PA York Heritage Rail Trail Segments 9 & 10

 Segment 9 (3/29) Centerville to Pleasant Valley Road Bridge O&B (4.5 mi) - Glen Rock, PA

RR Bridge over South Branch Codorus Creek 

Things are really heating up now! With temperatures in the 70s for both segments of this pair of walks and with the promise of warm rains causing American Toads, Spring Peepers, and Wood Frogs to erupt in near constant calling, spring is definitely here to stay. Starting at the Centerville Parking Lot just north of the charming railroad town of Glen Rock, PA, however I realized too late that hiking on this glorious Saturday meant crowds and I soon found myself boxed into my parking space even before we set out. People were trying to make parking spaces out of any available (or unavailable) opening as the main lot was filled. A Jeep pulling a trailer for two big and heavy e-bikes pulled longways behind me and a small pickup truck edged into a narrow space between my truck and the information kiosk. Well, I thought, I'll see what happens when I get back...

Upper trail crossing in Glen Rock

Lower trail crossing

As we walked into Glen Rock the bike traffic increased and I had to keep Amos strictly to the side though he really wanted to walk in the middle of the trail. The south branch of Codorus Creek kept inside its stone wall raceway through town and it seemed every old building on the street nearest the creek had once been a mill or had a raceway of some sort attached to it. The hills surrounding the town were almost pink with the swollen buds of Red Maple and Red Oak. In the distance a train horn wailed and Amos began to get excited. He loves to bay at the trains. 

Leaving Glen Rock

Krebb's Store

Outcrops!

South of Glen Rock, past Krebb's Store, the outcrop action began to get interesting. I love studying our local geology and here was no exception. Mosses are turning bright green again and colonies of Lichen are ramping up their growth cycle, spreading out into new territory of raw rock at the rocket-fast speed of a single centimeter per year. The train horn was getting closer and Amos was dancing around while I studied a big boulder of metabasalt, once a blob of volcanic ooze that had pushed its way into a crevice in stretching bedrock. It now stands proud by itself everything around it having weathered away

Metabasalt exposure

A quiet little GE 80-ton diesel engine pulling a few excursion cars made its way by prompting Amos to sing and shout and holler. It was so quiet (except for the thrum of wheels on rail) that I was surprised to see it sweep into view. The engineer waved at Amos and sounded the horn which Amos loved and it made him sing all the louder - he actually tuned in to the pitch of the horn. An impressive duet!

GE 80 ton locomotive 

Quartzite summit of Glen Rock

Poor Amos, though, is not a fan of heat and soon after the train encounter I decided to turn around and head back, making our walk about 4 miles out-and-back. We dodged bikes and runners as he ambled slowly along making his way north again. I promised not to take him out in the midday heat for the rest of the year and to chose weekdays over weekends for the more popular trails that tend to get crowded. Since we were going a lot slower I was able to spot Bloodroot growing in some of the most inhospitable places along the railroad - places where coal dust and open gravel made growing conditions harsh, especially in heat. The more I looked the more I found, the tough little Bloodroot popped up everywhere other plants didn't stand a chance.

Bloodroot on a coal & gravel bank

Tough! 

Glen Rock Carolers 

Amos finished off one bottle of water and started a second bottle in the shade of the Glen Rock Carolers statue, a dedication to the Christmas tradition of door-to-door holiday singing kept here since the mid-1800s. Soon we were on our last stretch back to the parking lot north of town. The beautiful Codorus Creek flowed next to the trail and Amos wanted badly to go down into it. Back at the Centerville Lot I was still boxed in, so we waited in air conditioning until the riders returned to move their cars, though I needed help getting my truck out of a tight squeeze with that Jeep and trailer. 

South Codorus Creek 

Segment 10 (3/31) : Pleasant Valley RR Bridge to Railroad Out-and-Back (3.5 mi) 

A Monday morning section hike of only 3.5 miles up and back from our turn around point on Saturday proved to be more to the old coonhound's liking, but he still enjoyed a few lay-downs after his water breaks despite the shorter distance. I think this is his way of telling me he's had it with the rail trail's flat, gravely base and warm plodding. Back to the mountain trails soon, buddy.

Very few people out this fine morning so we could safely zig-zag from one side of the trail to the other for Amos to sniff all the smells and for me to spot all the signs of spring. There is one very long outcrop in this stretch which I could have spent another hour exploring for all the different kinds of mosses, fern, liverwort, lichen. But tracking a Groundhog was of utmost importance.

Skunk Cabbage 

Bloodroot

Spicebush

Of course these long outcrop road cuts represent the underpaid labor of Irish immigrants in the 1830s who with star-bit drills and sledge hammers, hand dug and cleared the path of this railway from Baltimore to York. Now, a recreational path and excursion line, it is sometimes easy to forget or not to know at all how this route was built and to whom the real credit goes for its construction. I was happy to find a fairly new interpretive panel honoring those immigrant workers at the end of the long outcrop cut. I was also pleased to read on that same panel the encouragement to look carefully at the outcrop how nature re-inhabits these rugged places. Outcrops are diverse habitats that support some of the first life forms to colonize an exposed area and as these colonies of mosses and lichens mature, they literally "lay the ground" on which other plants and animals can then occupy. I counted dozens of Miner Bees, a patch of Saxifrage, gardens of emergent ferns, and cascades of Mountain Laurel. 

Moss gardens

Apple Moss, Bartramia pomiformis

One more section and we'll be finished with our 2025 Walk with Spring on the York Heritage Rail Trail. I'll have to time it just right so Amos doesn't feel the heat or the crowds, but today was the perfect meandering hike for him. Soon on to the Mason Dixon Line for the finish! 

Long road cut outcrop

Notes:

Since we did this trail as a series of out-and-backs, we actually double the mileage of the trail one-way. 

AllTrails completing time is figured for biking, below.