Hike #637; Lehigh Gorge/Penn Haven Loop

 Hike #637; Lehigh Gorge; Penn Haven Loop

7/8/12 

7/8/12 Lehigh Gorge/Penn Haven Loop with Derek Baker, Shelly Janes, Amanda Rosenblatt, Ira Rubinstein, Bonnie Peters, Lyz Hagenbuch, Ric Giantisco (Kermit), "Naaron" Young, and Jim Delotto

The group in Lehigh Gorge above Oxbow Bend

My next big hike would be a return to series' of hikes that I hadn't gotten back to since 2008, for one reason or another. It would incorporate the next sections of the Lehigh Canal, Lehigh Valley Railroad, and Central Railroad of NJ I had not hiked yet northbound as part of my regularl long hikes.

The hike would begin in the Glen Onoko section fo Jim Thorpe PA. We met at the market in town and then shuttled vehicles north to the parking areas near Glen Onoko Tunnel. We of course began the hike by hiking through the tunnel itself and back, always a hit.

None of us could have guessed how difficult this hike would turn out to be. I knew it would be tough to trace the route of the river heading north, but even I was at my wit's end by the end of the messy section. This would be a loop along the Lehigh River between Glen Onoko and Penn Haven.

The group was a really cool mix of people from so many different times in the history of the group. We even had two newcomers. I love seeing the different people, who all have this hiking in common, interacting with each other and swapping crazy stories.

After going out and back through the tunnel, which emerges on a cliff face requiring turning back, we began to scale the steep and rocky slope to the east to climb above the tunnel. The first leg of the journey was to trace the former Lehigh Canal's upper division. We had followed the entire Lower Division from Glen Onoko south to it's terminus at Easton. Now much of the route is the D&L Trail, which uses the rail bed at Glen Onoko.The Upper Division was very much a system of locks and slack water pools created by multiple dams. The Lehigh Canal throughout it's length uses slack water dams (where rather than digging a new canal trench, the towpath is constructed along the river, and the impoundment from the dam acts as the canal in the river itself). Most of the lower division was a canal itself, but the upper division had to overcome more major terrain and the narrowness of Lehigh Gorge.

The canal once passed directly below the Glen Onoko Tunnel mouth, but no sign of it below remains at all.We made our way to the top of the ridge, where there was a nice view into the gorge ahead. It was nice to have something so rewarding so early. Derek and I were in the lead most of the entire beginning. We descended from the view and found our way on unofficial foot paths to an old woods road, leading down a ramp toward the Lehigh River gradually.Once at the river, there was a nice little spot to regroup. We couldn't see any sign of canal towpath at first, but it became much more apparent. A trail continued along the edge of the river from here, and it did seem like some sort of grade. It took me a while to realize that this was in fact the old Lehigh Canal towpath. Dam #2 and Lock #3 were just below us somewhere here, but we didn't get to see a sign of it. Most of the masonry from the high dams associated with the upper division have little remaining. The first couple locks on the upper division are easy to find (we hiked those previously) because they remained active much later.

In 1862, there was a major flood to strike the Lehigh, and it pretty much destroyed the Lehigh Canal. Following the flood, the entire Upper Division save for those first couple locks were deemed unworthy of repair. The advent of the railroad had already happened, and so the Central Railroad of NJ, then the Lehigh and Lackawanna Railroad I think, was constructed and took away the need for the upper division. In some cases it was built over the canal. So we were looking for canal remnants that had not been used since 1862 and had suffered the pummeling of multiple floods since.

The towpath became much more obviously man made when we could see a masonry wall retaining it. I could just picture the pool of water coming right to it's edge.We soon came upon the ruins of Lock #4. This one was in surprisingly good shape. Both land side and river side walls were still in place, with a certain degree of collapse. There were a few metal spikes still in the stones. Both sides had sort of rounded walls on the downstream side. We stopped for a break to check it out, and I think we took a dip in the river as well. It was terribly hot and humid, but somehow it didn't matter so much here. It was so nice where we were walking. It was shaded, in a cooler woods of Rhododendron, some in bloom.We next followed an old canal section. Most of the canal prism was hard to make out. It was pretty badly washed away, or was rather even with the level on either sides from silting in. At the end of the canal section we came to the site of Lock #5. It was almost not recognizable as a lock. Only the land side remained, the river side, although in a somewhat wider flood plain, must have washed away over the years.

We continued as best we could on the towpath headed up stream. It remained rather easy to walk, despite how difficult the description in my book said it would be, until we got to around where the canal switched sides of the river again. I don't remember seeing any evidence of where the bridge would have crossed for the mules, but a crude path sort of continued along the river heading north, so we followed.There seemed to be a trench for a canal along the edge of us for a bit, but it was probably just a feeder or something to the lower canal. The next remnant we came across was the ruins of dam #4. This stone pile that stretched to the water side was quite obvious, with the joining of what I assumed to be a feeder canal with the river. People going by on rafts gave us weird looks. like we were crazy to be hiking that side.The river began to bend to the west, making it's way toward Oxbow Bend. When we got to the center of the bend, there was a gas right of way going up the ridge to the right, and to the left there was a rope and wire bridge carrying the line over the Lehigh. I went about half way across and turned back. it was a bit nerve wracking. It swung around a bit, and there were huge holes between the two pipes across. A fall between would promise the end of me. More people going by on rafts again thought I was crazy.

DeLotto got stung by something in this section as well, but he was fortunately ok for the day.

After I got back, we took a little break, then started making the brutal ascent up the slope from Oxbow Bend. The hike was terribly tough, but we managed to get up, then turned down the side path to the amazing view up Lehigh Gorge and back toward the bend. We spent a good amount of time at this amazing spot admiring the view. It was the perfect lunch stop.After the stop, we continued to scale the edge of the slope. It was still a ways to the top. We then turned left on a supposed path that didn't last.  We ended up  having to bushwhack to the left from the gas line after a bit, making our way close to the steep drop off into the gorge. By doing this, we happened upon what I thought was a deer trail. I tried following it, and it led us out to yet another outstanding view point. The views up the gorge were even better than before, and there was a bench! It was obviously used by ATVs to reach the spot. We could still see Oxbow Bend, but not as good as previously.

After another break, we continued on the woods road cleared by ATVs heading east. It ended up taking us quite a bit further away from the Lehigh than I had counted on. The next plan was to descend into the Bear Creek Gorge, a side gorge from the Lehigh, very deep north of Oxbow Bend. After a bit, I thought I found a path, but it was nothing. We ended up having to bushwhack all the way down into the gorge, which was extremely difficult. We had to zig zag across the slope avoiding Rhododendron thickets as best we could, and at one point had to slide carefully down a tiny slope to avoid going straight off of a high cliff.When we finally reached Bear Creek, I couldn't wait to jump in. I saw a pool that looked great, but nothing could prepare us for  how great it would actually be. This was a hidden waterfall, barely visible unless in the water, with a giant boulder on top of it! The water cascaded between rocks beneath the boulder before flowing down stream. Almost everyone got in. Ric and Bonnie were handling the hike amazingly for first timers. Lyz recruited Ric out of an AMC group because he went up some crazy hill in Valley Forge that no one else wanted to do, and Bonnie came through the Meetup group.The water was freezing cold, but we seriously needed it. From descending this crazy gorge, we were all sweating like mad. Even Derek, whom I had never seen get completely in the water yet, was totally in and happy with it.After our swim, we made our way down stream past more glorious cascades. This was not the end of our troubles through. The gorge was too narrow and required some to go high up the slopes in order to get through without getting wet. Climbing over these rocks was not easy. After a bit, we came to an old woods road parallel with the creek, and we passed a probable former mill side because there was a purged out dam. There was also a foundation along the slope to the right. The woods road continued out to the confluence of Bear Creek and the Lehigh where we took another swim break before moving on. I thought it would be much easier from here; only a couple miles along the right bank of the river, then we would come to the former Lehigh Valley Railroad bed, where it used to cross over the river while the canal was in operation.

This was not so easy at all. The gorge got too narrow and there was probably never a road or anything on this side of the river at all. I opted to just walk in the river along the bank because it was too hard to do otherwise. Derek tried to lead some of the group up hill on dry land to the first good spot, and even he had had enough and led the group back down to the river and began wading.Lyz and Ric had joined me early on in this endeavor, and so we were a bit further ahead. Just when we thought we'd have a shelf enough to walk on, the gorge would become narrow again and we'd have to stay in the mess. I finally began looking at the river for a safe way to walk people across if they wanted to cut out early. Ira, Shelly, Bonnie, and DeLotto all opted to cut out, and Lyz and I walked them across. I had to go back for a second trip for two.The six of us remaining continued on along a good wide shelf, and I spotted the remains of a former railroad car that had washed down and long since silted around it. Quite the interesting thing to see.

The shelf soon disappeared, and I thought we should have seen the railroad bed by now, but such was not the case. Could not see any canal remnants either.A park ranger saw Derek and I standing on the shore and stopped to watch us for a bit, but then moved along.

While walking in this section of water, I slipped several times and ended up completely in the water. Fighting along the river edge through water was really pushing us to the limit. I was getting to the point of exhaustion and frustration that I was about ready to ford the river at the next convenient spot. I started looking off to the river for places it looked feasible. While looking that way, I turned and saw the abutment to the former Lehigh Valley Railroad. I was so happy to see it. Derek and I were in the front, and climbed to the railroad bed. This pier was quite old and the right of way had obviously not been used since the 1800s. The rest of the hike was overall easy from here, but it was already around 7 pm. It had taken us a very long time to get through this mess.

We followed the right of way and saw the outline of where the old ties used to sit. We crossed over a couple of hollows, and passed the site of a former bridge over a creek with only a small section of abutment remaining. We then followed the mostly clear rail bed north to the Penn Haven trestle over the Lehigh. This trestle was the later LV railroad alignment after the abandonment of the canal (the later alignment would have interfered with the interchange between rail cars from Penn Haven Planes where coal was shipped to the boats prior to 1862). We turned left and crossed the LV bridge, which was still active, and then got on the Lehigh Gorge Trail, part of the D&L Trail. We followed it past the former site of Penn Haven Station, one of the few stations in the country that did not have a road access to it. We then headed south through the gorge. I could see some Lehigh Canal remnants along the rail bed to our left as we went, some of which might have been one of the lock sites. It was getting darker, but I could still see canal prism and sometimes towpath. Much of it was obliterated when the CNJ rail line, which is now the trail, was built over it.

This section was very nice and relaxing to walk. I had not walked this section of trail since I did it in 1997 with Conrad Blease. A long train passed us while we were walking.

We also looked up at some of the rocks we had been on earlier, and watched the gorge walls bend as we passed through Oxbow Bendn and beneath the gas line bridge.DeLotto called me up and let me know that he left Shelly at a local pizza place in Jim Thorpe for us to pick her up, and we had hoped to get there to have some food at the end.

It was almost completely dark by the time we got to the cars, but we could still see the features of the gorge, and the Glen Onoko Tunnel as we crossed the bridge over the river right before returning to the cars.

The hike was epic. There were so many amazing features of the entire thing, and it constantly changed, and yet in some way it seemed short to me looking back on it. Maybe it's because of the humbling feeling I get from the grandiose nature of the deep gorge, and the seemingly i nfinite miles of trail system I will never be able to cover in my life time. There is still so much more of the canal and two railroads to cover heading north, as well as all of the public lands that border the gorge on either side, and miles more of undeveloped former roads and creek valleys with hidden waterfalls.

With ever hike, the world becomes a little more tangible, and maybe in that way a little friendlier to me. It's no longer the foreboding stranger that leads off into the unknown, but rather an old friend that shows the way to more, farther places.

There is probably so much I am forgetting about this hike, and so many others. What I feel when I reminisce about these great days is something I can't begin to put into words. I'm just so blessed to have such a great, fulfilling way to pass the time.