Hike #1566: 8/20/23 Ephrata to Lancaster with Jenny Tull, Carolyn Gockel Gordon, Professor John DiFiore, David Adams, Diane Reider, Mike Heaney, Robin Deitz, Serious Sean Dougherty, and Everen
This next one would be the third in my series to hike the Conestoga Trail. This one would be mostly on the route of the Conestoga Trail itself, without as much deviation or other stuff added to it as on the previous hikes in the series.
This was probably too warm a hike to be doing at this time, but I hadn't really thought it through well enough I suppose. I figured there'd be spots to take a dip so it would be okay, but there wasn't nearly enough. But oh well.
When I had walked this bit of the trail in the past, it was a warm weather day, but where the previous days were hot, I mostly did these sectiona in cooler weather.
Still, we managed, and it was a really nice hike even if it was a little too hot for my liking without enough swimming spots.
The Conestoga Trail runs over sixty miles from the Horse-Shoe Trail in the Furnace Hills, all the way to the Mason-Dixon Trail at Lock 12 by the Norman Wood Bridge.
Most of the trail was stroller-able from the northern end down to Pequaea I figured, so I decided I would do that trail as a series again with all of the other trails in the area.
One of the things that changed in the past year was my son coming on all of the hikes. Just before he started coming out, I'd started doing the entire Mason-Dixon Trail again, and we'd gotten almost to the Norman Wood Bridge, but then I had to shift that.
Little Ev could not be pushed in the stroller along some of the very rough terrain of the Mason-Dixon Trail. I would have to shift priorities to the Highlands Trail heading further east.
I could do a lot more of the official Highlands Trail route without a problem, but not the Mason-Dixon. I could also easily do most of the Conestoga, so that became the focus at least for a while.
As it turns out, this would kind of work out for Jenny as well. Fresh off of the Appalachian Trail, she'd been having some tendon issues. She told me that her doctors said she would do no further damage to them by walking. The problem was, she just went at it hard every day, and never let her body have time to recover.
She had a vision of the Appalachian Trail that I envisioned I would have myself, that it would become about miles and not really be fun.
It would be focusing on the task of completing it rather than really enjoying it. She said it was fun for about two of the months, and then it was just difficult.
When I was considering doing the entire trail, I figured I would go from north to south, because I'd finish later when it was warmer, and maybe I could take my time and enjoy it more (I now realize it would be a similar problematic thing with weather doing that as well).
Jenny told us she was through trying to do long trails in that way again, although she could see doing maybe a month or so and a couple of hundred miles. That, to me, actually sounds tempting as well.
So, with Jenny back, and having a bit of a tough time doing rough grades, doing my hikes at this time is probably quite a good thing.
We shuttled with as few cars as possible to the parking lot for the Warwick-Ephrata Rail Trail on Millway Road, just to the west of Ephrata, near Akron, where we had started and finished our loop the last time.
The Conestoga Trail follows this old branch of the Reading Railroad from the east now, when it used to follow backroads through the area parallel with it when I last hiked it.
It was odd probably for everyone to park in this trail lot, and then head directly down one of the roads. The Conestoga Trail follows Millway Road to the south for a while, skirting the east side of Akron.
When I hiked the trail fully before, the Millway Road section was the only bit that I'd skipped. At that time, backpacking with Jillane, we headed east a bit further and stayed at a hotel in Akron for the night, then returned to the trail via backroads the next day.
This time, we just followed the road. It wasn't the greatest route, but it wasn't the worst road walk we'd done either.
I let Ev out of the stroller almost immediately to walk along the road, as long as he was holding mine or someone's hand. He went from me to Dave to John, to Jenny, and shifted around a bit.
This was Jenny's first hike back with the group after having completed the entire Appalachian Trail just this week! She didn't even take a week off from hiking before coming out on another Metrotrails crazy thing!
Jenny finished in just six months, and pushed for high mileage every day. She admitted that it really wasn't fun because it was always pushing harder and for more miles every day. She said she was done trying to conquor any more long trails in that way. She could see doing one of the trips of maybe a month of so, but not more. She was having some joint problems after doing all of this for so long, and her doctors assured her that hiking more wouldn't be doing more damage.
She'd spent so long without a break, her muscles are probably just terribly enflamed because they've not been given hardly any break at all.
We continued on Millway Road to the south, and then turned right on Cocalico Creek Road.
There was actually a spur from the Reading Railroad that paralleled Millway Road, and I think crossed Cocalico Creek Road just ahead, then dead ended. I didn't take notice of it while I was driving through unfortunately. Greg Pawelski told me about it online via one of the Metrotrails posts, and it totally slipped my mind while we were walking through.
We turned right on Cocalico Creek Road and followed that through the gravel lot for a little business on the right, then crossed and walked through the lot for an industrial place on the left.
Beyond there, the road got a bit more calm as we moved farther away from Akron.
There was a good view of the Cocalico Creek to the right, and in a short while, a little pull off of gravel where I was able to walk down and stand in the creek below. I helped Ev down the slope so he could through some sticks in and such also.
We continued west on the road, and there was a very low concrete bridge over the creek, which used to be a public road as I understand (I think this because the county's bridge numbers were shifted by one at the covered bridge on Log Cabin Road).
There were sheep in a farm to the right of the trail, and so Ev didn't freak out on me too much because he had something to look at.
Just ahead of there, there were cows in yet another field. The cow fields were particularly charming because there were two young calves trotting around between a couple of the adults.
We crossed Route 772, Newport Road, which was kind of busy, but not too hard.
We continued head on Cocalico Creek Road, turned a couple of ninety degree bends, and passed the Martin farm where Clover Farms gets some of their milk. We could see some holsteins in the barn just before the homestead.
When I had backpacked this with Jillane, there was a guy outside with a bunch of kids getting in a cart. I chatted with him and told him it was my favorite chocolate milk, and he laughed and said "Yep, some of mine is probably in there!"
I got a photo of the Clover Farms chocolate milk, with Ev, in front of he sign this time.
We continued on down the road from here, and soon came to a small settlement which I suppose was known as Zook's Mill. The Conestoga Trail turnes right there onto Long Cabin Road and passes through Zooks Mill Covered Bridge.
The covered bridge, also known as Log Cabin Covered Bridge, was completed in 1849 adjacent to Zook's Mill, later known as Wenger's Mill. That mill stood on the creek by the bridge until 1970. Another fulling mill, where suits and fabrics were made, stood on the Cocalico Creek just upstream from the spot.
The bridge is an 89 foot Burr Arch Truss, which withstood Hurrican Agnes in 1972. A marker just inside the bridge showed where the waters of that flood reached six feet above the floor deck.
We headed through the bridge, after which the road turns left, and then right going uphill. The trail follows the route of the road at the top, and from there we had some nice views to the north toward Akron again. We could see buildings in the distance beyond corn fields.
There were stately homes and pretty farms with barns and silos along this route, and one of them even advertised that they sold home made root beer, but unfortunately they were closed on Sundays.
We never saw the log cabin that the road names, but it may be to the south because there is a Log Cabin Restaurant on a side lane, closed Sundays. We might have stopped if it'd been open.
A busy Mennonite church was on the left as we continued west, and we passed a farm where Jillane and I had bought some farm products from two little Amish girls. I remember the one girl, when commenting that we were hiking, opined that we "must know how to walk properly". I thought that was a funny notion coming from someone who will probably never go backpacking in her life. I was thinking as we walked by that house, how that little girl is now an adult, and may even have children of her own.
At the next intersection, we turned left on Becker Road to continue to the south.
We passed by a huge old stone farmhouse on the left, which had a big windmill above it. The barns had fans to them, but there were no electric lines, so either the lines are underground, or they generate their own electricity with the windmill.
Historic atlas maps show that this was the farm of Levi S. Reist in 1875.
This was a rough stretch, from Log Cabin to Becker Road, with very little shade on such a hot day.
Becker Road took us south out to Oregon Pike.
This little settlement known as Oregon was once known as Catfish, but was changed reportedly because of the western Oregon Territory. Many Conestoga Wagons heading out on the Oregon Trail originated in this area.
Right across the intersection with Becker Road was a Speedway market, where we took a break. I went in and got one of those crappy slices of pizza inside for something for Ev and I to munch on. He had fallen asleep for a bit on the road, and was ready for something when we got to this area.
It was getting really hot out, so having a little extra replenishment was definitely a good thing.
We crossed the intersection here onto a connecting road from Oregon Pike to Bushong Road. We turned right on Bushong, which was a bit of a busier road, and crossed over Route 222 on it.
We continued down the edge of the road for a bit, and then turned to the right on the much more pleasant Pinetown Road.
Along this road were some beautiful old homes, including an old log cabin, which according to the 1875 atlas maps belonged to the Bear family. It seems several of them in a row were from the same family.
As we walked down the road, Serious Sean went driving by us! We knew he was coming to meet up, but didn't know how or when he was going to find us. Apparently, he found the trail route noted on line somewhere, and then just followed that.
We reached and passed through Pinetown Covered Bridge, originally built by Elias MacMellan in 1868. The bridge was also known as Nolt's Point Mill Bridge, Bushong's Mill Bridge, because there used to be a mill next to it, which burned down in 1901. The bridge washed downstream in 1872, but was rebuilt by Amish. It is a 135 foot long Burr Arch Truss span over the Conestoga River.
The Cocalico Creek joined with the Conestoga River just north of this area, and so the trail follows its namesake tributary for many miles.
When Jillane and I hiked through here years ago, the bridge was closed to traffic due to storm damage that happened with the floods in 2011, but it was back open again when we got there.
Serious Sean parked at the bridge and then walked with us the rest of the hike from here.
The next bit was very bright again, out in the direct sun. We could see Pinetown Covered Bridge out beyond the corn fields for a while, which looked really cool.
We continued to the south on Bridge Road, through some lovely farms, one with a cool cattle underpass, and then made the next right on Mondale Road. We passed a giant tree, and then reached Hunsecker's Covered Bridge.
The 180 ft double Burr Arch Truss Bridge is the longest single span covered bridge in the county.
The original bridge at this site was built by John Russell in 1843.
The bridge has been destroyed by flooding many times, most recently in 1972 during Hurricane Agnes.
It is the only of the County's covered bridges to have lateral floor boards which create an interesting sound while driving across.
We passed through, on the other side, on the right, there was another lovely old stone homestead.
We continued gradually uphill on Hunsicker Road to the west, an then turned left on Butter Road.
The section of road passed through the most developed area we had passed through so far through the entire hike. Certainly not the same the same as the Amish country we'd been walking through.
Soon, Butter Road came to the edge of the Conestoga River again at the 521 Club. We continued on the road gradually uphill and away from the river after a short bit, and then reached the intersection with Landis Valley Road.
I guess I walked this bit before when Jillane and I hiked it, but I didn't remember this spot. I also had not factored this turn in when I was planning for the mileage, so it would end up putting us over. I'd have to make some decisions before the end to make it right.
We followed Landis Valley Road gradually downhill again through more residential area until the intersection with Paper Mill Road on the left. This road used to go all the way through and cross over the Conestoga River nearby.
Old buildings were nearby including a handsome bank barn just below to the left. This was part of the historic former Brubaker Farmstead in the Lancaster County settlement once known as Binkley's Bridge.
The area once was home to a paper mill, church and hotel. Binkey's Bridge is even gone today. The original route of the New Holland Pike came through here.
Landis Valley Road continued to the right, and we made our way out to Rt 23, the New Holland Pike. We turned left on this busy road and soon crossed over the Conestoga River again.
I looked upstream to see if there were any remnants of the aforementioned Binkley's Bridge, but I could see nothing there.
Immediately on the other side of the bridge, we turned right on Willow Road and headed gradually uphill again.
We followed this to Pine Drive, and then turned right, heading west again, still in residential area.
Pretty soon, that took us out to Millcross Road where we turned to the left. We passed a building, and there was a wide swath of grassy land to the right along the Conestoga River. We didn't see any signs saying to stay out, so we walked over to take a break there.
I was wanting to get in the river so badly, it just had to happen at this point. I hurried down, but the shore was really muddy. I didn't think it would matter that much. It was just so hot.
I climbed down the slope next to a large tree with a ladder and rope swing from it, and the edge of it was all bad mud.
I waded through it for just a few feet, and then it was solid rock I could lay on and get cooled off. I couldn't believe that no one else in the group was in there with me, just because of a little mud on the shore.
I felt infinitely better after just being in for a bit, and then I went up and sat on the ground with the rest of the group who were just up in the grass.
We headed out from here, and there was a nice old spring house or something similar looking across the street. We continued on Millcross as it turned away from the Conestoga River, passed by a few more homes, and then came closer to the river again.
The road turned away from the river once again, and continued to the south.
Just before reaching the intersectio with Pitney Road, I was surprised to see all new bridge construction just before the intersection on a new highway. Or rather, an old-new highway.
Work was being conducted on what had come to be known as the Goat Path, a Rt 23 bypass on the east side of Lancaster Pa, which was started in 1974 and then stalled in 1977. The graded highway was capped with grass and leased to local farmers, nicknamed the Goat Path for the animals grazing upon it.
The plan was defunct for years, and the Conestoga Trail followed this bit of it for a little while to the west.
The project was revived, and ground was broken on the proforma the "Walnut Street Extension" In 2022.
When I hiked this before, it was just a mowed grassy swamp adjacent to a corn field that had occasional posts with the orange-ish blazes to mark the way.
I figured the trail officially must continue ahead and go right on Pitney Road, but when we got to the other side of the newly built culvert, we could see an access to the right.
I decided we would just go up that construction entrance and see what it looked like. If we had to turn back, we would. It was too interesting an opportunity.
As we reached the same level as the newly paved highway route, where we could see some people already walking it, there was a paved trail to the left.
It seems that the plan was to put the Conestoga Trail pretty close to where it used to be, with an all new paved surface. I was glad we headed up to follow this route, because we soon just ended up on a new paved trail that got us off of the road for a bit.
Some of the new apartment buildings to the left had already been there the last time we hiked it, but looked newer.
We continued parallel with the new highway construction, and eventually turned to the left. The trail emerged at the end of Oak Grover Drive, from which point we had to continue back out to Pitney Road. I think the old trail might have come out to that road a bit earlier.
The trail took us down Pitney Road and past the Lancaster Leaf Tobacco Company site, and Conestoga Pines Park on the right.
There is a sewage treatment plant on the river ahead, which keeps a through route from being possible between Conestoga Pines Park and the next bit of off road trail.
On the left side of the road is an abandoned old brick house behind the chain link fence of I think the tobacco company, which has been there vacant since the first time I walked by years ago, only now it was more completely grown over with weeds.
We continued ahead, and then rose in elevation to cross over the original Pennsylvania Railroad main line. These tracks are still very active.
Once on the other side, we descended a bit, and I would have turned immediately to the right to continue on Conestoga Trail, but I had to push Ev in his stroller around the galvanized guide rails.
Ev was tired and falling asleep by this time, and stayed so through some of the bumpy terrain ahead.
The trail turns to the right from Pitney Road, and then rather closely parallels the former Pennsylvania Railroad tracks to the southwest, on a grassy level area beneath a power line.
We skirted a building, Dart Products Limited, just to the south of us, and when the building ending, the trail went down and onto a gravel service road that continued to the west out toward the Conestoga River.
When we arrived at the river, we had an excellent view of the old Conestoga Viaduct, which was built in 1887-88 by the Pennsylvania Railroad.
The 5 arch, 2 track bridge was the third to span the creek here. The first was the 1829 Philadelphia and Columbia Railroad bridge, which was a Town Lattice 11 span structure. This was part of the Main Line of Public Works, the state owned rail and canal connection between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. It was purchased by the Pennsylvania Railroad in 1857, and the wooden spans were replaced by Whipple trusses in 1863.
When the current Bridge was being built, it was intended to be four tracks wide, but only the width of two tracks was completed leaving the unfinished spandrel wall exposed on the south face. By 1930 was realized it would never be made for tracks, and tie rods were added to the spandrel walls.
We turned to the left at this impressive bridge to begin following the Conestoga Trail downstream.
The trail was mowed back pretty well, and pretty obvious where we needed to be. I was able to push the stroller pretty easily through most of this section along the river, which was nice. A few tree roots to contend with, but it wasn't that tough.
The last bit of it before coming out would be the toughest.
The trail went to the left at a drain area, and then had a side hill section above the trail where we'd have had to push the stroller almost sideways, and keeping steady with Ev in it is hard.
Ev had already woken up from the bumps by this point, and so it was no big deal to take hom out of the stroller, while Dave helped me to get it back out to the next parking lot. I simply carried Ev along the trail section and into the parking lot on the other side of Dart Products.
Once everyone was back together, I put Ev back into the stroller, and we headed through the parking area behind tractor trailers out to Pitney Road again, and we turned to the right.
We continued along Pitney to the old Lincoln Highway, locally King Street. We turned to the right here toward the crossing of the Conestoga River. To the right of the bridge, there was some collapsing old stone work that might have been a remnant of an earlier bridge, or more likely, the remnant of a mill that used to stand there.
Lincoln Highway was one of the first trans-continental highways in the US, traveling from Times Square in NY City to Lincoln Park in San Fransisco. The route was completed in 1913.
The bridge, although more modern, still has the plaque placed in the middle of it that had been in the structure of its predecessor, which was pretty cool.
Once we got across the bridge, the Conestoga Trail turned left down Conestoga Drive. My original plan was that we would follow this, and some of the trail into Lancaster Central Park, but this would be where I would have to cut the corner because of the exta distance we'd done.
I didn't want to do just a crappy highway hike because we'd gone too far, so I tried to make sure the remainder of the distance would be the most interesting stuff I could come up with.
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| 1903 image |
By staying on King Street/Lincoln Highway, at least we were taking an historic route, and we could then include Reservoir Park near the top of the next hill, which was pretty cool.
We entered the park near the intersection with Broad Street and turned slightly right into the park. We moved to the west then a bit, and there was a giant water tower in the middle of it, which I figured was the reservoir it referred to in name, but it turned out to have a much more interesting history than that.
As we continued through, we weaved back closer to King Street, and there was a really pretty old lion fountain closer to the street, spitting water from its mouth.
The fountain was the work of Blanche Nevin, one of America's earliest known female sculptors. She sculpted a Lion of clay purchased from nearby kiln areas in 1904, then created a plaster cast from which the bronze Fountain statue was set.
The park was established around a reservoir that was built to provide water to the city starting in 1837. The above ground Reservoir was leveled in the 1960s, replaced with the high water tower that is there today
Also in the park, a cycling concession occupies the 1918 Pump House associated with the old reservoir.
We continued parallel to King Street for a bit, and there were some lovely giant trees, I think mostly Sycamore, on the south side of it.
The old King Theatre first opened in 1950. The building still has the same facade, but the inside has been framed out as apartments.
From here, we hung a left down Plum Street to and down onto Locust Street heading southwest.
I figured this route would be the best because we could reach some apartment complex buildings, and then follow some of the sidewalks through those areas rather than the streets for more pleasant walking.
Along the way, we passed by the historic former St Stephen's Lutheran Church of Lancaster Pa. Today it is Crossroads Mennonite Church. The building was apparently built in the late 1800s, and has the classic old church and steeple look.
I think it was Church Street we continued down, and then turned right on Hazel Street. We went downhill and uphill, and then we eventually turned left on New Norwart Street to enter Brandon Park.
I think Sean was joking about something like "Let's Go Brandon Park" or something.
There was a paved trail that weaved to the left, and then to the right around ball courts to reach the lot where we had parked in the morning. There was a water fountain in the lot I lifted Ev up to drink from.
Not only was it great to have Jenny back, she also had a children's seat in her car so that we could simply shuttle back with her with no extra difficulty moving the baby seat and such.
I really enjoyed this hike, but it would have been a better one maybe a month or so later, but the problem is, upcoming sections of Conestoga Trail are great for swimming and thus should be saved for Summer months. I am doing the best I can to try to work these things out for appropriate times of year, but there's just so much I want to do and not enough lifetime to do it in.
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