Hike #604; Upper Mt Bethel Area Railroads

 Hike #604; Upper Mt. Bethel Railroads

12/28/11 Upper Mt. Bethel Area Railroads; Bangor and Portland Loop with "Naaron" Young, Corrin Dylnicki, and Kaitlin Dylnicki

Lehigh and New England Railroad bridge over a branch of Jacoby Creek

For my next hike, the last for the year 2011, I would get out of work a bit early and try out an old favorite, the railroad loop between Portland and Bangor PA. We'd head out via the former Lehigh and New England right of way, and return by way of the active Bangor and Portland Lackawanna line. My good old buddy Naaron was back from the army for the holidays, as well as Ryan "Peeps" Short and some of his family. Corrin and her sister Caitlin were up for this one as well. It was looking like I'd have a good group.

I met up with Peeps, but he'd injured his ankle and couldn't walk with us much.

Former Lehigh and New England Railroad, Portland PA

I'd been wanting to see how much this hike had changed since I hadn't walked it in nearly a decade. I headed from the middle of town up Delaware Ave, which was the predecessor to Rt 611 below, to the former Lehigh and New England Railroad, which was built in 1886 and abandoned in October of 1962. This first section looked much the same as it always had, going through someone's yard.

We turned left out onto a sewer right of way, then onto a dead end street. I think we followed to Pennsylvania Ave to Main Street and turned right. We soon passed by the old railroad station, now a mechanic's, and continued across Main Street into the school yard.

Old Portland school

Large piles of dirt had been placed blocking off the railroad right of way on the far side of the field. We walked across, and then spent some time trying to climb over the many fallen logs and such. It was disheartening that once I was over I could see that there was a plain easy way in just on the other side of the piles of debris.

Lehigh and New England Railroad bed, Portland PA

Corrin had told me that there was a guy in a pickup that yelled at them every time they went in there, but we saw no such guy, fortunately. We soon came out to Jacoby Creek Road, which is shown on Google Maps at this point as Boulder Road. There was a set of steps that went up to the right I had forgotten about. I think there was once a house there.

Lehigh and New England Railroad bridge over Jacoby Creek

Naaron's mean ride!

The railroad used to cross the road directly, and then crossed a deck girder bridge over the Jacoby Creek. The bridge was still there as I remembered it, but still inaccessible because it went across someone's yards. Much of the rail bed ahead had been incorporated into someone's driveway. Just like in the past, we were forced to walk the roads. There were unfortunately no new sections yet made into trail of this rail bed. Naaron had to park his car alongside of the road near here at a pull off (and by the way, he got a new camper for on top) because there was no where else to park.

The four of us continued to cross over the creek on what Google Maps calls Middle Village Road. We then turned right onto Jacoby Creek Road which was now built in part on the old railroad bed. We soon turned right off of the road as the rail bed crossed a bridge over a branch of Jacoby Creek. The bridge was as beat up as it was in the past, with only I beams remaining. This time though, the former ATV path on the other side was not nearly as clear as I'd remembered it.

We followed it through the woods away from the road, and then it emerged onto a former quarry road which remained quite clear, though the quarried area looked less used than ever. I could clearly see on the left where the former connector track with the Lackawanna line just to the south of us used to break away as well.

LNE rail bed in Upper Mt. Bethel Twp. PA

The rail bed continued on the quarry road, but it soon became totally mowed off and grassy. I remembered it being like an ATV path, but this was quite nice. Could some of this have been made into a trail over the last few years and I didn't know about it? As we continued, we passed a house on the left, then a large swampy area. I saw newsigns that called this the Upper Mount Bethel Fen Preserve. I figured that's why the rail bed was so well mowed, as part of this preserve.

We reached a road known as Million Dollar Highway, and turned right. The rail bed continued straight but was very overgrown. Rarely did I ever try to walk through the section ahead, because it was just as easy to follow Million Dollar Highway out to Sand Pit Road which immediately crossed the rail bed again. We continued, but on the other side of Sand Pit Road, there were many posted signs I didn't remember seeing a decade prior. We looked at the options, and I didn't realize that Heiden Road came so close and then immediately crossed again as well.

A dam near Lake Poco

We checked out a little dam on the creek, then made our way into the woods despite the posted signs. A guy in a white truck looked at us, and then continued along Sand Pit Road going slowly and watching us. I was getting really nervous. I used to do this stuff all the time, and still did occasionally if I knew I was with someone who could take off running like mad, but this time I wasn't going to put the girls through that. We were already moving along really fast, and they were doing great keeping up.

Former LNE rail bed west of Portland

LNE railroad bed near Lake Poco

Lake Poco

The truck continued on, and so we continued in through the woods. Just before the crossing, I noticed a lower grade below the LNE one, and a small bridge over a small stream only using small I beams not big enough for a standard railroad. I wondered what this could have been. A trolley line? I know they were active in the area as well and wouldn't have needed bigger bridges. Further, I remember seeing a very similar bridge near the tee ball fields and Minsi Lake, just below the railroad bed.

We continued through the woods, which wasn't that easy here. It was nerve wracking for me to see that we were in clear view of many houses as well as the road parallel to us. I then realized the rail bed we were following was actually below us to the left, somewhat washed out. What we were walking on was more of that other right of way with the bridge.

When we reached Heiden Road and I saw the familiar sight of a small dam with metal going over the top. This I figured was where the other right of way we saw had gone, over the top of the dam. The rail bed continued ahead. The way I used to walk was beyond a closed metal gate with obvious signs of private property. I opted this time to turn to the left where there were no signs closer to the rail bed's edge. We then turned away from it because it was too wet and overgrown. There was a parallel path through an overgrown field we used to follow, but it was now grown over more with small shrubs. We fought right through. To the right of us was Lake Poco, a pretty hidden pond with only a couple of houses along it.

Lake Poco

I was so nervous I kept running ahead, and then would realize I had other people with me, but they handled it really well, and I was always surprised to see them right there behind me whenever I came to my senses and looked back.

The path along the edge of Lake Poco got a bit better, but soon started turning away from where we wanted to be on the rail bed, so I bullied through weeds to the left to gat back to it. We were now further off away from houses and could only barely see one more. There was a bridge off to our right that the path used to cross the inlet stream to Lake Poco.

Graded right of way coming out to LNE rail bed near Lake Poco

As we left the grown over area and went into the woods a bit, there was another level grade going off to the left, though I don't know what it was. Maybe it was more of that trolley right of way or whatever it was, but I thought I'd seen that go to the other side of Lake Poco. I'm not sure...

We continued walking through the woods, and I got a bit nervous again because I saw a few deer stands. It was getting to the later afternoon and I knew that's when hunters like to be out. There were many more posted signs around as well.

Just before reaching a power line, Naaron asked, I wonder who owns this property? As I looked up, there was a hunter looking right down on us, wearing full camouflage, a face mask, and a hat. I gave a friendly wave, and apologized for interrupting his hunt. It felt a little weird. He just nodded at me. I felt as though I was being nodded at by the Grim Reaper or Darth Vader or some expressionless character of the like. Thoroughly creeped  out, we continued across a utility right of way, and through more woods.

LNE railroad bed north of Bangor

We soon reached a spot where we could see the next house, very close to the railroad bed. The property of this place had consumed more of the rail bed than on my last visits, and I was already freaking out from the creepy hunter. I thought a saw a figure moving around near a blue tarp straight ahead in our path. If it was a person, they had already seen us, and so to turn another way would only work out badly. We were within sight. We just kept moving. It was not a person, but rather the effect seem from the tarp moving in the wind a bit. We crossed the yard to the right of a wood pile, and crossed Beach Lane, the northern most street in a community around Echo Lake, just out of sight from us. We crossed the road directly and got to an area with a lot of standing water. We hurried across as to stay away from homes.

LNE railroad bed north of Bangor

The next bit of woods was free of incident. We hurried through and reached Totts Gap Road, having to cross a wooden fence when we got there. We crossed directly and through a grassy mowed area, near to but not on the yard of a house. There was an open metal gate ahead and no visible signs reading not to trespass (although the gate read "no trespassing" and we would have seen it if it were open).

We had a nice easy level walk for quite some time here.

LNE railroad bed north of Bangor

I nearly always forget every time I walk this section that the right of way is actually to the left of the cleared one. Maybe the cleared one was that other mystery right of way again. We passed under a utility line and through woods with what looked like a water treatment or fish hatchery place or something, and then had to turn left down hill onto the rail bed, which was quite wet and had many trees fallen over it at this point.

Former LNE East Bangor Branch through the field

We made our way through, but then had to often leave the rail bed as it got deeper into a cut to avoid getting our feet wet. Although my shoes had holes in the bottoms, I amazingly seemed to keep my feet pretty dry.

We stayed in the cut until it got too overgrown to handle, but was not as deep, and we ascended to the left to a farm road. It all came back to me that this was the right thing to do when I saw the end of the farm road ahead to the right. The farm road soon joined the rail bed, and then came to East Shore Drive near Minsi Lake. I pointed out to everyone on the left the former right of way of the East Bangor Branch of the Lehigh and New England Railroad.

View of where former LNE East Bangor Branch exited the field

I had followed this rail bed with Tea Biscuit and Skyler back in the early 2000s, and had tried numerous times prior to that to locate where the East Bangor junction would have been. I remembered it well, and knowing what I was looking for made it easy to find. I could see where it broke away from the main line, it's level right of way at the beginning of a field, and then where it was farmed out of existence just ahead, but then re-entered the woods on it's way to Bangor.

We followed the farm road out onto East Shore Drive and turned left. This road was built on the former railroad right of way, which was so obvious now. It was funny thinking back at the directions I used to go trying to figure it out.

View of Kirkridge on the Kittatinny Mountain from Minsi Lake

We followed East Shore Drive to Lake Minsi Drive and turned right. The old bridge over the creek below us, that was similar to the others we had seen was still very obvious and in the same shape as I remembered it.

The LNE railroad would have crossed over Lake Minsi Drive straight ahead on a bridge, that was now long gone. A house was built along it, and a driveway followed it's route. I had never walked that section ahead because of this, but the road to the right took us close enough. We followed it to the shore of Minsi Lake and walked along the edge of the dam, talking about wearing prom clothing to odd places.

We had a very nice view of the Kittatinny Ridge, of Kirkridge and the Nelson Vista up on the Appalachian Trail, and I was feeling contentment to know what where I stood looked like from those places.

The dam was in very poor shape. I remembered walking on it years before, with it's nice level water edge of blocks. Now, I could see the interior side of the dam was composed of pretty much regular cement blocks, and there were all collapsing to their hollow interiors which appeared to have been filled with some cheap mortar mix.

We continued walking along the dam berm, and then out to the intersection with Blue Mountain Drive where we continued straight. The bait and tackle shop on the left where I used to stop on this hike was still there, but there was now a pizzeria in the side of it. I wish that had been there a decade prior when we came through famished!

We continued along the road and the rail bed paralleled us to the left closely, then crossed.

LNE railroad bed at Bear Swamp Archery complex

LNE railroad bed, North Bangor

LNE railroad bed, North Bangor

The rail bed had some debris on it as soon as we got back on it, but then was cleared as part of the "elevated trail" of the Minsi Lake and Bear Swamp Archery Complex trail system. It was nice to see some of it in such good shape. This unfortunately didn't last long, as we got back away from the park section. The next section was full of blow downs  more than any of the other spots we'd seen yet. It used to be totally clear where ATVs would pass through, but no more. In addition, a section was cut away to drain wetlands to the south of the rail bed to the north.

We fought through briers and fallen trees for a while until another ATV path came in from the left. It then remained clear for a bit.

Old LNE railroad bridge, North Bangor

LNE Railroad bed, North Bangor

LNE railroad bed, North Bangor

We soon came to an open area with huge wetlands to both the left and the right of us. It was crossed by an old bridge that was now most only I beams remaining, and a couple of ties. We carefully crossed over. On the other side, where I used to go straight ahead, much more of the rail bed head been cleared, and possibly a new shed built on it. Fortunately, an ATV path turned off the rail bed to the left to reach Lake Minsi Drive again. We turned right, and then made a hard right where Creek Road came in to continue on the same road. There was a farm on the corner, with a young farmer glancing at us occasionally to see what we were up to. He eventually drove by us in a tractor.

Corrin and Kaitlin have a brother who lives just up the road from there, and so they left us as the point where the railroad used to cross, planning to rejoin in about a half hour. Unfortunately, Corrin had an allergic reaction to the thorns and decided not to come back out. Many thorns as I recalled when I was younger would make me swell up as well, but never amounted to anything.]

Naaron and I continued through a seemingly little used field with unplowed corn parallel to a new house that had been built on the rail bed even by the time of my previous hike there. We then regained the rail bed on the other side. I couldn't remember how many road crossings we had to get to Rt 191 where we were going to meet up with Corrin and Kaitlin again, but it was further than I though. It still took the same time though.

The rail bed ahead was pretty nice and clear. We crossed one more former bridge site, made up of only wooden ties.  We continued as it remained like a woods road for a bit of time. There was a no trespassing sign stuck in the ground, so I turned it around to face the direction we were coming from.

Soon, we came out on Fox Gap Road. There was a hunter walking down the street with a rifle in his hand, and he would certainly intercept us at the same time we got to the road. I told him we were lost after following an ATV path, and needed to get to 191. He told us to to right, and then hang the first left and we'd get there directly. I of course couldn't get out onto the rail bed ahead with him there, and it had tons of weeds and trees over it as I could see already from this point. We opted to go to the road.

LNE railroad bed and bridge near North Bangor

We could see the intersection as plain as day already from the rail bed. We turned right and then left, back onto Lake Minsi Drive and continued west. After a bit, I could see the field that the railroad bed came out to, where in the past it was tough to see where exactly it used to go. We could see houses and such too close as well. Maybe none of them were new, but with no leaves on the trees we'd definitely be seen, so I was glad to be out on the road.

We continued from here to where the rail bed came up right along side of the road, and some sort of new garden center or something had been built onto it where we approached Rt 191.

Blue Mountain and farm view near North Bangor

We soon reached Rt 191. I remembered the day Tea Biscuit and Peeps layed out in the middle of it wearing lab coats, on my first there here. The mountains above, part of the Offset where Kittatinny Mountain becomes Blue Mountain, still the same ridge, looked beautiful with rock outcroppings I wished I could go up and explore.

There was no sign of Corrin and Kaitlin at Rt 191, so we walked ahead to Shooktown Road where the rail bed went into woods again, and then came back to 191 again. This section of the rail bed was clear along the edge of West Bangor Road.

Former LNE rail bed north of Roseto

From a bit of distance off 191, we saw a grey car with people in it turn from Minsi Lake Drive going slowly. We thought it might be the girls with their brother looking for us, and we hurried back to see if it was them. They pulled down the road a bit, and I could here someone as they got out of sight lay on their horn, as they were probably holding up traffic. It turns out this couldn't have been them because I got a text from Corrin later that they opted not to come back out. Although they missed the most pleasant portion of the hike, they also missed some tough stuff.

LNE rail bed north of Roseto

We went back to Shooktown Road and crossed, and had to climb over a huge pile of debris to regain the rail bed, here following the edge of a power line as well. It seemed like it was very nice. There was even nice stone laying along the edges. For a moment I had a hope that it was being developed as a rail trail, as this of all sections would be best for that. Unfortunately, I soon found that there was a house right next to the rail bed that had widened their yard and landscaping to incorporate the entire railroad right of way out almost to Shooktown Road. There was a big earth mover sitting on the edge of the yard. We were in plain view so we hurried through. The house had a guy delivering heating oil as we passed, and I figured they'd soon be outside so we got to the other end of their property, climbed an even larger pile of debris, and then continued ahead on the rail bed, which here was very nice.

LNE rail bed north of Roseto

The rail bed ahead continued across someone's driveway, and then across Garibaldi Ave. I had thought this would be where Bangor Junction was, where the LNE branch headed south into Bangor through Roseto, but it was not. Memory did not serve me right here. We continued across Garibaldi as the rail bed remained clear and open.

It wasn't far after this street that we reached Bangor Junction Road. In the past, we could turn left here and head down along the former branch line into Roseto, but no more. I seemed to recognize the spot somewhat, with the pond of water separating the two lines after the junction, but the residence closest by seemed to have a newer building built right on or near the rail bed, and we couldn't walk down it any more. The ground might have been majorly disturbed as well. I could no longer tell this was even a junction site. I might still be able to reach the former eastbound junction, but I didn't remember seeing anything or even look for it while I was back there.

Disheartened, we turned to the left down Bangor Junction Road, and then turned left on Front Ave. I should have gone left on Hazen Street but my phone was dead, and I could get only short periods of power out of it for emergency calls should I need it. Naaron's phone was also dead. We turned left on Danisco Street, then right on Falcone for a bit to reach a cemetery.

Grave yard in Roseto

We turned left and crossed the cemetery, which appeared to strangely have two very old looking stones and the rest much newer. The other end of the cemetery took us out onto Liberty Ave. We turned left on Liberty and then immediately right onto Jewel Street. This took us  only a short distance out to Poplar Street. I looked off to the left of us and could see the former railroad bed in the backs of people's  houses. I recalled being able to walk through on this, but no more. Poplar took us out to Danisco where the rail bed crossed.

Former LNE rail bed branch in Roseto

I think we got back on the rail bed briefly here, behind houses as it followed a slope down hill. It was pretty much as I'd remembered it here, but still probably forgotten by the area as ever having been a railroad. We continued a short distance and came out on Columbus Street.

LNE railroad branch in Roseto, now a park

Ahead was the only section I know of where this branch had become part of a park or trail. The paved path weaved around along the old rail bed to a dead end with access only to a side street. The park was dedicated to those who served the town of Roseto, past mayors and fire departments and the like, but there was nothing of the rich railroad history. I admire that they pay respect to their past public servants, but I also wish a kiosk were in place to tell of the history of the Lehigh and New England Railroad because it's vanishing so fast, which was more apparent now to me.

LNE railroad branch in Roseto, now a park

As we walked the short paved trail, I could see the pavement cracking with grass growing through. It amazed me that in not even a decade, a park that seemed so well manicured and somewhat new could become so poor looking.

We continued down hill past the last street access and could see Rt 191 ahead. This highway was built over most of the remainder of this rail line, so we'd end up following that down hill.

I noticed to my left, as we descended, the "Welcome to Roseto" stone sign that used to sit on the rail bed, welcoming travelers of Rt 191 to the town; just another change from what I remembered. Where the sign once sat, a new sign had been erected, although we couldn't see it because it was covered over with a brown tarp.

New but not yet unveiled Roseto sign

We headed down hill on Rt 191, which seemed to go by fast. We got into Bangor before dark. I pointed out to Naaron where the railroad turned away, where there's now a bank mthat has coal chutes still in place in it's parking lot. We then continued into town and stopped at the Sunoco station for some food and such. I almost bought some sort of "tornado" thing, but the young girl working the register warned me not to because they'd been sitting there since morning. I instead opted to purchase a Reece's Fast Break bar before heading off. The girl told us she wished she could hike, but worked in retail which made it impossible. I gave her a Metrotrails business card before leaving.

We made our way along the streets of Bangor, and considered stopping for pizza, but then opted not to. I did stop when we got to CVS, and ran inside to get some potato chips since I was so hungry, but that was it.

Behind the CVS was the former Lackawanna Railroad's Bangor and Portland line, still active single tracked. We got onto it along a branch of the Martin's Creek and followed it east.

It was getting pretty dark at this point, but we continued on. The railroad paralleled Rt 512 for a while which provided light, and then crossed the entrance to a large junk yard. After crossing Broad Street of East Bangor, we left the rest of civilization for a while and made our way along the edge of, and for a time on a causeway right onto East Bangor Lake. This was a spectacular place to be in the dark. The wind was not as cold and biting as I had worried it would be, and the stars were brilliant, visible in clusters I was not used to seeing normally. The moon, although less than half full, was so bright it cast our shadow on the track ahead of us.

We crossed a small road after East Bangor Lake, but remained skirting wetlands for some time almost until we reached the little hamlet of Johnsonville, I remembered back to climbing on rail cars wearing lab coats here more than a decade prior.

We went on to cross Lillian Lane, Ye Olde Highway, and Sand Pit Road before reaching Railroad Ave in Mt. Bethel, near the intersection with Million Dollar Highway. The Mt Bethel Station house was still looking very good, now a private residence. I knew once we got to this point that there wasn't much more we had left to walk.

We continued along the tracks in the dark for a bit further until we reached Middle Village Road, where we turned left and headed back down to Naaron's truck across the Jacoby Creek. We saw a guy out in his yard walking his dogs, who commented on how all the power to the light poles in the area were out. Someone must have hit a pole. We walked in the dark across Jacoby Creek to Naaron's camper.

This hike, like so many of them, had meaning for me as well, but what was it?

I had revisited a place that I once knew so well. Reminiscence was a sure theme for the day. I started the hike with two old friends who joined the military, Peeps and Naaron. They were back, and we act as if nothing changed. Even Corrin, who had become a main player in the hiking group, had just recently returned from a semester in Wisconsin. The route of the hike itself had changed immensely in many ways, and so had I. So had my way of leading hikes. These days, I view areal images prior to the hike and determine if it's too much private land, all built up, or what. So much of this hike, if I did it for the first time today,. would be completely different. Still, so much is the same, as I am still organizing these hikes, and they are as good as they ever were.

Paths had grown over, were built over, friends came and went, and came again, and I still have the same strength and passion toward these places as I did a decade ago when I first visited them. I again count myself lucky, but this time there was a grim undertone. I thought to myself how it's only through change that we grow, but it's also only through change that we die. It's not always for the better. I'm just glad that, despite all of the hardships I've faced in recent years, I still feel very much alive.