Hike #644; Emmaus to Bethlehem

 Hike #644; Emmaus to Bethlehem

8/5/12 Emmaus to Bethlehem with "Commando" Tom Petrucci, Laura Allen Cunningham, Stephanie Skioratis, Bobbi Landrock, Bonnie Peters, Gregg Hudis, Shelly Janes, Jim "Mr. Buckett" Mathews, Eric Pace, and ?.

The group in Trout Creek Park

For some reason the notes will no longer allow me to import photos. Ugh.

This next hike would be the eight annual "March on Musikfest". It's amazing that the hikes have come so far. I started doing the Musikfest hikes in 2005, and only two showed up on the hot day. By the next year, I was getting more and more participants, and my old friend Randy Melick coined the term "March on Musikfest" in a message to me the week of the trip. Randy, being a talented artist with a creative mind casually called it that in jest and I liked it. The hike that year was one of the most fun I had hosted to date, so it became the model for the future Musikfest hikes.

In the years to follow we would party at Guillermo's house, sneak in and get kicked out of a Moody Blues Concert, swim in an aqueduct, jump a moving train, and jump off a forty foot trestle to name just a few things. It's amazing that eight years later, with some years having more than one Musikfest hike, that there are still trails and interesting new things to see wandering around Bethlehem.

This time, we began our hike in Emmaus, to finish in Bethlehem. Like usual, we met at the Martin Tower and shuttled to the beginning. I couldn't remember where the parking area for the trail head was from the previous time up there, so we parked at another street to the south in Emmaus. We then turned right and followed the old Reading Railroad branch from the south up to the approach trail up into the Robert Rodale Nature Preserve, on the west end of South Mountain. The approach trail had added a new loop section from the parking area with a nice kiosk. Along the tracks I had a look at an old building and an old coal trestle as well.

Tom and Laura's friend Stephanie joined us as well; she had joined part of a night hike once, in 2009, but was freaked out a bit. She finally made it out for a regular long day hike and did great!

We walked the trail for a bit, then came to the wooden bridge where the trail crosses a road. Eric had turned back after a bit because he didn't want to walk the tracks, and Mr. Buckett went with him. Buckett then showed up again at the main parking lot when we arrived there with Eric. They went up the trail with us for a bit. He, Shelly, and their friend turned back all together. We turned right on the two forks, and passed a big dog walker group before ascending on the well made trail. I think some of the trail had some standard blazing but mostly it was kind of sloppy. The trail was great though. We continued up hill, then took the right forks. We took a yellow trail which made it's way down and back up again, to keep with the near perimeter of the property. Other informal trails turned off of these larger main ones, but we kept to the official route for a bit. We continued onto the blue trail which led to the north of the property, and came close to a power line cut. It poured down rain for a brief time in here, but it was overall very pleasant.

We had a nice break by the power line, but then left the trail system to follow the power line north. It joined with another line, and then the access road along it turned left and down to cross a lovely little stream. I got my feet wet again here, and then we came out to Lanze Lane, a dead end road that parallels the interstate 78. We followed the road east to the next underpass. Tom and I laughed hysterically as a result of the  happy drink for the extent of most of this road, which felt nice.

We crossed 78 on Rock Road, then turned left on the dead end Beacon Road. Near a bend in this road, we cut off into the woods. This led us down to another power line, actually the same one I think, we were on before, and we followed it shortly, then turned off on a faint pathway leading along the ridge of South Mountain. We were able to cut off trail down toward another South Mountain park I found on Google Earth from here. There appeared to be an above ground reservoir that had a big tank, and a nice view of Allentown nearby. We took a break here, but then a big earth mover was coming up the access road. We turned right where I found what appeared to be an abandoned hiking trail. I'd say it was an old quarry road, because it skirted the edge of an old quarry, inactive for at least a half a century judging by the tree growth, but it was lined with stones that led me to believe it was for walking. Once we got to a spot where we could cross the quarry, on what looked somewhat like another trail, we did, and continued down a swath of woods between a private home and the access road where the earth mover was working.

After crossing the driveway to the house, we cut into the woods to the same road beyond a switch back. Once on the road, no earth movers tried to follow us, so we explored a grassy swath looking for the next leg of our trip.

I found a path leading from a grassy area along the road with crude white blazes I think they were. We followed them, and they took us through woods and then back around to a small reservoir pond. A second pond was in the woods just past it. Tom and I opted to take a swim in the surprisingly deep second pond. It was great!

The trail left the second pond and came out near 10th Street. We made our way out and turned right on Ethel, left on Lumber, then right on Emaus Street. There was then a school on the left side, and we cut across the yard.Near the north end of the school property we had another nice break under the shade before moving on.

We reached the linear Mack Park, and turned slightly left to cross a foot bridge over Trout Creek. We then followed the park area to the left out to Dixon Street, where it became Trout Creek Park on the other side. The left side looked more developed, but the right was open enough that we could walk it, past an abandoned house that we couldn't get in, and then out to Trout Creek Lane. Tom layed in the brook for a bit, and then he and I walked in Trout Creek through the underpass for the railroad tracks above. On the other side was a nice deep spot where we took a dip. The rest of the group went out to Mack Blvd to walk under the tracks and into the next section of park. While Tom and I were taking a dip, two cops were walking through and came up to us. We said hi, but they didn't give us a hard time for being in there, nor did they smell happy drinks on us.

We followed the creek down stream through the park from here, passed under Rt 145 and had to wade across the creek, and came out on East Auburn Street. We turned right here. We then walked several back streets through southeast Allentown out to Constitution Drive. Big storm clouds were over head while we headed that way. Eventually the sky let loose and we were getting wet. It was alright though, mostly under the tree canopy. Constitution Drive was an excellent road to walk. It wad dirt, and had some stone ruins along the right side. We followed it until it turned right up hill, and then we entered the Salisbury Walking Purchase Preserve. We had hiked some of this last year, but there was still so much more to see. This year we would keep to the lower trails because I hadn't explored really any of it yet. We found a map to show that the trail system extended across the railroad tracks as well, leaving us with even more stuff to explore. Along the trails we found an abandoned pavilion as well.

We continued on and eventually emerged near the hospital in South Bethlehem like we had done the previous year. Tom realized after getting there that he had jogged much of this, but didn't realize it was that extensive.

We walked the streets from there to the Hill to Hill Bridge where Tom, Laura, Stephanie, and I forget if there was anyone else, left to head home while the rest of us made our way to the main drag in South Bethlehem to stop for some pizza, which was a great stop. We then walked north across I think the Fahy Bridge into Bethlehem.

We wandered on up to the main street section, and I was happy to see that none of the festivities had been moved really. The main concerts were moved to Bethlehem Steel, but the main Musikfest stuff was all in place as it had been. We were afraid it would change because of the flooding the previous year, and that they'd have no concerts. It still ended up being really nice.

We met back up with Mr. Buckett, Eric, and Shelly again at the fest, and wandered back down into the main area because I wanted to see my buddy Chris Metaxas play with a Janis Joplin tribute band, on keyboards. The band was absolutely awesome. We sat through most of the set, and I talked to Chris a bit between songs when other band members filled in with Hendrix covers.

I had ridden to the hike with Gregg, and Eric drove me home, so I just had to walk back to the Brew Works area parking lot when it was time to go.

It was another great, feel good hike, keeping with the tradition of past years. It's nice to think that some things can continue to hold up over time, with the same kind of enthusiasm.