Hike #1513; Governor Dick and Mt Gretna Area Loop

Hike #1513; 11/6/22 Governor Dick and Mt Gretna Area Loop with Professor John DiFiore, Diane Reider, James Kohan, Jim "Mr. Buckett" Mathews, Eric Pace, Kirk Rohn, Dan Asnis, and Everen

This next hike would be a big loop around the area of Governor Dick Hill, and a variation on one I had done a few years back in the same area.

This hike would fit into my Pennsylvania Highlands Trail series we started off at the beginning of the year. At this point, the Highlands Trail shifts from the Lebanon Valley Rail Trail to the Horse-Shoe Trail, so that means re-doing much of that trail. I didn't mind so much because there are so many reroutes at this point.

The previous month, we did an almost loop that started where we had previously been in the area of Bellaire and then did some of the Horse-Shoe Trail and other trails around Governor Dick Hill. I had changed the route partway through that hike because I was concerned that some of the road walk stuff would be too unsafe to bring the stroller on. I decided I would add those items to the next hike.

It turned out to be a good idea to do it that way. This hike would be an excellent loop for both the time of year and conditions with little Ev in the stroller. 

Rather than take to the same location in Colebrook as I'd done the previous time out there, I chose the Alden Way trailhead for the Lebanon Valley Rail Trail as the starting point, to the east. I had finished another hike not so long ago on the rail trail at that location, and figured this would be a good starting point for the next one in the series and a sort of repeat of the previous loop.
By starting at this spot, there would only be a tiny bit of overlap at the beginning and end really. 

Alden Way is a rather new development, to the southeast of the historic little settlement of Quentin, to the south of Lebanon. I had eaten at the historic tavern there just before Jillane had Ev and it was quite nice. I had figured when I planned the hike that we could have the dinner afterwards there, but I also didn't know if I was to have Ev with me or not, and so I ended up not going there this time.

We arrived at the lot and I started getting my stuff together. It's quite a different routine at the start of the hikes since I started regularly bringing Ev. I have to make sure I have so much other stuff. I used to just go out with a little water, whatever I was wearing, a couple beers, and I was good.

Now, I had to have plenty of extra water as well as toddler formula, extra diapers, a change of clothes in case he messes his up either from poop, spit up, food, or who knows what, healthy snacks for him like cheese and apple sauce, baby wipes, his shoes, a hat, a bottle as well as an extra in case he loses one (because he likes to thow things), teethers, and who knows what else I'm not even thinking about right now.

Before we set out, Diane pointed out a very nice stone culvert with brick lining down below the old rail bed to check out. This one had a perfectly round opening, which was different from what I'm used to seeing.

The trail was paved at this first part. We left the lot and got on it to the west, which took us across Alden and then beneath the Route 322 underpass.

The route we were starting on was the historic former Cornwall and Lebanon Railroad, which we'd followed as part of the last two hikes in the PA Highlands series. It was built to near this site directly parallel with the earlier Cornwall Railroad and had quite a rivalry in the early days.
The Cornwall and Lebanon was built in 1883, and became a competitor to the Cornwall Railroad that had been established in 1850. The branch was purchased by the Pennsylvania Railroad in 1913, and formally merged into the PRR in 1918, making it the Cornwall and Lebanon Branch.

The line was incorporated by Robert Habersham Coleman, who was interestingly the son of the Cornwall Railroad founder William Coleman and cousin of William Freeman, the competitor’s President.

The line was extended west to Conewago Station, and continued hauling iron ore, military personnel, or local goods, but passenger service ended in 1928.

Freight service continued until Hurricane Agnes in 1972, after which it was pretty much abandoned. A stub of it is still in service out at Conewago, closer to the western end.

After we got beneath the highway underpass, we approached the bridge that carried the line over Mine Road, which was the original main road, predecessor to Rt 322/old Rt 72. A narrow path led down to the left, to the road, just before the bridge over it. We turned here to make our way across Rt 117 and up Mine Road. There is one house up the hill there, after which it is gated and abandoned.

It was kind of rough pushing Ev up this hill, but not too terrible. We got past the gate, and then regrouped again when we got to the point where the first trail, the white rectangle trail, broke off to the right.
The last time I was up there, this route was the Horse-Shoe Trail. It had been rerouted. I remember seeing about the reroute, but figured it wouldn't be that much different and we'd pick it up soon after following that old route. I knew the old route would be pretty easy to do with the stroller.

We turned right and followed the trail, but there were no yellow Horse-Shoe Trail blazes for a while. I started to get concerned that maybe it was moved to a far different route than I was anticipating. The white rectangle was also known as Trail 5. 

We continued past the first trail intersection, along pretty easy terrain, and then came upon the yellow blazes when we got to the second intersection.
This portion of the trail had been moved onto Trail 13. I'll have to go back to cover this section unfortunately, and I wasn't about to take on extra miles to cover that bit of the trail this time.

The Horse-Shoe Trail is a very interesting route that was first devised to connect the Appalachian Trail with the City of Philadelphia.

Henry N. Woolman, founder of Abbots Dairy, took a two week horse back trip through the Great Smokey Mountains in 1926. He declared that the area of southeastern Pennsylvania was at least as beautiful, and it should have its own trail. At the time, horse back riding on the Appalachian Trail was not prohibited, and that route was more old woods roads amenable to that use anyway, and he used the AT through Tennessee and North Carolina.

With the help of riding and nature clubs, Woolman began marking the trail in 1934 through the Furnace Hills of PA. 

There were very old trails that connected between the iron furnaces already, so some of the word was simply formalizing these old routes.

The trail was christened in 1947 as a through route from Valley Forge to the Appalachian Trail in Manada Gap.
Eventually, the AT was moved from Manada Gap further north into St. Anthony’s Wilderness, which forced the trail to be extended north as to continue to the Appalachian Trail.

The trail is in constant danger of closure because it goes through so many private lands, and efforts have been in place to permanently protect much of its corridor.

What I love about this trail is that it’s one of those weird ones that is always changing. It’s not always on a ridge top, nor is it always in the woods. It passes through farm land and historic sites and never gets boring.

At some point I wondered if the trail had be rerouted again, because the yellow blazes where the trails were co-aligned were minimal. Still, we continued to see them.

It was a really nice bit, but it got harder as we went as it shifted from a pretty obvious woods road to a bit more of a rough one. 

I was still able to get the stroller through pretty well, but took a little bit more effort to go over some of the frequent rocks and such. Someone in the group was always there ready to grab the front of it if I got stuck on something.

We had a really nice discussion about politics of the time on this back woods areas, and it was a nice reminder that people of mature mind can have intelligent and respectful conversations without getting angry in most cases. There's a lot of stuff I've been connected to over the past couple of years that has me questioning everything, and the whole red wave and blue wave stuff they keep talking about around the coming Election Day is all the same. My final response in all of this was that we have done so bad on politicians lately, that it is "shit's time to shine". The parties can run just about anyone and the opponent won't be too hard to beat. 

They just keep scraping the bottom of the barrel. I suppose we've all grown up learning that it would be stupid to get involved in politics, and so now we are left with stupid politicians, or worse, terrible ones.

The trail came rather close to Rt 117 at some point. I didn't remember it being so close to it the last time I was there, because this section was certainly a part that I had done previously.

We eventually veered away from the highway and through nice deep woods, over mostly pretty easy terrain. There were a few rocks here and there, but we managed to get on through it.
In this stretch, we lost the Horse-Shoe Trail again. It was rerouted in this bit as well, onto Trail 9, which goes uphill a bit more and was considered "more scenic" as per the post on it.

I will certainly have to go back to cover that section as well, whenever I get around to it. I may have to add another hike in to this series just to do those bits that I'm missing, depending on how I have the stuff written up for my other hikes out there. 

We remained on the the white rectangle blazed trail, which led us out into Mt Gretna Heights, on some of the farthest little side roads. The trail went by a few houses, and we could see the painted out old Horse-Shoe Trail blazes going through. It really wasn't a bad route, but I suppose they had the option of staying in the woods and did so.

The route took us through the development and onto a couple of blocks of road, and then went right back into the woods again on the south side. It wasn't much farther after this that the Horse-Shoe Trail returned on the left. 

It also wasn't far until we connected with the old Mt Gretna Narrow Gauge Railroad bed, which we did much of the previous month.

This right of way was a short line that operated between Mount Gretna, Pennsylvania and Governor Dick Tower on Governor Dick Hill, now the Clarence Schock Memorial Park at Governor Dick, which we had been walking through. It opened in 1889, and carried passengers to the towers, as well as National Guardsmen to their rifle range near Conawago Hotel. It closed after an accident in 1915 and was never re-opened.

Since colonial time, the area ahead has been known as Governor Dick’s Hill. It was heavily used for charcoal production during the American Revolution to power the nearby furnaces where slaves, Hession prisoners, and other colliers worked twenty four hours a day producing the product.
One slave on the books was noted as “Governor Dick” who lived in a hut on the west side of the hill.

It was a common New England practice for a foundry owner to elect a slave leader and give him a title such as “Governor”, which is probably why Governor Dick was so named.

Governor Dick is believed to have been purchased out of Maryland in 1776, and at age 50, he was the oldest of 25 slaves registered by the foundry owner in 1780.

At the age of 66, Governor Dick escaped and there is no solid evidence of him ever returning to his namesake hill.

The 1105 acres of land were purchased by Clarence Schock, co-founder of the Schock Independent Oil Company, in the 1930s. Schock felt that after making provisions for his family, his wealth should go to the general welfare of the public. He opened the property to public as early as 1936.
In 1941, aside from a modest living for himself and his wife, Schock decided that his profits should go to schools in the districts served by his company.

Schock passed in 1955, but he had set up a Deed of Trust for the Governor Dick property, so that  it would be “In trust forever as a playground and public park”. Lebanon County is now the sole trustee to the property.

We made our way parallel with, and then onto the old railroad grade. Although it wasn't really necessary, I planned the trip to the top of Governor Dick Hill as part of this hike anyway, because it's always cool to go up the tower.

We began following the old rail bed heading uphill gradually, which was a good way to go about it. It was much easier to push the stroller this way than the way I'd done it a month prior on the fire road.

I tried looking at the landscape through this area, because there are good old photos of the line in service, and I wanted to try to emulate more of them, but I couldn't quite place where the old ones were taken. Some of them might have been on the section in the State Game Lands to the west, and some of them might have been where we were.

 As we approached the first little cut, I looked for any evidence that there might have been a foot bridge over it there at one time, but saw nothing. There are trails that cross, so I figured that might be the spots, but there was no evidence of it.

The right of way crosses over the fire road at one point, takes a sharp turn, then crosses it again, but I skipped that section, went left on the fire road, then left again to continue up the remainder of the hill on the rail bed. This was another really nice route, and I pointed out where I'd gotten the then and now shot the previous month at a vantage point where one of the old wooden towers could have been seen.

We weaved around at this lower level and soon reached the height of the land where the runaround track probably started on the railroad. 

We approached the tower, and I used the opportunity again to give Ev another diaper change because there's a trash can right there. 

Everyone was in a hurry to go up the tower, which was a good move, because no sooner did we all start going up, an entire troop of boy scouts or something arrived ready to go up as well. I went up the flights of ladders as quickly as I could, but Jim, who was right in front of me, pointed out that there were wasps sitting on several of the segments! I took more care from that point not to get them agitated with me. 

Ev waited with Eric at the bottom, which was easy because he had just fallen asleep. I also didn't take very long. I got to the very top, took some photographs of the landscape in every direction with all of the looming clouds, and then saw the loud scouts coming up the trail. 

I hurried back down as quickly as I could because I figured they would wake him up.

When I got back down to the bottom, I could see that Eric and Dan had not gone up yet. I told Eric first, and I knew he'd liked it the last time we were up and so he was going to go. He got stucking going trough with the scouts, but they didn't go too slow and Eric got to the top before a lot of them even got in line.

Dan decided he didn't want to bother climbng it this time because he wanted to save his energy for the remainder of the hike this time.

When everyone was good, we began heading back down the hill. We continued back down by way of the Fire Road, the way we had come up the previous time. It was a much better route to follow going down than it had been going up.

We followed this until we got to where the Horse-Shoe Trail crossed. The previous time, we had followed the trail closest to Pinch Road.

We continued on the Horse-Shoe Trail out to the entrance road to the preserve, crossed, skirted the edge of a retention pond, and then came out to Pinch Road where we crossed directly.

Here, the hike would again overlap the previous one, and we followed the HST route out into State Game Lands #124. This was at least a very nice and easy route for us with the stroller because it follows all old farm and woods roads that are pretty easy.

We meandered through woods and skirted one field section. This time, unlike the previous month, the sound of the Pennsylvania Turnpike was much more audible, probably because there were so fewer leaves on the trees.

The hike remained the same for a while on this until we came to a fork in the trail. I realized a bit late that we had gone a bit too far and had to backtrack. There was a sort of field area on the right that I recognized as being too far.

The Horse-Shoe Trail continues gradually downhill in the Furnace Hills, but the route we would take this time would be a side woods road to the left which State Game Lands maps refer to as Bridle Trail. We went back and found it, but it wasn't so obvious. 

The HST was really well cleared, but this other one had much more encroaching vegetation from either side.

Still, we were able to follow it pretty easily. Thorns didn't come into the stroller which was mostly what I was concerned about.

It was a very pleasant woods that it descended through, then skirted former fields or herbaceious openings created by game lands for wildlife hunting and propagation. 

As we got further into this area, there were trees and branches down over the path. The group helped me to get Ev's stroller over most of this without too much problem. There was one complicated one that was sort of an over, and under, and another over again, but we managed. Beyond that, the old road opened up to a much wider and more recently managed gravel road in open area.

We continued out to Mt Wilson Road, which to the left changes names to Manheim Road. Not quite directly across the road, but close, is the entrance to Dinosaur Rock Trail.

I had been hearing about this place for a long time, and had seen photos of the Dinosaur Rock. It was an interesting formation that sort of looked like a dinosaur's head, but honestly it didn't look all that impressive to me until seeing it fisthand.

The style of rock that this natural phenomina is composed of gives it the illusion that it is much smaller. It requires people being in the photograph to really appreciate the size of this odd standing stone formation.

We crossed the road and began following the narrower path into the woods on the other side. I had to push Ev's stroller between some of the rounded rolling rocks, off of somewhat of a woods road. Pretty soon, the famous Dinosaur Rock came into view.

I was immediately impressed at the magnitude of its fifteen or so foot profile standing up in what seems like a very random fashion from the forest floor.

The diabase rock formation was once molten material that intruded into Triassic sediment some two hundred million years ago. As the weaker material around it eroded away, the harder rock remained standing.

The problem with this site is it is far too accessible. It is such a short walk from the road that people come up to spray paint it. It looks terribly trashy and isn't even impressive art. In May of 2022, a group of volunteers had gone up there and cleaned off all of the graffiti using a material nicknamed "elephant snot" which costs $100 a gallon, but removes all graffiti. Unfortunately, it didn't last more than a few weeks before people were going back up there and screwing it up. State Game Commission doesn't have the resources or staff to address problems like this, so it takes a community effort, but it still keeps happening.

We all climbed all over the thing, and no one else was around. It was really quite peaceful while we were there, and I did our group shot at the rock.

From this point, we continued back out to Mt Wilson/Manheim Road, and turned to the south downhill.

It wasn't very far before we passed over the PA Turnpike on the road bridge. Just past that site on the right side of the road was another woods road through State Game Lands that would take us to the west.

We went around a gate, and then climbed uphill a bit above the Turnpike. This route took us a ways to the west parallel with the highway, and then came out on Lawn Hill Road.

We turned right on the road and started heading uphill again, but we didn't have that far to go over Lawn Hill.

We descended into the little settlement, which was formerly called Roseland in 1888, renamed by Aaron S. Kreider in 1889.

We turned left on Elizabethtown Road, and then right on Railroad Street to the former grade crossing on the Cornwall and Lebanon Railroad, as well as the former site of the Lawn station.

I had a few then and now history compilations to set up here. Once again, Gregory Pawelski has the best collection of photos along this line, and I have him to thank for having organized so many of them to make this possible to do.

The Lawn Station building is long gone today. It was apparently moved to this site from Cornwall back in 1896. There was once a siding just to the east to Stauffer's Feed Mill.

The settlement was also home to the Longenecker Hotel, immediately adjacent to the former railroad. The building is still in very nice shape and looks like it might be serving as separate apartments today. I had a close up of it to get, and then another from Faye Carullo Collection with the station as well, but taken in 1906.

Another view on the other side of the tracks was one of the Stock Yards from the Raye Longenecker Collection. I think I figured out that historic spot, or if not I got it pretty close.

Faye Corullo collection

I got all of my shots and we continued to the east for a bit. I was really happy to have gotten to the railroad bed, because it was this all the way to the end. All of the walking from this point on would be totally easy.

Some of the group stopped to play on swings on the playground as we got going. 

We closely paralleled Elizabethtown Road for a bit, and then soon after crossed over it at grade.

The rail bed passed though a pretty open area, with fields with horses in them to the left. Diane went over and greeted one of them.

We passed through some woods ahead of this, and pretty soon came to where the Horse-Shoe Trail crosses the railroad bed, where we turned last month.

It wasn't very far after that we crossed over Mt Wilson Road/Rt 241 in the little settlement of Colebrook.

This sleepy little Pennsylvania Dutch town was one of the neat little stops I'd made when I backpacked through here with Jillane years ago. There were only two options for food at the time. 

Ray Longenecker collection

One was Collins Grocery down the hill from the trail a bit, and the other was the Twin Kiss Drive In. 

I remember we went to Collins, but it was too late in the day and the girl working wouldn't make us a sandwich, because they strictly only made them earlier. I found it to be kind of odd, and when I asked how the Twin Kiss was for food, she didn't know citing that she only eats at home! That was what reminded me we were in a very different culture.

This time, the Twin Kiss appeared to be gone. A new building, or a heavily renovated original one, was there. The only option was to take a side trip down to Collins Grocery.

1908 Lebanon Co His. Soc.

The little settlement of Colebrook was also once a more happening place. 

In the 1930s, it was home to the Camp Colebrook Camp of the Pennsylvania National Guard.

journey through the past 1910

The training area consisted of several buildings that were north of the tracks, while those enlisted mostly lived in the to the south. 

The town also had its own station building, and the site is now the parking lot for the trail.

We took the side trip to the north, downhill to the grocery store and picked up some stuff. I think I got some cookies or something that looked too good to resist and shared it with Ev. Pretty much everyone has something to share with him, so he eats pretty well on the hikes.

I think I may have also gotten a pre-prepared sandwich or something, but I can't quite remember.

We headed from the store back up to the trail, and I set up my three then and now history compilations at the former station site, and we moved on to the east.

Dan West collection

For a bit of time, the railroad bed closely paralleled Mt Gretna Road.

Along this parallel road section was where there was once a spur of the Cornwall and Lebanon Railroad that went out to Conewago Lake. The railroad pretty much was along the creek the entire distance to this area, and then moves off.
While the Mt Gretna Narrow Gaurge Railroad terminated at the spot at the Mt Gretna Station, that line also went around Conewago Lake and apparently had a connection with the C&L at that point as well. I'm not sure how long each of these were in place and coexisted, but we followed along some of the right of way of this little branch parallel with the road the last time we were out here as well. 

The junction site was not very obvious to us because it was getting quite a bit darker.

When the road moved off to the south more, to the left was the scene of the former Colebrook Ice Dam, where ice was harvested, stored in sawdust, and sold or sent to the nearby military installation at Mt Gretna.

The body of water was renamed Lake Duffy in honor of World War I veteran Lt. Col. Frank J. Duffy who was killed by a mortar in 1918.

The lake is no more, but the area is still a wetland seen on the rail trail.

It was a bit upsetting that we would not reach the Mt Gretna Station site before it was too dark. 

I had a ton more photos I had saved to my phone that I wanted to get of the former station site, but there actually is a whole lot more through the area that I still want to explore, so I simply have to go back again. 

The last good daylight we had was just as we were reaching the beginnings of the platforms associated with the old Mt Gretna Station.

This site was once a very happening place, with covered station platforms on both sides of the track, a grade crossing path as well as a foot bridge, and nearby was a roller rink, a hotel, and other amusements. Mt Gretna was sort of an oasis of woods in the middle of farmland, and much of the settlement retains its historic character. I think I need to plan a trip that is focused more around just experiencing the little town.

Despite the fact that the sun was going down, the temperature seemed to just keep getting hotter. 

The high for the day ended up being an incredible 76 degrees, which apparently set some kind of local record for November.

I had been fully prepared to come in my suit and tie, which is customary hiking attire for November, but this time right from the start I was in shorts and a tee shirt.

It wasn't too much longer that I couldn't even deal with wearing the shirt anymore, and so I just took it off. The almost full moon was coming up through the trees, which was quite beautiful, almost straight ahead of us shining a light that cast the shadow of the tree branches down.

The trail was very quiet and secluded through the woods up to the crosses with Butler Road and a bit beyond. We were then sandwiched between Old Mine Road and Rt 117, but it never felt like we were very close to either of them.

Pretty soon we were crossing the Mine Road overpass, which was the old highway route we did near the very beginning, and after that the Rt 72/322 underpass. Just past there we got to Alden Way and completed the hike.

Dan had fallen behind us a couple of times, but despite not having been out with us too often lately, he did really great. We had caught up again at Lawn, and again at Colebrook, and just got ahead of him there to the end. 

I called him to be sure he was alright when we were to the parking lot, and he actually wasn't too far behind us. I'm glad he didn't give up and has pushed himself to the extent that he used to.

Ev and I had to head back home so he could get to bed at a reasonable hour, so I didn't get to go out to eat, but it was really a pretty great day. I think it went a bit over what I was planning on doing, but it wasn't a very big deal.

The end of this felt like I was completing an old Summer night hike, and I loved it. I hope I have many more like it.