8/5/17 Shelly/Coopersburg to Bethlehem with Lowell Perkins, Red Sean Reardon (Karl Franz), Gina Zuvich, and Dan Asnis
Our next hike would align with the annual coming of Musikfest in Bethlehem PA, however we would end up having too much fun without even making it to Musikfest, as is typical!
Silliness
It had been a while since I hiked the old Reading Railroad bed in to Bethlehem from the south, and so I figured out a route that would take us along that as well as a couple side trips.
Like so many previous times, it really didn’t matter that the hike intending to head toward Musikfest didn’t really end up visiting the main part of Musikfest; we had so much silly fun on this, I don’t know that we coudl have topped it with anything we’d come across there anway.
I had first attempted to hike this right of way on a hike to Musikfest on 8/12/17. At the time, the double tracks of the line were mostly all still in place. That first hike required us to head off of the rail line and onto adjacent farms, golf courses, and roads because it was so overgrown. It ended up being clearer after it was made a trail, when we finally got to it.
We met at Iqor in Bethlehem on the south side, then shuttled south in Red Sean’s car, Sanguinius, to a spot near where Shelly Station used to be on the Reading line, just off Rt 309. We’d then walk north on the road looking for where we could get to the rail bed.
We ended up parking at 309 truck stop and walking north from there to the north.
Red Sean and his anal beads
The silliness began almost immediately, as we went by an adult novelty store to the left. Red Sean was quick to go on in because he was going to buy something that could be left somewhere funny. He selected anal beads with which to do so, and immediately removed them to wave around as we walked. He put the ring on it around the end of his drink bottle and spun it, and acted generally silly with them. It led to quite a few laughs over the course of the evening for certain. The guy who sold the stuff was kind of standoffish and quiet at first, but Red Sean’s antics got him actually laughing pretty good.
Old Reading RR
From here, we headed north to Springfield Street, which crosses over the old railroad. I figured we could get through, and so I climbed down under the bridge and walked the slope to the line, which still had tracks in at this point, but we could not see them because they were completely covered over by weeds as well as mud and water. I didn’t think we’d actually do this, and was fully prepared to climb back up to the road for a time, but then everyone was already down and walking through it. I decided we’d give it a go.
Cut at the height of land
At first, I tried walking on the barely visible rails to get through the muddy stuff. I think the rails were torn out very shortly from this exact point, because it got much harder from there. I had to watch the Jewel Weed to see where I could step, and tried to keep out of the mud. It was pretty much impossible and my feet ended up soaked anyway.
We continued along, and the railroad bed took us into a deep cut. This was the height of the land between where the rail line left the Perkiomen Creek watershed and entered the Saucon and greater Lehigh River watershed. The cut ended, and so did the mud.
Old Reading line in Coopersburg
The walking continued to get easier, with only a few downed trees to step over or walk around, and the surface was a layer of ballast rock. The right of way continued to get clearer as we walked it.
It didn’t take too long till we reached Station Avenue, at the former site of the Coopersburg train station. The station is long gone today, but it’s somewhat obvious where it used to be. This was a spot for one of our side trips for refreshments. We turned left on Station Ave and headed to Rt 309. We crossed the highway and headed over to Link Beverages for some drinks.
Historic image of Coopersburg Station
I was happy to see that they had stuff I liked, including Weyerbacher 21st anniversary, so I had to get some. Everyone had one thing or another, and we sampled some stuff at the counter with their tender who had a lot of personality.
Former site of Coopersburg Station
We headed back the way we came across Rt 209 in Coopersburg. I remembered fondly coming through this area on the previous hike I had done out there in 2007, when the tracks were badly overgrown and nearly unwalkable.
Historic postcard image of Station Ave
We had to walk along 309 for a bit on that past hike, because it was so terribly overgrown, and we returned to the rail line at Station Ave. We got walking ahead and I recall my friend Guillermo had gone into the strip club next to the tracks. I asked my old friend Russ Moyer, who just passed away this past month, where he went. He told me he went into the club, so I had to go back in to get him. I found him at the bar talking to some topless woman!
1930s image of Rt 309 and Station Road
We soon turned left on the old railroad bed, which at this point has been developed into a trail with crushed stone surface. It took us to the north to Landis Street and became more so developed as a trail from that point.
The rail trail
The trail skirted residences, then soon was on the left side of a golf course. When I walked this section the first time, we had to get out and walk on the green because it was just too overgrown.
Really, this line SHOULD have never been torn out. it was double tracked, and one of the tracks could easily have stayed in place for use as rail WITH trail. With all of the development of the Lehigh Valley, including the Sands Casino which busses people in from cities, one would think a direct rail connection to Philadelphia would be smart.
Here is the Reading T-1 2100 on the North Pennsylvania Railroad in 1962 near Jacoby Road in Coopersburg PA for the Reading Rambles ride. The bridge in the background is Jacoby Road.
We continued across Jacoby Road on an overpass after the golf course, then passed along the edge of an industrial site of some sort. Along anywhere with even a slight grade, the trail seems almost criminally overdone with constant fence lines.
Split rail overdone mess
There was almost always some sort of three plant split rail fence lining the double tracked right of way, as if someone was going to fall off of it into the weeds. For the area, I think this is the most overdone rail trail I have ever seen. From a parks maintenance perspective, all I could think of was that they have to mow and weed whack everything beyond those fences as not to have them undermined with brush in short order. This is a really heavy maintenance burden for those familiar with it. They’d have to have a bomford unit with an arm to mow all behind the mess. It got even worse when we got near to more homes.
Overdone rail trail fail
At these points, the split rail fence gave way to vertically oriented boards that apparently are to keep people’s privacy. Why they didn’t just plant a vegetative buffer I don’t know. The whole thing felt like we were being corralled with snow fencing or something. I would call this an epic trail fail. The maintenance burden here is even worse.
We continued north across Passer Road through light residential areas, followed by Flint Hill Road, and the time went by fast.
The next crossing was Station Avenue in Center Valley, another tiny settlement. The Saucon Creek was just to the west of the rail bed, but the road no longer goes through.
The old station at Center Valley, with different spelling
Center Valley was once a station stop on the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad, and by the mid 1800s, it was such a commerce center that it was decided a bridge needed to be built over Saucon Creek branch, Laurel Run, to the west on Station Ave.
Centennial Bridge from Library of Congress Archives
The bridge was constructed in 1876, and dubbed the Centennial Bridge in honor of the Nation’s first one hundred hears, since it was the date it opened. The old carriage bridge was open to traffic until either late 80s or early 90s when a crack in the structure forced it’s closure. The bridge remained in place until 2013 when it was demolished.
Trail deviation
We continued on the trail north of Station Ave, through a swath of woods until it was blocked off with an orange sign saying that the trail was closed. The trail was routed to the west, then north through Upper Saucon Township Community Park. It’s likely because of a missing bridge over Preston Lane to the north, and the fact that a trail tunnel was put beneath the road instead. We turned away from the rail bed, and then found one of those nice kiosks that had a flower bed for a roof. We turned right and followed the paved trail by the local library, and then soon reached the tunnel beneath Preston Lane.
Spinny
Beyond the tunnel, there were restrooms, so we took a little break. I went in to use one, and when I came out Lowell and Red Sean were gone. It turned out they had gone to the little merry go round thing in the playground and Red Sean was making Lowell dizzy. I went and joined them for a bit before we moved on further.
The trail from here led us into some lovely woods to the north near Laurel Run. It then weaved back to the south, and a side trail led up to the Saucon Rail Trail again on a gradual grade.
Noisy
We headed up to the rail bed, and Red Sean cleaned out his pipe with his anal beads before smoking it.
We soon saw signs near the homes on either said that read “Residential Area. Please keep noise to a minimum”. Of course, we had to make some obnoxious audible noise at that point.
This is the most yuppified section of the trail in my opinion, because it’s in this area that there are light up cross walks and such. It just seems like so much overkill it’s amazing. The fence lines also continued.
Historic image at Bingen Station
One thing I must give credit for however, is that the trail is very well used. We passed a whole lot of people on it. Usually rail trails do not live up to the promise of being very well used, and it ends up looking like a money pit, so the rail trails have been losing some support. In this case, even though I would prefer to have seen the railroad in place, I must say that the trail is among the more busy rail trails I have been on.
We crossed over Landis Mill Road, and Washington Lane paralleled us a bit to the left for a while. We went parallel with a golf course to the left and Washington Road paralleled us to the left. We crossed Spring Valley Road, then paralleled Reading Drive to the right.
Historic view of Bingen Station
Soon, we reached the trail parking area on Reading Drive, on our right. This was the former site of the Bingen Station. It was kind of surprising that a place like Bingen would ever even have a station, but it was apparently once quite a bit more important.
Historic image at Bingen Station
We took a brief break here, and then continued onto the bridge across Bingen Road. Here, Red Sean and Lowell stopped and were having some sort of philosophical discussion that turned into drawing pictures in the crushed stone aggregate on the trail.
Historic view of Bingen Hotel
It was at this point that I did another hike on the rail line in 2007. When we first tried in August of ‘07, we had to fight through too much brush, and we didn’t make it all the way to Bethlehem the way we had wanted. We ended up finishing in the Bingen area, and so the nxt hike would finish the rail grade on September 30th of that year.
The Bingen Road bridge in '07
It was still insanely grown over, but at least on this second attempt we were able to bully on through the mess and hike it to Bethlehem. I was blown away that the trouble was taken to remove both sets of tracks and make this line into a trail.
Bingen Road bridge in '17
We continued ahead and crossed the Saucon Creek on a bridge, and somewhere in this area Dan had met up with us. I had told him to park nearby at a Giant food store and walk out to Meadow Road to reach the rail bed, but he parked at a banquet center instead, which was probably not a good move and he was lucky not to get towed!
The rail bed in '07
We crossed Old Mill Road and passed some lovely old home, then continued through cuts and along shelves to cross Meadow Road. We then headed to cross Saucon Creek again.
The rail bed in '17
We paused to admire the Saucon Creek on the second crossing. It’s a really nice piece of private land on the left side of the trail, and it’s obvious people in the area have no love for the trail going through, as per signage we had seen along the edges.
Dam view on the Saucon
We were now almost into Hellertown. We skirted some park land to the left before emerging on Walnut Street in town. From here, we turned left on Walnut and headed to the historic cast and wrought iron bridge that used to span Saucon Creek, but has been moved over the nearby mill race for protection.
A sign at the site, which is no longer there, said that it was the only surviving cast and wrought iron bridge of it’s kind in North America. It was built by Beckel Iron Foundry of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. The company was run by Charles Beckel and his son Lawrence Beckel.
Historic Library of Congress shot of Lawrence Beckel, who designed Walnut Street Bridge, with a similar bridge in Easton.
The Walnut Street Bridge was built in 1860, and retains muc of it’s historic character. It was rehabilitated in 1999, and painted silver. It’s design is quite interesting compared to others.
Library of Congress archive on Walnut Street Bridge
The bridge at some point was known as Wagner’s Bridge, although no one seems to know why, and later as “The Pony Bridge”. This too is a mystery, because Pony Truss bridges are usually low trusses with no connecting braces up top.
Historic 1870s view of the Walnut Street Bridge
The bridge had been rehabilitated in 1950, but vehicle use of the bridge ended in 1970. The odd decking probably wouldn’t have handled more modern vehicles. It was moved to the ground nearby, and eventually the aforementioned rehabilitation took place.
Walnut Street Bridge
Almost nothing about the way the bridge was built is typical, which is why it was important to save and restore.
From here, our plan was to head to the north, without getting on the rail bed, but it was starting to get darker, so we returned to the grade to save some time.
Interesting candilevered walkway from Library of Congress
A short distance ahead, there was an historic signal light that appeared to be well restored in silver and black color, with the ladder and all in good shape. It’s always nice to see historic railroad structures left in place along rail trails, because it feels like too often they try to erase every trace of what it used to be.
Red Sean and Lowell both climbed up the thing before we were on our way yet again.
We soon crossed Water Street, and just beyond that was Water Street park from which we could access the Saucon Creek. My plan was to follow the creek rather than the rail bed for a while, for swimming opportunities and to break the monotony of it.
Historic covered bridge view at Water St.
The old covered bridge spanning the Saucon Creek on Water St., Hellertown, PA. It was built in the early 1840s and demolished in 1938.
Historic view of Hellertown Station
Historic view of the Hellertown depot was built in 1868 for the North Pennsylvania Railroad. A senior housing facility, built at 950 Front Street, was erected on the site of the depot in 1997 . Most passenger service I believe was finshed on the line by 1971. The station was demolished in the seventies I believe.
signal tower
We took to a path that went down to a nice hole at the creek side, but from here we could not really see the path to continue along the water. There was a man there fishing in the dark, and he greeted us warmly. We chatted for a bit about what we were doing, and he was very happy others enjoying the weather. He saw me with a beer, and he said something about having the right idea, and that he had just been concerned that it was cops or something coming down. He pulled a beer out of his cooler and smiled saying something about it being the right idea as I recall. We then climbed back up to the rail bed.
Tower fun
I wasn’t sure where exactly to go from here, but I still wanted to get down to the creek. By walking the rail bed just a little bit further, we found a cleared path cutting into the woods to the left.
The path was the access lane leading to the former site of the Saucon Iron Works, later the Thomas Ironworks. I’d hiked through this site plenty of times before, and it’s pretty interesting with it’s giant piles of smelting refuse closer to the creek. It was the perfect route for us to be walking on because it was so clear and easy.
We made our way into the giant clearing, and Lowell and Red Sean found stuff laying around to make big torches.
We continued on out of the Saucon iron site with the torches lighting the way very well, and we laughed and carried on.
It was a nice stretch along the creek until we got out to Seidersville Road. There, we turned to the left to cross the closed off through style truss bridge spanning the Saucon Creek. On the other side, we saw the old spring house building we had always gone into in the past, and found that it had been fenced off so that we can’t get in any more.
Saucon Ironworks
We turned right on the informal path that follows the west bank of the Saucon Creek heading north. When we got to skirting the corn fields, we cut through woods off trail the very short distance to College Drive and followed that beneath interstate 78.
Group silliness
From here, we turned right and entered the fields of Saucon Park. We soon passed by the concession stands and used the restrooms I think, and then followed the former reflection pools heading to the north.
Historic image of the opening of Saucon Park
Saucon Park, Bethlehem, PA, opened July 4, 1919, with a speech by Mayor Archibald Johnston. The park is 90 acres following the Saucon Creek. Within the first year, over 10,000 people visited the park
Silliness with fire
We crossed over the Saucon Creek on a foot bridge, then turned left along the creek heading down stream to the north, past the pavilion where we had decimated someone’s picnic the year before.
We crossed over the lovely suspension foot bridge beyond that, and stayd along the shore of the creek heading north a bit more, crossed the creek again on Traveler Ave. Just a bit past that, there is a nice little spot to the left where we were able to go over to the creek and take a dip. It was a really hot night, so we all went in. It felt great.
The moon over the tower
The moon came out, and we were feeling very refreshed after swimming. We then crossed over the street and climbed steeply up the hill side to reach the former Reading Railroad line we wre on earlier, which is on a very high bridge above the Saucon Creek. I do recall having some difficulty getting up, but we got there. Once on top, we could see the moon shining just beyond the tall tower that Lerch and Justin had climbed up the previous year on our March on Musikfest hike. This time, the railroad bed was formally turned into a trail. It hadn’t been finished the previous year, and now we had a very clear walkway.
We started walking north toward South Bethlehem. There wre fences around the active rail yard where there didn’t used to be, and in years past we used to climb all over trains.
Sands
The trail had some kind of closed sign on it to the north as I recall, but we just went on by it, because it wasn’t any kind of problem or anything. I think maybe it was because of Lynn Avenue bridge construction. We then closely paralleled Daly Ave and headed to the cross walk where we could get down to the Sands Casino to get a bite to eat. I think we were all pretty hungry at this point. We went down and then entered into the casino section as I recall, and I think Red Sean had forgotten his ID. We were here once before when Lowell was not yet 21, and we had to have him escorted through.
Escalator silliness
We headed from here to the food areas, and we stopped by Mo Burger, where I’d lost my wallet the last time we were in the area, or more likely someone took it.
The burgers are good, so that’s what I had, and then we wandered through the casino a bit more, but of course not back where we would have to have Red sean escorted yet again.
At this point, it was late and the Musikfest stuff for the night was done with anyway. We decided we would head back to where we had parked at Iqor. We got to the big traffic circle at the west side, and then climbed up steeply through the brush to get to the road instead of walking out and around, which worked out alright I guess.
We turned left on the Daly Road and soon reached a construction site we could cut through prior to where we were parked.
Sands Circle
I saw a building under construction, and decided it would be a good idea to climb it. When I got up and realized there was no floor, I decided it would be a good idea to come back down. However, then I saw a large earth mover and decided it would be a good idea to not only get in it, but to start it and play with it. I then saw a white truck and decided it would be a good idea to discontinue doing so, especially since there were three of us sitting in the cab giggling something crazy.
We soon made our way back to where we were parked to conclude yet another overly fun night of hiking and tom foolery.
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