Weird, cool stuff you found in the woods.

Thread revival...

Finally had something worth posting in here again.

This morning I had my father drop me off in Easton PA which is about an hour from where I live. is where the Lehigh River connects with the Delaware river.
From this junction Delaware Canal runs for about +50 miles south along The river which is the border of Bucks County. I’ve always wanted to do a point to point trail ride on my mountain bike and this morning I did just that.


At about the halfway point on the map above there is an old Boy Scout camp that closed in 2008 called treasure island - it also happens to be where the order of the arrow was founded. (for those of you who happened to be Boy Scouts)
I did have the opportunity to go to this camp when I was a kid and the only way to access it is by barge from the Pennsylvania side. It was recently sold by the local Boy Scout council for about half a million to a private company who will continue to run it as a camp.
There are several islands surrounding treasure Island and the larger one is called Marshall island. At some point there was also a camp of some kind on Marcial Island. The following pictures are a long abandoned support building along the shore very well hidden off of the canal path.

At one point there was a bridge going over the canal giving access to this but that is long gone now - you actually have to be on the canal towpath to access it.

First thing I came across was a very old car which looked to be tossed up by a flood at some point. I believe it is an old Corvair station wagon.



I believe the building itself was part office park maintenance Support for the old Camp.

Not really a whole lot left but based on the history of the area I believe this building has been underwater about four or five times. Still pretty solid.


Old boiler.

Old cement mixer.


What appears to be a bath house with shower stalls:

Found this old convertible on the side of the building facing the river:

On the old trail/driveway that led to the building there was a bunch of this spooled up cable:

There was quite a bit of this and I’m not sure if it had anything to do with accessing Marshall Island at one point.

This is one of those things that I had registered in the back of my mind to go and take a closer look at a few years ago. Today I finally had the opportunity. Pretty cool.

I was partially inspired by @JeepAndrew and his mine exploring thread here:
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/jeepandrew’s-abandoned-mines-thread.545953/

Definitely worth a read as he has risked life and limb to check some of these places out and provided some fascinating insight into things most of us would not see with our own eyes.

 

One additional thing I missed. These concrete rectangles were all over the place. Some lined up and some scattered about. Never saw them before. They were about 4’ long and the 4 holes are about the same diameter as a soda can.


Thoughts?

 

Those concrete 'tubes' were used to protect buried cables - mostly communication ones. Fiber optics made them obsolete for new installations.

Late '60's early '70's.

 

Drunken camping was a success?

 

It means you tread lightly but others did not.

 

Volkswagen Karmann Ghia 1957–1974

 

Looks like a GeoCache.

 

I think MacGyver emptied one of his pockets.

 

Cig butts really piss me off, don't know why they aggravate me more than other trash aholes leave behind, but it does....

 

they'd just rather flick them anywhere and cause a forest fire...

 

Or maybe because it seems like all smokers throw them anywhere and don't see it as littering. The butts are so small that not many people are going to take the time to pick them up.

As dry as it is in Texas in the summers, we usually get a few good grass fires in the median or on the side of the road each year. We live on a fairly busy street and half of my neighbors yard got scorched week before last.

 

I went on another little adventure with the mountain bike today. This time was one of my "bucket list" destinations: the abandoned PA Turnpike.

Here's the shitty app map with the stats:


I usually just mount the bike on the side of the truck but due to the distance and MPG I decided to disassemble it and cram it into the trunk of the FRS.
The wheels come of easily enough so it was not really that big of a deal. Considering the nearly 400 mile round trip I thought 33mpg with the car would be better than the maybe 15 or so the truck gets.





This is the start of the abandoned section - the sign reads Pike2Bike and warns that you enter at your own risk advising helmet & flashlight.


There have been great pains taken to prohibit motor vehicle traffic - this is the first of many barriers. The concrete barriers are arranged to allow for bike & pedestrian access but that's about it. Every access point had similar treatment.
(very unlike the abandoned section of Rt 61 in Centralia which I've driven on multiple times)




The first 1.5 miles to the "Rays Hill" Tunnel was a quick ride. It has not seen maintenance since this section was bypassed in 1968 and it shows. Here the eastbound lanes are very overgrown and the surface has degraded to gravel rubble.
I am going the wrong way on the westbound side.


The eastbound entrance to the "Rays Hill" tunnel:


Lots of graffiti as expected. The old "control room" was once sealed shut by steel doors but they've been compromised. I did not venture in but did take a few pics








"Rays Hill" Tunnel is one of the shortest on the PA Turnpike. From the eastbound side you can clearly see the light at the other end. Still, I brought my camping headlamp along and put it on before heading in. The road surface inside was in great shape compared to the highway I rode in on. As expected, there were several beer can obstacles, no big deal...




The westbound side.




A smaller "control room" on this side. No doors left & not really much to explore but destruction of vandals & time.




The whole reason this section was abandoned is because it was less expensive to bypass the tunnels by going over the mountains rather than boring another one parallel to them. This caused bottleneck traffic in both directions. Here are what is left of the merging lanes headed westbound.


From here it is 3.5 miles to the "Sideling Hill" Tunnel. It would make for a rather boring hike but an excellent bike ride! There is over a mile of downhill and my app said I did 17mph on the bike. Very fast for me - I average between 10-11mph usually.


It was a decent uphill grade approaching "Sideling Hill" Tunnel.


I stopped here briefly to put on a long sleeve shirt and also the headlamp. (It's only about 54* inside the tunnel)
The tunnel is just under 6800ft. long and you can't see even a hint of light from the other side. Rather ominous to say the least, especially going solo.




There's an identical "control room" which I decided to take a closer look at on the way back.


I look goofy but I was prepared!


Looking back headed into the abyss...


Let me say that it was a very freaky experience biking in nearly pitch black! I kept my speed steady and my headlamp would illuminate about 15-20' ahead of me pretty well. Again, the road surface was in excellent shape compared to the highway leading up to the tunnel.

At the other side I caught up with another group of 4 bikes who had just gone through before me.


It was another 1+ mile to the end of the accessable section - beyond this was a demolished overpass and access to the current Turnpike.




I headed back. There was a large parking lot area that used to be a rest stop but really not much to take a pic of.

After going back through the tunnel I took a bit to look in the "control room". The door was long gone.


No more staircase to the second floor & beyond.




Some adventurous artists though...


Last view of the Eastbound entrance.


Took a shot & video of exiting the "Rays Hill" Tunnel on the return trip.


https://youtu.be/d8KXtxuOTmQ

Headed back to the car.


Here's the wikipedia info on the site:


Had a great time & figured this would be the choice place to share my experience.

~ Craig

 

Dude.

This sounds like the basis for the next Rob Zombie flick.

 

Part of The Road was filmed there.

There's a third tunnel also, but a racing company bought it for use as a real world aerodynamic test area instead of using a wind tunnel.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laurel_Hill_Tunnel