Hike #431; Bethlehem/South Mountain Loop

 Hike #431 8/9/9

8/9/9 Bethlehem/South Mountain PA Loop with Skyler Jermyn, Kyle Zalinsky, "Commando Tom" Petrucci, Laura Cunningham, Jason Itell, Amanda Rosenblatt

Foot bridge at island park in Bethlehem PA 

A lot of this time period seems to be a bit of a blur to me. Some of it kind of meshes with a past Musikfest hike, and all of the events are bleeding together. I saw a lot of shows that year thanks to Laura inviting me...the Wallflowers, Chris Isaak, The Commodores, George Thorogood...

The night before was Buckettque, one of the greatest parties ever. We started playing Volleyball, and then Jason and I left to go to a concert, I think George Thorogood and the Destroyers, then came back. I was running around Mr. Buckett's house like crazy, eating and drinking. Skyler and Guillermo started dancing like crazy in the basement and soon everyone joined in for what turned into an all out basement dance party. By the next day I must have been half burnt out so I don't remember as much of it now...I just know it was fun!

 My next hike would bring me once again to the annual Musikfest hike, this time preceded by a party at Jim "Mr. Buckett"s house in Bethlehem. Since we'd already had "Buckettfest" this year, this was to be called "Buckettque" with a bar be cue theme. Many of the hikers showed up to celebrate with us, and Laura Cunningham brought "Commando Tom" Petrucci, Jason Itell, and I to see George Thorogood and the Destroyers using free tickets she'd gotten! The party was great, and we were all up late. We began walking in the morning at Martin Tower in Bethlehem. Joining me this time were Laura, Commando Tom, and Jason, as well as Kyle Zalinsky, Amanda Rosenblatt, and Skyler Jermyn. From Martin Tower, we walked across the somewhat overgrown property, up steps and then along the road. I rolled down a large hill, which did'nt help my hangover that much. We soon turned right on the Monocacy Creek Trail and headed south (0) into Bethlehem where Musikfest was going on (1-1d). We headed down to the Lehigh Canal and walked across the Monocacy Creek aqueduct, and we swam in the pool behind the old lock site as we ususally do (2-2a). We continued along the Lehigh Canal towpath heading east for a bit (2b,2c) and then crossed the footbridge over the Monocacy Creek. I knocked down all o the tape that had blocked off the bridge walking across (2d-3). We walked to the west again hoping to use the stairs to the top of the Fahy Bridge, but there were two guys there guarding it and they told us we could'nt access it now. It was secured off for the fireworks that were to be set off that night in the area. We had to walk all the way back into Musikfest and use the Hill to Hill Bridge across the Lehigh. On the way I jumped into a cold hot tub at one of the dispays (4,5). We crossed the Hill to Hill Bridge and we found a sign with Commando Tom's last name on it (6).

Ha!

We continued up Brodhead Street into Lehigh University Campus, and then up series of stairs far up the South Mountain (7-9c). One particular set of them was really fun to try to race up, because it was long and so tough. Laura loved it in particular (10-11a). Once we'd reached the top we followed some roads up hill to the Mystic Garden, where we'd visited before (12-19). From there we walked the roads up hill to the highest campus building to go up and get the view, but unfortunitely the building was closed. Our previous trip we could only go part way up, and this time it was a waste going there. Unfortunitely, there was no view due to the clouds and overcast anyway. Kyle climbed on a giant metal ball and sort of broke some of it (20,21).

The only good thing was the fact that we ate a lot of berries on the way up. We wandered back down and got on the trail system above the road for a while. It was narrow and made by mountain bikers. This system pretty much followed the roads on the hillsides above (21a-22). We crossed over the next road, and then found another trail access behind an office building. We headed in, and got our bearings by looking at a view of Bethlehem from a utility line (23). The trails began to get a bit more obscure, and we found some sort of above ground resevoir soon enough, with redundant signage. Still, it was an interesting structure (24-25a). We continued past the building, and then opted to descend a bit back into the Lehigh University Campus. Laura got stung by a bee or yellow jacket and it began swelling a lot, so Kyle used one of the emergency phones on the campus to call for help. Police showed up, but fortunitely it was'nt really necessary and we moved on (26-27).

 As we headed down the the campus and it became more developed there were a lot of statues, and we took a break in a building that had nice bathrooms and good water (27a-35).

Our next stop was at Zoellner Art Center, where we went inside to look around, then went to the top where there were good views of Bethlehem (36-47).

We made our way from here to streets heading south to the abandoned rail bed in South Bethlehem and followed that back toward Musikfest (48). The others broke away from Kyle, Amanda, Skyler, and I, and we hung out for a bit. It began to rain hard and Kyle acted up a bit, and it was hilarious as he freaked out patrons pretending to cry (49). Skyler and I fell asleep under the porch of one of the old Moravian buildings, and when we woke up we just decided to head home, having already had a good enough weekend!

 

Musikfest!

Monocacy Creek aqueduct.

Ha!