Railroad map

These two railroad lines were competitors. The Reading Railroad was one of the earliest railroads in America, having been established as a horse drawn railroad in 1833. It continued to grow and became the main artery between Philadelphia, Reading, and the Pennsylvania coal. It was the first railroad to have it's main line double tracked.
The Philadelphia and Reading Railroad as it was called earlier didn't stop at the railroads; they created Port Richmond which was one of America's busiest port terminals, and they purchased the coal mines outright. This made the Reading Railroad the world's first Conglomerate. It was at one time the largest business in the world.

Historic Pennsylvania Railroad map

The Pennsylvania Railroad started a bit later, although one might argue that it's roots are earlier because it absorbed the Camden and Amboy, which was the earliest passenger railroad in America. It too grew to become the largest of railroads, with trackage across the country. It became known for the incredible four track wide main lines. The Pennsy and Reading were direct competitors, and in the area where we stood it could not have been more obvious, with each of the former line's tracks parallel with one another by only a few feet.
When Conrail took over these lines in 1976, just like everywhere else, they eliminated redundant lines going the same places, but they used best of both worlds. The same had been done between Lehigh Valley Railroad and Central Railroad of NJ near where I live.
At the point we were walking, Pennsylvania railroad was abandoned, and Reading was active, but that would soon switch.
We headed north to Commerce Street, which the railroad closely followed. We headed west on that, having to go around one chain link fenced block. Mostly, we were able to stay right on the old right of way.

Former Pennsylvania Railroad in Shamokin

We headed through town, and came to a center area with a sort of mural of railroad on one of the buildings. We continued ahead and got closer again to the active former Reading line, which had moved off a little bit. Ahead, as we walked away from the main part of town, the right of way moved toward the active tracks to what appeared like a junction.

Historic view of Pennsylvania Railroad Station in Shamokin

This was not a junction at all, but rather a cut over that must have been created by Conrail after 1976, where the active line switches from the Reading right of way to the Pennsylvania. I looked around, and just barely to the south, I could see the fill of the Reading Railroad, even with an old signal tower in place, moving away and gaining some elevation. We headed over to it. Apparently, the Glenburn Colliery must have been in this area somewhere, but no trace remained.

We could see some ruins of buildings on the slope that must have had something to do with this business. There were structures on the hillside as well to our right.

Historic view of Glenburn Colliery

We followed the old Reading line across a bridge over the Shamokin Creek, and the water was bright orange from the acid mine drainage. Here, Rt 61 and and new bridge and access from Treverton Road covered over the right of way. We had to climb up to the left, then down across the road to walk some of 61 north.

We could see another right of way turning off to the left from here, another branch of the Reading. I thought at first that this was the main line going north, but we realized later that this was just another westbound branch, or a spur, and that the main line was obliterated by 61 for farther. This branch actually went to Trevorton, and then farther to Herndon on the Susquehanna River. We could have walked this route, but it would have been a longer day than it already was.

Glenburn Colliery Site

The site where Glenburn Colliery once was was lost upon us at the time. We looked through the gap in the mountain as if nothing had ever been there.

Historic Glenburn Colliery view

The ruins in the hillsides to the right of us were easily missed if we were not specifically looking for them.

Site of slope for Glenburn Colliery

The hillside today was interspersed with evergreen, as well as the European White Birch that for some reason seems to grow so well in those disturbed soils. If we were not there in a leafless season, we’d have not seen any remnants of this industry at all.

Historic view of Glenburn Colliery

This upper Reading right of way had a steep slope to the right, and I climbed up to what looked like a cave. It was a small cave, only a few feet in, and perhaps once a mine exploration.

Former Reading Railroad branch in Shamokin heading north. Main line was where the road is today, on the wall was a westbound branch.

We followed the right of way for a little longer, and when we saw a path leading off to the right, we took it to get to the main line lower down. It was a nice and relaxing walk here, and we soon came to a line of abandoned chicken coops and out buildings. It was adorned with written signs that said "J.C.'s Place" and "J C Was Here". We checked them out, and saw beer bottles and a fire pit. No sign of fire, but the beer cans were likely only from the night before.

JC's Dump...a chicken coop of yesteryear

We continued onto the right of way heading north further, and Jillane found an old bottle dump fo sorts. In it, she found a porcelain doll's head in pretty good shape, and she found out it was from the very early 1900s.
Looking at the maps later, I determined this location may be directly down slope from a large cemetery on the hillside. Maybe these were very old decorations sat on graves and discarded below?

Doll head

The right of way ahead was very nice for a long while. There is something in my 1946 Railraod Atlas that shows there was some station stop known as Reisers in this area. We saw to the left an open area, with a brick kiln type of structure below a fill. Not sure what any of this was. We also had some nice views at openings in the trees, including of a crazy looking slope to the south of us where Glenburn Colliery was.

Shamokin's Lower Gap mining began in 1836; first colliery was built in 1857; renamed Cameron Colliery in 1864; destroyed by fire in 1888; rebuilt in 1890; renamed Glen burn Colliery in 1940; mining ended in 1970. The colliery operated for 134 years, employment peak was at 1,420. Mined 33,353,000 tons of coal and had 217 fatalities. It was the site of the worlds largest man made culm bank. The colliery was dismantled in 2000.

Glenburn area coal mining

Jillane was looking at bottle dumps to the south of us, then powered ahead of the rest of us. When we caught up, she had found the opening to an old coal mine, or likely just an exploratory cut into the mountain. There were pieces of metal pipe scattered around the opening in the mountain side, and a brand new and larger galvanized pipe was laying in the railroad bed. We probably arrived right in time to explore this, because it looks as though it is being prepped for closure and installation of this pipe.
We walked into the mine hole and followed it all the way to the back. It reminded me very muc of the old Pahaquarry Copper mine adit above the Delaware Water Gap in New Jersey that I had been going into my entire life, with similar shape and feel, and not very much resembling a coal mine from what I know of.

In the old mine

There was no sign of any coal in the walls of the tunnel at all. There was a muddy floor at one point, but for the most part the entire thing was dry.
Even though it wasn't anything that deep, only two hundred feet or so, it was still pretty cool. We continued on the right of way toward Paxinos and crossed Badman's Hill Road, followed by Irish Valley Road, and then Dogwood Road. Beyond, the rail bed was posted and there was a high peaked roof on a cinder block building sitting vacant. I'd never seen a block building built in such a way. We took the right of way further, but then came across "no trespassing" signs and stuff saying you are on camera. We didn't want trouble, so we headed down hill to the right.

Saint Christopher Protect Us

There were giant stacks of railroad ties at a steep slope down to Rt 61. We carefully made our way down the hill at this point. The ties must have had some sort of industrial history about them, but probably no one other than locals know now.
As we slipped down the slope, Jillane spotted a metal pendent exposed between the fast moving mess of leaves. I don't know how she picked it out, but I thought it was cool immediately. She gave it to me right away.
The piece was of Saint Christopher, with he signature holding a child on his shoulder. Saint Christopher is a biblical figure who is said to have carried Jesus as a child across a dangerous river, not knowing who he was. There are other stories about the Saint, but regardless, he is known as the Patron Saint of Travelers. This was perfect for me.
The opposite side read "SAINT CHRISTOPHER PROTECT US". A barely legible date, 1939, was below it. I imagined this pendent may have adorned the neck of some poor coal miner, who lost it during work at that very slope. The pewter piece was not in the ground at the time, but on that slope it probably was for a while.
We walked the road only a short distance to an open area on the right, and we climbed back up to the railroad bed. This section was not used like the other sections. It was grown over with grasses and obviously no ATVs were travelling it. Fortunately, we were able to move along on it pretty easily.
We continued until we got to some sort of industry that had it fenced off. We had to turn right and head down hill to next to Rt 61, and Main Street where it broke away. We turned left and began following the road into Paxinos area.
After the industrial area, I could see some of the cut of the railroad, and we turned across the lot to get back on the right of way. It got overgrown as it headed onto a fill, and to where it used to cross over Rt 61. We headed across an open grassy area next to Lick Creek, which flowed under 61 in the same area, and turned right through where the railroad bridge used to be. On the other side was Masser's Fried Chicken, a nice little eatery we chose to stop at for lunch.
Tim and I split an italian sub sandwich that was pretty good. I forget what everyone else had. Once finished, we climbed onto the railraod bed, which had a faint ATV path showing us the way up the slope to the former north end of the bridge. The rail bed ahead remained clear, and was part of a buried gas line. In fact, most of the right of way we had been on was part of this line.
There were more cement ruins on the left side of the right of way as we continued, we came more to a lightly developed area. The rail bed came closer to homes, and after crossing Shamrock Road, a guy came out of his house and stood on the right of way staring at us as we walked away. He didn't try to flag us down, just watched. Since I was wearing a three piece suit, and Euin had a two piece, we must have looked somewhat strange. The guy stood there for a long time as we continued on and walked across Rose Road.

Former Reading Railroad bed north of Paxinos

Here, the active tracks came back in from the right. There was a junction with another line that went north across the Shamokin Creek on a bridge, apparently just an industrial spur, and the lines switched again.
The active tracks picked up the former Reading Railroad heading due west, while the former Pennsylvania Railroad went to the right, now abandoned. We turned to continue on the abandonment.
We soon came upon a couple of brick buildings that appear to be at a place that was called Reed Station. Here, it crossed Poppy Road.

Former Pennsylvania Railraod in Reed's Station vicinity

The right of way went across open field for a bit, but we opted to try to follow it anyway. We continued until we had cover of the trees again, and then everything felt better. The rail right of way would come close to a road again after a bit, and we wouldn't have to encroach on anyone's back yards to walk this section.
The rail bed first paralleled farmlands, but then was in deeper woods. Soon, we came to it's crossing of the Shamokin Creek.

Pennsylvania Railroad bridge over Shamokin Creek

It was a tall, through style truss bridge with open deck. The ties were somewhat rotten, but we could get across alright. There were also concrete ruins of possibly a water tower or something on the right side slop on the west end.
We continued through more woods, and soon the rail bed was parallel closely with Snydertown Road. We were able to continue following it pretty easily here, and we came to Short Road. I considered going left out to the active tracks because they might give us less a hard time walking there, but the aerial images looked good enough to continue.
We had to walk the road briefly, and I tried crossing through a muddy mess and got my feet wet. We all found a dry spot to get over, and followed the railroad bed ahead across open fields and below a power line. The section was quite nice, and it took us down slope enough from the road that no one would see us walking there.

Former Pennsylvania Railroad near Deiblers

The rail bed went back into some woods, and remained easy enough to follow. It was a good consolation that the only sign we saw read "no hunting". We figured wandering through should be fine! We continued a good distance more, but then we came to no trespassing signs from all directions. With not one way better than the other, we continued.
We soon came upon an old Pennsylvania Railroad mile marker reading "8". This meant we were eight miles out of Shamokin. We were definitely going to run over the mileage I thought we would be at again.

8 mile marker along former Pennsylvania Railroad just east of Snydertown PA

As we walked this section, gun shots were coming from close by. This was a bit unnerving. I decided to stay low and try to walk by, but Euin was smarter and figured we needed to make our presence known as not to be shot.
We walked onward, and a very nice farmer came up to us on his ATV. Jillane talked to him first, and when he said he owned the land, she responded that this was the gas line. He I suppose didn't know what to say, and continued talking to her a bit. I went back to talk to him, thinking we'd have to go out to the road, but he directed us just to go out to Snydertown by way of the rail right of way to the west.

Old bridge on Pennsylvania Railroad bed just east of Snydertown

We walked onward through more woods, and passed a pond on the right side, followed by the small bridge over it's outlet. From here, we entered a wider, grassy area adjacent to people's back yards. We walked through this without any problem.
The section in the grass was very nice, and it took us right out to Main Street. On the other side, the right of way was a wide lane with not a single "no trespassing" sign. I wanted to continue on it, but I put it to the group for a vote. Though not unanimous, we voted to go onto the road to the active tracks. It was going to get dark, and we didn't want to chance to much.
At one of the yards, James picked up a ridicules orange toy gun he carried with him for the entire remainder of the hike.

Former Pennsylvania Railroad in Snydertown PA

We followed the road across Shamokin Creek, then reached the tracks at Camp Road. Since the road was closely parallel, we opted to follow that instead of the hard ballast and ties.
A guy walked by us by the turn.
"Nice day for a walk!" I said to him
After an initial affirmation, he sort of did a double take and said "But NOT in a three-piece!!".
"It's ALWAYS a good day for a three piece!" I responded.
Mill Road took us parallel with and over the tracks of the former Reading Railroad, then turned away from the tracks a bit. It was a nice, lightly used back road, but the pavement was becoming difficult to endure for the shoes I was wearing.
We reached Anthracite Road, and continued straight across on Sawmill Road.

Along the tracks nearing Sunbury

This road was only slightly bigger, and just as little traveled. It was also closer to the tracks for when we wanted to get on them. We headed down the road and passed an abandoned house, and a couple of farm areas.

Sweet farm cats

One particular farm had an abundance of extremely friendly cats. We of course loved this. I was in the front of the group, and the first one, a little white and tabby mix, came running at me. It was one of those cats who enjoyed attenton so much it would jump up into my hand to be pet before I could eaven reach it. Others showed up quicky, a tuxedo black one that James took a liking to, two marble pattern tabbies, and a sweet little grey tabby kitten that couldn't have been more than a couple months old.
We took some time to pet them all, and Jillane showed up, after looking for bottles, and then realizing she dropped her phone. While looking for hers, she found that I had also dropped my own spare phone and one battery, and brought it back to me.
I held one brown tabby for a while, which just loved being held and purred heavily.

Followed by farm cats

The owners of the cats were leaving as we were ready to go.
"We love your cats" I told them as they walked by.
"Take 'em" the guy said.
As we walked away, the cats began to follow us down the road. This was adorable at first, but then they didn't stop. A mile went by and we still had three cats in tow: the original white and grey tabby, the black and one one, and the tiny grey kitten. The kitten was the biggest worry, because it was getting tired and needed to stop, but then would regain it's energy and run hard to catch us and the other two bigger cats.
Both James and Pete went back later to look for them, but they must have made it home. The cats only followed us as far as Blackmill Road where we got back on the tracks.
At this point, the former Pennsylvania Railroad had an amazing three span truss bridge crossing the creek. It was getting pretty dark, I could barely see it let alone get a good photo. I wish it had been earlier when we got to this site so I could have seen more of it.
We walked the tracks for a while, and soon the road turned away. Pete went down to check the now directly parallel former Pennsylvania Railroad bed, and it was clear as could be. We all headed down to walk that for a while.
In fact, there were signs on it where someone had been using it for a 5K run or something.
Eventually, we came to the bridges over the Little Shamokin Creek. The Reading line bridge was still in place, but the Pennsylvania Railroads was nothing more than a framework. We could have walked it, but with my crap shoes it'd be taking a chance of slipping off. We did the smart thing and headed over to the active bridge to get over the creek. On the other side, there was apparently a sewage treatment plant or something, but it was a grassy swath where the railroad used to go, easy enough to walk.

Old Pennsylvania Railroad bridge over Little Shamokin Creek

We came out to Rt 61 entering the town of Sunbury.
The town itself used to be known as Shamokin, but it was renamed after Sunbury, England. It was laid out in 1772 as the county seat for Northumberland County, though it had been settled in 1756 when Fort Augusta was constructed on the site.
We turned left on Wolverton Street after walking a section of 61, and there was a walkway along it that looked to be a former railroad. One of the lines went to the north, a branch of the Pennsylvania Railroad, while he former Reading Railroad went ahead. It now connects with a north/south former Pennsylvania Railroad line, still active, which parallels the Susquehanna. The Reading line used to continue ahead, and once crossed the Susquehanna on a long bridge there.

Historic view of Sunbury and the bridge that once crossed the Susquehanna.

We followed the Google Maps from this point along streets rather simply. My feet were hurting really bad. We'd done far over the mileage I was planning, but it had overall been a good day. When we reached the Susquehanna River side, it was a big relief. We walked along the edge of the wall heading south, but this was still disconnected with the previous trip we had done out there, because we walked the other side of the wall. I had the feeling of completeness when we reached the steps up from next to the bridge over to Shamokin Dam. Having finally connected that feels great.
We walked on, and soon were able to get up onto the flood protection berm on the south side of town. We simply followed the berm on much softer ground until we were just above the cars in the PA Boat Commisson Launch, just down stream from the dam across the river. Apparently this dam is unique in that it's inflatable and can be raised and lowered depending on the river conditions.
The sole of my shoe was starting to come off so I had to watch every step I made. It was not a comfortable situation, having already walked ?? miles.
Still, it was great to be done. This was such a huge connection for me, and only three other hikes remained to connect the other two “floating” pieces of hikes I’d done with the rest of my connections. Feeling that physical connection to so many places experienced by foot is truly indescribable.