Hike #278 4/15/7
4/15/7
Allentown-Whitehall-Coplay with Dave "Captain Soup" Campbell, "Amish Paul" and Wyatt Hassler, and Jason Itell
Ironton Rail Trail
My next hike would turn out to be another admission of the craziness and loyalty of my hiking friends. This trip would be a loop using roads and railroad rights of way mainly between Whitehall near Allentown and Coplay Pennsylvania.
Cemetery in Allentown area
Thomas Iron Works site
Thomas Iron Works site
Thomas Iron Works site
Thomas Iron Works site
Thomas Iron Works site
Thomas Iron Works site
Thomas Iron Works site
Thomas Iron Works site
Coplay cement works area
Coplay cement works area
Abandoned cement factory in Coplay PA
Abandoned cement factory in Coplay PA
Abandoned cement factory in Coplay PA
Abandoned cement factory in Coplay PA
Abandoned cement factory in Coplay PA
Abandoned cement factory in Coplay PA
Abandoned cement factory in Coplay PA
Abandoned cement factory in Coplay PA
Abandoned cement factory in Coplay PA
Abandoned cement factory in Coplay PA
Abandoned cement factory in Coplay PA
Abandoned cement factory in Coplay PA
Abandoned cement factory in Coplay PA
Abandoned cement factory in Coplay PA
Abandoned cement factory in Coplay PA
Ironton Rail Trail
Flooding in Allentown
Allentown PA
Allentown PA
Allentown PA
Dinner in Allentown
Mall in Allentown
Weather was the factor that made this hike crazy, as it rained almost non stop the entire day, marking the first time I'd ever hiked more than a half day in the rain. We met at 9 am at the Lehigh Valley Mall, near the Chuck E Cheese place, and I think Linens and Things. Joining me this time were Dave "Captain Soup" Campbell, "Amish Paul" and Wyatt Hassler, and Jason Itell, just having returned from a business trip to Japan. We began walking from the mall north across the parking lot, using store overhangs to try to keep dry at least a bit. Everyone had rain gear except me; I used only a crappy plastic poncho. Wyatt borrowed another one I had. I made the mistake of wearing blue jeans for this, and ended up with wet heavy pants! We walked several streets, first heading east, then north back toward Rt 145 just north of the mall area. I don't know which streets we followed, but we ended up reaching what one of my maps calls the "West Catasaqua Playgrounds". The area was all torn up recently, as if they were redeveloping it, but I'm not sure. We crossed this area and soon made our way up hill into the Fairview Cemetary. We climbed to the top of a large knoll with a mosselium buried in it and had a look around. We then continued through the cemetary making our way into part of the Whitehall Family Golf Center. We crossed part of the green, knowing no one would bother us because of the rain. We made our way out of the place onto Range Road I think. We followed this to the right to Eberhart Road where we turned left, then made a right I think it was 11th street. We walked here for a bit, then stopped by some little convenience store, taking advantage of the shelter of their overhang. We then turned right onto what I believe was Lehigh Street. This took us down hill and parallel to a green park area on the right with a footbridge over the Coplay Creek adjacent to the road bridge. There was a fill beyond here which I assumed would be the rail bed we were looking for. We crossed the little pedestrian bridge and then made our way up the fill from the Lehigh Street underpass. The rail bed was paved over as I recall, and was well marked. Homes along the right of way had signs and such all over the place, which was a little too cutesy to me. We walked eastbound on the right of way, passing by what looked like another former rail junction, but we kept to the trail on the left, which would take us to parallel the former Lehigh Valley Railroad right of way I had hiked a few months before. We soon reached the large abandoned building we'd passed on that hike (which took us from Walnutport to Lehigh Valley Mall, consequently), now knowing it was part of what was once the Thomas Iron Works. We made our way into the nearby woods and explored some of the ruins in the area. We called "Action Adam" Stevens up on the cell phone to make fun of him for not showing up, calling him "Action Flake Adam (he calls himself Action Danger Adam). We continued walking through the ruins and found a large long building and walked through. It was quite amazing. We also found a tunnel and went in a bit, but decided not to go too far. We tried to continue on, but it was both too muddy and overgrown. We decided to make oru way back to the large building where we entered the iron works land and return to the Ironton Rail Trail. We continued on this trail heading north parallel with the former Lehigh Valley Railroad until it began to turn inland. We had one ranger pass by us driving while we walked. We soon reached the site of the Coplay Cement furnaces, which were incredible. We had a look around and read some of the signs, then continued on. Next, we crossed Second Street, then continued parallel with an apartment complex to our left. We continued along the trail making fun of the walkway, as there were guardrails and fences in redundant places no one in their right minds would ever crash a bike. Soon, we were able to see one of the old cement buildings to our north, sorrounded by the demolished ruins of other buildings from the area. There were large machines parked leading us to believe the main building would be next to come down. I figured with the rain and the fact that it was a Sunday, this might be out last opportunity to explore it. We all made our way to the building, crossing over the large slabs of concrete. We found our way to a doorway and went inside. There was a spiral staircase heading both up and down, but the lower part was all under, while the part heading up looked good enough to walk. I kicked at it a few times and decided to make my way up a bit. Only Wyatt was interested in following me up the staircase, but Amish Paul would'nt let him. Soon, every other step was missing, having been rusted to the point they fell off. There were even some places where two stairs were missing. Still, I kept making my way up and reached a large room with enourmous augers in it next to holes that probably once houses them, heading down into what must have been a concrete mixing vat. I carefully walked across the floor of this large room, snapping pictures all around as I walked. I continued along a large concrete pertission that separated the room with some sort of a conveyor spot or something, and when I got to the other side I climbed over it and found another set of concrete stairs heading up. I made my way up, curved around and found myself in a small room with a messed up piece of machinery and a doorway out onto the roof. The view was great, but I was rather exposed up there to the world. I could see a truck stop nearby, and all of the apartments we'd passed before. A series of metal stairways led behind me down and around part of the structure, but I did'nt venture too far into it knowing I could easily be discovered there. I took a few pictures, then made my way back down the stairs into the room with the augers, this time heading across the room on the other side. I crossed the median in the room once again to the spiral stairs heading down. This time, I had to use my arms to take some of my weight as not to break the few existing steps. Jason had come up a little bit by the time I was coming down, but he did'nt go all the way up. We left the building and made our way back to the Ironton Rail Trail. We continued west to the site of the junction where part of the railroad continued west while another line looped around to head back toward Allentown. We had originally planned on going out and back along the rail trail, but taking the rain into consideration, we decided to do only the loop. The rail bed was paved the entire way, complete with redundant signs designating this the Ironton Rail trail. We paralleled the Coplay Creek most of the way continueing back to where we'd first got to the rail bed on Lehigh Street. We retraced our steps continueing on the rail bed, but turning to the right on what must have at one time been an industrial spur. This took us high above the creek, but seemed to end so we made our way down hill and somehow reached what I think was Eberhart Street again. We turned right, making our way back to where we'd been before near the golf club, only continueing west to Rt 145, which I believe was MacArthur Road at this point. As we neared 145, there was some flooding and a Jeep Cherokee was stalled in the water. Wyatt and I ran into the water and pushed the jeep out. Some of the signs were sorrounded by water which looked really weird. We turned left, or south, on 145 passing by many businesses. When we reached a large grociery store, we began walking toward it to make use of the overhangs to escape the rain. As we walked, we made our way to the grociery store and went inside to warm up and get some junk food. After leaving, we walked along the many store fronts, and Wyatt found four different umbrellas, all of them broken in some way, and he opened each one and carried them around for some time. We continued along, and by the time we left this mall area he decided to ditch all but one of them into a dumpster. The one he kept was actually somewhat useful, though girlie. Amish Paul decided to cut out in this area and walk the highway back to Lehigh Valley Mall. We soon found our way to Whitehall Mall, thinking it was the one we parked at, but it was'nt. We walked through this poor excuse for a mall and asked a girl we saw if this was the mall we were looking for and discovered the truth, that we still had a bit more to walk. We continued on across the parking area to reach the Lehigh Valley Mall. Wyatt, Captain Soup, and I headed into the mall while Jason went to get changed in his car. We wandered throgh the mall for a few laps before we figured out that we'd eat in a Ruby Tuesdays there. We contacted Jason and Amish Paul via cell phone and told them where to meet us, and we headed to the Ruby Tuesdays where we had a good dinner and conversation on sports. We continued on out of the mall to Jason's car which was closer, and he took Captain Soup and I to my car to finish the hike.
Coplay Cement Works
Wyatt in the Noreaster
No comments:
Post a Comment