Adventure at Kimmet's Lock

I must confess something here before I talk about Kimmet’s lock and my subsequent adventure. In my Canal Park log, I erroneously stated that Canal Park was the only Allentown Park on the Lehigh River. Bucky Boyle (which will be documented later in the week) and Kimmet’s lock are both on the river.

Kimmet’s lock is primarily a boat launch access point on the river.

The water here is of questionable quality.


Past the ruins, a trail leads to train tracks which stretch next to the river all the way to Canal Park and points beyond.


I decided to take a seat by the side of the water, and take the chance to actually relax. The water here is beautiful and on as hot a July day as this one, the breeze was refreshing.

Looking up from my rocky seat I could see the old railroad trestle looming.

Figuring it had to be fenced off, I decided to walk back to the parking lot and head home. As it turned out, the fence was not much of a fence at all and the old bridge was easily accessed. "Well then, probably should go out on it".

There is an old rail car still left up there.

Being familiar with the much smaller and lower trestle in the Parkway, I knew what I would be putting myself through if I went out there. I couldn’t resist though, the opportunity seemed too great not to go and with the thoughts of my paralyzing stroll on the wall at Fountain Park dancing in my head, I headed out on the bridge.

The first few feet were a cinch. I was riding high, chest out, back straight with the gait of John Wayne that is until I looked down (Mental dialogue: Way to go Andrew, now you're going to break through these old wooden beams and drown. Idiot. Idiot. Idiot.) and instantly began quaking and nearly peeing my pants. I kept walking though for whatever reason and as long as I looked straight ahead, I was golden. The views of the river here are incredible.


Reaching the other side, I was truly feeling pumped. It was a beautiful day (despite the heat) and I had done it. No sitting down and being scared silly. No sissy stuff. I was all man up there and I even looked down a few times and it was totally fine. Then, I met a shirtless fellow. He was a nice guy. He jumped off the bridge; which seemed a perfectly normal thing, if you know people who frequently jump from bridges. There is, it turns out a bit of tradition here of jumping. There is even a rope swing.


After seeing the shirtless fellow leap I realized just how slow I was walking across the wooden planks. I also began to notice how many of them were in no way structurally stable. At this point, my Fountain Park experience seemed to be returning. But, by this time, I had reached the other side. See, I was looking down the whole way across. Stupid I know but it felt like the right thing to do, because apparently as this shows, I happen to be actually stupid.

It was beautiful up there though...

(For the record: Do not attempt this. It is unsafe and probably trespassing.)