Hike #1350; Allentown Area Loop

Hike #1350; Allentown Loop

8/28/20 Allentown Loop with Jillane Becker

This hike would be a loop just Jillane and I did on a Friday I’d had off. The last time we had off together, we went to Reading, and we got a late start, so we went closer this time.

Lehigh Valley RR bed

Allentown seemed like a good idea. I came up with several loops we could do and let Jillane decide which area we would go to for the day.
We got a late start, but headed out to Allentown and used the parking lot for the new American Museum of Wheels. There is a separate collection from the main museum building across the street from the parking lot, and just behind that is where the Lehigh Valley Railroad used to pass.

The LV line

We walked over a couple of streets on the rail grade including Hamilton Street to Union Street. Jillane walked her own way around some of the buildings on street while I remained on the railroad bed.
There were still some rails in place at the grade crossings. It wasn’t all that many years ago I recall seeing tracks on these sections. There was one industrial siding that still had tracks and a building section that could be accessed.
We continued to Union and turned right, then passed Bradley Pulverizer company.

Old siding

We walked to the corner of Third, Basin, and MLK Drive, and in that area is where the Central Railroad of New Jersey used to come into town. I could see the top of the station a short distance away. I wanted to do some then and now photos with it, but I couldn’t find the historic pictures at this time, so we continued south.

Former LV line

I understand both Central Railroad of New Jersey and the Reading Railroad used this branch into town and the station.
I initially went the wrong way to find the bridge to cross the Little Lehigh Creek, but then realized it was a bit to the west of where I was looking.
I had actually intended to go over the much clearer bridge that was part of the Barber Branch of the Lehigh Valley Railroad, which I’ve hiked to different degrees in the past, but we made our way to this more substantial double tracked one.

THe LV line

It was rather weedy getting onto the bridge, but we managed. Many of the ties were missing.
We weaved back and forth between the two sets of tracks, and used the I-beams between for better bracing. Most of the ties were rotted on the top section, but the girth of them was still good enough to hold us.
This bridge had clearly seen some flooding. It was amazing that it hasn’t been swept away in all of these years. Lots of debris was up between the bridge girders, showing just how high the water had gotten.

Lehigh Valley line

Once across the bridge, we headed out to the next clear ATV path. There were some homeless camps through this area, and they looked to be currently abandoned.

Former Lehigh Valley main

The biggest camp setup smelled horrible. Like something dead.
Jillane went to check more closely, but I wanted nothing to do with finding a rotting corpse along this old rail bed.
We didn’t end up seeing anything, so we continued to move along the path.
Soon, we got to the bridge that carried the Lehigh Valley Barber Branch across Little Lehigh, and continued on the clear path from there. I started seeing some railroad ties at about this time, and we were going to follow the clearer path to the south, but the Barber Branch was looking pretty welcoming, so we went that way.

Allentown

The track bed was obvious on the south side of the Little Lehigh Creek, and not terribly overgrown. We were able to easily follow it for a good while.
Eventually, we came to a no trespassing sign, and a lot of junk piled over it. It looked like this section ahead had been used at some point as a salvage yard.
It turned out ot be AI’s Auto Salvage. Rather than continue on, we climbed with some difficulty up a steep slope to the left, and then came out in a sort of overgrown field. We walked south a bit more and hit Levan Street. A short distance away it connected with Auburn Street.

Allentown PA

My plan from here was to get on the Trout Creek Greenway.
I had done this as part of a Musikfest hike in the past, but I figured we could possibly get a little further on it.
We continued down Auburn to 4th Street where I turned right into the park.
There were signs up all over saying to practice social distance and to “mask up”, which I’m sick of seeing. Jillane wasn’t following me, and I didnt know where she had gone. I reached the trailhead, and walked in to a little bridge area over a tributary to wait for her. She eventually turned the corner toward me.

Old CNJ grade

She had found an abandoned house back there along the main drag and went in to have a look around.
We walked together onto the Trout Creek Greenway, in this northern end of Trout Creek Park. The trail was paved, skirted a ball field, crossed a tributary, and then meandered through some trees to another hope area. It was a very pleasant route to walk. A secondary trail followed the other side of the creek for a bit, and although it was hot, I decided not to jump in and remained on the near side.

Former CNJ bridge

The trail took us beneath Susquehanna Street, and then out to a side street that went into RP Equipment. The trail then turned right and then left to closely parallel Park Road. I left the trail a bit in order to walk more closely to the creek.
This was a particularly beautiful section with a great tree diversity. It was obviously a wetland restoration project there because these trees would not have all grown close together randomly, and the creek itself had some man made cascade structures like we see when they are doing wetland restorations.

Former CNJ bridge

We stayed in the grass and walked to the west where the creek weaved along. There were some employees walking around on the other side, and so I hid my beer against my back as not to be detected with it.
We continued along to another path to the left when we got near the end of the park.

CNJ bridge

There is a culvert there that carries the stream beneath the former Reading Railroad tracks at that point, so we went over to have a look at that. The last time I was there, Commando Tom and I went through the thing while everyone else went over the tracks.
I was just going to go through again this time, but there was a cruddy film in the water that looked like it might have come from a poop plant, so I opted not to. While we took a break, a train started going by on the tracks above.

A nice post on the bridge wall

The train moved along pretty quickly, but then slowed and eventually just stopped on the tracks. I had originally planned on going through the culvert, but the shit water was keeping me from doing that. We both then climbed up to the tracks and found that the train had stopped just barely short of where we were standing. We easily just walked around it.

Abandoned CNJ bridge

Once on the other side, we descended to reach Trout Creek Lane. We used the road bridge to get to the other side of it, and then started walking along the grass to the south.

CNJ bridge

There is a greenway there, with some sort of buried utility like a sanitary sewer along the edge. We continued to walk that to the south, and there was evidence of tire tracks from someone driving all the way out it.
We made our way out to a dog park on the left and a small parking lot on Dixon Street across from the intersection with South Delaware Street. We crossed directly here, and then turned left on the grassy greenway parallel with S. Delaware. The stream was getting smaller and was in a wide open area.
We were able to follow this out to a sort of veterinary place or something.

CNJ bridge

I remembered walking through here on one of the Musikfest hikes and there was a footbridge in place across, but that was now gone, apparently washed out.
There were people in the area, one walking a dog. A guy I saw told me that the bridge had washed out and recommended going a little further down if we were to cross, but it was only an easy step down and a couple of rock hops to get over.

LV Barber Branch

My plan was to turn south and cut across some school properties, which I had never done before, and then come out at a grocery store where we could make our way onto South Mountain. I had walked from the other direction as I had recalled and taken a slightly different route.
We headed uphill, and soon realized we were walking through a pet cemetery.

Trout Creek

I had never realized that was even a thing before, not like this.
It was a pretty nice area.
We made our way up to the yard of the Dodd Hiram Elementary School and went around the building to the right. We ascended a bit away from the Trout Creek, and then reached a line of evergreen trees parallel with the edges of more fields. This led us up and past the South Mountain Middle School. Across from this was the Superfresh supermarket area, as well as several other stores.

Hobo camp

We took a break in front of these, and went into a small convenience store to have a look around. Jillane bought a pair of underwear for cheap in case we decided to go for a swim.
I went into the liquor store nearby to see if they had anything interesting, but it was all crap beer and sweet stuff so I didn’t buy anything.
We walked around to the west side of the store, and then up Hall Street, to the entrance to Waldheim Park Association, which I figured we could walk through. I seem to recall coming out that way before, but I wasn’t going to walk in there.

Train car

Instead, we turned left around the back of the grocery store again and followed the top of a slope, which led us out to another development at the end of Euclid Street, and then we turned right on Church Street.
We followed this uphill, and then to the right was the entrance to more of that Waldheim stuff or something. It was a gravel road to the east. It was posted, but by the time we reached this point, I didn’t want to go out and around any more.
Jillane and I walked out the driveway, and when it turned to the left up toward a house, where there was a small pond, we turned right along the north side of the pond.
We hurried through the woods until out of sight, and then followed a nice foot path on through to a second pond. I had wanted to swim there originally, because I have in the past, but it was looking really crappy. I chose against doing that.
We soon came out to the edge of the road in the Allentown Reservoir Park. We turned slightly left, and I considered going up a trail to the left from there into the woods, but then turned back out. It was looking like the weather was taking a turn for the worst, so it’d be better to be heading more in the direction I wanted to go.
We walked along the downhill of two ends of a loop the road makes, and just after the two branches came back together, it started steadily raining.
To the left of the road, as we started heading downhill, a foot path led off to the right. There was also a South Mountain Trail that went into the woods before that, which I don’t recall following before. Maybe I’ll check that out one of these days.
We followed the one down and parallel with a power line. The trail eventually emerged onto the power line and then we turned right on Roy Street, which is like a private driveway at this point.
We made our way through some really heavy rain, and then there was some sort of path just into the woods, with power line clearing beyond, to the right. Jillane turned off there, and she found a very nice pavilion where we could sit down.
I wasn’t in a huge hurry, but I knew we’d be rather late. We waited out the rain at this point, and I could tell we weren’t supposed to be there. There was some sort of children’s home or daycare place in front of us, and I saw someone wandering around out there.
Fortunately, we had no problems, and when the rain let up we just got back on Roy Street and followed it back to Emaus Avenue.
We turned left to follow the road a bit, and crossed to the other side. There were lots of businesses, including an Entemann’s outlet, but it was closed. Stuff has still been closed due to the covid crap, but it had been starting to let up.
For one, indoor dining was now available in Pennsylvania. As such, I looked for places to eat, and The Brass Rail on Lehigh Street was looking like a good option.
We went beneath Interstate 78, and then turned to the right on 28th Street beyond. This took us to the former Reading Railroad tracks again. We crossed onto them, walked them for a bit to the left, and then climbed up to the parking lot where we could make our way to the Brass Rail.
I got to the place, and Jillane wasn’t behind me. She had gone into some building off the tracks to look around.
There was a wait to get in to the place, and more people showing up. I made a reservation to be sure we could go in, and I called Jillane to come over because they still gave our place to the next couple behind us. Fortunately, we got in pretty quickly and were seated.
We had some tasty food and then were on our way down Lehigh Street briefly, and then turned right into the South Mall parking area. I had started some of the March on Musikfest hikes at this point in the past, and walked to the greenways along the Little Lehigh Creek.
Rather than just cut on through, we opted to go into the South Mall and have a look around. I wore something as a mask, I forget what, and was having too much trouble breathing, so I left the mall to wait for Jillane at the west end of it.
From there, we cut through the parking lot around the back and took a path out to Regent Way, then crossed Bevin Drive into Devonshire Park.
We walked along the base of a slope in Devonshire Park, kind of out of sight of the roads and such, and I watched for a trail into the woods to the right.
I had used a cut through to more park land here in the past, but was having trouble finding it.
We walked through the woods, and ended up finding some pretty nice big Silver Maples.
When I didn’t see a way through, we just cut off trail to the north, dipped down across a small tributary, and then came out in the edge of an arboretum type of area with an old barn.
We walked through this open spot, and I noted all of the trees had labels on them. This path took us out at a parking area on Keystone Road.
We turned to the right here, and soon crossed an open grate bridge over the Little Lehigh Creek. This was Keck’s Bridge, built in 1954.
We walked around and checked out the very pretty area, and admired the old stone houses along the road. There is a good path along the edge of the creek from this point heading downstream, though it is not a crushed stone surface thing. It’s just mowed.
We made our way to the north along the mowed area until we had to come out to the road again, and then reached the intersection with Devonshire Road.
A handsome triple stone arch bridge crosses the Little Lehigh Creek here.
This was the Rathburn Bridge, also known as Reinhart Bridge and Salisbury Church Bridge, and it is one of two remaining three arch stone bridges spanning the creek.
Some claim is was built in the 1830s, others in 1870. It has been undermined by floods, but is fortunately being saved. There were a few large earth movers parked on it and beside it, and coffer dams and such in place for construction work.
We stayed on Keystone Road to the north, and got off to the right briefly when there was more grassy swath next to it. We passed Briarwood Lane and more historic homes. We continued here until we reached Fish Hatchery Road, and there were lots of people around checking out the fish in the runs parallel with the creek. We walked along some of them ourselves and had a look around.
From here, I recalled there being a foot path along the creek heading downstream directly form the place, but then I couldn’t find it. It seemed to disappear pretty quickly.
Still, we bushwhacked on through, and made our way up the slope until we hit the formal trail.
It turns out I had missed the turn off just a little further back to the west. It would have been a much easier climb if we had gone up there.
The trail made its way back down closer to the creek in a short while. We passed by a bridge over the Little Lehigh, as well as a historic building, and then made our way out and beneath Interstate 78. The bridge looked quite handsome, and even kind of new.

Rt 78 bridge

It looks kind of the same as it did on my photos from my 2015 hike through here, but it does kind of look like it has a recent paint job on it. There were work crews under it on that occasion.
We continued along the creek ahead, and we soon came to Bogert’s Covered Bridge. Built in 1842, it is the oldest covered bridge in Lehigh County.
We went by this and past a house just beyond. As we made a corner, a head lamp was behind us moving rather fast.
At some point, we stopped off and I laid down in the creek to cool off, which was nice.
We continued around the next corner, and in the next straight section, the head lamp person was still behind us. We just kept on moving along. We saw some other lights at some point too, which I thought to be potentially a ranger vehicle, but none came to us.
We continued with the head lamp person behind us all the way out to Little Lehigh Parkway North where we turned right on the road. It was rather nice to be out in the open, although that might have been worse in this neighborhood.
We turned left and crossed over the other old stone arch bridge over the Little Lehigh, and then turned right to follow along Martin Luther King Jr Drive. We cut into a grassy park a little ways in, Fountain Park.

Bogert's Bridge

I walked and came upon a huge concrete wall and had to walk back out to MLK. Jillane wasn’t behind me, and I didn’t realize she had gone back out ot the road and was already way ahead of me. I could not see her ahead, so I finally just called her. This was frustrating because I didn’t know if she was ahead or behind me.
I hurried ahead and started seeing a figure in the distance, and assumed it was her. Fortunately it was.
There was a paved path, more of the Little Lehigh Parkway, just ahead. We walked that pathway to the east, and it took us on through back to where the Lehigh Valley Barber Branch used to cross the creek. There was a neat dark view of the bridge there.

Moonlight and abandoned

From there, we just sort of headed back the way we’d come. We walked up Union Street to the east, and checked out an abandoned building on the right under moonlight.

In Allentown

We then reached the old Lehigh Valley line and started walking that back in the direction we had come. We didn’t follow it behind all of the buildings the way we had before, and went out to the street.
In doing so, we passed by a history of wheels museum we were parked in the lot for. There was also another alternative collection in another building across the street from that. I peered in the window to see some classic cars displayed inside.
It wasn’t very far before we made it back to the parking lot to finish out the night.

Classic car

There is still so much more stuff I want to see in Allentown alone. I could wander through there for days and still probably not cover all of it either. I’ve just kind of held off on it because we’d done so much of it as part of the Musikfest hikes.
Maybe on the next trip I’ll have to explore more of the other tributaries again like the Jordan Creek or something. There’s still more to see there as well!

HAM