Hike #909; Union Dale to Starlight

Hike #909; Union Dale to Starlight

1/16/16 Union Dale to Starlight with James De Lotto, Kralc Leahcim (Lerch), Seth Gollhardt, Beth Dillenbeck, Jessica Dorton, Pete G. Wilcox, Timothy Kovich, Michele Valerio, Mr. Buckett (Jimmy Mathews), Eric Rich Pace, Dan Asnis, and Jillane Becker.

View of Stillwater Lake in Union Dale

Our next trip would be another point to point, and the next in the series to hike the old railroad lines up the Lackawanna River Valley. This in fact would be the last one actually within the Lackawanna River Valley on the former Scranton Division of the New York, Ontario, and Western Railroad bed. We had last visited the place on a very hot day in early May 2015. That day was my biggest ever failure on miles, where I accidentally put two hikes into one.

Old bridge site over the West Branch of the Lackawanna River in Union Dale

This time, I planned a trip mostly following the New York, Ontario and Western, or “O&W” as fans call it, north to Starlight.
Jillane and I came out the night before to stay in Hancock NY, with the idea that there was a possible extension of the hike to there. It was only six or so miles farther north of where the the hike was to end, and by reaching that point I would have connected the only unconnected piece of any hike I’d ever done. We didn’t end up doing that this time, but no matter, I have a better hike coming up that will incorporate it, and I’ll likely wait till warmer weather to do it.
Jillane wanted to meet late, so I got up and had a good pancake breakfast, and Lerch was good enough to come and pick me up at the hotel. We then took a wrong turn trying to find Starlight Station, and ended up going too far.
We ended up with a real late start, and then I ended up with Jillane’s car keys because my jacket pocket had a hole in the inside. I checked for them, and didn’t note them when I left the hotel room, and realized they were in my jacket liner as we got to Union Dale.
Fortunately, DeLotto was good enough to run them back up to Jillane for me, otherwise, I would have run the hike in opposite direction.

View on East Mountain Road, Union Dale

When we arrived in Union Dale, we went to Cables Deli, which is a great little spot in this little town with good food. We had stopped here on the previous trip, so I figured this would be a great place to start this one.
When I got there, it turned out there was a rail trail office in part of the building. I ended up chatting with Deb McNamara in the office there about the trips, and what we have planned up in that area for the future.
Union Dale itself was on the Delaware and Hudson Railroad, and it’s a different rail trail. The O&W is open to ATVs, and is sort of a private easement, while the D&H is more of a standard rail trail. I discussed my plan to hike between Union Dale and another nature preserve further up, and we may partner with their organization.
We got on our way, and headed down the D&H corridor shortly to a left turn across the West Branch of the Lackawanna River. We could see the original road and bridge site down below, with an abutment in place in the flood plane, as well as a really nice view of Stillwater Lake to the south.

Church in Union Dale

We headed down hill further and passed a town hall, and an old historic church. We then went through an intersection with a great view ahead. East Mountain Road heading up hill was a dirt road and very pleasant to walk. We had gone this way on the hike the previous May to close in the loop with the O&W. This time we would head north, the opposite direction on the line.
We reached the top of the hill, and then turned left on the trail.
The trail had a big red gate with warning signs on it. The trail had many signs too, reading such things as:
“Use of this trail is a privilege, not a right”
“Stay on the trail or stay home”
“Trail pass required. Do you have yours?”
The trail is apparently some sort of private land with an easement. Deb at the trail office told us that it wasn’t “their” trail, that they held an easement on ten miles of it. The trail pass references were for those riding ATVs.
This rail trail is outright weird compared to other rail trails. It’s no wonder it was left out of the Mid Atlantic Rails to Trails guide book that Eric brought with him. It was shown, but not described at all, with the D&H getting all of the notoriety in the publication.

View on the O&W Trail

The railroad for which the trail takes it’s name is quite an oddball itself, with a unique history and haphazard construction plan.
It started it’s life in 1868 as the New York and Oswego Midland Railroad. It stretched from Weehawken NJ to Oswego NY on Lake Ontario.

O&W logo

In 1886, the New York, Ontario and Western took over that rail line and re-aligned some of it through Middletown NY.
The line followed a very strange route, circumnavigating some important areas and passed through some insignificant others. It had a good amount of traffic in some of the Borsch Belt of the Catskills, mostly skirting the south side of those mountains, and other westbound resort traffic. It had several branch lines, but probably none were as successful as the coal carrying Scranton Division, which was the subject of this hike.
The line also had branches to Monticello, as well as to Port Jervis, but just about all of it was abandoned and liquidated by 1957.

O&W system map

The O&W was antiquated nearly by the time it was completed, which earned it the nicknames “Old and Weary”, and “Old Woman”. Still, it’s interesting timeline has made it legendary among rail buffs, and even the most respected experts say it should never have even been built for as many hundreds of miles that it was.

O&W south of Herrick Center

My first experience with the O&W was on a hike in the Shawangunks of New York, where I utilized the Port Jervis Branch as part of a loop with the Shawangunk Ridge Trail. I found it very interesting from the get go, and we all had a fantastic time on that hike. I wanted to know more, and see more. We ended up doing many hikes on the old O&W main line, Scranton Division, and branches out of Scranton area. I ended up purchasing a book to answer all of my questions about the legendary line, and read it very quickly. Everything is so broad and unfamiliar, but exciting with these kinds of things. I read names of places I could only try to picture. I can’t remember a lot of it because I haven’t been there to have a common frame of reference.
We followed the right of way north through some nice woods. It was pretty icy down in Union Dale. Amazingly, there was a lot more ice to the south than there was in Hancock NY when I woke up. We had to be careful how we stepped as not to fall.
The trail opened up to skirt fields which offered us really nice views of the local farmlands.

Abandoned thing

We soon came across some sort of abandoned shack, which appeared to be just slapped together. The chimney looked like it was off another building, and the rest of it was thrown together with a lot of scrap wood. We checked it out, and there were old beds inside. It must have been used as a hunting cabin or something.

We came out and continued on the rail bed to the north.
It was cold and cloudy, but not too terrible yet. It was strange to see snow because we didn’t have any back home, and they had some good accumulation in this area.
The trail led us north through Herrick Center, where there is now an Agway. I suppose there must have been a station at that point at one time, but we didn’t see anything of it. We continued north toward the next town, which is called Orson. On the way there, we came to a large dip where at first I was thinking there must have been a trestle. We headed down hill, and then reached the top of an old stone box culvert, so it was definitely no trestle. Looking at it, I guessed correctly that the entire fill in the area had been washed away, and that somehow had softened the approaches to the washouts for ATV traffic.

O&W at an old culvert area fill that washed out

We continued on from here to the north, and next came upon a place where there were trees cut down throughout the course of the right of way. At first we thought it must have been storm damage that was being cleaned up. There was a chainsaw left out and a gas can near it. Then, there was a guy driving a giant machine with a grapple attachment on a wire, moving the logs around. None of them were too huge, so they wouldn’t have that much timber value. As we passed the guy, we could see that many others were cut down ahead. It certainly was not from some past storm.
As we continued north, here were plenty more great farmland views.

View from O&W Trail

We had a good long stretch of woods ahead from here. Fields were always still close by, but we were mostly secluded. We didn’t even pass any ATVs until after we got past Orson.
Jim Delotto called me up to let me know he would meet us at Orson as we walked.

Lovely view from O&W Trail

The group was pretty segmented through a lot of this section. The ice proved pretty tough for some in the group, without good grip on their boots. We often tried to walk off to he far edges to avoid the slippery ice in the middle.

Mess on the trail

As we neared the little town of Orson, the trail opened up into a field section that didn’t look like it could be the railroad bed at all.
We continued along this section to Oxbow Road crossing site.

South of Orson

The town of Orson has an interesting history, although there is barely anything left of it now. Where the station would have been is today a trail parking area, and there is a bar and grill across the street from it.
Jillane and Delotto met up with us at this point, and we waited for the others to catch up.

Historic view south of Orson

The town of Orson was settled around 1840. Originally called Hine’s Corners, it was named for the family who first came there. Merritt Hine was the first to establish residence there, and he was soon followed by his father, David Hine, a Revoluntionary War Veteran. The intersection of Clark and Oxbow Road is still known today as Hine’s Corner.

Along the railraod in Orson.

In 1878, Orson Chamberlain, great grandson of Catherine and Merritt Hine, died of dipthermia, after which the community became known as Orson Corner, and almost immediately shortened to Orson.
The community was also known at times as “Belmont” because of the Belmont Turnpike, and because the O&W Railroad also adopted Belmont as it’s station name.
After the arrival of the railroad, the town hosted two creameries, two ice houses, a grain mill, and a saw mill, as well as several hotels and stores.

Historic view of Orso

The spot where Jillane and Delotto met up with us was actually the former site of the water tower seen in the historic photographs from what I can best guess. The station would have been just before that, and I don’t recall seeing any remnant of a platform for it.

Historic view of Orson

We all took a break at where the water tower used to be in Orson. there was still an old hotel, seen in the historic photos, across from it on the corner, but it was too early for us to eat, and we were planning at stopping at the one in Lakewood. It turned out to be farther away than anticipated.

Historic view of Orson

Prior to the trip, I had engaged Mike Guzzi on the Metrotrails page about the trip.
Mike is a local expert on the railroads of the Scranton/Wilkes Barre area, who I’ve more recently become friends with on facebook. I had been following his explorations through his website for many years, and used his archives extensively when I was tracing the historic route of the Wilkes Barre and Eastern Railroad. He sent a very detailed outline of pretty much everything we’d see along the way, which was pretty easy to follow. I couldn’t read it as I went because there was no service, but I could remember enough.

A short time after leaving the tower site, we came to a small dam and a pond. This was one of the old ice lakes he had described as an industry from the area. We walked only a short distance beyond this point, and there was an old concrete foundation to the right of the trail.
My first instinct was that this was the old station platform, but then I remembered what Mike had sent me: this was the foundation of one of the old ice houses. Apparently I missed out on a bit by not climbing up onto it, but it was cold, slippery, and covered with snow, I could hold off on that for this time.

Historic ice pond accident.

Another thing I discovered in my reading of the O&W was that there were apparently a lot of crashes and derailments. Several of them were detailed in my book, but there is a generous amount of photos of these such events on line as well, including the one at right that reportedly occurred at Orson near the Ice Pond.
We continued ahead a bit more, and there were the collapsed ruins of an old wooden building on the right. This would have been what Mike described as the tool shed, right where it should have been as per his description.

Ice house foundation

We continued past this point through a nice section of some woods. The right of way got quite a bit narrower in this area, which I liked. ATVs still were using it, but it wasn’t like a regular road any more.

Tool shed ruins

We were now headed toward the Poyntelle area. The right of way opened up into some sort of a service yard. It felt like we were trespassing all the time, but there were pretty regular signs telling us one thing or another. Just beyond, the rail bed dipped down to yet another washout spot. I was thinking that this might have been a bridge, but again there was a good strong box culvert in place, with a pond to the left of the trail. This particular culvert we notices from the road as we were driving in. Jillane mentioned that she had seen in as well. We continued past the culvert and neared a residential area on the other side.

Approaching another washout spot

The sign as we got to the neighborhood area read “Entering Private Property-Please Be Considerate-Residential Area Ahead”. We continued on the well established trail from here, still parallel with Crosstown Highway out of Orson, then reached the western end of the Lake Lorain Golf Club.
This was among the weirder places I have ever come across on a rail trail.
There was a gate at the end of the course. We were fully expecting it to tell us to go around on the road, that the railroad bed would be inaccessible across it. Even Mike G.’s description tome me that we would be forced to go around, but amazingly it was not the case.

O&W right of way at Lake Lorain Golf Club

There was a large metal gate blocking the rail right of way, but it did not say to keep off. It had the “Use of this trail is a privilege, not a right” sign, but also had one that said “stay on the trail or we will lose it”. I looked across the course, and to my amazement could see arrow markers showing us where to go.

O&W bed at the golf club

There was barely enough room to walk through on this route. It was certainly only open to walkers at this point. We stepped through and followed the arrows off to the left. I could see the shape of the former railroad out across the green very easily, although it had been virtually landscaped into obscurity. Just ahead, a section of it was dug out for use as an aesthetic little pond.
The course had stakes with little yellow strings delineating where the trail was supposed to be. We followed the arrows around, and somehow I honestly did accidentally get on the wrong side of the strong. We continued on, as it led us up hill away from the railroad right of way a bit.

Delineated trail on the golf club

We waited near the top of a hill, and part of the group behind us was heading to walk the road. I had to holler back at them to go through the fence and follow the trail.
The sign almost seems to infer that if we don’t use the trail, like if someone in the golf club sees us walking the road, they will be able to say the easement is not necessary. I’m sure that’s not what it means, but it was interesting to see the sign saying to stay on the trail when it looked as though they were trying to keep us out. We continued up hill and to another gate with a sign saying to stay on the trail or stay home. We went around the gate, and the others were soon following us.

The trail turns to the left along the field, which was soon parallel with the old O&W grade, but at the top of the hill.
The railroad was in a cut at this point, and although it left the golf course green, it was badly overgrown and looked as though it could be pretty wet.
I questioned for a while whether we were in the right place. We were literally on the edge of someone’s field, and it didn’t look like we should be there any more, but then I saw another sign. The trail turned to the left and crossed a rickety old bridge made of crappy wood or a pallet or something. We re-grouped there before moving on. The trail resumed on the railroad bed, which from this area is a road known simply as “Old Railroad”.

Old Poyntelle Station site.

We soon crossed Cribbs Road. There was an old hotel at this intersection too, with a little bar. It’s amazing each little town can sustain such a thing, because there is really nothing in this Lakes Region of the Poconos. I’m also not sure where the town of Poyntelle got it’s name, or it’s history.
We headed into a wooded area, and the platform of the old railroad station, confirmed by Mike G, was off of the right of way to the left here. There was really nothing left ot see in this area otherwise. There was not even a sign of another building, just a residence to the south of the former station. We continued walking into the woods from here headed north.

Historic view of Poyntelle Station

We continued along through a cut, then onto a shelf. The railroad seemed to gain quite a lot of elevation in this area, and the route was very scenic. There were several very nice views off to the right as we continued along.
There was still a good amount of ice, but I believe a little less than there was where we started in Union Dale. It must have to do with the Delaware River.
We could see a couple of frozen bodies of water off in the valley from the railroad bed. A couple of nameless smaller ones were immediately in view, and to the northeast, I’m pretty sure I could see Underwood Lake in the distance.

View east from the rail bed.

We continued along the shelf for a bit longer, and then there was a very nice little spring descending from the hillside to the left. We paused here for a short break before moving on, and Delotto had a refreshing drink from the spring.

Delotto enjoying a refreshing drink

From the area around the spring, the railroad grade switched directions from north to east, and it took us out of the woods and from the shelf to a more at grade area in farmlands.
The character of the old O&W line had changed when we went from Poyntelle to this area, somewhat wider. We didn’t pass any cars in this area, and in fact only three ATVs went by us the entire stretch so far, and they were the utility kind, not the standard recreational ones. When we reached the next road crossing, there was a street sign that read simply “Old Railroad”, which we thought was somewhat funny. The right of way become even wider as we entered the area of Lakewood.

Looking to Lakewood Station

The old Lakewood Station is still standing at Crosstown Highway, a handsome red structure built in 1890, just a year after the O&W opened to town. At the time, Lakewood was known as “Winwood”.

Historic view of Lakewood Station, originally known as Winwood

We passed another spot earlier that I initially thought was the station. There was a platform on the right side of the rail bed, partially made of concrete, partially of old laid ties. There was what appeared to be a loading area at this point, so maybe it was a freight station of sorts at one point.
The rail bed became more like a dirt public road at this point, and ATV riders were directed via signs to turn right and head down into fields before picking up the right of way ahead again.
The old station building was really well cared for by the municipality. It served as post office for a while after the railroad closed up, in 1957.

View of Lakewood Station

The station was designed to serve rail customers on the bottom floor, while the station tenant caretaker and his family could live in the upper level. It’s amazing this structure survived when so many others did not.

Historic view of Winwood Station (Lakewood)

The top floor today is used for meetings, while the bottom floor houses Justice of Peace. The station won the Historic Preservation Award for best adaptive re-use in 2001.
Delotto had stayed at Lakewood the night before and had a very positive experience with Jim who ran the Lakewood Lodge and Restaurant, which is just barely to the east of the station, so he phoned them ahead of time to arrange for us to get some food there.

Lakewood Station

It was getting later, so I was a bit leery at first about stopping for a long lunch, but when we got there, they assured us they could make pizzas pretty fast, and that sounded like a great idea. A relaxing but quicker lunch so we could be on our way.

Historic view of Lakewood Station (Winwood)

I spoke with Jim myself, and he was very friendly and accommodating to us. I could see why Delotto liked him so much.
There’s a nice little culture there, where there’s not a lot of business, but what there is they cater to. The ATV riders path away from the rail bed comes out right behind the place, and Jim told me he was looking to get a bike rack for the back for the cyclists that pass through. It would be nice to do some kind of event out of this place, it was quite cozy.

Porch area

The building had an old style look about it with a nice long bar. There was a dining room adjacent to that which we all took up. From there, there was a door outside that went ot a beautiful wooden covered porch, lookin gout over the fields toward the valley.
Jillane, Delotto, and I went out to check it out, and locked ourselves out briefly while waiting for our food.
The pizza was delicious, with good crisp crust. We all ate pretty quickly the three pies that we ordered. Lerch was good enough to cover the cost of the pies for us, which was very kind and made things much simpler.
It was hard to get going again after sitting in the nice warm bar. It was pretty chilly out, and it seemed all that much colder going back out after this good break. Everyone else seemed colder than me, because I wasn’t too bad and was the only one going without a hat.

At Lakewood Lodge

We left the bar and continued back across the road, past the old station and headed north. The first bit was used more heavily as a public road than other sections we had been on. The entire right of way to the north from here is now considered a municipal road, though after the next crossing at Beaver Hollow Road it was not as welcoming to cars.
The next part seemed like a really long stretch. We were told it was about five more miles left to get to Starlight, where we were parked, but even though we moved along at a good pace, the miles seemed to crawl by. As we walked the remainder of the distance, I recall Dan saying when it came to only three miles, though it still seemed farther.

Derailment at Winwood/Lakewood

Apparently Lakewood had it’s fair share of derailments, or then again the O&W in general must have had a good amount, as a lot of stuff on them comes up.

Historic derailment at Lakewood/Winwood

We passed through some mostly wooded area on the wide right of way for a while, then crossed over Rainbow Road. The right of way was then again on a high shelf. There was a little less ice than there was earlier, but still too much. We were still betting that one of us would fall before the end of the trip because of the slippery conditions.

Starbird trestle site

The next point of interest we came upon was the historic site of the Starbird Trestle, or Trestle #5. It was originally a wooden structure, then replaced with some sort of double tracked structure. Thanks to Mike Guzzi who shared with us the historic photo from near the same location below.

Historic trestle view

The trestle once spanned part of a pond below, which is an outflow to the Shehawken Creek near Rabbit Run Road. The trail now bypasses the missing trestle by going down hill to the right, or east, and then ascending the other side after crossing over the tributary. There were several ATVs that came by and were on the opposite side of the former trestle when we got there. They passed us as we were descending.
We made our way back up the other side, crossed Rabbit Run Road, and then Shehawken Road.

Likely Preston Park station platform

This was the area known as Preston Park. I believe the station was just off to the west side of the right of way just after Rabbit Run Road. There is still a platform there in plain view during the Winter months.

There was once a bridge over Shehawken Road as well, but it had been removed. We had to descend and ascend once again there.
The trail became somewhat narrow again in this area. We skirted another shelf, this time above lovely farmland at first.

The sun was going down, but there was still enough light to see where we were going. The brightness of the snow makes it that much easier to see.
I really was hoping to do the entire hike within the light. I had even considered extending the hike an additional six miles to make that final connection I wanted to make to Hancock, but it just wasn’t going to work out, and I would miss far too much.
It continued to get darker, and we moved along as best we could. The group separated into two, and it was hard for us to stay in touch because the limited to no cell service throughout the entire area.
I came to a beautiful waterfall, the outflow of Perch Pond passing beneath the railroad right of way via a stone culvert. Mike Guzzi had told me about this as well in a message, and I wanted to see it for sure, but it was getting too dark to get a good photo.

Falls below Perch Pond

Still, I decided to make an attempt. I climbed carefully down over the ice from the steep railroad embankment, then headed over to creek side and carefully along the rocks to try to get the best shot.
It turned out to be incredibly slippery, and I took a spill. I slid quickly and almost ended up in the deep pool below the falls. That would have been miserable. Fortunately, I was able to pick myself up and take a few shots that would at least show something of what the falls looked like. The falls had both an upper and lower level, and I could only capture the upper one well, and in one frame.

Historic view near Starlight Station

I wish I could have seen more in the final stretch before the end, as Mike G had left me information on several points of interest that would just not be well visible by this point. He wrote:
Several stone arch culverts can be seen where streams run under the railbed (MP169.1, MP186.9, MP168.8) there is a nice waterfall on the left at MP168.8, this is the outflow of Perch Pond.
Near MP168.2 the grade goes down then up, section of rail discarded on the right side at the bottom of grade. This was a trestle that was filled in (called Sands Trestle)
Next you cross Starlight Lake Road, railroad bed now becomes "O&W Road" just after crossing, old whistle post was there, now a new guard rail is in place and post is still there but destroyed.
We soon came to Starlight Road, after which the rail bed was prominently used, with residences on it, and known officially as “O&W Road”.

Starlight Station

It wasn’t long before we reached the old Starlight Station, which was very similar in character to the one at Lakewood. Like that station, this one too is a municipal office, I think it was a post office. The O&W to the north of here is now considered a regular municipal road, though it’s in rough shape for a regular car (I drove my car from here to Hancock on the grade the previous year).
Just before the station, there was another good waterfall below to the left, the outflow from Starlight Lake. I’d have liked to visit that point as well. There were spurs to ice houses and restorts in these areas, and Starlight Lake has an historic hotel that has been open since 1909. Jillane and I had dinner there on our last visit, and the food was excellent. We hoped to go back this time, but took a wrong turn and were too late.

I now had only six miles to walk to connect this one to Hancock, and that one is a good one to wait for Summer on. I’m happy we finished this section, because it was just one of those more relaxing hikes, not a strenuous death march.

Yogurt

The hike opened up more doors for great future exploring, and the next one will involve six relaxing miles on the O&W, the town of Hancock, perhaps the Point Mountain Mausoleum again, a pleasant road walk on the Delaware, a long abandoned highway, and the search for the east portal of the forgotten Hawk’s Mountain Tunnel.
I’ll also plan another hike on the former D&H Railroad based on the meeting we had in Union Dale.