Epic Posts you may have Missed

I wanted to bring attention to some posts that may have flown under the radar here on Remember. Given that over the last six months the primary focus of this blog was the parks of Allentown and the situations therein, most of the writing on here was dedicated to just that. I did however have the opportunity to visit some parks in Easton and Bethlehem as well as make a few journeys to wildlands a bit farther from the confines of the Valley cities.

So today, I will link to some posts about these places that you may have missed the first time around but are absolutely worth a look, even if it is the second time you have seen them. Click on the name to get to the original post.

1. Bake Oven Knob

Here is a place, in our own backyard, with the pure majesty that only unsolicited wild nature can provide. High on the ridge of Appalachian Mountains that form the northern border of our Valley sits an exposed peak of rock from which, on a clear day, you can see straight across the Valley past Allentown and to the South Mountain. If you’ve never made the trip there, I suggest you do it is simply incredible.

2. Sand Island Park

One of the larger parks in the city of Bethlehem, Sand Island stretches between the Lehigh River, The Monacacy Creek and the Lehigh Canal. This park provides startling close views of the rusting remains of the Bethlehem Steel as well as beautiful vistas of the Lehigh River. Present here is the D+L towpath trail that stretches from Canal Park in Allentown through Sand Island Park and all the way to Freemansburg. Sand Island is a beautiful park and definitely worth a look if only to provide a good example of the unused potential of our own Canal Park.

3. The Forks of the Delaware

In downtown Easton, the Lehigh River flows over a dam and meets its end in the Delaware. If that doesn’t have you sold, there is ample history present in Canal preservation. There is a visible Shad ladder and the opportunity to walk across a bridge and visit New Jersey if you feel so inclined. This is one of my favorite places to visit around here. Watching the two bodies of water embrace and flow onwards as one is incredible. I could sit there and watch for days.

4. Canal Park-Hanover Township

This park surprised me silly. I didn’t know the extent to which this park existed before going there; I just knew that there was a water body named Catasauqua Lake which piqued my interest. This is a great park that acknowledges its history and again sets a great example for future developments at our own Canal Park. The Lake I mentioned isn’t much of a lake, it is more of a long pond and when I visited it was the end of summer and the presence of algae indicated exactly that and of course the presence of excess nutrients. This park is very close to Allentown, so close in fact, a trail may one day exist linking it to Kimmet’s Lock.

5. Whitehall Parkway

A beast. That is the only way I can describe this place succinctly. There is an abandoned quarry half filled with water with a boardwalk across the middle of it for viewing. There are ruins of some of the first concrete plants in our area scattered in the underbrush. The Ironton Rail Trail moves through the northern end of the park. I could keep going, but just check out the post. The place is crazy.


When the weather cooperates, school cooperates, and my car cooperates there are literally hundreds of destinations in and around the immediate area of the Lehigh Valley I look forward to visiting and documenting on here. Don’t worry, Allentown will always come first. There is however a plethora of incredible and amazing places to see so close to home, it would be a crime not to get to them.

Look forward later this week to a post about the Monacacy Nature Center in Bethlehem. I visited there in late summer and haven’t gotten around to posting about it yet. Thanks for reading.

Easton takes the lead: Bushkill Creek Trail

In this Morning Call article, it is revealed that the Bushkill Creek Trail connected parts of Easton will soon see construction finally begin. I congratulate Easton on their forward thinking and I look forward to visiting the trail and the new park once it is completed and you can count on seeing it documented here on Remember.

I am posting about this because in a few months a second public meeting will take place in Allentown regarding our own possible connective trail system. I am 100% behind this plan and I believe it is key to future economic success in our city. Creating such a trail system that will connect all of our parks as well as various schools, restaurants and libraries will create a new tourism.

If the "trail hub" is created at the former incinerator site down near the American Parkway past Fountain Park, imagine this for a second. In the abandoned warehouse area between that incinerator site and the Lehigh River, a few businesses open. Perhaps a bicycle shop that can address the needs of bikers on the trail. Perhaps a sporting goods shop to do the same. The possibilities at this point are endless, and fruitful. Imagine further that this is done in tandem with the construction of a hockey arena in the wasted space that has yet to develop into Lehigh Landing between Bucky Boyle Park and the former site of the A+B. Things could change quickly for that barren awful area of Allentown.

Now, we are far away from any of this happening. It will require a foresight and vision that I am not entirely sure our city government is capable of. There will be resistance to trails by folks in Allentown and I encourage them to get out to the next public meeting to enter the discussion as the planning continues. As soon as the date of the next meeting is posted, I'll repost here on Remember.

These trails and greenways are popping up all throughout southeastern Pennsylvania. Bethlehem has some going on. South Whitehall Township just approved a trail system of their own. That final leg in South Whitehall is part of an epic plan. These projects highlight a renewing interest in the wild world we share our civilized world with and they are exciting, forward thinking developments.

I am glad to see Easton take this initiative, I hope we follow.

At the Forks of the Delaware

“He looked around, as if he was seeing the world ... for the first time. Beautiful was the world, colorful was the world, strange and mysterious was the world! Here was blue, here was yellow, here was green, the sky and the river flowed, the forest and the mountains were rigid, all of it was beautiful, all of it was mysterious and magical, and in its midst was he” - Siddhartha by Herman Hesse

I confess that I am drawn to water. I love standing on the banks of a creek or river and just watching. I quoted Siddhartha because I think frequently think of that book whenever standing riverside. If you have read it, you know why. I have yet to hear a river speak but it certainly isn’t because of a lack of listening.

Here, at the Forks of the Delaware is one of the best riverside views you are going to find in Eastern Pennsylvania. The historic Lehigh and Delaware rivers meet in an embrace that if you have never witnessed I recommend taking a drive down Route 22 and taking a look for yourself; these pictures do no justice to the beauty that is present there.

Walking alongside the Delaware, I headed to the free bridge to take a walk across and look at the rivers from above.


My journey across the bridge now allows me to say that I have walked to New Jersey although I am not entirely sure going to New Jersey is something to be that proud of…

What is it about the river that is so alluring? For me, the first thing is the wonder of watching something that is at all times a constant but while remaining, changing at every second. The river is always there, it is always a river but it is never the same. Between blinks, what you are witnessing is in a constant state of flux. I consider that often as I watch the water passing.

There are a thousand things I could say about the Forks of the Delaware. There is the short story but long history of human development that occurred because of these rivers. I could mention the long story and even longer geologic history that these rivers share. Heck, I could write an entire blog post about shad.

I will not be doing any of those things. I encourage you to use google to find out about those things, especially if you are tempted to look at whatever Jon and Kate plus eight are up to. I am going to end this blog post with a few more pictures and a poem by Gary Snyder. Mr. Snyder is someone I consider an inspiration and a future blog entry will be dedicated to him. Check him out if you are unfamiliar and please take the time to see the Lehigh meet the Delaware, it is worth it.

For All –Gary Snyder

Ah to be alive
on a mid-September morn
fording a stream
barefoot, pants rolled up,
holding boots, pack on,
sunshine, ice in the shallows,
northern rockies.

Rustle and shimmer of icy creek waters
stones turn underfoot, small and hard as toes
cold nose dripping
singing inside
creek music, heart music,
smell of sun on gravel.

I pledge allegiance

I pledge allegiance to the soil
of Turtle Island,
and to the beings who thereon dwell
one ecosystem
in diversity
under the sun
With joyful interpenetration for all.