Railroad Trestle Hike

This hike is continuation event from the Satellite Beach Hike. Once I left Florida, it was off to Pennsylvania to visit family. As a youngster, there would be summer time travels to Pennsylvania to visit family. I was pretty young at the time and really not into hiking. My dad would take me along on his walks and like to go to this railroad trestle. On this hike, my cousin's husband Mitch was my guide.

 The trestle itself has been here for quite sometime. They have done some needed work (as I have been told) to repair the catwalk from rickety and broken wood to industrial strength steel diamond pattern non-slip material. There is no way a person can slip off of this. And with the diamond pattern, any snow or ice would fall right though.

It was mid-June, mid-afternoon, time so it was not too hot. Actually the day before it was more hot and much more humid. The walk along the tracks was as expected, either a constant shifting of your pace (because of the railroad tie spacing) or walk along the base. Walking along the tracks was not too bad so that was the better option. Plus, wanted to avoid the possibility of poison oak, ticks and other strange critters.

Once at the trestle, it was very intimidating. It was a very long drop with a good flowing creek at the bottom. There was absolute silence, only the wind in the trees and the sounds of the creek. The air was very clean. Pleasant place to spend the afternoon.

Trekking across the trestle was not physically difficult or scary, though at first there was a slight bit of being overwhelmed with the height, the distance needed to be traveled and of course, it being the first time doing this hike. Now if it had been midnight, in a raining thunderstorm and with a train coming, that would have really been something.

Several minutes later and across the trestle, we stopped to rest a bit, have a drink of water and enjoy the scenery. A short while later, we were up again. Instead of doubling back, Mitch followed a trail through the forest that would take us to an earthen dam, along the berm of the dam, following a dirt road jeep trail and eventfully paralleling the railroad tracks on the left and corn fields on the right

This turned out to be a really pleasant way to spend an afternoon. This hike could be done in the slow, take in the scenery type of experience, or could be at a very quick pace, or in such a way and at a particular time when forest animals would normally be out.

I have to admit that the narrative does not necessarily follow the photographs. Suppose sometimes it is not good timing to take a picture and one would rather immerse themselves in the moment letting the nature soak in.