Hike #262 1/2/7
1/2/7
Jim Thorpe-Slatington/Walnutport railroad hike with Bill "Guillermo" Fabel, Gerry Martiniak, and Howard Lane
On the old CNJ railroad in lower Lehigh Gorge
For the first hike of 2007 I decided I wanted to scout out the next northbound section of the Lehigh Valley Railroad, beginning just north of Jim Thorpe, at Lehigh Gorge State Park near Glen Onoko, and head south to Slatington where we'd begun the previous section. I met the group on this Tuesday morning at 9:20 at the Superfresh Store in Walnutport (formerly a port on the Lehigh Canal named for the nuts that were plentiful in the area.).
Guillermo in Glen Onoko Tunnel
Glen Onoko Tunnel
Glen Onoko Tunnel
Looking out of the north side of Glen Onoko Tunnel
North side of Glen Onoko Tunnel
Looking at the old rail bridge from Glen Onoko Tunnel
Former rail bed, Lehigh Gorge Trail
Descending from the old CNJ railroad, which at the time was being converted into the new extension to the D&L Trail
Former Lehigh Valley Railroad
Former Lehigh Valley Railroad
Former Lehigh Valley Railroad, near Jim Thorpe
Toy at Jim Thorpe Market
Crossing the river at Jim Thorpe
Jim Thorpe PA
Train in Jim Thorpe
Jim Thorpe PA
Jim Thorpe PA
Flagstaff Mountain
Former CNJ railroad south of Jim Thorpe
Former CNJ railroad south of Jim Thorpe
Former CNJ railroad south of Jim Thorpe
Former CNJ railroad south of Jim Thorpe
Former CNJ rail right of way south of Jim Thorpe
View from the old rail bed
Former CNJ rail bridge
Old warehouse in the Packerton or Jamestown area
View near the old warehouse
Old building along the railroad
Old building in the Packerton or Jamestown area
Abandoned warehouse
Abandoned warehouse
Abandoned warehouse
Abandoned warehouse
Abandoned warehouse
Abandoned warehouse
Abandoned warehouse
Abandoned warehouse
Abandoned warehouse
Abandoned warehouse
Abandoned warehouse
Abandoned warehouse
Abandoned warehouse
Abandoned warehouse
Abandoned warehouse
Abandoned building
Abandoned building
Abandoned building
Abandoned building
Abandoned industrial area along the Lehigh
Burnt out house in Lehighton
Lehighton PA rail bed
View along the Lehigh in Lehighton
Former Lehigh Valley Railroad near Lehighton PA
Abandoned LV railroad bed
Abandoned LV railroad bed, now a road south of Lehighton
Road built on the former Lehigh Valley Railroad near Bowmanstown PA
Former LV railroad just north of Lehigh Gap
Former Lehigh Valley Railroad just north of Lehigh Gap
Looking up the rocks in Lehigh Gap
We found an old pond site and spring in lehigh Gap between the two levels of rail bed
Former LV railroad in Lehigh Gap
View from LV railroad bed
Devil's Pulpit from LV railroad bed
Lehigh Gap
Devil's Pulpit from LV railroad bed
Former LV railroad bed iN lehigh Gap Nature Center
Historic picture at Lehigh Gap Nature Center
Lehigh Gap
Lehigh Gap
Former LV railroad in Lehigh Gap
Heading south of Lehigh Gap on former LV railroad
South of Lehigh Gap, the moon rises.
South of Lehigh Gap, former LV railroad
South of Lehigh Gap
Near Slatington PA
Sunset at Walnutport PA
Walnutport PA
Joining me this time were Bill "Guillermo" Fabel, Gerry Martiniak, and newcomer Howard Lane of Scranton PA. We all got in the Helbingmobile (Oldsmobile Cutlass Cierra) and headed to Jim Thorpe. We parked at the mouth of the long abandoned Glen Onoko Tunnel. Both the Central Railroad of NJ and the Lehigh Valley Railroad passed through here, and I believe the tunnel was used by the Lehigh Valley line. We walked over a high embankment of debris piled in front of the tunnel's south portal and made our way to the other side where the railroad exited and used to cross immediately onto a trestle over the Lehigh River. Gerry was apprehensive about walking through because of his previous experiances walking through tunnels with me, and knowing that it almost always meant walking through water! He soon followed behind to the bridge site, however. A wooden guardrail had been placed at the edge of the trestle site. I had visited here with Conrad Blease back in 1997, when there was no guardrail. We exited the tunnel and began walking the rail grade, which was now a road. There was a walkway along the road to the west, and the ground was soft. I was wearing my last pair of 49 cent soccar cleats I'd bought at the K Mart Closeouts years before, and it was comfortable terrain for those shoes. We soon reached where the CNJ line crossed the Lehigh River over a trestle. There were "No Trespassing" signs and men working there, but we opted to walk out to talk to them anyway. I had wanted to cross the bridge, but it looked impossible with the men working. I asked the man if we could cross, and he said no. He did, however, tell us that the work they were doing, removing ties and such from this formerly double tracked railroad trestle and laying huge concrete slabs was for continueation of the Lehigh Gorge Trail. There were still tracks across the trestle as well, used by excursion trains out of Jim Thorpe. We could see the Lehigh Canal towpath below us, and that it was somewhat accessable. We climbed down from the CNJ tracks to the former LV Railroad, double tracked and more active, and walked them south to a bridge over the Lehigh River in Jim Thorpe. We made our way up and stopped at a little market where I got some chocolate milk. It was'nt great, but okay. We crossed the bridge over the Lehigh, and we could see where an earlier bridge had also crossed. I had to hold onto my hat as the wind was blowing strongly. On the other side, we made our way down the road until we could reach the former CNJ tracks, and entered the main part of the town of Jim Thorpe (formerly known as Mauch Chunk). There were some historic rail cars and an old diesel engine parked on a track, and we walked by a beautiful station among other nice downtown buildings. We continued along the tracks and headed south of Jim Thorpe, quickly walking onto a more narrow right of way along tracks, trying not to be seen as there were "No Trespassing" signs posted where the road began to move up hill. We continued on these tracks, and there was a weird switch between double tracked sections where two tracks switched to one, then immediately back to two. Gerry and I discussed why this would be, but neither of us could draw a conclusion. We continued south along the Lehigh, and came to where the former Lehigh Valley Railroad crossed the Lehigh once again on a trestle, and both rail rights of way paralleled each other. This was originally called Packerton Junction. There were active tracks to our left, while we walked slightly higher on an abandoned right of way to the right. It began sort of weeded over, but soon became much clearer, and continued to get better as we walked. There were orange taped blazes along the cut route which led us to believe that this could be part of an extention to the Lehigh Gorge Trail. We continued walking, and an ATV path joined from the right, which made walking much easier. We soon reached a place called Jamestown, where I believe is where we found a large abandoned brick building to our east. The rail right of way we were following was obliterated here and dug out quite a bit. Guillermo, Howard, and I decided to climb down to explore the place, but a car pulled up and someone got out so we decided to climb back to the right of way where Gerry was. We soon reached an abutment from where a bridge used to be, and the rail fill had been removed ahead. We decided to head toward the building to talk to the main in the car, since I figured either way we might be able to get answers to questions if we talk to him. When we caught up with the man and his little dog he was walking, we asked him what the place was. He told us it used to be a warehouse, and that the really cool buildings from the area were destroyed; the round house for trains, station, and more were all ripped down. There were two large earth movers around the structure, apparently ready to begin ripping down even this remaining building. The man did not work for the railroad, nor did he work for police, and he told us that because it was technically county property, and he paid taxes on it, that he won't feel bad about going in. After talking to him, we made our way inside the building. We were immediately faced with an enourmous building, with wooden floors. It was very open, with a only a few small rooms at each corner of the building. There was a set of stairs on the southwest side of the building that Gerry and Howard did not hesitate to climb up. Guillemro and I followed them and checked out the top floor, which was very interesting. There was a set of tracks for some sort of cart in the middle of the room stretching the lenght of the building longways. The light shown in with rays from the windows in the top. This second story was also very open, but had a few more rooms, many of which had large holes busted through walls between rooms. We wandered through every room in the building before making our way down a second set of stairs on the north side. Guillermo and I checked out three other abandoned buildings in the vicinity along the railroad beds, while Gerry and Howard walked nearby. We then contineud south along a section of active tracks to the town of Lehighton. Soon, the former CNJ tracks broke off to the left and crossed over the Lehigh on a trestle while the former Lehigh Valley line broke off to the right. We made our way up an access road into town where we stopped at an Eckerd Pharmacy where I bought a pack of batteries, as mine were going low. We also went into a Salvation Army thrift store to look around. We decided also to walk into Lehighton to check out a bank that had been turned into a bar Guillermo heard about. We saw it, and it looked rather strange, stereotypical banck architecture only with neon beer advertisements in the windows! The place was closed so we turned back and made our way back to the abandoned Lehigh Valley Railroad right of way. We did'nt walk for long when we reached a former grade crossing near some municipal office, and a road had been built over the right of way. We continued along this road for quite some time, and we passed a very smelly sewage treatment plant. As we continued, there was a no trespassing sign over the right of way, which we decided to ignore. We continued on, and there was only one person working, so we made our way onward. We passed a bench along the way, which led me to believe this must be a new trail section. We soon were passed the fenced in facility and between steep hillsides and the Lehigh River. We found what appeared to be the ruins of part of the Lehigh Canal in this stretch, but we were'nt sure. We continued south and reached West Bowmans, across the river from Bowmanstown PA. Yet another road had been built on the right of way here, and it was again very recognizeable because the telegraph poles were left in place. There was a big dug out disturbance just before we reached this road section. We followed the road for a couple miles, and found where another branch of the Lehigh Valley Rairoad broke off to the west along the Lizard Creek. We crossed the Lizard Creek as well, and it appeared the road utilized both the old rail bridge as well as new concrete work. We continued on until we reached where the railraod bed diverted from the road in what was now a new Lehigh Gap preserve. The pathways was clear and scenic. We passed the junctions with a couple new trails along the way, and I knew I would have to lead another hike here. The further south we went in this section, the more secluded it became. There was an incredible rocky slant to our right for much of this section, with water cascading down from time to time. At one point we made our way up the hill to view the ruins of an old resevoir, now barely recognizeable. We continued along the rail right of way, which was getting overgrown a bit in some places, but soon was used by vehicles as an access apparently, making the walk through Lehigh Gap itself easy. We could see the Lehigh and New England Railroad's right of way above us on it's own railbed to where it once crossed the gap on a high trestle, then continued to the somewhat new Environmental Center in Lehigh Gap, an old house. We stopped for a break and I picked up some trail maps before we continued on. The right of way was very clear below, and we passed under the road bridge to where the trail became very well developed with guard rails and an improved crushed stone surface! The work looked very new, possibly only a week old. The crushed stone surface was also unlike other kinds I'd seen, and it was not so rough on the feet. Gerry remembered that some of the wooden fencing was being installed in Slatington when we did the previous section hike in this area. We continued south, and it was nice to see that railroad ties, and at one point rails themselves were left in place alongside the trailway, adding to the historic character of the trail. We continued on to past the Slatington Airport where there were the broken frames of many old planes sitting to the side of the runway, and Gerry commented on how it did not look like good consolation to anyone who would want to fly from there! Just before reaching the main road crossing in town we went through a cut, and I climbed to the top of a rock ourcropping to take in the view, which was alright. The moon was coming up nicely. We were soon altogether at the road in Slatington, and we crossed the bridge over the Lehigh into Walnutport where we followed roads back to the Superfresh Store and our vehicles. We'd returned just before dark, fortunitely, after covering about 18.5 miles. Guillermo drove me back to my car this time.
1.) Guillermo inside the tunnel at Glen Onoko, Lehigh Gorge2.) Guillermo walking through the old tunnel3.) Gerry making his way down the pile of rocks at the south portal of the tunnel4.) Trestle site at the south portal of the tunnel5.) Guillermo and Howard at the north portal of the tunnel overlooking the Lehigh River6.) Another old railroad trestle over the Lehigh as seen from the north portal of the tunnel7.) Gerry, Guillermo, and Howard along the former CNJ tracks, I think. Maybe the Lehigh Valley line, in Lehigh Gorge8.) Making our way down from the higher rail tracks where they cross the Lehigh just north of Jim Thorpe9.) The two tracks, one above, one below, in Lehigh Gorge10.) Double tracks heading south through Lehigh Gorge toward Jim Thorpe, below Glen Onoko11.) Heading toward the road bridge over the Lehigh in Jim Thorpe12.) Guillermo on a kiddie ride at a small market, east side of Jim Thorpe along the tracks13.) View of the road bridge over the Lehigh from the west side14.) View into Jim Thorpe looking south15.) Guillermo with an old Jersey Central engine16.) Nice architecture in Jim Thorpe17.) At the Jim Thorpe Railroad Station18.) The highway on the west side of the gorge looking south of Jim Thorpe19.) Looking north on the tracks toward Jim Thorpe20.) Walking south along the tracks from Jim Thorpe vicinity21.) Beautiful view of the ridge across the gorge south of Jim Thorpe22.) Along the railroad bed, with the active tracks just below to the right23.) In a deep cut on the railroad grade24.) View of an abandoned warehouse along the tracks, from the higher abandoned right of way in Packerton or Jamestown PA area. We went inside next.25.) Near the warehouse, and old rail bridge overpass abutment26.) Another view of the old warehouse27.) Another view of the mountain from near the warehouse28.) More abandoned buildings near the warehouse29.) The side of the warehouse30.) Inside the lower level of the warehouse31.) Guillermo in the old warehouse32.) Gerry and Howard in the old warehouse33.) Guillermo ascending the stairs to the second floor of the structure34.) On the upper level35.) View inside the warehouse's upper level36.) More on the upper level37.) Howard and Gerry in an awesome shot with the light shining in on them through the skylights in the old warehouse; note also the track in the middle of the floor38.) Me in a big hole in the wall of the warehouse39.) View to the north out the top of the warehouse40.) View into the busted up walls in the warehouse41.) Howard and Gerry making their way down the steps to the lower level again42.) View of the east side of the warehouse43.) More in the warehouse44.) Guillermo outside another old building45.) Yet another structure46.) Guillermo inside one of the buildings47.) Inside yet another one of the buildings48.) Looking back at the warehouse along an old road49.) Gerry checking out a burnt out house in Lehighton PA50.) The former LV right of way with the active tracks within view, Lehighton; view north51.) View of the former CNJ RR bridge over the Lehigh River, Lehighton52.) Gerry on the right of way south of Lehighton53.) Along the right of way nearing Bowmanstown I believe54.) Road built on the railbed near Bowmanstown, with Blue Mountain in view55.) Another shot of the road built over the railroad bed56.) Entering Lehigh Gap Wildlife Refuge, the rail bed, just to the north side of Lehigh Gap57.) Along the LV Rail bed just north of Lehigh Gap58.) Open rock on the north side of Lehigh Gap along the rail bed59.) Springs flowing down along the right of way60.) Another spring61.) Another view of the railroad bed in Lehigh Gap62.) Guillermo and Howard in an old resevoir site above the LV rail bed63.) The rail bed in Lehigh Gap64.) A house on a knoll, north side of Lehigh Gap65.) Lehigh Gap view66.) Devil's Pulpit from the rail bed67.) View of the inferno, Lehigh Gap's east side from the rail bed68.) Site of former Lehigh and New England Railroads Lehigh Gap trestle69.) Walking through Lehigh Gap on the LV grade70.) Picture of a picture: LV Railroad train passing under L&NE Trestle! This was at the visitor's center for the Wildlife Refuge71-72.) East side of Lehigh Gap from the visitor's center73.) Walking on the rail bed just south of Lehigh Gap74.) The newly resurfaced rail trail section just south of Lehigh Gap75.) The moon coming up from the east across the Lehigh River76.) Along the former Lehigh Railroad tracks, just north of Slatington PA77.) Another view across the river toward Walnutport area78.) View of Lehigh Gap, the river, and some junk from a hill along the rail bed79.) Gerry walking across the ball field at the Superfresh Store in Walnutport PA
In an abandoned industry north of Lehighton
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