Hike #373 9/28/8
9/28/8 Bethlehem/Allentown Area with Jim "Mr. Buckett" Mathews, Jason Itell, "Commando Tom" Petrucci, and Shelly Janes
Near the Hill to Hill Bridge in Bethlehem
Former LNE rail bed in Bethlehem PA
Homeless guy living under a bridge in Bethlehem
Homeless guy's under bridge location in Bethelehem
LNE rail bed in Bethlehem
LNE rail bed over Rt 378
LNE rail bed on Monocacy Creek Greenway
Bridge in Bethlehem
Commando Tom showers at Celtic Fest
Shower at Celtic Fest
Celtic Fest
Hangin under the umbrella at Celtic Fest
At Celtic Fest
In the rain at Celtic Fest
Bethlehem
Water drainage in Bethlehem
Hospital grounds in Bethlehem
Hospital grounds in Bethlehem
Weird back woods around Bethlehem
Weird back woods around Bethlehem
Weird back woods around Bethlehem
Weird back woods around Bethlehem
Weird back woods around Bethlehem
Weird back woods around Bethlehem
Weird back woods around Bethlehem
Weird back woods around Bethlehem
Weird back woods around Bethlehem
Weird back woods around Bethlehem
Weird back woods around Bethlehem
woof
Walk and roll
The back streets of Bethlehem/Allentown after a heavy rain
A side road view in Allentown/Bethlehem
Heading down hill, on our way back
Looks like a tornado
Building!!!
You can barely read the sign, but it reads "Chew Street"
Well...it said to!!!
Interesting doorway
Heading through Bethlehem
My favorite kind
Downtown
MY AYSS
Along former LNE railroad and Monocacy Creek in Bethlehem
Along Monocacy Creek, Bethlehem
In Bethlehem along Monocacy Creek
Along Monocacy Creek
Monocacy Creek
Along Monocacy Creek
Monocacy Creek Trail
Monocacy Creek Trail passes Burnside Plantation
On Monocacy Creek Trail
Along Monocacy Creek Trail
In Burnside Plantation
Walls at Burnside Plantation
Historic markers and signs
Returned to the cars
wow
Flooded parking lot
The group at the end
The group at the end
The group at the end
At Buckettque
At Buckettque
At Buckettque
At Buckettque
At Buckettque
At Buckettque
Unfortunitely the original journal to this hike was lost to the fire as well.
For this hike we decided to do a loop around Bethlehem PA to coincide with Celtic Fest...however it poured down rain for much of the day.
I think we parked at the Martin Tower in northern Bethlehem and started walking from there. Very close by was the old L&NE railroad tracks, and we were able to descend to them from next to Martin Tower. To our surprise, we met a homeless man under the bridge who was fabrication interesting things from metal he'd found. We talked to him for a while, and he told us he goes south in the winter and that he was getting ready to do that pretty soon. It was an interesting little finding.
The tracks were badly overgrown, but we bullied our way through to get out to the junction site with the active former LNE north south line. Except for the section where it went over Rt 378 it was really badly overgrown.
Once we got to the active tracks I believe we opted instead to follow the Monocacy Creek Trail on the opposite side of the creek. It crossed the abandonment just before the junction.
The trail soon passed by another abandoned rail bed with an i beam bridge in place next to the pedestrian crossing. The water was coming up fast, as it had not crested yet. We followed the Monocacy Creek trail to Union Blvd and then just followed the creek itself south. We stopped under one of the giant arch bridges where water was flowing down from the top very heavily. Commando Tom stood right underneath it!
We made our way through a couple of parks and continued west trying to get to abandoned railroad buildings in the area. We ended up finding a giant pipe spewing water and some rough bushwhacking. We ended up somehow out on Central Blvd and then bushwhacked up hill when we saw an abandoned hospital building above us. We walked around but did'nt see a way in. We opted to try to head west basically along the top of the rim here. We had to try to stay out of sight near these old hospital buildings. We cut across the field through a line of trees and then south heading down hill slightly. We found some sort of building and a circular pond of some sort. We made our way out to an occupied section of the hospital area that did'nt look like we could be intruding, so we walked around the buildings and entered the woods on the other side. There was very little undergrowth so it was pretty easy to walk this section for a time. That did'nt last though. The others went below me down the ridge a bit while I stayed on higher in the weeds. Somehow we finally came out I think on Elm Street and took a long break.
I'm pretty sure we walked north down hill along Jerome Street. We then turned right heading back into the main part of Bethlehem via roads. I remember going into a convenience store and feeling sad because it had been announced that Paul Newman had died.
As we walked further east again we went by Laura Cunningham's house and we stopped to say hi to her. I didn't even realize we were passing her house, and I remember telling Tom she lived in the area, and then she flagged us down as we went by!
We made our way back toward Rt 378 and then headed south sort of parallel with it, and we found a "tomb of the unknown soldier" which I was surprised to see was in the area. We were joined in this area by DJ Ray Cordts and Katie Smith who walked with us for a little bit around Celtic Fest. Nothing really substantial I can remember about Celtic Fest other than that I was feeling depressed and sort of just wanted the day to be over. We followed the Monocacy Creek back to the north from here.
We went right back on the trail we came down to begin with and followed it beyond the tracks where we got on it in the morning, and that took us to a farm park just a but further north. We had a look around there, and not realizing the trail continued on to the north we followed the driveway to the property back out to the next road. We turned left which took us right back to the Martin Tower where we'd started the day.
We all got together at Mr. Buckett's house for a "Buckettque" of burgers and to hang out, but what was supposed to be a fun party was not so for me and I just ended up leaving. Just couldn't get my mood up yet.
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