Hike #1195; Alfarata/Alexandria to Huntingdon

Hike #1195; Alfarata/Alexandria to Huntingdon

1/22/19 Alfarata/Alexandria to Huntingdon with Daniel Trump, Jennifer Tull, and Janet Lynn McCourt-Finsen

This hike started as the latter portion of one that should have been a four-day trip. The previous three days were spent hiking from Johnstown to Hollidaysburg PA, tracing mostly the Main Line of Public Works, the series of canals and railroads that connected Philadelphia and Pittsburg. That route is also pretty much the route of the 911 National Memorial Trail, and I wanted to knock out a long section of It from my series on it.

Starting off at Alfarata

The snow was so deep that the entire Lower Trail, which follows the old Petersburg Branch of the Pennsylvania Railroad, was in deep snow that had not been packed down in any way. I was hoping to do twelve miles of that, which is also part of the Mid State Trail that I’ve already done before, followed by another ten or so miles out to Huntingdon where we’d left our cars on Friday. We took the train to Johntown and were planning to head back.
Our host at Blue Lanter Bed and Breakfast prepared us an awesome meal, and then was good enough to drive us out to Alfarata to begin the hike.
We were dropped off right where I’d been, where the Mid State Trail’s orange blazes meet up with the Lower Trail. From there, we would continue eastbound.
The official 911 Memorial Trail follows main road routes where there is no trail. Often times, there are “no pedestrian” signs up along the way. I’ve taken some liberties with these sections and followed more closely to the historic routes. In this case, we’d try to follow the Petersburg Branch first.

Alexandria station building

The rail bed was rather clear ahead, but there was obvious posted signs, so we went out to Main Street which is parallel.
Alfarata is not to be confused with another town by the same name not so far away. It’s just a tiny settlement there. It’s actually on the west side of Alexandria PA, another confusing thing. Both Williamsburg to the west, and Alexandria to the east are towns in Virginia, but far lesser known in PA.
Mead Westvaco Envolope Products was an industry on the left, and we turned left on Barree Road after passing it to Shelton Avenue. This was the route of the old railroad. Additionally, the Juniata Division of the Pennsylvania Canal would have been right alongside of it, if not on it, most of this way. Right from the start, the 127 mile canal completed in 1832 was close to where the railroad was built. The Pennsylvania Railroad acquired most of the Main Line of Public Works in the 1850s, and often built right over it. We could see into the gap in the mountains to the west here, and to the east the road went along a park property. A former rail bridge site was at a small tributary underpass to the right of us, so we weren’t directly on the rail bed. The canal must have turned off through a ditch to the right, as Canal Street is a bit further south of here. Maps of the area are not easily comparable, but there are some.

Alexandria Station building

The railroad bed ended up slightly lower than Shelton Ave. When it look feasible, we headed down to walk it for a bit. It passed behind a fire hall, then crossed Hartslog Street. Just beyond, it passed through a public park where the tiny but nice Alexandria Station was still standing, complete with a piece of tracks right in front of it.
It was a nice little spot, but nearly impossible to trudge through.

Alexandria Station in early 1900s

When we first turned away from Main Street to try to follow the railroad, Dan opted to stay out on the main road and meet up with us a little further on. He was hurting pretty bad.

Alexandria in 1908

When we reached Bridge Street, we turned to the right and met back up with him. We all then continued to the left on Main Street, and could see where the railroad bed came out to cross over at an angle. The canal must have crossed at about the same point, and maps show just about the same thing. I suppose the railroad might be built right on top of it in this area. We continued ahead to the next intersection where Rt 305 continued hard to the left, and the old Alexandria Pike continued straight. Dan decided to take a shortcut and head to the left. He would meet up with us in Petersburg and give himself a break, while Jenny, Janet, and I continued on Alexandria Pike to the south.

Old truss bridge over Frankstown Banch of the Juniata

We passed through some lovely farm lands. There was a stately barn on the left, followed by a castle like home up on the hill. The railroad bed remained in view for a time down below us, along the Frankstown Branch of the Juniata for a while. We passed a lighthouse themed church, and continued south on Alexandria Pike to where it made a hard right to cross the railroad bed, then hard left to continue parallel on the other side. It looked as though there was a ditch in the near side of the tree line that contained the rail bed, so I figured that must have been the canal. The two are close together for a time here, but both weave out through fields where both have been farmed out of existence, and then the railroad continues back north to connect with the Pennsylvania Railroad main line near Petersburg, and the canal continued east to cross over the Frankstown Branch, then headed to the impoundment of the Juniata River behind the Warrior Dam.

River Road

There was a road to the right called Berwick Forge Road. In the documentation I’ve found on the old canal, locks 9 and 10 were near “Hatfield’s Iron Works”. The Berwick Forge on the old mid 1800s maps has the name “Hatfield” on it, so it is likely that where we made the right and left turn was actually the site of these locks.

I didn’t know at the time where the canal went at all, but at this point I’ve just about figured it out.
We continued south on Alexandria Pike, which took us through more pretty farm lands, and then to a lovely old through truss bridge over the Frankstown Branch, built by the Pittsburg Bridge Co. in 1898. We crossed, and I paid special attention to the river looking for a towpath and such, but didn’t at the time know that the canal was not at this area.
We turned to the left on River Road on the other side. In retrospect, it would have been a good walk to go straight ahead, because there are amazing rock outcroppings one way, and Lincoln Caverns are up there, but I also wanted to check out the stuff on the way to Huntingdon on the other side. Maybe I’ll have to revisit some of this. We’ll see.

Frankstown Branch

The walk along River Road was breathtaking. It got really cold again for a bit, but then the sun was out for a lot of time which was great. When the clouds covered over and opened back up, it was particularly beautiful.
As we headed around the corner, past rocky outcropping hillsides, I spotted a former dam site on the left. I either didn’t take any photos of it, or my phone missed them. I have been taking a lot of photos with my cell phone, and finding that they don’t save if I close the phone out too fast. I’ve been sad to have missed many pictures not realizing this at first.
It is now my belief that this dam site was the one that provided enough slack water for the canal to cross the Frankstown Branch just upstream from here. We continued along the road as it moved away from the river a bit. There was a hotel type place that looked pretty upscale to the left. This was one of the places I was considering staying overnight for a long trip, but I ended up making it work out this different way.
It was somewhere in this area I believe that the canal joined with the road. I wouldn’t have known it at the time. We moved on ahead from there, and there was a driveway to the right, with a big trench beside it. I remember mentioning to Jenny and Janet that this looked like a canal, and I’m not sure I took a photo of it, but I don’t have one. As it turns out, it absolutely was the canal, in a place I would never have expected it. Now I’m kicking myself for not making sure to have a photo.

Juniata River

The canal went out through this farm property, on what’s called Burket Lane, and entered the Juniata above Warrior Dam to the east.
We continued north from here and crossed over the Frankstown Branch, where it’s confluence was immediately to the right. The Little Juniata met the Frankstown Branch, to become simply the Juniata River here. The road continued ahead following along the Little Juniata.
Soon, we came to where the Petersburg Branch of the PRR crossed the road. To the right, it crossed the Little Juniata River on a through girder bridge. I walked out onto it a bit for a photo, but it made no sense to try to follow it. It was overgrown and would go too far into private land where we would have problems. There was also a bridge missing over the next creek.

Old rail bridge

We headed north and soon reached the intersection with Rt 305. We turned right here, and crossed over the Little Juniata. I’d camped along this lovely river on a backpacking trip just upstream in Barree. Part of me just wants to follow it some more, but there’s never enough time.
We headed up hill and soon crossed over the former Pennsylvania Railroad main line we had been following for so many miles a few days before, and then a train went by almost immediately. We turned right on the other side of the bridge and headed into downtown Petersburg.

Former Pennsylvania Railroad

We crossed over the frozen over Shaver Creek, and then stopped in to Skip’s Valley General store for some food and drink.
Dan was there waiting for us, and he’d already started talking to people in there. We took up all the seats and enjoyed just lounging for a little bit. A guy sitting over at one of the counters started talking to us. We thought he was just a regular patron, but it turned out it was the store’s owner, who actually lives in California, but is out for now. His son was the guy working the counter.
He told us of an accident he’d had and how he’s lucky to be alive, and about coming to own the store and living out west. He was genuinely interested in what we were doing and wished us all the best on our trip before we headed out.

View on Warrior Ridge

From here, my plan was to go up hill on the old Petersburg Pike. It’s a narrow, lightly used road that climbs the Warrior Ridge, and then heads inland a bit, joins with Grove Road, and then heads down hill into Huntingdon. Much of the road passes through State Game Lands 322, and so it’s really undeveloped.

View on Warrior Ridge

We headed up hill rather steeply, and Dan turned right on Warrior Ridge Road, which descends to the Warrior Ridge Dam. He decided to parallel the former Pennsylvania Railroad back to Huntingdon, while I wanted to get a little bit more mileage and see the ridge area.
Jenny and Janet followed me up hill, and we had some outstanding views of the Warrior Ridge Reservoir, and back to the Tussey Ridge to the west, where we passed through the gap at Alfarata to Alexandria. We then had another great view down toward the dam itself before the road started turning inland.

View on Warrior Ridge

I was expecting that this road would continue to climb up, but it actually passed through a cleft in the ridge by way of a tributary. After we’d reached a certain elevation, the road was almost flat for a long while, which made it very pleasant walking.
There were lots of woods road sand such that were going into the state game lands to the right. I salivated at the thought of following these, because we could get pretty much back into Huntingdon without even being on the roads if we were to follow them, but the problem was still the huge amounts of snow. We couldn’t really work it out. It’d take until far too late if we were to do that, and we’d be terribly sore. I couldn’t do that and then do the long drive home.

State Game Lands

We continued up to the intersection, and there were more cars on that stretch. Still, it wasn’t all that bad. There were a couple of ups and downs as we followed the road south toward Huntingdon.
I had wanted to get off of the main road much earlier, but I got in sort of a trans and didn’t bother with it. We continued to Cold Springs Road, and turned right. Oddly, this intersected with Warm Springs Road. I wondered what exactly the temperature difference was between these springs.
We headed through town, and soon passed by Juniata College. It was a nice campus, and kids were walking around everywhere. One of the buildings was obviously refurbished with an addition made to look similar to the original section, but we could tell where they did that.
In addition to the college, school buses and such were traveling around everywhere. Kids were getting out of school just as we were coming into town.
I’m not sure all which streets we turned on, but we managed to get through some of the historic district and to the lot where the cars were parked. Dan was already there cleaning our cars off having had his own adventure along the railroad. We put our bags down, then walked up the street to a bar and grill. I think we stopped at one called Friendly Tavern. I’m not sure if that’s’ the one we went into or not. But we went into one.
I decided to just have a bowl of soup and not go nuts. I’d already eaten far too much during the previous four days, and needed to start watching it. I also didn’t want to be going into a food coma on the way home. Thankfully, I managed to drive the entire thing without a problem, other than almost running out of gas. But we found that too.

Juniata College

It was a really good long weekend, being out and covering a lot of ground. I definitely want to do more stuff like this as time goes by. I already had the next one planned for the following week, but at this point I just missed my cats and wanted to get home. More excitement was coming.