PA Enola Low Grade Trail: Night Hike

 #51  2022 52-Hike Challenge: Enola Low Grade Rail Trail Night Hike: 5 miles

Every river is a character, a living, breathing being. Some say they have spirits or souls. Some say rivers should have rights and be treated as people, as a nation of living things. All I know is that the Susquehanna will let you know who she is and how she wants to be treated. She is a Grandmother, an elder among rivers, one of the oldest rivers on the continent. A survivor of glacial floods, rising mountain ranges, and the insults of industrial man. The best time to meet with her is at night and listen for her advice. 

Susquehanna River at Safe Harbor Dam, 12-30-2022, sunset.

Ever since the completion of the enormous trestle bridge at Safe Harbor Dam over the mouth of the Conestoga River this year, this section of the 30-mile long Enola Low Grade Rail Trail has become a favorite for night bikes rides and evening strolls. The sunsets can attract crowds and many linger well after last light fades. Looking down at the confluence of these two historic rivers is mesmerizing in the dark. The creature sounds from the islands, eagles, gulls, herons can be heard above the rapids and deep swirling eddy pools below the dam. Clouds of gulls circle the outflow. Eagles sit on boulders in pairs. Courtships have begun.

Last light of the last sunset of 2022

I walk with Amos a five mile out and back north from the trestle bridge, past the Peregrine cliff. In a few months she and her mate will be back and the "Warning!" signs will go up again not to stop or stand too long below the eyrie.  A few unlucky walkers and bike riders this past year can tell you why. The river above the dam is a solid mass of ice and it pops, groans, and cracks like a rifle. It's here below the scrape of a nest that I send a little prayer of thanks to one of my heroes, Rachel Carson. In her time and to her alarm, many of the great birds of prey found on this river were nearly gone from exposure to toxic chemicals dumped, leached, or leaked into the Susquehanna. Now they are all back, breeding, recovering - Bald Eagles, Peregrine Falcons, Osprey.

Peregrine Cliff

Dams are still an issue, even as I admire Safe Harbor Dam, an antique yet elegant hydro-plant that stands iconic, even beautiful in the night. I will never forget the hospitality and wonderful evening I spent here with plant staff who held a pizza party in honor of our headwaters-to-mouth paddle to the Chesapeake. We were cold and soaking wet from a downpour that lasted hours. Our two canoes had gallons of water sloshing around in them from the rain. Everything froze on contact. It was late winter, early spring. The river was running hard, wide, fast, ice-filled. The dam minders came and got us at the take-out and drove us in their big truck to the park to pitch our tents under the pavilion. They came back to get us an hour later. "Come get hot showers. We've got pizza, too!" It was the most wonderful night of our month on the river. I say a little prayer of thanks to them, even thirty years on wherever they might be now.  I pray, too, that someday the fish will pass by here again. Restore the Shad, Eel, Sturgeon, and all the Fish Nation that for millennia came home to this river from the Atlantic to spawn, I say out loud. 

Safe Harbor Dam

A line of night riders approaches, blinking white lights from handle bars and steady beams of helmet headlamps twinkling down trail. My headlamp is lit as well and they slow down as they get close. "The best time to be out here!" one calls to  me, and I agree! Amos gives them his famous "whisper howl" and wags his tail. We make it to the two-mile marker and turn around to head back to the trestle bridge. Another lone biker comes up from behind and rings her bell. "Enjoy your evening walk! Can you believe how beautiful it is tonight?" she calls as she rolls by. I say a little prayer of thanks to the people who made this trail possible. It has been a blessing to the communities who have benefited from all  the new visitors (some who come from far away) who stop for a coffee, lunch, or a B&B, who call for a shuttle (I did four transports this year!), and visit the villages and towns.  

Our distance tonight

As we come back across the trestle bridge it is almost completely dark except for the light the half moon provides and the last light of the day that tints the western sky.  I think about the family and friends we've lost this year and how I wanted so badly to get Poppy up here on the trestle because he loved big views, trains, rivers, but both its immediate inaccessibility (steep stairs from the parking area below) and his rapid decline from Parkinson's this summer made it impossible. He was an avid reader of this blog and loved to look at all the pictures I took after every adventure, every hike, paddle, bike ride. His leaving this year has put a heavy hurt into this family.  I say a prayer for him and his family who miss him so much. I say a prayer to all the caregivers of people with Parkinson's. It is truly God's work and there are angels among them. 

Nightfall 2022

I stood awhile at the rail of the bridge and asked the river "Where to now?" and waited for an answer. A fox screamed from the hillside. The river is hungry and is making its fast way around boulders and snags caught on gravel banks. The big smooth rocks that hold the petroglyphs shimmer under the moon. The river makes a game of dragging slabs of ice across the gravel edges of the rookery island. The ice screeches and a Bald Eagle cackles. Water domes up from deep currents and the eddyline marks the Conestoga meeting the Susquehanna burbles and sings. "Onward," says the river. "Don't stop moving. Keep going. Make a good song as you go." And strange as it seems, I hear distant voices and people singing and music. I first I think it is coming from a car way down there in the park, but the sound is coming from the islands and there is no light to see by. No fires. No beams of light. Then it fades and is gone. 

Sunset...

Goodnight, 2022. I say a prayer for you, dear reader, that 2023 is full of discoveries, laughter, music, and light. May all your endings be new beginnings on new journeys. God bless dogs!

Above the mountains

the geese turn into

the light again

Painting their

black silhouettes

on an open sky.

Sometimes everything

has to be

inscribed across

the heavens

so you can find

the one line

already written

inside you.

Sometimes it takes

a great sky

to find that

first, bright

and indescribable

wedge of freedom

in your own heart.

Sometimes with

the bones of the black

sticks left when the fire

has gone out

someone has written

something new

in the ashes of your life.

You are not leaving.

Even as the light fades quickly now,

you are arriving.

- David Whyte, The Journey

Happy Trails!

PA Enola Low Grade Rail Trail and the Rail Trail Phenomenon

The new view from the high Safe Harbor Trestle Bridge over the Conestoga River!

After a decade of major highway building transformed the way America moved freight and people around the country, railroading began a steep decline. Large scale trucking became a more economical way to move goods and materials. More people owned cars and chose to drive instead of taking the train. Railroads were closing unprofitable routes at an alarming pace. I grew up in the 1960s and 70s and remember well last run of the Maryland and Pennsylvania RR, a line that people -especially farmers- had come to depend upon to move their products into Baltimore City. From our little hollow on the Mason Dixon Line, we witnessed the closing of several important local lines. This time marked a bittersweet end to an era but for us kids, it opened a new way to explore our home landscape.

Rail Trail and limited excursion line in New Freedom, PA

People began to use the old railbeds as trails of convenience and for recreation. We certainly did.  There were lots of overgrown miles to ride a bike, a pony, or ramble on foot.  After Congress passed the Staggers Rail Act in 1980 that allowed the abandonment of thousands of miles of railroad to ease some of the suffering of the nation's railroad industry, it also passed an amendment to the National Trails Systems Act in 1983 to "railbank" almost 9,000 miles of disused rail corridors, placing them into preservation-maintenance programs as pedestrian/bike trails. If rail corridors are ever needed again, they can be returned to railroad use. The New Freedom line in York County is a great example of a multi-purpose rail trail and revived (and popular!) limited excursion line. 

Laura and I walking the ELGRT in 2020 

We've been exploring the Enola Low Grade Rail Trail for many years and since it's only a few miles from home we walk or bike it frequently. It's been fun to watch all the progress along this famously engineered line that runs from Turkey Hill along the Susquehanna to Quarryville in Lancaster county for thirty miles. There are plans to run it from Quarryville all the way to Atglen and Christiana, PA. 

We recently celebrated - along with thousands of our near and distant rail trail friends - the completion of the Safe Harbor Trestle Bridge that provides a much anticipated connection of the Turkey Hill section to the Shenk's Ferry/Coleman Church section and makes possible an almost solid run to Quarryville with one short road section. This fall (2022)  the Martic Forge Trestle Bridge will be completed - again - it was complete until arsonists destroyed it a few years ago, and then the trail will run entirely off road without obstructions or closures.  The Enola Low Grade Rail Trail adds over thirty existing miles to the more to the 25,000 miles of rail trails currently open for public use across the country. 

Opening of the restored Safe Harbor Trestle Bridge 

I arrived on the day after the official dedication and there may have been a tear shed. It was beautiful! The final cost of  $9,000,000 was worth every penny in my humble opinion. I returned on Saturday morning with a small biking group and we ventured down from Colemanville almost three and a half miles to be among the first to cross as the sun rose behind the cliffs. We rode all the way to the Turkey Hill terminus for a seventeen mile round trip. By the time we came back from Turkey Hill, the bridge was super crowded. It really felt like a celebration. So many people, some pushing strollers, one riding a unicycle, some drone pilots, birdwatchers, e-bikers and trikes, gravel bikes, touring bikes, recumbent bikes,  many Amish families, a parade of Scout groups, dog walkers, dogs in bike trailers, dogs riding in handlebar baskets,  all out to enjoy the walk or ride across the new bridge.

Manor Township raised and managed the funding to restore the trestle bridge.

The money needed for the trestle bridge project was raised by the local township using a combination of funding sources. There are many partners for projects like this and a lot of moving parts that include stakeholders who represent federal, state, and local governments.  Funding is secured by stakeholders, including the local townships, through various grant programs and direct giving campaigns. Since old rail corridors and their infrastructure all come under federal railroad regulatory jurisdiction and connects to the federal Recreational Trails Program, most of the funding is sourced at the federal level. Local sponsors and funding partners are critical, however, and the Safe Harbor Trestle Bridge has dozens of placards and sponsorship recognitions along the wooden rails and on kiosks to thank local individuals, organizations, and businesses for helping to match federal funds. 

Pennsylvania Railroad active tracks below

One difficulty of this particular project, mentioned by a riding partner who knows a thing or two about railways, is the active Norfolk and Southern line that parallels the ELGRT downslope along the river's edge. As with many rail trails, active railways still use corridors near recreational trails. These can include passenger services like Amtrack or Metro lines or freight lines like this one. While some negotiations with active rail corridors require special legal and right-of-way expertise, my riding partner explained that the difficulty of such transactions and negotiations is outweighed by the potential economic benefit that alternative transportation projects bring to local communities. In some cases, the benefit can be transformative. He mentioned the fabulous success just upstream along the beautiful Northwest Lancaster Rail Trail that shares some of its corridor with the same active line. Local businesses thrive with traffic generated by walkers and bike riders while the railroad continues to transport heavy freight right alongside with safe access, right-of-way, and careful planning in place for the coexistence of both pedestrians and diesel trains. 

Oak Bottom Road overpass and underpass (further ahead)

Other negotiated spaces include overpass and underpass infrastructure for crossing above or below active vehicle roads. Industrial heartland lines through Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and Baltimore include hundreds of such crossings where federal funds help design and engineer safe use. The industrial era of the active Enola Low Grade Line is long over and as a rail trail it flies over just a few busy and not-so-busy roads on wooden deck railed bridges. Sometimes I am the only person riding the stretch from Red Hill to Quarryville. I've hiked the rough gravel bed to Atglen and paid for it with sore hips, knees, and painful feet for days afterward. I'll be glad when the crush and run is finally laid there!

Brad & Pam at the new Game Commission peregrine nesting sign with a fantastic river view

For now we celebrate the opening of the Safe Harbor Trestle Bridge, then and now a real engineering feat. Manor Township and other ELGRT communities expect to see upwards of 125,000 visitors a year. The new bridge is considered a new national rail trail treasure and the township, partners, and donors have every reason to be right proud of that. 

Safe Harbor Dam view from the new bridge deck

I guess when we were roaming the abandoned rail beds of the Enola Low Grade, Ma & Pa, and North Central railbeds when we were kids, we were part of the beginning of rails-to-trails phenomenon. I'd like to think we - and a few thousands other kids roaming up and down old weedy grades - helped set in motion a national movement. 

Notes:

Rails-to-Trails Conservancy funding resources https://www.railstotrails.org/build-trails/trail-building-toolbox/funding/acquisition-funding/

Opening announcement for the Safe Harbor Trestle Bridge (!!) Safe Harbor Trestle Dedication and Opening June 2022

Uncharted Lancaster history of the Enola Low Grade An Ambitious and Costly History

The Rails-to-Trails Conservancy https://www.railstotrails.org/