Hike #455 11/27/9
11/27/9 Green Lane-Emmaus with Kyle Zalinsky
Kyle was a great buddy to have. On this date, Black Friday, I got up at around 5 am to go to Wal Mart for discount deals. I arrived in Phillipsburg and picked out a digital camera for Jillane because hers had broken during one of her last tours of duty in Utah. I wasn't going to waste an entire day shopping, so after my visit to Wal Mart I asked Kyle if he'd meet me and we'd do a hike. Dependable as he always was in those days, we headed out to do a hike, just the two of us, from Green Lane to Emmaus PA, a route I'd been wanting to do for quite some time.
Even when the hike was over, Kyle, Guillermo, and I drove around PA screaming out the windows of the cars and laughing hysterically at our own antics. Kyle was always a ball of energy. We fed off of each other's antics and pushed each other to go further. I'll always treasure these crazy days Kyle and I spent together goofing off.
Abandoned trestle north of Green Lane PA
For this next hike, which took place on Black Friday, I was only joined by Kyle Zalinsky. The plan was to cover the remainder of a branch of the Reading Railroad between Green Lane PA up to Allentown. I wanted to make it at least to the junction in Emmaus, which we just about did. I met Kyle in the morning. He had to be to work at 5 at night, so I left home at about four in the morning. I went to Wal Mart first to look for the special sales and ended up picking up a 12 megapixel digital camera for Jillane. She did'nt want it, so I gave it to my brother Tea Biscuit. Kyle met me at the store and the two of us went to Allentown and dropped off my car. We then headed in his car to Green Lane PA. Kyle had quite a stomach but and immediately had to use the restroom at a gas station we parked at. The day would be full of diahrria jokes. From the service station, we walked north to the beginning of the Perkiomen Trail, where the rail line to the south is mostly utilized by the trail, and to the north almost none of it is. We had to turn right from Rt 29 onto Lumber Street to parallel the right of way on private land, and then crossed a creek with the rail bridge visible to our left (1). We turned right onto Reihman Road and crossed the rail bed to a bridge over the creek again, but we turned right through some ruins parallel with the rail bed (2). A house was right next to it here, so we had to bushwhack along the creek and then make our way up to the right of way after we were out of sight of the house. Though it was'nt a trail yet, it was still really a great walk (3-5). Soon, we came to an abandoned trestle. It was in rough shape, but we had to cross. Half of it had no ties remaining and the other half were rotten. In addition, trees growing through it made it extra difficult (6-8). We continued on the right of way ahead and Kyle took his second #2 break. The rail bed was clear for a ways ahead (9-10). Soon, we came to a golf course that had been built over the rail bed. One of the holes was right on the site of it (11). We crossed McLean Station Road, abandoned at this point through the golf course with a nice bridge still in place (12) and had to run across the golf course trying to figure out where the rails once went. I used my Blackberry to pick out the right direction using arial images (13-14).
Golf course north of Green Lane PA
We were soon back on the right of way headed north (15). Next, we crossed Campbell Road, and the rail bed became overgrown so we turned right and then left onto Hendricks Road shortly back to the rail bed. There must have at one time been a bridge over the road because it was up on a fill. Kyle and I climbed the fill and followed the right of way across someone's yard area quickly (16) and then skirted fields. We soon had some industry to the left of us, some of which was making some weird metal sculptures (17) and continued out to reach 6th Street in Pennsburg where there was a weird concrete animal, and gargoyles on apartment windows (18-20).
In Pennsburg PA
We crossed through an industrial area (21) and then reached 8th Street and crossed. From here, on the back end of the apartment complexes was a short section of the rail bed that was now a trail (22) with some graffiti on it (24). The trail section ended at 11th Street after which Kyle and I had to covertly go across a back yard as the rail line descended into a cut. It was very wet at times so we tried to stay up on the side of it until we reached the bridge underpass of Rt 29 (24). We went under and then came up on the right side to stop at a mom and pop pharmacy for food and drinks. It had a nice mural on it (25). We continued on and skirted the rail bed on an old road as well as in a cemetary. Rails started to appear, though overgrown, in this section (26,27). We were soon in a more town like area and reached Rt 663. There was another pharmacy, CVS, just to our west so we went on in. I bought a big bottle of juice to mix our alchahol in and a couple candy bars. Kyle had his third round with the restroom here. We talked to the clerks for a little bit, then were on our way. Opposite this place, the rails were all in place and cleared for the remainder of the distance. We passed the Pennsburg Station (28) and continued into East Greenville PA where we found what appeared to be another station (29). We continued north out of town passing some old buildings and industry (30,31) and before Crossing over Rt 29 again we found a neat abandoned house to the west which I could'nt resist going in. It was a mess, but I checked out every room (could'nt get upstairs, too bad) and we moved on over 29 (32-42). We crossed Ziegler Road, then over a trestle over the creek, followed by Hosensack Road (43). We then entered the tiny village of Palm, PA, crosses Station Road, then passed by another abandoned building (44) before heading into the farm land to the north. Much of it was a hunting club, and we saw many hunters wearing blaze orange and had gunshots going off all around us for quite a while. It was a bit unnerving, but the landscape was pretty (45-47). We crossed both Treichler and Corning Roads, followed by Powder Mill Road where we passed a lovely old mill and a dam to our left (48). The mill had been converted to a residence. We then crossed over Bhman Road and Carls Hill Road passing some sort of old tower thing to the left (49). We skirted Carl Hill to the left, and continued crossing over Scout Road, King's Highway with an old rail car (50), Vera Cruz Road, State Route 2031, then state route 2040 before reaching the entrance to the Dillinger Tunnel just below the PA Turnpike.
Dillinger Tunnel in PA
This was an interesting tunnel. Narrow on the sides, and the inside varied from concrete, to brick, to natural cut stone, to a weird concrete that looked like the roof of a mouth.
Inside Dillinger Tunnel below Vera Cruz PA
I'd never been in a tunnel like it (51-58). The tunnel was about 1000 feet long. I have nothing on it's history. We continued north from the tunnel through woods and farmland (59) across Acord Drive and further north. This particular railroad had more bends to it than most any I'd been on. We soon reached the village of Vera Cruz where there was the ruins of a spring house (60). We continued across the main street and were near some house, one of which had an old caboose in the yard and a lovely barn (61-63).
In Vera Cruz PA
The tracks took us to the west of Vera Cruz and then turned north skirting a hillside to the right (64). As we entered the town of Emmaus, we found a weird rock band standup thing in someone's yard along the tracks (65,66). The first street in Emmaus we crossed was 10th street. We continued to Fourth Street before we turned off and headed into town. We hung around in town and walked back and forth up and down the streets and waited for our friend Bill "Guillermo" Fabel to come and pick us up since it did'nt look like we could make it back to Allentown for Kyle to be to work on time. We had done 21.2 miles (67-70).
Mule love in Emmaus PA
Abandoned trestle north of Green Lane PA
Golf course north of Green Lane PA
In Pennsburg PA
Dillinger Tunnel in PA
Inside Dillinger Tunnel below Vera Cruz PA
In Vera Cruz PA
Mule love in Emmaus PA
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