Hike #1432; Katellan to Bethlehem

Hike #1432 8/14/21 Katellan to Bethlehem with Justin Gurbisz, Jim "Uncle Soup" Campbell, Lerch (Michael Clark), Cara Ashley, Michele Valerio, Rob Anders, Diane Rieder, Violet Chen, Anne ?, Professor John DiFiore, and Adam ?

This next one would be our annual March on Musikfest hike, a tradition we had been doing since 2005.

I couldn't skip doing this one; everyone was telling me they were counting on me to do it, but I also was very concerned about my new son at home. As usual, I talked to my friends to see if they could jump in and do an alternate hike just in case I was unable to do this, and had it all planned out if someone had to take over.

Fortunately, I was able to do it, and so I decided I would do something a little crazy and knock a little something off of my "to do" list that had been bothering me.

We had just recently finished hiking the entire main line of the Lehigh and New England Railroad, everything between Pine Island NY, across NJ, and then out to Summit Hill Pa. In addition to these, I had ALMOST walked all of the spurs of it as well, and there were many. I had explored as best I could the spur to Pochuck Mountain on the NY/NJ line, the spur in Sussex, the incompleted bit in Knowlton, the connections by Portland, the East Bangor Branch, the branch down to Roseto, the north and south rights of way between Pen Argyl and Wind Gap, the Uhler Branch, the branch to Allentown, the branch to Catasauqua, and the Nazareth Branch. A lot of stuff is inaccessible, but we checked out all we could.

The biggest bit of it that I had not done was the Bethlehem Branch. I'd done everything from Bath south, because that's still active today. The only bit that I'd not made an effort to follow was from Benders Junction south to Bath. So, I came up with a hike that would feature this, with a lot of other little parks and such where we could not get on the rail bed, and then other parks that were parallel to it where we could avoid more active tracks to the south. I was thinking this would be a really good time.
Of course, these things never go exactly as I plan them to, and it ended up being a far better time than I ever anticipated it would be. At least it was for me. 

I think I made the end point the Lowes in Bethlehem PA, and we would shuttle to the north to the Katellen Trail.

This would end up being a lot farther than I was anticipating. I figured we could go straight on through and it would be easy, and that the turns we would have to take would cut corners on the railroad bed, thus subtracting miles. Boy was I wrong.
The Katellen Trail is one that I've still never hiked before. It connects from a State Game Lands 168 parking area and leads up the Blue Mountain to the Appalachian Trail. I had done two loops out through this area before, but on those I had used the Delps Trail to connect.

Katellen Trail, and the settlement Katellen, sits along the former Lehigh and New England Railroad, which is now Old Grade Road.

There's a lot of complicated history with the Lehigh and New England lines. They started out as different lines, got bought out, etc.
The line we were walking was part of the Lehigh and Lackawanna/Wind Gap and Delaware Railroad grade built in 1878. The predecessor to the Lehigh and New England was the Pennsylvania, Poughkeepsie and Boston Railroad. It was built just barely to the south of this point in 1889.

In 1904, the Lehigh and Lackawanna was absorbed by the Lehigh and New England, and they favored that route over their original on to the south. Both grades were in service for a time, and then the main line became the northern one, while the southern one was just used as a lower speed line to make use of the junctions to southbound branches, such as Bushkill Junction in Rismiller just to the east.
Much of that line was abandoned by 1916, but the Lehigh and New England with its new main through route to the north remained in service until October 31st 1961.

It was the second major railroad in America to abandon completely in one day, after the New York, Ontario, and Western in 1957.
The Bethlehem Branch broke off from the main line where those north and south segments of the lines came together, at Benders Junction.
I had really wanted to see Benders Junction, but it lies on private land. I found out that one of the junction buildings is still standing, which I also had never seen, but I didn't want to take the chance with an enormous group passing through, so we didn't bother with it this time. We would do some road walking around.

We got out of our cars, did a talk, and made our way from the parking area down to Old Grade Road where we started heading to the west for a bit.
The road was pleasant enough to walk, and there was an interesting foundation on the right side. It was definitely originally old because some of it was masonry, but another portion that was made of concrete was shifting all over the place to the point that any structure standing on it would probably collapse off of it.
Old Grade Road continued for a bit on the railroad bed, then turned away from it to the left while the right of way continued ahead past a private home straight ahead to the west.

I chatted with some old friends I had not seen in quite a while at the start.

Lerch was sharing some of his "Lerchery", which was what we'd come to know as the vodka and orange juice I think, but I call it "Complicated Orange". He also had some pirate water which is always really tasty.
I'd never met his girlfriend Cara until this hike, and she seems really cool too. She had a spiked coffee from the start so I immediately deemed her acceptable and got my vote of confidence for the hike.
Then there was Michele who I hadn't hiked with in a while, as well as Rob. I figure something happened with a split in friends groups due to a breakup of some mutual friends.

There are a lot of rumors that go around, and unfair elaborations that came back to vilify me further.

I do try to avoid drama, and it gets upsetting when people tell me that I love it or am seeking it. I certainly do not, but sometimes it just falls into my lap, literally, and I at least have some degree of sense to try to stop it before too much escalation. 
That's part of the problem when you have a big group of people together. There will inevitably be some sort of drama from time to time, and countless variables lead us to countless scenarios for which hopefully we can hold onto enough respect to get on by.

Anyway, I was glad to be having a nice conversation with Rob again after a long hiatus.
The whole covid thing really knocked a lot of people out of doing the hikes, and it still hadn't gotten back to normal, but we were pretty close for sure.
Lerch had some sort of monologue about all of the political problems the world is facing that pretty much summed up a lot of good beliefs, and it was something like he wants his "gay married friends to be able to fire off guns in their back yards" and pretty brilliantly put together support for tons of demographics into one sentence that just made too much sense. 

We continued down Old Grade Road to the intersection with Bushkill Drive and West Mountain Road, where we would turn right on Bushkill Drive.
At this intersection, that earlier Pennsylvania, Poughkeepsie, and Boston Railroad crossed over the intersection. To our right, it was a private farm road and looked extremely tempting to follow.

To the left, it was grown over pretty badly, and went along the back of an old abandoned house.
We walked around the house and then around the side of it to find a back hoe parked there.
I wonder if the house was somehow rail related with it's extremely close proximity. Maybe a station or something.
The abandoned house was right across from someone's occupied house and I didn't want to be standing around out there for too long looking creepy, so we moved along to the west on Bushkill Drive.

Bushkill Drive was an excellent choice of roads to walk, because it was closed at this time for construction of the new bridge over the Bushkill Creek.
There was a large road closed sign in the route, and it harkened back to one of the greatest Musikfest hikes we did, where our group shot was at the similarly large trail closed signs due to major flooding on the Jordan Creek.
So, there would be no vehicular traffic except for the few used for getting to their homes.
We continued on down the road, and then came to the new bridge structure, which could be crossed easily. There was an extension ladder type of cat walk to the right side of it.

We continued from the bridge along this peaceful road out to West End Road where we turned right. It took us through woods that transitioned shortly to some open fields.
West End Road took us out to Scenic Road, and we turned right again there past a church and residences heading west.
After crossing Copella Road, in a short distance, we got to the former crossing of the Lehigh and New England Railroad. I waited there for everyone to catch up so I could point it out.

I pretty much knew we would have no way of walking this section, just like we couldn't follow the first section ot the north because it goes right through cultivated farms and areas where we would be obviously seen and trespassing, or if not trespassing, still invading someone's privacy.
The others started catching up, and I pointed out how on the north side there was just a little line of trees and almost nothing of a grade to let us know that was the way.
I was surprised to see though on the south side that there were still railroad ties, and it looked as though they were all left in place and a back yard was landscaped over the rest of it. 
My intention from this point, because so much of the railroad was completely inaccessible, was to take a rather direct route and go down to the Moore Township Municipal Park, and we wouldn't see any more of the railroad bed until we got to Chapman.

While I was standing there and obviously interested in something, there was a guy mowing the lawn over the right of way to the south. He eventually pulled up to me to say hello.

I told him what we were doing, and how we were following the back roads around where the line used to be.
Then, he asked "You guys like peaches?"
Several of us responded that we do, and he said go on back in my yard, I have a tree full of ripe peaches there, take all you want!
So we walked back the rail bed just a bit and were treated to the best peaches I've ever tasted.
The land owner's name was Rocky, and he told me that he purchased his property there from a man who worked for the Lehigh and New England Railroad. 

The settlement we were in was known as Point Philip. I asked if he knew if there was ever a station stop there, and he didn't seem to know, but he said that the train used to pick the previous owner up at his house. 

"So this was a flag stop?" I asked.

"Nope. They just picked him up!" Rocky responded!
Rocky had not only peaches but also apples along the right of way we were able to enjoy.
Before we headed off, Rocky said we were welcome to walk the rail bed on through his property out to the next road. He had purchased 13 acres of land from the former L&NE employee and that would give us a good chunk of it to walk!
I thanked him, but let him know that walking out and back would add too much mileage for us for where we needed to get, and I didn't want to bother the neighbors on the south side.

Rocky told us not to worry about that, that they were family (I think in laws or something he might have said), and if anyone said anything to him, tell them Rocky said to go on through!

This was quite a stroke of luck, and the ability to walk this section of the right of way that was one of the least expected parts changed the trajectory of the hike for the next few miles for sure. It also made me want to just try to see even more of it because we did so well here.
We headed through the grass onto the right of way with our faces sloppy from peach mess, and there was a bit of a path that paralleled the railroad bed just to the left, which Rocky had described to me before we went in. This meandered only slightly above it, and then descended slightly to pick up the right of way exactly

There was an old truck growing over with eeds back there just before we got to the railroad bed, and a little bit of bushwhacking, but pretty soon it opened up into a pretty good ATV trail.
The right of way eventually came out to and was mowed as part of the next yard for just a corner of it, then back into the weeds. We hurried through, because even though we had Rocky's blessing to go through and I had good faith in that, I wanted to avoid having any negative interactions.
Soon, we came out onto Schlegel Road. Directly across, the right of way is now a private gravel driveway. We turned right on Schlegel for a bit, and then left on Summit Road.

We continued down to Beacon Road and turned left. In a short distance, we reached where Summit Road continued to the south. The railroad bed emerged here from a farm lane on the left.

The railroad bed then very closely parallels Summit Road. This crossing spot was apparently once the site of Summit Station. I could find no photos anywhere of what the station looked like, but it was certainly abandoned pretty early on.
We continued down North Summit Road to the south for a bit, and at a bend, the railroad bed turned away from the road but still paralleled it further off.
We continued out to Community Drive, and directly across was the Moore Township Police Department and municipal building. These buildings are mostly situated along the old railroad right of way, which crossed Community Drive to the west.

We crossed directly with the buildings to the right, and by going straight we would soon be back on the railroad bed.

I wasn't thinking we would be able to follow it any further than this section, and figured we would probably just have to follow South Summit Road parallel with it to the east.

We continued onto the rail bed, and in the back of these buildings was storage for trailers and equipent and such for the municipality, and also where citizens can get rid of sticks and such.

As we were walking in, a pickup truck went by us and parked, with a trailer full of sticks and such.

To my surprise, this was my old buddy Dan Galloway, who had been my regular mechanic for over twenty years. I started using Galloway's Tire Associates in Washington for most of my car work way back because my grandmother liked and trusted him. Galloways in Washington has been a trusted service place going back to when Dan's dad had their original garage where the CVS is in Washington now. 

We all ran over to help Dan unload his trailer. He said when he saw the group walking through, that he wondered if that was us!

I could see down below the far end of this lot to the left was actually the railroad bed. Some of that municipal lot had been filled over a bit. There was some equipment and such parked out there, in the old right of way.
We walked along it, which was kind of bushwhacking but not too terrible. There was enough canopy in the woods growing over it that there wasn't a whole lot of undergrowth.
We were able to stay right on the railroad bed until there was a power line clearing to the south. At that point, it just got too far overgrown, so we climbed up the slope to the right and walked along the edge of some adjacent farm fields. This took us all the way out to East Beersville Road. We regrouped there, and there was a really cool Volkswagon bug to the left.

It was done up in a tie dye color, which was quite impressive.
We followed East Beersville Road to the west just a bit, and then turned to the left on English Road.
Along this section of road was an interesting private yard that had these odd model airplanes on posts in it. We had a look at them, which included one chrome looking one, and one Red Baron which had a little Snoopy figurine on it.
We continued on English Road down to Yost Road, and just to the left on Yost was where the railroad used to cross. The right of way was an ATV path to the the north, but I don't think there was a way we could have gotten on it earlier, and to the right it was a mowed path with a gate.

We opted to try to follow the mowed path, because we were having so much luck so far. This turned out to be a great idea.

We continued through some woods with the Monocacy Creek to the right. This branch actually follows the Monocacy Creek from here all the way to Bethlehem, although it is much smaller up this far.
The woods road section of the rail grade emerges on the north side of a golf course. We came out and skirted the right side of that, which was down a slope a bit and didn't seem to be in the way of anything.
We continued along, but started to get a little too far away from where the railroad used to be, and were also way too high up. We backtracked a bit, and then headed off trail downhill to the right to try to get back on the right of way.

There was a large water filled quarry in view, one of the old Chapman Quarries, part of the slate industry, just before we started heading down. These quarries were served by the railroad.
I suspected where the rail bed was, but I knew for sure when I saw railroad ties sticking out along the stream.
We continued on this to the west a bit, and there was an old road that broke off to the right over a bridge, and to the edge of the quarry. I had really wanted to see it, so we directed everyone over the bridge and then out to the edge of the quarry.

I wasn't the first one to go over the bridge, but the first couple that did try to cross rustled up a nest of yellow jackets, and they got stung multiple times.
I still really wanted to go over there, and so I rock hopped the Monocacy Creek just downstream from the old road bridge rather than try to go across and get stung multiple times. Most everyone followed me.
We reached the edge of the quarry, turned right through some woods, and then found some awesome rocks out onto it that looked amazingly inviting. Several of us went over to the edge of the rocks and took a dip in the old quarry.
Lerch and I swam across and to a rock outcrop on the other side that looked safe enough to jump off.

He tested it first, and when he did alright, I jumped off of it too. It was kind of hard to climb because it was such loose slate, but it was worth it for the little thrill. Of course it felt great to cool off so much too.

Once we were done, we headed back to the railroad bed the way we came, and then continued along the right of way, which was grassy and mowed from here.
This brought us out to Monocacy Avenue. The railroad used to cross at an angle, and we did just that. We entered the woods and there were no signs at all, and then crossed an extant bridge over the Monocacy Creek.

This whole section was just wonderful. Somewhere in this area was where the Chapman Station used to be, but I'm not sure exactly. I think it must have been where we crossed over Monocacy Ave.
To the right, we came upon abutments to another bridge, a former rail spur to more quarries.

Just a little further ahead, we crossed the Monocacy Creek yet again on another extant bridge, this time with just railroad ties to step over.
Pretty soon, we came out to where the railroad used to cross Monocacy Drive, Rt 987. There was a driveway down to the right off of that southbound road, but I didn't see a reasonable way through.

We chose to walk 987 to the south for a bit, and then turned right on Whitetail Deer Drive. We went over to where the railroad bed used to cross, and it was looking really badly overgrown, plus it looked like it was heading for some really open private land.
I had a look at the old bridge that was still in place just into the woods, but we all headed back out to Rt 987 to continue hiking south instead of bushwhacking this segment.
Along this segment, we visited a little farm with sheep and chickens running around. 
We continued on 987 from here to State Post Road and turned to the right toward the former crossing.

Just after crossing the Monocacy Creek, we could see where the railroad used to be, heading to the south.
It looked pretty badly overgrown, but this section seemed like it just went through to apartments or something, so I figured we could walk this bit.
I tried walking in, and only the first bit of it where it was out in the sun seemed to be too bad with weeds. The rest was under more canopy.
This worked out pretty well for just a bit, and then it got really weedy. It was not fun. As such, several of us just headed down to the left to walk through the Monocacy Creek itself, because we would avoid all of the weeds that way.
I thought walking in the creek would be a splendid thing, but then some of the group got stung by yellow jackets living in the edge of it in this section as well! August is always pretty bad for yellow jackets, but we were not having any luck on this hike with that. I'm glad I didn't get stung, but I feel bad for the others that did.

As we got closer to the apartments at the south side of this section, I got out of the water and walked the railroad bed, which got clearer.
Pretty soon, we were in the mowed lawn behind the building, and headed out to Creek Road.
We turned left here, and then right after crossing Monocacy Creek into Volunteer Fire Fighters Park.
The railroad bed is now built over by buildings on Old Forge Drive to the south, or maybe the road itself. The park on the other side looked like a better walking option.
We came out to North Chestnut Street and turned right to Northampton Street, then reached the railroad bed again where it passes through the Bath municipal parking lot.

We headed into the park, and the abutment to the bridge that carried the railroad over Monocacy Creek yet again was right next to the foot bridge to Bath Tiny Park.
Just to the north of there, the Villa Grande Pizzeria seemed to have been built right on the railroad bed.
This was the first opportunity we came across to stop and get something to eat, and Lerch was way ahead of me on that.
I went over to get myself a slice or two, and he had already purchased lots of slices, probably all of the best ones they had, for the group, so I got to sample some pretty good stuff right there.
We hung out here and took a much needed break in the shade in front of the building.

I really missed out on hiking through Bath in the past. I had done some of the rail lines that skirt the edges of it before, and I had driven through it countless times on my way to Lehigh Gap and such, but I had never really hiked through much of the very center of it.

The settlement was established in 1728 by Scotch-Irish colonists, and named for Bath, Somerset England by Margaret Delaney, daughter of prominent landowner and Lieutenant Colonel of the Continental Army, William Allen.
Lovely old stone buildings still grace the town center. Among the beautiful buildings we saw passing through was the Joseph Steckel House in Bath Pa, built in 1813.
The adjacent church had purchased the property over 40 years ago with the idea of demolishing it for more parking.
It had fallen into terrible disrepair, with a hole through the roof that rotted all the way down to the basement.

Darrin Heckman and Carol Bear-Heckman are responsible for much historic preservation in Bath, including the Joseph Steckel House, and it was the recipient of a 2016 Special Focus Award for grassroots advocacy.

Much of the group decided to cut out at this pizza place. I can't really blame them for being tired. We had already had a pretty full day of craziness by this point, but I was going on.
We crossed the bridge over Monocacy Creek and then turned left onto Main Street. Towering to the right was the historic Slate Exchange Hotel, built in 1853.
It is open as a restaurant today, The Bath Exchange, named as an homage to its original name since 2019. It was previously home to Kickers Pub, which closed in 2017 after a 15 year run.
We turned right here and entered some lots to the south that I assumed were part of the rail yard in town. I saw on the right the former railroad bridge abutments where it crossed Monocacy Creek again.

We continued south through the lot, and the right of way turned more into it from the former bridge site. Then, someone in the group spotted that there were still visible rails in the gravel.
We continued through the lot to the south, and there were several old wooden buildings that were certainly once rail served. One of these buildings, in the far back, had the look and shape of a station.
I'm not sure if it was actually the station or not, and even after sharing my photos of it in several area and interest groups for the Lehigh and New England, I cannot get a good answer. It might have just been an office or something, but it really looks the part.

We continued to the south side of this lot clearing, and then cut to the left into the woods. There, we came upon rails still in place, rather overgrown. There was also a building where homeless people had apparently been staying.

The lots with the buildings led us across Mill Street
Following the tracks through this section would be insane, but we could follow the ATV paths on through which would bring us across Mill Street, but the tracks we were following turned out just to be the connecting eastbound track to a branch that is still in place leading out toward Stockertown.
We turned to the right when we hit the tracks, and the bridge and junction point with the former Nor Bath Railroad was in this area. The bridge that carried it over these tracks as well as the Monocacy Creek to the right was still in place.
We skirted the industries on the right, and then came out to cross Jacksonville Road. I had already walked all of the rest of this to the south from this point, so it was a relief to have done as much as we did, as closely as we could, to knock a bit more of this off of my to do list.
We continued south to the crossing of Beth Bath Pike, and we turned to the right to follow the road instead of the tracks further south.

Soon, we came to where there was a development to the right side of the road. We climbed up a slope planted with ornamental trees, and then followed that to the south, then to the east parallel with Hanoverville Road. It makes for a pretty nice walking route I had discovered when I did this as part of a night hike in the past.
Near the intersection with Harriet Lane, we turned right and crossed Hanoverville Road, and then headed through grass to the south to hit a paved trail through Crawford Park.
The trail takes us down to Crawford Ave and it ends. It's kind of surprising that it doesn't go through because it would make a nice greenway and the land is all there for it.

We went across through the grass, and then came out between houses on Jaclyn Lane. We turned to the right there, and then followed Grace Avenue to the west which has a trail at the end of it.

I believe we turned to the left when we came to an intersection of trails and followed the next one out to Southland Drive. I don't recall the exact route we took, probably just the road, out to Rt 512, but we used that to get beneath Rt 22. We crossed the Monocacy Creek on 512/Bath Pike, and then turned right along the railroad again.
We continued south along the Monocacy Creek, all together from this point, and across Bella Vista Drive.
The others started getting a bit ahead of me as I was getting more tired as time went by.
I was waking up all night basically every night to feed the baby, from 9 or 9:30 pm until between 3 and 6 am when his mother would finally go to sleep. We were not expecting to bring him home as early as we did because they'd told us probably until his due date, and that would be over a month.

Then, within two weeks from birth, we brought little Everen home.
I was physically and mentally just shot. If the physical exhaustion were not enough, the fact that he wasn't given my last name created more hostility than anyone even realizes.

I think the statement "Even his identity is symbolic of her pettiness" was the most fitting thing.
All of this spun through my head as the others began getting ahead.
The last I saw of them was when I got to the grade crossing at Macada Road. I noted that the bridge carrying the road across Monocacy Creek to the right was a lovely stone arch structure. I figured it must be very old. The thing is, when I looked the bridge up, it states that it was built in 1911, which doesn't seem quite right.
The stone arches are not at all visible to a driver, and even on foot, the overhang decking obscures it. It's likely that most don't realize it is the kind of bridge that it is.

The stonework is atypical of bridges built after 1910, because of the availability of both modern concrete and steel close by. The first Portland Cement was developed in nearby Coplay PA, so most all railroad structures in the area are outfitted with concrete. Why would this bridge be any different?
Was the bridge built as a novelty, to better fit with the Moravian stone ambiance? Or was it older, and 1911 just a rehabilitation date? I still have not found an answer to this one.
I continued walking the tracks to the south, crossed Bridle Path Road, and then soon after crossed the creek itself on a through girder bridge. It was starting to get dark by this time.

The others were so far ahead of me, I was just not going to see them again. My speed kept going down, and it was hard to stay awake walking at all.
I pushed on along the tracks until I got close to Illicks Mill Park, where I was able to get down from the tracks along the dam in the park. There were some kids there hanging out at the dam, but I didn't talk to anyone.
I thought about the time we were in the park seeing the band State Radio after a Lehigh Canal hike. It's crazy to think our lives are where they are now after all of that over twelve years prior.

I made my way back to the parking lot across Illick's Mill Road, and I think Diane and Robin showed up to pick me up from there. I never made it to Musikfest, and I was content not to go. A lot of the rest of the group was texting me wondering where I was, as were other friends who came out to attend Musikfest but only meet the group when we got there.
In truth, I was far more interested in doing the hike than I was seeing any performances this time. I needed to move and exert, and I don't think I could enjoy being entertained at this point, so it worked out well enough for me.
I really did have a great time on this one, even though it tapered off into far too much self analysis at the end, and I was so glad to have made all of the different connections we had throughout the day.