Hike #1416; Tamaqua to Jim Thorpe

Hike #1416: 5/22/21 Tamaqua to Jim Thorpe with Professor John DiFiore, Justin Gurbisz, Kirk Rohn, Jenny Tull, David Adams, Robin Deitz, Caroline Gockel Gordon, Serious Sean Dougherty, Robin Deitz, Lisa Tuccillo, and (Lisa's friend).

Sometimes I have these hikes, and the personal investment in all of this stuff is so much to express, and I can't come to terms with how to express the way I feel about it, being too insufficient or too much.

I know I'm going to end up leaning more toward too much, but that is kind of an analogy for my life. It is definitely an analogy for it with regard to this hike. 

When I look at the hikes I'm planning for upcoming seasons, I always consider that I want to have a swimming spot on every Summer hike. I also consider what things I want to do and prioritize those, but will try to save them if it looks like they will have ideal swim spots.
This ended up being the right hike on the right day, because it was really insanely hot out. We'd get the worst, hottest stuff done in the morning, and then have cooler shade and swim spots later on when we need it.

The main reason for this hike was the fact that I have been tying up loose ends. As I've been preaching in previous journal entries, there are countless series I have started and never finished. Railroad lines that we touched on going back to the very beginning of the group that I just never got around to finishing.

One of these was the Lehigh and New England Railroad.

Much of it through New Jersey was developed in 1886, and I had been hiking it since long before I started Metrotrails. After that, we started tracing it westward into Pennsylvania and north through NJ. I didn't leave much time between segments of it, and I hiked all of it as far as out near Andreas Station in PA by 2007, and as far as the NY/NJ state line. But then I stopped. I didn't revisit the Lehigh and New England again for almost a decade, save for repeating stuff I'd already done and hitting a couple pieces of spurs.

I finally did the Tamaqua extension just a couple years ago, and traced it all the way from the Blue Mountain into Tamaqua in a day.

That left only a bit I still had to do. Basically, it was the section from Tamaqua to Summit Hill. Another little branch went north through Haoto Tunnel, but that is blocked off now so we couldn't do that anyway.

So, I planned to get up to Summit Hill tracing the Lehigh and New England. From there, we would take the old Mauch Chunk Switchback Gravity Railroad down from town to Mauch Chunk Lake where we'd take a side path and get wet.

The route would then lead us to Jim Thorpe, and we would hike the D&L Trail, mostly on the Lehigh Canal, down to Weissport.

We shuttled with as few cars as possible to Tamaqua from our meeting point on the canal. 

The route I set up for us through town was to start on River Street on the Little Schuylkill Walkway. The path led to Cedar Street where we turned right, then left on Route 209. We crossed Panther Creek, and then the tracks are right there for the former Lehigh and New England. Tracks are still used in this area because a connection was made to the former Reading line out of Tamaqua.

Most of the Lehigh and New England was abandoned October 31, 1961, the second major railroad in America to completely abandon in one day, after the New York, Ontario, and Western in March of 1957. These certain sections, due to businesses, remained in place.

The section was acquired later by the Lehigh and New England, but it was built as the Panther Creek Railroad here.
Where we reached the grade crossing on the road was the former site of the L&NE Tamaqua station. The historic photo I found of the station is from the 1980s, so it did survive until somewhat recent years. I'm not sure when it was torn down. 

From here, we started following the line to the east. There were once two tracks at least through this area, and my understand is is that a lot of the length through here was a yard much of the way.

The line ran very close to the Panther Creek, and it went right over active coal roads from strip mining areas immediately to the north. The creek crossed from the north side to the south side, then back to the north side again. 

The bridges were once double tracked, and we were able to cross on the adjacent bridge that is vacant of ties or rails.

It was getting very hot out, and there were many rail cars parked on the existing track, which ended up helping us a lot because they were just tall enough to provide us with some shade.

This train parked on the tracks was about a full mile and a half long. We were quite thankful for it.

We continued past the end of this train, and the tracks almost immediately disappeared into the brush.
This was in the little settlement of Coaldale. Locally, these were known as "mine patch towns" or "coal patch towns", or sometimes just "patches", as they were patches of homes for workers and their families directly in the vicinity of the coal mines.
We crossed another coal road after that, which had signs reading to stay out and that "death may occur", and then entered well shaded woods. The tracks were still in place, but got more and more grown over as the time passed by. There was also some concrete ruins on the right of us.

After a bit, we came to a washout spot on the Panther Creek where the tracks were suspended in the air. We could see where a siding used to go to the north, and part of that bridge was still in place. Water was along the left side of the tracks, and the ties of that side were somewhat suspended.

A path re-started along the tracks a little bit ahead of some of the bad washout. Ahead, there was an old railroad tower, maybe for signals or something, with platforms still in place but all other hardware removed. 

The creek crossed from north side to south side of the tracks yet again, and the bridge at that point was totally gone, but the rails were not. It seems that the current pushed through and knocked out what was probably a girder bridge, but the rails still remained connected over top. Or maybe it was a wooden bridge or I-beam bridge. Whatever the case, those parts were gone but the connected rails remained.The ties were gone too.

The right of way got really bad again ahead, and we had to head to the north into open coal fields with a massive cut for a bit. We could see some of the rails through the weeds below us to the south.
At the end of this open area, we bushwhacked down to the right, and we came out behind the giant old Lehigh and New England Lansford station building.

It's amazing this is even still standing, but I'm thankful it's there. It was another cool thing to see as we were walking by. The tracks were still in place along this section, but not for much longer.

We continued walking past the back of the place, and then the right of way is partially overtaken by Dock Street. We walked that for just a bit, and somewhere in this area was where a northbound branch turned off to head to the Hauto Tunnel. This was named for one of the fathers of the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company, Philip Hauto. 

Soon, there was Knocks Hill Road, which led uphill to another little coal patch I think known as Edgemont. The main town of Lansford was just to the south of us.

We got back on the railroad bed, which was a good ATV trail from here heading east. The tracks ended in this area, and Dave and I went uphill to the left here looking for the Hauto Tunnel because I figured an ATV trail going to the left was going to lead to it. There were other things that looked like rights of way, and there were some concrete ruins and such, as well as a disused utility line tower.
When we didn't find anything, I realized we had passed the tunnel site. I wasn't going to head back.

We continued walking ahead on the rail bed below and soon came to a spot where there was an overhead trestle to the right. There were other piers further through to the left of us. This was actually the former site of Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company Breaker #6. The trestle and stanchions for the piers are some of the few remnants left of the site.

It's really easy to get lost out in these areas, and we continued to follow an ATV path that was on the old railroad bed for a bit too long. The rail bed cuts to the left a bit and goes through people's yards and such. We had to backtrack a bit and then make our way out to Rt 209 at Andrewsville Street.

From here, we had to cross 209 and try to find where the line used to go up hill toward Summit Hill. I though it would be more obvious than it was.

Next to the highway, there were bridge girders where an older bridge used to go over another railroad grade, and the cut that carried that line was filled in for Rt 209 realignment at some point.

I've gone over the anthracite railroads kmz file on Google Earth trying to figure out where the Lehigh and New England was compared to where we were, and this cut we found might have been the original Panther Creek Railroad. It was abandoned in 1872, and the Lehigh and New England apparently only took over some of the right of way.

We headed into the woods near this grade and cut, and found other remnants of rail grades out there, some of which were likely what we were looking for.

The woods are full of ATV paths, some of them on the railroad bed some of them not.
The old Panther Creek Railroad operated in this area heading up to the hill as well as the Lehigh and New England, but they were much separate as I understand.
The route we took toward Summit Hill was sometimes very obviously old railroad bed, but other times obviously not. We went west and east, and up slopes to try to get to other grades. Sometimes it was like an odd footpath. I wonder how much of either of those rights of way might have been strip mined out of existence at some point.

At one of the points where we ended up on a questionably semi level section of slope, we came upon a great oddity.
There was this enormous pile of rocks in a big cone shape just sitting there. It looked like it had been stacked and intentionally covered with moss.
Then, there were other things set up through those woods, and it was rather obviously Scout Projects.
We continued along, and somehow we got well off of where the railroad beds should have been. There was at one point quite a steep climb to the south to get up toward Summit Hill. We emerged onto the edge of West N Street where there are concrete abutments, which I think might have been a trolley bridge or something. Someone told me what it was, but I'm not sure any more. I don't think it was the Lehigh and New England grade.
Just before coming out of the woods there, we were treated to a nice view over the valley.
We made our way onto the road, and I had intended to go off into the woods on the right to continue on a portion of the Lehigh and New England I had already walked in the past, but decided against it.

We were already later in the day than I had been anticipating, and so we instead walked directly south through town to pass through the Memorial Park for a break.

After the break, we headed to the south and toward Ludlow Street, which was the former route of the Mauch Chunk Switchback Gravity Railroad.

The railroad started in 1832 as a coal carrier which served mines from near the site Philip Ginder first discovered anthracite in 1792. Loaded cars would move by gravity down from Summit Hill to Mauch Chunk on the Lehigh River, and unloaded cars would move up Mt. Pisgah on an inclined plane, travel to Summit Hill by gravity, and ascent to town on the Mt. Jefferson incline.

When technology and locomotives improved, the line was turned into a tourist attraction, and became the inspiration for the first roller coaster.

It remained in service until the 1930s when it was scrapped. I got a couple of then and now compilations in the area as we moved along.

We walked along the route of the loaded track of the gravity line from town. A lot of this was originally a downhill wagon road that was well graded, which dates back to as far as 1819.

We went to where the station used to be on Ludlow Street, and I pointed out where the old metal fence used to be along the edge where the tracks turned for the return route. Originally, another track would have gone out in the direction we had come from to the old coal mines.

We continued along the route, which went near Ludlow Park, and then followed Holland Street back to the east on the downhill slope. On the way, I believe we stopped by the Switchback Mini Mart on the east side of the town on the former route of the railroad. Always a good stop for food and snacks.

From here, the rail bed is now a very long dead end road called Stoney Lonesome Road. The old postcards refer to this piney area on a shelf as Stoney Lonesome. The gravity railroad passed beneath the unloaded track mid way up the Mt. Jefferson Plane on this route.

We passed through that site, which still has one bridge abutment in place only. We also noted there was was a home on the right side that we had seen under construction in the past, made at least in a good part out of old timbers.

We continued out the road to the end, and the last house on it is full of all sorts of railroad memorabilia. From there, the right of way enters very nice woods and continues on a gradual descent. We crossed a power line clearing with a good view, and then passed by five mile tree bridge. This was the spot where the unloaded track crossed over the loaded track and also had an interchange. Only the abutments of that bridge remain as well.

From there, we descended further, and eventually passed through the front yards of homes on White Bear Drive. We crossed White Bear Drive on the rail bed, and at the entrance sign to the Mauch Chunk Lake boat launch, there was a sign and a bottle of iced tea that read "For our Helbing hikers". This was of course from our buddy Jim DeLotto who lives in Summit Hill!

At this point, I'd already walked the railroad bed enough times. We walked down to the edge of the lake to follow the trail along the side of it to the east. This provided us with a pretty good swimming spot.

We made our way out to the regular trail again; the Switchback Gravity Railroad was destroyed a bit when Mauch Chunk Lake was built, and so at that point the trail winds around to the main dam. We then got back on the railroad bed on the other side which passed through a beautiful area of Rhododendrons along White Bear Creek. I layed in it a couple of times as I recall.

We continued downstream and passed by a large Yuengling beer sign we wouldn't have expected to see and an old dam. We reached Flagstaff Road and then headed out to Broadway where the rails used to cross.

Here, there used to be a place where the trolleys could transfer between the Switchback railroad, and there is a little station platform for that remaining.

Beyond this point, many don't know where to go for the rest of the right of way because it isn't really signed very well. One continues on the road to the east just a bit, then enter the driveway to the Jim Thorpe water plant. The right of way skirts that property and then enters the woods again on the north side of the creek. The creek continues to drop while the rail bed stays at about the same level. There was a side right of way that went off to the left which I believe was the side switchback that went to the Hacklebernie Mine.

That mine is actually the Scotch-Irish word meaning Hell, not the different claims made by Hacklebarney State Park in New Jersey about native Americans or a heckling foreman. In the section ahead, the original sleeper stones that held the old rails in place were evident. In later years, this certainly used standard railroad ties, but the line is so old that it would have used the stone sleepers like the other early railroad lines in it's beginning days. We continued to the east from here, and were soon high on the slopes above Jim Thorpe, which was originally known as Mauch Chunk.

By this time, we were almost to fifteen miles anyway, and I wasn't so inclined to walk all the way to Weissport on the canal from Mauch Chunk. Really, the only other thing I wanted to see in the town was the new foot bridge over the Lehigh River.

We continued on the old rail bed across Hill Street, then along the slope to Packer Hill Ave. Near this point were several inclined planes down to the Lehigh used by the rail cars in the early days. There were several different incarnations of these over the years in several different spots, operating at different times. We headed downhill on the road, and I decided we would take a bit of a side trip from the main road onto the pretty little paths of Kemmerer Park. This brought us on switchbacks of a couple of old roads, and then out to an attractive little spot with manicured, ornamental plants and a very nice view of the Harry Packer Mansion.

The Harry Packer Mansion was built in 1874 and designed in italianate-style by Addison Hutton.

The home was a wedding gift to Harry Packer from his father, Lehigh Valley Railroad magnate Asa Packer.

It now serves as a bed-and-breakfast and other events. Just below the Harry Packer Mansion was the home of his father, The Asa Packer Mansion was built in 1861. It is an Italianate Villa with it’s three stories and seventeen rooms sits on the hill overlooking the Lehigh just above the road.

Asa Packer was a Connecticut born businessman who settled in Mauch Chunk and owned a canal boat.

His business grew to building these boats and first urged the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company to use steam driven locomotives.

He eventually became the sort of father of Lehigh Valley Railroad, and completed the line from Mauch Chunk to Easton.

In addition to his coal transportation businesses, he was also a member of Pennsylvania House of Representatives, a Carbon County Judge, and founder of Lehigh University. We headed out into the town, and passed by the lovely St. Mark's Episcopal Church, and I set up a then and now compilation using a 1979 image.

The church was completed in 1869, in Gothic Revival Style designed by Richard Upjohn, the style's leading proponent, and was one of his last works.

Construction of the church was largely funded by Asa Packer.

Earlier, just around where we had crossed Hill Street, Serious Sean tried to set up an Uber to pick us up, and one had confirmed. He canceled it before it could go through, but it gave us a false sense of hope that this service would be available. We continued through town, and I honestly don't recall where we all decided to sit down. We found a good shady spot not very far from the new pedestrian bridge that had been built for the D&L Trail across the Lehigh River, to connect to the historic Lehigh Canal route on the other side.

The bridge is known as the Mansion House Bridge because it crosses over the Lehigh at almost the point that an original pedestrian bridge once did, which connected the canal near the lower lock 1 to the Mansion House Hotel.
Shortly after the settlement was built on the coal industry, the Mansion House was built in 1825. As the town of Mauch Chunk grew, so did the Mansion House, which eventually reached 355 feet long and five stories high.
By 1870, Mauch Chunk, a native American word meaning "Bear Mountain (now Flagstaff Mountain), because it looked like a sleeping bear, was also known as the Switzerland of America.
Still, tourism also declined after a time, and so did the Mansion House, which closed shortly after the 1894 season ended. The building was then demolished in stages, and one small piece of the north section still remains as a beverage retailer.

With the decline of the town continuing into the twentieth century, some pretty wacky decisions by local politicians were made and the town was renamed for the Olympian Jim Thorpe.
Thorpe was interred in East Mauch Chunk, at that time a separate municipality, and the towns of Mauch Chunk and East Mauch Chunk were merged and renamed for him.
Thorpe had never even visited the town, and arrangements to bury his remains here were arranged through his widow.
Thorpe, a native American himself, was to be buried on his tribal lands in Oklahoma, and the rest of his family has been pushing for that, but the case was lost in court and appeals have not gone through.
There are many mixed opinions on this topic, but something simply doesn't seem right about stripping a settlement of its native American name in favor of Jim Thorpe, who's wishes were not to be interred in this place he never knew.
I find it particularly shocking that today, with the greater racial sensitivity than we have probably ever seen in America, that this particular topic has not generated any more interest.

Rather than continue on along my originally planned route from town, I just figured we would stop somewhere there and get an Uber.

This did not at all work out as planned. Sean tried to get the Uber again, and it failed. Then I tried to get one. Others also tried, and there was nothing available.
This was also a lesson in how this service works, because the more people requesting the Uber, the higher the price would get due to the demand.

Serious Sean announced that he was going to just try to run back to the cars at the meeting point from here. This sounded kind of crazy, and I was tempted to join him in doing this. The only problem I was really having at the time was that my heel was still not yet healed from the bad jump I had taken on the Delaware and Raritan Canal a while back. 

We sat around there in town chatting, and Sean disappeared running to the south. It was over four miles from there to the end point, so no one expected to see him for a long time.
It turns out he went into a couple of stores, and was able to secure a ride to the south as if by some miracle, so he did end up getting back within the house.
I thought I saw him riding by us in his car, and thought it couldn't be him, but it did turn out to be him.
We did decided to take the walk across the Mansion House Bridge, which had some great views of the Lehigh River. The prefabricated structure leads to the old Lehigh Canal Lower Division Lock #1.

This served as a guard lock, and had a maximum lift of only 1.4 feet depending on river level. Some masonry reconstruction has occurred at this site with the new bridge development.
We walked right back across the bridge the way we had come and Sean was able to get everyone a ride back down to the meeting point, and everyone that needed it got rides back to their cars in Tamaqua to finish out the day.
It had really been a fun adventure, and everyone was pretty surprised that I was not averse to cutting the hike short.
I explained to everyone that we had done the mileage I had intended to do, and that there was no need to continue to do extra. This wasn't something terribly far away, and it wasn't something like the NJ Perimeter series where I had to be a stickler about making every old turn to be close to the perimeter.
This was just more of a relaxing day.
Sometimes it was a bit stressful, it was definitely a bit too much, but overall I feel quite great about what a good time it was.