PA Stony Valley Rail Trail: A Rough & Beautiful Ride

 Stony Valley RR Trail:  Ellendale Gate to Cold Spring, 24 miles O&B  

Start of the Stony Valley RR Trail at Ellendale Gate, Dauphin County

This trail follows the remains of the Stony Valley RR bed and is used for hiking, biking, and during hunting season, ATV access for hunters and PA Game Commission crews/patrols. Stony Valley Creek follows alongside the trail for most of its length, the creek 14 miles from its headwaters and the trail 20 miles from Ellendale to the Lebanon Reservoir. I did the trail on my gravel Trek Marlin 6 bike - and I'm glad I did not bring the road bike. It was a challenge for many miles with washed-out patches of large gravel stone and freshly laid loose gravel that gave me a few near tumbles and one "derailment" off the trail completely at a new culvert section. But, it was worth all the effort. This truly is one of the most beautiful rides I've ever taken.

Stony Creek - A designated Wild and Scenic River

The trail follows Stony Creek Valley, directly on the railbed of the Schuylkill & Susquehanna  RR, a line that connected the two important rivers by rail and carried thousands of tons of coal, lumber, goods, and passengers (under different ownerships) from 1849 until 1949. It connected four small mining towns along this single twenty-mile stretch and brought tourists and travelers through from as far away as Philadelphia. Before the railroad, this landscape of 50,000 acres of rough and tumble talus slope and beaver valley was called St. Anthony's Wilderness, used by Lenni Lenape and Susquehannock people for hunting and fishing who were the main concern of Moravian missionaries who trekked here to convert them to Christianity in the 1700s. 

 

The PA Game Commission owns and cares for this large tract as Gamelands #211, the second largest roadless tract of wildland in Pennsylvania. As my ride demonstrated, the trail has suffered a lot of heavy flood damage and the PGC is investing heavily in its repair. Torrential rain events, part of our "new normal" for PA summers, have caused wash-outs and massive gullies. New culverts and drainage paths, engineered to handle these damaging precipitation events, will hopefully protect the trail. For now however, these recent repairs have made the trail a tough ride.  But, as Pennsylvania's oldest rail trail, designated by the PGC as a pedestrian and bike trail in the 1940s, it's a treasure that allows us into the heart of a Eastern wilderness. 

Yellow Springs erupts from a talus bank

A sand spring bubbles up before sinking back into the buried talus

Rattling Run tumbles under the "new" bridge. Note the original RR bridge  piers.

Riding does not allow me to grab pictures as fast I would like. I rode past a Timber Rattlesnake sunning on the edge of the trail and turned back to find it had retreated into the talus stones. I rode past a "devil's race course," a slope of exposed talus boulders, and thought I'd seen a dark moving shape among the rocks. Sure enough, a bear was lumbering out of view as I returned hoping for a picture. My biggest miss was a bobcat that sat atop a large boulder scratching its ear. We startled each other and like that it was gone. I wonder if the bike is more intrusive due to its speed and noise on gravel, or if I had walked in would they have seen or felt me coming long before I came upon them? 

Entering Lebanon County from Dauphin County

Meadow-grassland restoration with Second Mountain in the distance

A cement rail bench that held spare rails needed for repairs

Another rail bench I missed coming in and saw going out

I stopped at the site of the Cold Spring Train Station and explored the ruins of the famous healing spring resort town of Cold Springs. At the height of the TB and malaria epidemics of the 1800s many families from Philadelphia retreated here. Foundations of the ice house, caretakers home, bowling alley, dance hall, and the grand hotels are scattered all through the forest. Deep wells and pump houses directed spring waters to walled dipping pools and a bathhouse for cold water "treatments."  A mysterious fire claimed the resort in 1900 and ended its fifty year history. I wandered around here a long time. 

Cold Spring Hotel and Resort. Courtesy Lebanon County Historical Society

Caretakers house main steps

Ice house with ice slide to the cellar 

Bits of brick and ceramic at the hotel site near an open detectorist's hole - ugh

Water tank piers that held a massive gravity-fed water cistern for the hotel

Steps to the dance hall, scattered around with decorative porch post bases

Courtesy of Lebanon County Historical Society

As I wandered the ruins I couldn't help but notice the dozens of metal detectorist's pits and scattered discarded finds ringing open holes. Being on PGC land, getting caught with a metal detector and digging for artifacts carries a fine that is many times the cost of a metal detector. I was really disappointed to see so much digging, leaving the hotel site in particular pock-marked with holes. C'mon people. 

Turk's-Cap Lily (Lilium superbum) 

Heading back, I stopped several times to visit the creek and listen to birds. At one point I was surrounded on three sides by three different species of vireo - Red-Eyed Vireo, Blue-Headed Vireo, and a White-Eyed Vireo. When I stopped to admire a Turk's-Cap Lily in an opening near the Rattling Run Trail, I added a Warbling Vireo! Most of these birds will continue to sing into late summer and September. It was nice to know that this area has almost all of the PA breeding species so easily heard. 

Talus slopes are glacial period relics

"Bobcat Rock" where there once was a wild cat...

Notes:  

This is the go-to website for all things Stony Valley RR Trail. Resident of the area and excellent local historian Brandy Martin compiled this great resource that helped me explore the area. Stony Valley

PA Game Commission Map of Gamelands #211

A classic Wildlife Note by noted naturalist Chuck Fergus for the PGC on the Vireos of Pennsylvania