saucon rail trail after the storm

 

Thursday night we had a huge storm. Seven tornadoes touched down in southeastern Pennsylvania, one leveling a huge car dealership. I wasn't even thinking about the storm when I left to walk on the Saucon Rail Trail Friday morning.

Thursday, the 7th, I'll be hosting a Volkssport walk there. The secretary of the club had so many questions, I finally decided I should just go and do it. A few weeks ago I decided that it would begin at Upper Saucon Community Park instead of Water Park in Hellertown. The lot is very small there. The day I checked it out a group of bikers was assembling and there wasn't a space to be found. USCP has two huge parking lots. It's a big park with a lot of athletic fields, pavilions, the who nine yards. The trail also runs right thru it and under the street. 

I parked and then checked that the restrooms were open. Put some books into the Little Free Library and headed on my way. The trail is to the right of the parking lot. I followed it over the creek and up the hill to the actual rail trail.

 

This trail runs from the Bethlehem border (about a 1/4 mile before it connects with the South Bethlehem Greenway.) thru Quakertown and eventually will merge into another trail. Each town has it's own color, so you can always see what town you're in. I think Hellertown is green.

Each section of trail -- to the next cross road -- is about 1/2 mile, so if you want a 3 mile walk, go three streets and turn around and go back. The first two sections were pretty shady. The third section looked a little bright. Then I noticed that a new housing development sprung up. I guess they cut down the trees for a lovely view of the golf course. That way they could charge more money. Idiots. 

There were a lot of people golfing.

I past this sunny section and then I started running into issues. There were a lot of trees down.

This is supposed to be a "shady" walk. I might need to rethink things.

Miles/Steps:  Walk was about 5K. I ended up with six miles for the day. I did walk with Pat around a full block, and did yard work. But three miles worth?
Weather:       high-70s, sunny, breezy
Bathrooms:   I-3.5
Wildlife:        Bunny, two swans-a-swimming, cardinal