Hike #1251; Gold Mine to Clarks Valley

Hike #1251; Gold Mine to Clarks Valley

8/31/19 Gold Mine to Clark's Valley (St Anthony's Wilderness) with Tea Biscuit (Scott Helbing), Annika Krystyna, David Adams, Craig Craig, and Diane Reider.

This next hike would be another point to point, this time branching west further in our 911 Memorial Trail series.

Historic image of Gold Mine Station from Barry Swanger collection

The route that was officially designated before was to head out to Harrisburg, and then up through the narrows up the Susquehanna from there, but the initially planned route did not allow pedestrians. So, the route I was using out through Stoney Valley was a route suggested by planner Robert Thomas here. We had reached the Stony Valley Rail Trail on the previous hike at Gold Mine Road, and this time would continue with that.
I could have done the next section all in one shot on the rail trail, from Gold Mine Road out to Ellendale Forge at the next parking area on the trail, but that would be a really boring hike. I wanted it to be something good, something substantial that would have other stuff as well.
I looked at a few other connections that I’d wanted to make, which included a piece of the Horse-Shoe Trail I’d never done. That 140 mile long trail from Valley Forge to Stony Mountain was something I only had a bit more to complete, but kept putting it off. This was another chance.

YUM

There were also plenty of other trails up there to do that we could add in there. How far we would go would depend on our timing and how we were feeling.
It was also Labor Day Weekend. Anywhere we posted a hike was likely to be crap. Every park that anyone knows the name of would be overrun with people, but Saint Anthony’s Wilderness, which is the longest expanse of no road crossings on the entire Pennsylvania section of the Appalachian Trail, was a sure bet not to be bothered by so many people.
I picked up my brother Tea Biscuit on my way out there, and we headed out to the wilderness. We stopped by the Sheetz on Rt 501 on the way out and got some Fiesta Wraps for the way. As is typical, we made asses of ourselves in the store with weird commentary and such.

The rail trail

We arrived at Clarks Valley on the Appalachian Trail, the meeting point I had planned, and then shuttled in my van to the start at Gold Mine, where we had left off on the previous hike.

Gold Mine Station

Gold Mine Road once had a station stop on the railroad, a small shanty type of structure.
The first part of the hike would be on the former Schuylkill and Susquehanna Branch of the Reading Railroad.
The original railroad out into Saint Anthony’s Wilderness was the Dauphin and Susquehanna Railroad constructed 1850-1852 from Dauphin to Gold Mine. That railroad did not terminate at the former station stop we were parked at. It climbed gradually up the flank of Stony Mountain and ended up hill on Gold Mine Road, near an outcropping they call Chinese Wall or Boxcar Rocks, to serve the coal mining industry of the area.
In 1854, the line was extended west to Auburn, and the original route became a siding, known then as Gold Mine Siding or Summit Siding. It was taken out of service in the 1860s.
The railroad was formally taken over by the Reading Railroad in 1872, and at that time the major operations were moved from their original headquarters at Rausch Gap to Pine Grove to the east.
The industries for which the line was built, coal, iron and lumber, were not lasting, and new industries such as ice, rock, and sand were not as lucrative.

Stony Valley Rail Trail near Gold Mine

The high bridge to the east of this point, where the Lebanon Reservoir is now, and part of our previous hike in this area, burned down in 1939. It was then that the Reading Railroad decided to begin abandonment of the line.
It’s amazing that any of this line remains as open as it is today, but I suppose it has remained as a game lands access road.
When we arrived, Craig had brought me a gift of a beer I’d been wanting to try for some time: Raison D’Extra by Dogfishhead. It was quite delicious, and strong!
We had one newcomer,

On the trail

Over ten miles of the hike would be following the old Schuykill and Susquehanna Branch. The majority of this hike would be quite relaxing through simple woods, but still something special because of how remote it gets out there.
A hike like this is a good social one, because there aren’t really any impediments, and it’s easy to walk side by side talking. Tea Biscuit brought his dog, Waffles, who continues to pull him hard the entire time we’re out there.

Sand Spring

The railroad bed remained on a bit of a fill most of the time. It was sometimes on a bit of a shelf, and rarely in a cut. Along the way, we passed by Sand Spring, which was on the left.
The time went by relatively fast. There were a few little side trails here and there. On occasion, we could see evidence of railroad ties still in the surface of the railroad bed.
The next former station stop we reached was formerly the most important one, Rausch Gap. Even before we got to the main intersection, we could see what is supposedly the former turntable pit to the left of the trail in the weeds.

Rausch Gap Bridge site

We soon reached the Appalachian Trail, where it came in from the left, then follows the rail trail a little bit ahead.

I had been to this spot before, back when Jillane and I did a short backpack on it in September of 2009. At the time, the bridge built to carry the railroad over the Rausch Creek was still in place, but crumbling a bit. A metal bridge had been sat on top of the original so that whenever it did collapse there would still be a bridge there.

The old Rausch Gap bridge, Debra Kandybouski Collection

I was totally surprised to see that the day had come. Nothing at all remained of the handsome stone arch that once spanned the creek.

There was only one tiny bit of masonry that still held together at the bottom northeast side of it. The rest was completely busted apart and washed away. The creek must flow like mad through here.

Downstream from where the arch had been, the entire stream was strewn with stone from the old bridge. I was hoping that maybe at some point someone would have repointed the stones and saved the thing, but such was not at all the case.

John Proud's epitaph

Just upstream from this was the circular well areas where the acid mine runoff from the old coal mines is treated with a sort of limestone. It’s really helped to bring the creek downstream back to life.

2004 image of the bridge from stoneyvalley.com

We turned from here for a short side trip to the Rausch Gap Cemetery. I had gone here with Jillane before, but not been back in ten years. The names of John Proud and Andrew Allen were prominent, and the others could not be read. They were only field stones of sorts.

Evidence of ties

As previously stated, the village of Rausch Gap was once a much more prominent place when the railroad had it’s main center of activity here.
From 1828 until 1910, it was a major coal mining town. The town didn’t start to significantly grow until after 1850 when railroad work started, but by 1860, population had ballooned to over 1000. After the railroad moved it’s shops, and the coal was found to be poorer quality than elsewhere, everyone started moving off. By 1875, the population had shrunk to less than 100. Around 1883, the railroad removed most of the homes, and just about everyone had gone from Rausch Gap by 1910. Little coal mining continued as late as the 1830s through here, but it never saw a bit of the success it had initially after the railroad first came.
We passed some of the old foundations, and spotted the site of a dam along the Rausch Creek where it meets the Stony Creek. There was also a well hole that some of the through hikers had obviously been using as a fire pit.

Rausch Gap Cemetery

We headed back up to the old bridge site and crossed the metal one that had been sitting on the site, and then continued on the railroad bed heading to the west.
The Appalachian Trail turned off to the right in a short distance, and we continued through the valley.
After a little while, we came to the former junction with the original Dauphin and Susquehanna Railroad, later the Summit Spur or Gold Mine Spur, the original route that dead ended. I could see it parallel with us descending for a little while. My intention in the earlier stages of planning this hike was to do this as a loop where we would use the old line back to Gold Mine, but then opted against it.

Junction with the Gold Mine spur

There are a lot of good loop opportunities I might one day go back for, but I didn’t think I needed to milk St. Anthony’s Wilderness for all I could get out of it committing one weekend a month to it for several months. I do want to get on with the series and I have a long way to go as it is!
We passed the old spur, and then continued ahead to the site of Cold Spring Station. There was an orange blazed trail that broke off to the left before this, which I had considered using because it would be closer to the creek, but then decided against it.

1937 Cold Spring Station from Francis Ditzler Collection

Cold Spring was another town that was sort of ill fated like the others in the area, but this one was a bit more of a tourist thing than an industrial thing.

The town was once home to two hotels that served as retreats from urban areas in the 1800s. The area was also a major logging center from the mid 1800s until around 1929.

Historic Cold Spring Station scene from Barry Swanger Collection

Cold Spring had it’s own station stop. Originally it was a roofed platform area, but a shanty section was added in later years for a station agent.

Stony Creek at Cold Spring in Sept 2009

There was a side trail to the left heading down toward the Stony Creek, so we turned here and headed to it. I had finished my trip with Jillane here in 2009. There’s an overlook up on Second Mountain from there, and a guy gave us a ride back to my car, which I’d left in Swatara State Park. This is how I knew there was an old dam below I could take a swim in.

The dam as it looks today

We headed down to it, and it didn’t look as inviting as it did in September of 2009, but Tea Biscuit and I both indulged in it anyway.

1800s depection of Cold Spring restors from Wikipedia

This area was a bit of false advertisement on my part, because I said that we’d not be crossing a single road during the entire course of the day, however that was only partially true.

Stonyvalley.com image of Cold Spring Station

There is often vehicle acess to Cold Spring, which we would not have been crossing, but we went down to the old dam site to take a dip. To get to this spot, it’s necessary to go in through Fort Indiantown Gap Military Reservation, so it wouldn’t always be open. Still, because it was open, we ended up seeing a few cars traveling to the lot that I was not expecting to see, and several more people. Either way, it was still not a major inundation of people we’d certainly have found in most any other popular park we might have chosen.

Historic image of Cold Spring Hotel, Barry Swanger Collection

We went to eat our lunch, and I could not for the life of me find my Fiesta Wrap I’d bought at Wawa. I was heartbroken that I’d probably dropped it back on the Appalachian Trail section, but took some solace in the fact that some other hiker just might find and eat it.

Cold Spring Hotel today

Sadly, this was not the case. Several weeks later, I found the wrap all pooey inside my van and it had to be thrown out, though I did stare at it longingly and considered what might happen if I did consume it, briefly.

Cold Spring historic image, Francis Ditzler Collection

This area was also the home of a Lancaster YMCA camp in the 1930s known as Camp Shand. At the time, trains would serve that site as well, almost if not right up to the end of the service on the line.
From here, we headed back the old road to Cold spring and passed by the old foundations of the hotels that had stood there.
We continued ahead from here, and passed the Yellow Springs Trail on the right.

Historic image of a camelback locomitive serving Camp Shand at Cold Spring in the 1930s, from the Lewis Collection

Yellow Springs was yet another old coal mining town I have twice hiked to. It disappeared around the same time as Rausch Gap, and had railroad tramway that headed down hill from it to reach the main railroad.

Image from Stonyvalley.com which shows the Cold Spring Station in 1985. Surprising, but apparently the station survived until that time.

The trail used to just follow that, but major floods in more recent years have almost completely destroyed that inclined railroad. It was interesting placed atop what looked like a stone wall sort of thing, but up closer to Yellow Springs, it was completely washed out. I think the springs must have been so named for the acid mine runoff that stains it so badly yellowish orange.
The railroad bed took us from Lebanon County into Dauphin County, and time went by fast as we made our way to Rattling Run. There was reportedly once a station at this point too, and some sort of settlement for coal mining above as well.

Just having a nice time

It was here that the Horse-Shoe Trail northbound came from straight ahead on the rail trail, and turned to the right on Rattling Run Trail, which follows an old road sometimes known as the Old Ellendale Road. This was where we would turn away form the railroad bed to begin the climb of Sharp Mountain, on some maps called Stony Mountain. Sharp and Stony appear to change back and forth depending on where you read about it.
The road was a nice walk, but it seemed really steep. We went up for a long while. It was cool to be back on the Horse-Shoe Trail, in a section I’d never done before, although I wouldn’t be completing it this time.
The trail leveled off before reaching the top. It was going into a sort of gap created by Rattling Run, and it leveled off like it might have even once been a logging railroad or something, but I couldn’t tell where one would go off from either end.

Monument on Horse-Shoe Trail

The Horse-Shoe Trail eventually turned off to the right just after a monument to the Kabob Hiking Club of Harrisburg and Vicinity, founded 1934. It denoted this spot as where the club started, and that annually they gather on this spot. I think that group has something to do with the start of the Susquehanna Appalachian Trail Club.

Caterpillar

When the Horse-Shoe Trail turned right to make it’s final ascent to the Appalachian Trail, it’s western end (I’d been there before, just not hiked this stretch), we continued to the left, to climb the Rattling Run Trail further.
The old road leveled off after a bit, and was rather pleasant with a gradual up hill grade. We simply remained on this until we got to the intersection with the red blazed Henry Knauber Trail on the left.
Henry Knauber was one of the Keystone Trails Association hikers and volunteers, who lived well into his nineties I understand, and hiked most the entire time. He had only passed away in 2018, and the trail had been named for him well before that. It’s not part of a popular loop using the AT, his namesake trail, Rattling Run, and Horse-Shoe Trail.
If we had had more time, I would have liked to go to check out the nearby Stony Mountain Fire Tower, but decided instead to stick that on the next hike out here, and we would instead follow Henry Knauber down hill.

Horse-Shoe Trail following Rattling Run

The trail wasn’t too bad at first, but it had some laurels and such scraping against us. It doesn’t get that heavily used.
It headed down hill to cross The Devil’s Racecourse, a brook that takes it’s name because of the boulders that make up it’s base. Usually, the brook is not even visible, under the giant line of boulders. There is a long wide open boulder field further to the east of the trail crossing that goes a long while, almost back down to near the intersection with the Rattling Run Trail and Horse-Shoe Trail where it joins with the Rattling Run.

Henry Knauber Trail

This was a tougher section to navigate through, because it was pretty wet. We had to rock hop through a lot of it, and a lot of it was pretty muddy.
Fortunately, we were not out in that for all that long, and soon were climbing a secondary ridge on the other side. Maybe that’s the part known as Sharp Mountain.
The trail continued up to a cairn and a junction with another trail, which I later found out goes directly to the fire tower a bit further on. It’s just kind of tough to follow.
From this point, Henry Knauber Trail continues very steeply down hill to Clarks Valley. The descent seems to go on forever. Climbing up it would certainly be hellish.

Henry Knauber memorial

I hurried ahead of the rest of the group getting down the hill. I was really anxious to get in the water in the creek below.
When I got to the end, at the intersection with the Appalachian Trail, I found a really nice little memorial to Henry Knauber on a laminated sheet. Two other hikers came through and chatted with me a bit while I waited briefly. Diane was closest to keeping up with me on this stretch.
Diane held up to make sure that everyone else went the correct way, and I hurried down along the AT toward the Clarks Creek. The section on the way down seemed surprisingly longer than I thought it would be. I passed a couple of hikers going through, but surprisingly not many at all, considering it was Labor Day weekend.
The Gold Mine lot had only one other car in it when we arrived, but the AT was loading up a bit when we had pulled out. I expected to see lots of people in the creek, but didn’t.

Clarks Creek

I found a nice deep spot just barely off of the AT and jumped in. It felt cold but very refreshing. I was still in by the time Diane made her way back down. The others weren’t that far behind, and then Tea Biscuit went in as well.

Biscuit dip

One can always tell when you’re getting back toward a well developed parking area, because the trail infrastructure is always above and beyond anything you’ll find anywhere else. Tons of steps, water bars, well worn path, signs. We were coming to all of that now.
Tea Biscuit splashed around a bit and got out, and we made our way a little further along the AT, which picked up a sort of woods road, and then crossed the Clark’s Creek to the parking lot on Clarks Valley Road.
It wasn’t the most amazing hike I’ve ever done, but it was overall relaxing and peaceful.

Here I am taking a dip in 2009

I was really happy to have been out for the day in this area, and I had even more to look forward to in the next one, and even the one after that.
This series is going to again change very dramatically as we shift from the deep woods back to suburbia, and follow the beautiful Susquehanna and Juniata Rivers. After only three back woods hikes, it’s going to be like an entirely different series. In a lot of ways, since we’ll be focusing heavily on trying to find remnants of the Pennsylvania Canal once we get out to the Susquehanna, it will be part of that series as well.

HAPPY!

As we branch out, I hope to engage with some more local friends and have it planned ahead of time so that we can guaruntee to have people showing up who would want to do these.
Timing is working out well enough that the back road sections will be set up just in time for snowy season, and I’ll still have things to look forward to.