This next one would be the final one in my series on the Juniata Division Pennsylvania Canal, which also the next in the 911 National Memorial Trail series.
We had already hiked the entire Juniata River valley, tracing as close as we could the historic route of the Juniata Division of the Pennsylvania Canal from the confluence with the Susquehanna to Mapleton in the series, and previously we had hiked the route in a couple of trips between Hollidaysburg and Huntingdon.
This one was also one that included the official route of the 911 National Memorial Trail.
The route chosen as the official route was done with consideration for bicycles too often as the only transportation using it. The roads aren't always terrible, and it's been tweaked a bit, but doing that much highway walking without any other theme was not going to cut it.
In the case of this hike, the 911 Trail is officially routed on the old Alexandria Pike, and so I incorporated that into this because I actually wanted to do that part, and deemed it worth it. I had already connected to Huntingdon from the west on the north side of the Juniata, but this official route looked pretty cool.
11 different hikes (not all of them were 100% on the canal as I did add other things) covered the route through the Juniata Valley, and the series spanned over a couple of years.
So, for me this was a bit of a celebration. It was also the absolute farthest from home I had ever driven for a day hike.
So, for me this was a bit of a celebration. It was also the absolute farthest from home I had ever driven for a day hike.
The meeting point was the Mapleton Park, which we had gone through on the last Standing Stone Trail hike, and we shuttled from there to the village of Alexandria to the west. We had walked through that before on one of the long weekend trips.
Alexandria was the route of the Pennsylvania Canal first, and then later much of the right of way was taken over by the Petersburg Branch of the Pennsylvania Railroad.
We started right in town where one of the locks used to be.
We looked at the station site with the little piece of track still in place, and I was surprised really that there was no mention of the canal anywhere. Despite the fact that the railroad existed for longer than the canal, most places usually give precedence to the canals for historic interpretation. This one was the opposite.
We headed down Bridge Street to Main Street, and saw lots of lovely old buildings as we made our way through down to the east.
Pretty soon, we came to the spot where the old canal and also railroad crossed over Main Street. There was a little bridge on the south side of the road left over from the railroad.
Both routes headed into private land more closely parallel with the Juniata River from here.
The proximity to the river here was why this section of the canal was abandoned probably about 1889. That year, there was a major flood that took out much of the canal this far up the Juniata Valley. By that time, it was owned by the Pennsylvania Railroad anyway.
The Petersburg Branch built on or near the old canal kept in service until the 1980s when it too was deemed unneeded with the parallel main line in place.
It kept us just up slope from the old canal and railroad bed.
At some point while walking the road, the railroad and canal routes diverged. The Petersburg Branch did not take on the canal route when it was built, presumably because of the curves on the canal that could not be so easily negotiated by long trains. Most of the railroad bed was still on the canal as we walked the Alexandria Pike, but I know that too the east the canal crossed the Frankstown Branch of the Juniata River and continued on the south side of the Juniata into Huntingdon. The railroad continued north.
We moved on ahead a bit more, and then we came to the former crossing of the former canal. This was probably also the railroad in this section too.
I had been looking at maps of this area and found that there was once a lock here.
The settlement in this area was known as Neff, for a local farming family.
I couldn't see any remnant of a lock looking down the right of way to the south, and so we turned to continue on Alexandria Pike. A little ways further ahead, I bushwhacked into the weeds to see if I could find any lock remnants, but found nothing.
It is likely that construction of the railroad involved removal of all of the lock walls, and if it was fine cut stone, reused it elsewhere for other purposes. It was before widely available portland cement, so those stones would have had a lot of value.
To the right from the road was a collection of buildings that were originally part of the Juniata Ironworks, which date back to the mid 1800s. A road name calls it Berwick Forge.
We crossed directly, and where we had turned left on the previous trip out here, this time we went straight to continue on the Alexandria Pike Road.
This road was quite steep as it climbed toward the top of the Warrior Ridge.
The road must have followed this steep route when it was built, which I believe was 1808 from Harrisburg to Alexandria, because the narrow gorge of the Juniata River to the north proved too arduous for construction.
We passed a likely former homestead site on the left along the road, and then to the right of the road, nearer to the top, were the pits of old iron mines. 
When we came to the intersection with Runk Road after the top, there was a house on the left that might possibly have been the old Ridge School, shown on the 1873 maps of the area. If it is not the school, it is in the right location, and the current building might be built on the school foundation.
We continued down Alexandria Pike, which locally is now simply Pike Road, and Old Rt 22, and soon came upon the amazing Pulpit Rocks, which are also noted on the old maps.
They are layers deposited in an ancient sea of 390 million years ago. The site was studied by geologists in the first geological survey of Pennsylvania in 1836.
I climbed to the top of one of the spires just because it was too cool not to have a closer look. It was a little difficult to do too much with all of the snow, but it was still an awesome sight.
We continued down the road from here, which became like a roller coaster of ups and downs gradually descending toward Huntingdon.
The views as we came out of the wooded area were absolutely breathtaking, almost 180 degrees from down the Juniata Valley to across the river to the slopes on the north side.
Soon, we were parallel with the enclosures of the SCI Smithfield jail. Diane told us stories about working in these buildings when they needed service for fire fixtures or whatever, and she certainly had some interesting experiences.
The views as we came out of the wooded area were absolutely breathtaking, almost 180 degrees from down the Juniata Valley to across the river to the slopes on the north side.
Soon, we were parallel with the enclosures of the SCI Smithfield jail. Diane told us stories about working in these buildings when they needed service for fire fixtures or whatever, and she certainly had some interesting experiences.
The site was originally the old Huntingdon Reformatory, completed in 1889 and modeled after the Elmira Reformatory in New York. The site held "defective delinquents" until 1960, and then became a capital case institution until 1995.
Now, SCI Huntingdon, it is the second oldest operating correctional institution in Pennsylvania.
The buildings are quite handsome, and the grounds where there were no fences actually looked pretty welcoming, but it was obvious walking by the place that they were leery about anyone going by.
Soon after passing the prison, we were able to climb up onto a flood retention berm and get off of the blacktop for a bit. This provided us with some splendid views of the Juniata River.
The old canal was now on the north side of the river, having crossed from again just to the west of Huntingdon. One day I'd like to try to visit that aqueduct site, but that would be a long out of the way walk.
We continued on the berm until we got to Penn Street, where we needed to cross over.
This is yet another one I really want to try to hike, as I've already done some of it anyway. It's just so far out there to try to do it. There's only about nine less exciting miles of it to get to Raystown Lake, where there are more trails I want to do.
The Mid State Trail down near Everett follows along a portion of it, and there are good, dedicated rail trail segments of it north of there. One of these days...
I started walking out on the bridge and then opted not to cross it and went back to do the road bridge.
On the other side, we came to the former crossing of the canal, at Ice Plant Road. We passed Laney's Feed Mill and headed north tracing closely the historic route of the canal on the road. After a small building structure for storage or something on the left, we came to about the point where there used to be locks. Old maps show us that there was a flight of three of them in close proximity from here.
The area is much disturbed, but I was able to locate the spots I believe by comparing the locations to adjacent streets.
I think I located all three sites, and one of them had a significant dip that could have been the remnants of a lock chamber. With so many years of flooding on the river, it probably destroyed most of the remnants making them unrecognizable, or if anything was recognizable, the bit of snow cover we had made it obscure.
Rather than turn back and then head into town for our lunch stop, I figured we would cross the former Pennsylvania Railroad tracks and come out on Susquehanna Ave, but then a train went by. We had to wait for the long thing to pass, then we went over to the street. A little south, and along what used to be an industrial spur from the Pennsylvania Railroad, we stopped in Juniata Brewing Company for lunch.
I had a beer and a sandwich, but I don't remember what kind it was.
They had a nice old panoramic photo of Huntingdon and the river hanging on the wall there.
We crossed Penn Street where we came into town initially, and then entered Portstown Park.
One would think that such a park was named because Huntingdon was a port town on the Pennsylvania Canal. It was actually named for John Port, and the settlement was originally named Freeport.
The entire area that is now the park along the old canal had homes on it, and as I understand some of them remained until 1977 when they were removed for the park.
The entire area that is now the park along the old canal had homes on it, and as I understand some of them remained until 1977 when they were removed for the park.
There was an old arch underpass into the park from the left which dated back to the beginning of the Pennsylvania Railroad apparently. It had been rediscovered, buried, and then was dug back out as an entrance to the park.
We continued out the east side of the park, and some of the old canal was still recognizable, parallel with the railroad. We followed it until we got to A small creek flowing into the Juniata. There was the crumbling remnants of aqueduct abutments on the canal route here. To the left, there was a stone arch bridge built by the Pennsylvania Railroad, and closest to us, a steel girder bridge that was owned by Huntingdon and Broad Top.
Walking this section we could see the Huntingdon County Court house, which was built in 1882 on the site of the original 1842 court house.
Beyond this point, the railroad was expanded into a yard that overtook the canal as we approached the Hunt Switch Tower built at that time.
As we pushed ahead, we passed the Huntingdon Station where we had boarded a train for a long trip a couple years back, and continued east. A train went by in this area.
We went along Penn Street and Rt 22 heading east from here. There was a wide ATV path parallel with the tracks that was free of snow, making this a very welcome route to walk.
Major Tom decided he wanted to walk highway instead of closer to tracks, and I warned him that if he got up on Penn Street, there would be no way to meet back up with us due to steep cliff faces for at least a few miles. He went that way anyway, and he ended up doing more distance by following the highway to the north, but he met back up again when we were closer together.
There was a spot with a couple of big berms that I thought might have been lead ins to locks in Ardenheim area, but we couldn't really see all that well and it was too close to private homes to explore more without invading.
As we walked, there were splendid views of Jacks Mountain ahead. I remembered looking down on these areas from atop the mountain on Standing Stone Trail and imagining these moments.
When we got to the Rt 829 crossing in the town of Mill Creek, Jen decided she didn't want to go on, so she went and waited at the Village Tavern for the rest of us to be done.
The rest of us got on Main Street and walked that parallel with the tracks through the town of Mill Creek. Someone had spray painted on the road "Slow TF Down".
This was the original Rt 22, and it was quite small compared to any of the other highways.
Eventually, the road was gated from vehicle access, but we continued.
This was quite a beautiful route, and potentially will end up being the 911 Memorial Trail. We followed the route into a somewhat disturbed area and past a pretty little pond.
We got on 22 briefly and then turned right on Oriskany Road, another old 22 alignment, which led to a sand plant. Apparently it is owned by the US Silica Company.
Eventually, the road was gated from vehicle access, but we continued.
This was quite a beautiful route, and potentially will end up being the 911 Memorial Trail. We followed the route into a somewhat disturbed area and past a pretty little pond.
The canal was right along the route of Oriskany Road at this point. The main Pennsylvania Railroad crossed over to the other side of the river just a little bit to the north of where we were at this point.
There were tracks at the sand plant, used as an industrial spur only. I think they too continued up Oriskany Road and went into the ganister quarry operations on Jacks Mountain just a bit to the east.
It was pretty wide open, so I wanted to cross it and continue on the other side.
We headed up onto the old pony truss and crossed, with great views of the Juniata River.
Apparently, those of us across first were the lucky ones. John was further behind with Major Tom, and they had to continue on the road because someone from the sand plant engaged them. They said we weren't supposed to be on there, but they didn't catch Jack, Sarah, Diane, and myself.
We got across the bridge after taking in some pretty great views, and then turned left along the road on the other side of the river. I did not know it until after walking a bit, but we somehow got on the pre-1906 right of way of the Pennsylvania Railroad.
Google maps showed this going through as Railroad Street, but we saw no such road going through.
When it got really bad, and because we were approaching the crossing of Smith Run anyway, we bushwhacked up to the right to the active tracks to follow them the remainder of the distance into Mapleton.
It was already getting pretty dark at this time, so we needed a safe way to get out of there faster.
I was shuttled back to my car in Alexandria, and then I headed back to find Jen.
She had left the bar we left her at a little while ago, and her phone was dead.
Fortunately, one of the employees told me she headed to another place across the street maybe only a block away or so. I found her sitting in front of there and we were off on our way.
This was a sort of bittersweet ending to this part of the series. We had spent so many trips through the Juniata Valley, and so many of them were the type that I went into kind of expecting that they might suck. But none of them did. In fact, all of them were pretty great times. It was kind of akin to the Jersey Perimeter series on the Delaware Bayshore that was a sort of acquired taste, but some of us just really loved them.
With the completion of this segment, I was ready to head south from Johnstown on the 911 Trail route to reach the Flight 93 Memorial. Unfortunately, over a year later, I still have not gotten around to this. The problem is it will require overnight stays to cover those, and I was needed for support at home. Any long trips would have to involve Jillane and later the baby. But hopefully we'll get around to covering that section somewhat resonably soon.
In the meantime, I would continue with my plan of doing all of the trails that make connection with the 911 Trail, and the next one to finish on the list was the Standing Stone Trail.
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