Hike #1473; Hellam Hills to Andersontown

 

Hike #1473; 3/12/22 Mason Dixon Trail; Hellam Hills to Andersontown with James Kohan, Diane Reider, Jennifer Tull, Professor John DiFiore, and Joel Castus

This next  hike would be the next in our series to cover the entire Mason-Dixon Trail as well as the Highlands Trail. Both trails coincide with one another from the Appalachian Trail to Wrightsville, and so the series would split when we got to that point.

The previous hike, the second in the series, had us finish in Andersontown at the home of our friend Jennifer Grove Shaffer. She was unable to attend this one due to an injury, but she still invited us to use her driveway as beginning or end point since there are not many options or parking through the area.

The previous hikes in this series were all west to east, but I decided to flip it around for this one. That was because we could have a gathering if Jen was available at the end. Even though that didn’t work out, we still did the hike in the backwards order and had her home in Andersontown as the meeting and end point.

Once again, there was a ridiculous amount of snow on the ground. I had already been totally sick of it, because already half of the hikes for the new year had been trudging in the snow.

It was really a good thing the hikes had been pre-planned for just this situation in the way they were. I had it planned the previous month that if there was a ton of snow on the ground, that we would jump ahead and do the Mason-Dixon Trail from the east because there was a lot of road walking. If there was not a lot of snow, we would go from the west. It gave us pretty good odds.

There was not much snow the previous one so I got to do it in order, and the timing worked out great that we had a ton of snow, and the section that was mostly road walk this time.

John had a major issue right from the start. He had recently purchased a house way out in PA close to the Mid State Trail, and he headed out in the morning to try to get to us, but then got stuck at a hill in the snow. That didn’t stop him however; he did keep trying and eventually was able to catch up with us to do the latter portion of the hike.

The biggest concern we had remaining was parking. We worked out how we could all cram in the Shaffer driveway, but where would we park when we got to the Hellam Hills Nature Preserve to the east? That was yet to be seen. I’d simply found some parking on street at Hellam Hills, along Furnace Road.

I had hiked most of the Mason-Dixon Trail before, and was only missing from Elk Neck State Forest to Parryville MD, and from the Hellam Hills west. This would close in that huge gap for me, but there were also reroutes along the way that happened since I backpacked it with Jillane years ago.

So, I wanted to see the new stuff too. The trail used to go along River Drive to the south of here exclusively, but that was changed with an off trail section. That bit would be part of the next hike.

This time though, we would continue on the designated trail route to the west. That took us along Furnace Road a bit to the west, and then turned to the right on River Farm Road.

This road used to be a through public route until somewhat recently as I understand, but now just serves as basically a driveway. The unpaved road was particularly beautiful in the snow. We made our way downhill as it was still coming down. The woods gave way to a segment of open farm fields with a beautiful ambiance of flying frost.

We reached a private road section ahead, where vehicle traffic had obviously gone right where a stop sign was posted, a well as signs to keep out. The trail turned to the left there, into an area that also said no trespassing and that violators would be prosecuted, but those things are on these kinds of marked trails all of the time.

From here, old River Farm Road was abandoned, right beside a pleasant little stream. This stream must flow like crazy when it floods, and is probably the reason this section of road is closed today.

One particular spot along the road was really badly washed out, but the rest was okay, with just trees and branches down over the way. There were still utility poles along the route, although all of them were vacant at this time. Diane said she seemed to recall that when she had done the entire Mason-Dixon before, that it had been open to drive.

We reached the bottom of the hill, and the road became open to vehicle traffic again at a gate, alongside the Codorus Creek.

I watched closely as we passed through this area for remnants of the old canal system that operated here. The Codorus Navigation traveled from the Susquehanna River all the way to York along the Codorus Creek, and was a canal that relied on canalized sections of the creek through the constructions of dams, and short canal segments with locks.

The route was to be 11 miles in total of towpath navigation, with 8 miles of slack water, 3 miles of canal, 10 dams, and 13 locks that would raise boats an average of seven feet each. The system was completed in 1833, and transported lumber, coal, stone, shingles, farm goods, and passengers.

The privately owned canal could not compete with the railroads that were soon developed between York, Baltimore, and Wrightsville by 1840, and it was put out of business by 1850. Some of the historic towpath is under development as a trail, and has been since 2006. I understand that more of this will become a trail and I have scaled off hikes that will include it, but I haven’t gotten around to posting those just yet.

I watched closely as we turned left along the Codorus Creek for any signs of a towpath. I understand that it was on the south side of the creek at this time. I guess that means the road is the old towpath, but I would love to find a lock remnant or something.

I could find some articles and documentation of all but three of the locks on this canal, locks 10 through 12, which would have been in some of the stretch we were walking along. I can’t find maps that show them, but aerial images seem to hint where the might have been. I’m just not sure.

We headed west, and I went down to inspect the creek a couple of times, but only found what I believe to have been natural riffles. There was one spot that might have been a dam remnant, but I’m not sure. I saw what might also have been a separate waterway, but without a map, there are other places as per aerial images upstream from here that would be more likely lock 12 sites. Lock 13 and a guard lock were out closer to the Susquehanna River to our right. Lock 9 I know is further upstream near the confluence of Dee Run, and that means the next riffle down was probably 10.

We made our way out to the intersection with Furnace Road and turned right to cross the Codorus.
To the left, the Codorus Furnace still stands along the road.

The furnace was originally built in 1765 by James Smith of York, a signer of the Declaration of Independence. Cannon balls were cast here for both the American Revolution and for the War of 1812. 

These munitions were hauled off by way of the Codurus Navigation in 1837, but the furnace discontinued operation about the exact same time as the navigation system did, 1850.

After crossing the creek, the trail turned right on Riverview Drive. Along this section of road, we passed by a lot of houses, but to the right we sometimes got a view of the Codorus Creek, so I tried looking for more towpath remnants and such. I saw where I thought might have been a dam again, but still not sure if it was one.

We could also see into the little gap we descended from on River Farm Road in the distance, which was pretty.
The road turned ninety degrees to the left after heading downhill a bit, and then ran closely parallel with the former Pennsylvania Railroad. This section was part of what was referred to as the Enola Low Grade line, the fast short cut branch used for carrying freight, officially called the Atlglen and Susquehanna Branch. It crossed the Susquehanna at Shocks Mill Bridge just south of the Codorus Creek and remained on the west side, still in service. The parts of it on the east side of the Susquehanna are now abandoned and part of a trail.

The Mason-Dixon Trail continued on the road beside the tracks, and stayed there as the road changed names to 2^nd Street and took us into the little community of Saginaw.

The area was first settled in 1734, and was once named New Holland. At other times, it was known as Day's Landing for early settler Frederick Day, and Mount Wolf before taking the name Saginaw.

It seems to be unknown where the name came from, but many believe it means "place of the outlet" in native languages. This could make sense with the proximity to Black Gut, a channel which opens to the Susquehanna River in the settlement.

There was an old stone culvert that didn’t seem to carry anything to the right, and might have been an old road underpass. We continued ahead to the intersection where the trail turned to the right beneath the Pennsylvania Railroad culvert built in 1904 (this bridge was completed prior to the completion of the line in 1906).

 To the left was an historic church of stone, quite handsome, erected in May 1927 only nine months after the cornerstone was laid.

Funding and materials were provided by J. E. Baker of the J. E. Baker Company, and men of the Union Baker Plant provided labor. The women did not sit by either, and carried lumber and lime to the site. It was quite a community involvement as it is written.

We passed under the culvert and had good views of the Susquehanna River. We turned left here and the trail follows unpaved Gut Road. This is apparently sometimes open to traffic, but at this time it was gated, so this was a pleasant surprise to be walking something free of traffic for the second time in the day.

The road continues along the river until a channel appears on the right side, known as Black Gut. 
Black Gut flows around Lows Island which has a steam electric station in it at the north end, but the bit that we followed was quite pretty in the snow.

The Mason-Dixon Trail followed Gut Road north all the way to Wago Road and turned left. At this point, it went under the Atlgen and Susquehanna Branch again by way of a nice stone culvert, and then beneath the Northern Central Railway bridge of plate girder construction on concrete capped stone abutments. Both bridges also cross the stream known as Hartman Run.

The Mason-Dixon Trail followed the road ahead a bit, then turned right, gradually uphill on Board Road. From there, it skirted the Royal Manchester Golf Course. It would have been nice if there had been no snow on the ground for this stretch, because maybe I could have gotten on some golf course pathways instead of on the road, but we made due with it.

We were at this time skirting the edge of the town of Manchester, which has businesses, but I didn't at all want to go extra out of the way if I could avoid it. The trail turns right before any of those businesses on Meeting House Road, so we just stuck with that. I kind of hoped to find an off road reroute that wasn't posted in this stretch, but we found none.

Pretty soon, after heading down hill a bit, the trail turned right on Rt 181, which is shown as N George Street Extension, but changes to York Haven Road ahead. This was a busier road that took us down hill a bit, and to the edge of the Conewago Creek. The trail turns left at this point onto Conewago Creek Road, but here there was a side trip I was willing to take, across the creek and to the Conewago Inn.

The inn wasn't the only cool thing here. The old bridge over the creek still stands adjacent to the current one.

The historic abandoned York Haven Road Bridge was built in 1888 by the Wrought Iron Bridge Company of Canton Ohio. It was replaced by the adjacent current Rt 181 Bridge, which is typical boring construction.

This bridge is nationally significant because it is a fixed 18 panel pin-connected Pennsylvania Through Truss, the only one of this style in the country made by the Wrought Iron Bridge Company. The company was the most prolific builder of bridges in America prior to 1900, but they favored Whipple through trusses for long spans over the Pennsylvania configuration (the single span here is 295 ft).

Unlike other bridges that had been closed to traffic, and even though I wasn’t really supposed to be walking over this one, it was not closed off to keep me from going across.

Once we got to the other side, we headed over to the Conewago Inn for lunch.
This was a really nice place with an interesting floor plan and nicely windowed side area.
The building itself has a unique history; it started as a log cabin at the crossing of the creek, and then was extended upon to become the inn. During the Civil War period, it served as part of the “underground railroad” helping slaves on their way to freedom.
I had a really delicious burger and well-seasoned fries with speckles of cheese stuff on it.

From here, we headed back the way we came across the river. I walked back on the old truss bridge again, which had a nice old grated deck. Fortunately, that was stable, because the snow cover on it would have made it hard to tell otherwise.

This next stretch was really nice because the road was right along the creek for a long while, making it a really pretty road section. Ahead, we spotted abutments on either side of the creek. This was the former site of a trolley trestle that spanned the Conewago.

Beyond there, we passed the intersection with Bowers Bridge Road. The trail continued on Conewago Creek Road there, which shifted from following Conewago Creek to its tributary, Little Conewago Creek.
We just stayed on the road through a residential area for a while, and eventually crossed the Little Conewago Creek. Once on the other side, the trail turned right immediately onto unpaved Rooster Lane, which closely paralleled the Little Conewago Creek.

This was again a really pleasant bit. The road led along the Little Conewago Creek for a bit, and then turned left up a tributary to it. It passed by a few homes, and gradually went up hill to connect with Bowers Bridge Road. It looked like at one time in history, Rooster Lane would have continued straight ahead. 

We turned left on Bowers Bridge Road a bit, then turned right on Conewago Creek Road. This brought us past some pretty farms and along a roller coaster of a road. This is in the area known as Strinestown. The road then took us through a mass of parking areas and used car lots. John found us on this stretch of road and parked somewhere nearby to join for the remainder of the hike.

We came out to the intersection with the highway known as Susquehanna Trail, and turned left. Just to the south of there, we crossed Interstate 83 on the road overpass.

This highway, which stays close to the earlier Susquehanna Trail, was designated US Rt 111 from Harrisburg to Baltimore in 1928. It became Interstate 83 in 1960. 

There was both a Rutters and a Sheetz ahead after crossing the highway, and I think we went to the Sheetz. I thought it was one that carried wine and liquor, but it turned out not to be. 

Once we got some snacks and such at the Sheetz, we made our way back up the hill to Susquehanna Trail, and turned left on Cloverleaf Road. This was an absolutely beautiful road walk route with farms and pastures, and beautiful bank barns of wood or stone. 

The sky was hazy and the sun shone through beautifully just to create the right ambiance with the snow. It came out through the clouds a bit once we were in a more forested area, which was also beautiful.
We crossed Butter Road, and continued on Cloverleaf ahead to the intersection with Green Springs Road where the trail turned right. We headed down hill, and Butter Road went off to the right. We continued ahead briefly on Sheepbridge Road, then turned left at a lovely old stone homestead onto Bremer Road.

Joel was hurting pretty bad at this point, and was way behind us. We had to continue on to get done before dark. He texted me when he got to the last intersection, and I think he ended up making a turn down the wrong road for a long ways and had to go back. I eventually got him going the correct way, west on Bremer. 

This was a really pretty stretch of road with undulating terrain that brought us pretty directly west to the intersection with Copenhaffer Road. We turned right there, then left when Big Creek Road went straight. We passed by some pretty homes and wood lawn sculptures. Another ninety degree turn to the left came up at the intersection with Hake Road, and then started descending down to Andersontown. 

We came to the intersection of Lewisberry Road in Andersontown, where the house on the left is probably the former J. Steffey Store. We went straight on Andersontown Road, and Jen Grove Shaffer's house was on the right where we finished out the day. 

It really was the perfect hike for us to have done on this day. I got in my car and headed back to pick Joel up at the intersection of Bremer and Copenhaffer, and we were out.
It was now far enough into the year that I was no longer worried much about snow still being around, and we could move ahead with these series without much concern until the snow flies again at the end of the year.