Hike #1366; Northampton and Coplay

Hike #1366; Northampton and Coplay

10/21/20 Northampton and Coplay Loop with Justin Gurbisz, Kirk Rohn, Brittany Audrey, Jennifer Tull, Chris "Cupcake" Kroschinski, and Carolyn Gockhale Carolyn Gockel Gordon

This next hike would be a long loop in the area of Northampton PA. I took the day off work because I had to take my grandfather to the doctor’s earlier, so I had more time.

Abandoned

With that, I could go a little bit further away and get some time in for a good loop.
Justin had been pestering me about doing some sort of Lehigh Valley thing again for a while so I came up with a long loop that would take us between the towns of Northampton and Allentown on the Lehigh Valley Railroad bed, the Ironton Railroad, and the Lehigh Canal routes, basically on either side.
When I arrived out in the Lehigh Valley, I discussed with Justin and we changed plans.

Lehigh Canal Lock #34 remnants

There was an abandoned building he’d known of that I had never been in to the north, so rather than just go about the route I’d planned, we would go for that instead.

Former Lehigh Canal route

Carolyn and Cupcake would join us late, so it was just Jenny, Brittany, Justin, Kirk, and I on this first part.
We started off by following some back roads and such to the former Lehigh Canal route.
We were going to get up on the railroad tracks sooner, but there was a cop parked in the parking lot and we didn’t want to make a scene.
We headed to the canal towpath, which was just a little to the north, and followed it through the riverfront park.

Pretty foliage along former Lehigh Canal

We walked over to what is left of Lock #34, which lifted boats 6.4 feet.
The land side wall of the lock is completely gone, but the river side of it is still in place with the slanting wing wall, a gate pocket, and masonry in the back portion.

Lehigh Canal Lock #34 with some metal hardware still there

Many of the canal locks on the lower part of the canal were upgraded with concrete because it was still in service until 1932. The Lehigh Canal was scaled back in sections, starting as early as 1862. This section was in service later, to a point just a bit north of Northampton but before Treichlers.
I noticed there was even a bit of metal hardware still in place in the stone components of the lock wall.

Lehigh Canal Lock #43 remnant

We walked to the north a bit more, and then cut across the tracks from the canal when we got to the bridge over the river in Northampton. This part of Northampton was once a separate municipality known as Seigfried, and the old rail station on the Jersey Central line still bears that name.
We cut across a bit field and then into the woods. We climbed over a large fallen tree that went over a chain link fence, and then passed through some woods, uphill, and then over a looping access road.

Former Lehigh Canal route

This took us back and to another path which led into a former railroad spur access to a concrete plant.

Abandoned rail access

We followed this to a set of stairs up, and there was another set up rails even at a higher level.
There were large slanted, enclosed conveyors with graded walkways inside, and we were able to walk those all the way pretty much to the top of the buildings and look off.
After reaching the top, we went back down the way we went up, back out to the rail spurs, and then into the base of one of the buildings we used to get inside.

On former Lehigh Canal

We then went to a big engine room type of place full of flywheels and such unlike ones I’d seen before. This relic was surely something there was nothing like elsewhere.

Abandoned

We made our way from this back to the lower level and walked through sections of that some more, then out by way of a slope to a wooded section again.
The sad thing is, all of this will probably be torn down without any effort of documentation of what was there. In a half a century, people will wonder what was in there and how it worked, and despite being part of this digital age, not so many people will have it.

Abandoned

We headed back out the same way we went in, came out the same path, crossed the same access road, but then found a much easier way to walk out without climbing over a tree, completely open and free of any keep out signs or anything.

I was rather amazed more people don’t go into the thing that way.
We walked from here back over the way we had gone, past the CVS, and then out past the Seigfried Station to the Lehigh River.
We went back to the towpath, but then down a side path that took us down to the Lehigh River just above the dam. I was sweaty from all of the climbing around in the building, and so I went for a dip in the Lehigh just above the dam. It felt outstanding, although cold.

Abandoned

Surprisingly, no one else felt the urge to go in.
I climbed back up and waited to put my shoes back on for a while.

Abandoned

We crossed the bridge over the Lehigh from Northampton over to Cementon, and I put my shoes back on there.
From this point, we turned left on the old Lehigh Valley Railroad grade. It is not yet a trail through this section, but there are plans to make it into one. We took a side trip almost immediately onto big piles of gypsum or some crap I forget what it was.
It provided us with a bit of a view of the old Whitehall Cement plant along the right of way.

Abandoned

We continued walking to the south, and my original plan was to go through some of the Thomas Ironworks ruins, but then I nixed that because we had already explored the abandoned stuff we did, and I wanted to see if there was a way we could check out what remained of another cement plant that had been nearby, now apparently partially demolished.
Cupcake headed over to the original Coplay Cement Works. The #2 mill used to stand in what is now Saylor Park, named for David Saylor, the father of the Portland Cement industry.

Old cement plant in Cementon

The original plant I believe is in what is now the Whitehall Parkway, and involved smaller bulbous kilns for firing the cement.

Saylor Park, Plant #2 site

Plant #2 was houses around the stacks that are still standing in Saylor Park, and one of the stacks has been repointed on the west side.

Abandoned

This plant was only used until like 1904 when it was replaced by the rotary process of Portland Cement making, which I think is what the many augers we’ve seen in these old buildings were used for.

Abandoned

We sat at a bench at the far side of the kilns where we met up with Cupcake. We hung out here for a bit until Carolyn showed up.
In the past, we were able to walk all the way around the old kiln structures here, but they were now completely fenced off. A bit of a structure on the inside had been put in place, and I guess they must have some sort of programs occasionally.
From here, we would get onto the Ironton Rail Trail heading to the west a bit. This is an odd one because it is one of the few rail trails that can be done as a loop.

Abandoned

This was originally the route of the Ironton Railroad. It first saw service between this area and Ironton in 1860, and was extended with another branch to Orefield in 1861.

Happy

Although it was originally built to haul iron to the furnaces along the Lehigh such as Thomas Ironworks and Crane Ironworks, it found a great customer in the Portland Cement industry hauling quarried limestone and other materials.

Abandoned

With the competition of truck traffic, like with other lines, the Ironton Railroad declined. It came under joint control of the Lehigh Valley and Reading Railroads, and the section to Orefield was abandoned in 1955. It was further scaled back from Ironton by a mile and again to to a co op farmer place after that. The last bit of trackage on the Ironton was abandoned in 1984.
We continued along the right of way across Coplay Avenue and to the west.

Historic image looking west from Coplay Ave area. 1973 by Dave Augsberger

There used to be a large cement silo structure on this stretch to the right, one of the newer ones, and we had climbed all the way to the top of it before.

Abandoned

I had heard it was demolished, but aerial images seemed to show that some of it was still standing. I at least wanted to see a little of what was left of it.
There was a set of rail on the right side of the tracks almost immediately, and then one of the old concrete rail phone booths, all repainted to the right. I was also surprised to see a telegraph pole completely loaded with old insulators.|
I later found out that there are more Eagle Scout projects on this stretch of trail than just about anywhere. The pole with the insulators might have been installed special, because apparently the Ironton Railroad had no pole line along it.

Lots of insulators...

Around this area, I knew the old cement building was to the right. And I wanted to see it.
I cut through the weeds with the others close in tow over toward the structure.
We got over a knoll to reveal that it still stood at about one third its height. It looked like a ramp had been built up along the one side of it for demolition purposes, but that the job was never done.
It was a trip to see it. I don’t know exactly how to feel about it. It was almost like looking at a corpse. I’d only explored it a couple of times, but it was so cool, and it was just sad to see like this.
I had wanted to go and see if we could still get up a portion of the amazing spiral staircase that had gone up the one side, but there was a truck with a partially down window in the lot, and I didn’t want to go over and have a problem.
We went back out to the trail and continued to the west, which soon took us across Ruch Ave. There used to be a trolley crossing here also I recall.

Abandoned

We continued to the west from here, and reached a junction point where to the south the Ironton Trail weaves down through to Hokendauqua.

We would return to go this way, but first we continued straight to go beneath Rt 145. We saw Sheetz just above us to the right from there, and made plans to come back for a dinner stop there.
|Once on the other side of 145, there is an old rail car parked on the right, set up on blocks. It is in great shape now. It was in horrible shape the first couple of times I had seen it, so this was good to see.
Just a little beyond this, there is an abandoned building on the right. It used to be wide open with doorways all along the trail side, but they had it all blocked in.

Sun setting

I remember my last time in this building, it was in he process of being blocked closed while we were walking through, with mortar and block material still stored.

I figured we just weren’t getting in this time, but then the main door to it ended up being wide open. So in we went to have a look around.
It didn’t look any different than before. The metal roof was riddled with holes that allowed light to shine in and created quite an amazing look.
We continued on from this building and made the first left turn into some of the Whitehall Parkway property, which is more of the old cement industry buildings.

Abandoned

I had seen this trail system back there on maps for what must have been forever, and I had never gotten around to exploring any of it.

There has always just been too much more, and I get distracted with so many of these other things.
This time, we’d get to at least a little bit of it. We walked in the trail, and the first building I had actually seen before. It was an older building with no roof, that had been repurposed as a bird blind. We walked through it, and then followed the trail further through the woods from there.
We made our way around a corner and came to a second building, this one much larger.

Sheetz dinner

There was no roof on this one either, but it had very solid walls. Some of these walls were masonry rather than brick, but on the inside was a sort of kiln base that had both regular brick and what appeared to be fire brick on the inside.

I assume that this might have been the original Plane #1 associated with Coplay Cement. I can’t be sure, but based on the kilns, and that the structure was made with a good amount of masonry, it seems like a pretty good assumption.
We walked out of this building and further down the trail we accessed it from and there was another building across, this time made of concrete. I don’t know what it was, and there was not really a way to get into it.

Abandoned

We went down and tried to find a way, but there was really nothing.
We continued from here on along the trail, which brought us right back out to the Ironton Rail Trail across from the railroad car, which was painted with Ironton lettering.
Someone said this car was originally part of an Atlantic City railroad or something, but that it was brought up here at some point.
We turned right and followed the trail back beneath Rt 145, then turned right up through a construction site of some sort that led out to near the corner to get to the Sheetz on 145.

Ironton Railroad car before restoration

There was a large truck parked there I tried to start, because it was all left open, but I couldn’t.

Ironton railroad car now

We reached the Sheetz, and I got myself a delicious quasadilla. We had a great little break sitting on the curb there as the sun was going down.

Abandoned

It was actually a hot night, so it felt a lot like Summer.
We headed back down to the railroad bed, and then took the southern fork of the Ironton Rail Trail.
We crossed Columbia Street at grade and continued on behind houses and such on the trail. We then crossed Center Street and several streets come up close to the rail bed.
As we walked, Brittany noticed what appeared to be a swimming pool off to the left of us.

Abandoned

It was in Hokendauqua Park, and it was looking very inviting. We said we should go jump in it, as it even had a diving board. No one else felt up to it.

abandoned

Brittany got back out almost immediately as it was kind of cold. I stayed in and floated around for a bit, then got out and headed back to the others.
We soon crossed over Lehigh Street on a former rail bridge, and weaved along the south side of the rail trail. We continued until we were parallel with Water Street, and then continued north, but I had lost track of where we were. We were supposed to cut downhill from there and didn’t.

Cupcake likes food

We backtracked, then went downhill to the road, and continued south a bit to where the Lehigh Valley Railroad, which was parallel with the Ironton at this point, used to cross over.
We went down and back up the other side, but had to walk a narrow bit of the street there for a few moments. A lot of traffic was coming around the somewhat blind curve where the rail bridge used to be, but we got through.

abandoned

After climbing up the other side, we walked behind a business and continued on the clear rail bed, which is not yet a trail here either, to beneath the Pine Street Bridge. I think this one is a somewhat new replacement bridge. We continued past it just a bit, and looked for the abandoned rail bridge over the Lehigh from here.
This is one of the most sketchy ones, and I was like nope. We were not doing that one in the dark. The frame work of the bridge is just too narrow, and a slip would mean death.

Abandoned

We backtracked to Pine Street bridge, and climbed up to the top of it to cross over the Lehigh.
My plan from here was to get down to the Lehigh Canal towpath. The original plan was to head further south toward Allentown, but we had added a bunch of stuff onto the start of this, which meant we could cut the turn around point from as far south and added some more Ironton stuff.
I couldn’t find a good way down to the canal with all of the businesses.

Historic marker on the trail

There was a set of steps that went down to where there used to be a pedestrian tunnel below Pine Street, but it was all cinder blocked off it seemed.

Abandoned

We continued along Front Street for a bit, and I figured we would go down to the canal where it weaves to the west, after being on the east side of the former CNJ railroad tracks for a while.
When we got to where we should go down, I tripped on a sidewalk crack and twisted my angle something terrible. It really hurt bad. Cupcake and Kirk said they heard the snapping sound from 100 feet away.
I sat down for a bit, but I was not going to stop.
I got up as soon as I was able, and continued walking. We had to keep going on the road for a bit. The pain was really bad. I wasn’t going to drink another beer, but I popped another one and dank it much faster than I normally would to numb the pain. It helped.

Abandoned

We soon got to where the tracks came closer to the road, and we headed down to the left to reach them.

Abandoned

We turned back to the south on them and crossed a double through truss bridge that used to span the Lehigh Canal, and then descended via a path on the other side to reach the towpath.
I actually had a blackout period in there at this time. I was in so much pain and I just focused on carefully walking and not rolling my ankle again. We must have moved on pretty fast, because next thing I remember is reaching the old railroad bridge, now abandoned, that used to cross from the Nor Bath Railroad to the Ironton Railroad and Lehigh Valley line.

OOhweeeeh

We somehow climbed up to the right to that, and I walked out to the center of it in the dark. Kirk was there too, and I tried to get a photo, but it wouldn’t really come out.

Possibly old plant #1

We simply walked from there back up the road to our cars to finish out the hike.
This was a really great trip, aside from the obvious ankle injury issue. It would end up being an issue on the next few hikes, but I managed to push through anyway.

HAM