Winter Trails. Little Conemaugh River, Johnstown Pa.

[happyslug]

[Kolesar]

1. Your other accounts explained how many alignments had been cut through that gap

Did the trail alignment end up going out of the rail corridors? It looks high. Thanks for the pics!

[happyslug]

2. There is still a 3/4 mile gap between the sections

The pictures I took overlooks the Old Pennsylvania Main line. A parallel sets of lines run on this side of the Little Conemaugh, the local manufacturer of Rail cars use it to store rail cars. The first railroad for the Canal went under the line for the rail car maker till the Staple bend tunnel. At that point the Canal first rail-road ended and the boats were hauled up an incline the the Staple Bend Tunnel. At the Tunnel another rail-road took the boats to Second set of inclines, the other side of South Fork (The Second incline is now a paved road).

Anyway, since the First Railroad is covered by the Existing Rail line, a decision was made to keep the bike path on the public roads from Johnstown to Franklin Borough. At Franklin Borough the path goes on the Public Road till just pass the borough. At that point it goes behind the Franklin Little league baseball field. As it pass the field the path goes on an old access road, simply built for a water line for the still mills of Johnstown. This is a good bit up from the valley floor, but bikable (I tend to walk pass the ball field, the path is steep and it is easier to walk then bike).

The Path continues through the woods on this old access road (See my previous pictures on the construction of the path). The path ends about 3/4 of a mile from the Staple bend tunnel. The water line path is still good for another 1/4 mile but at that point the old water line had no access road do to the steepness of the hill side. This last for about 1/4 of a mile and an new access road re-appears and heads for the bottom of the Incline.

The big question is how to fill this last 3/4 of a mile. There is two choices, the first (See the picture below) is at the middle of the picture below, but a little to the left of center. The picture was taken at the end of the present trail. From the end of the trail you see a path going downhill, this goes down to the rail tracks. The Path could then follow the rail tracks, which is used to store newly made rail cars, the main line is the other side of the Little Conemaugh river, till you get to the old incline for the Staple Bend tunnel. I use to bike this route myself, till the rail line dumped huge mounds of dirt to prevent dirt bikers from getting on their property. With these dirt piles it is now unusable, but the piles can be re-moved and the road along side the tracks paved for bike use. The Rail car maker seems to oppose this plan.

Picture showing both paths:


The Second plan is to build along the pipeline along the side of the hill. At the above named picture you will see it toward the right, it is hidden by most of the trees. This will be more expensive, but seems to be the plan at present. The path already has permission of the owner of the hillside, so no problem there, the question is getting the funding. Congressman Martha is working on it, the improvements over the last few years were based on his "Earmarks" and I expect more this year. Congressman Martha had his earmarks frozen since 1991 given his stand on Iraq, i.e. get out now. That position was hated by the GOP for Murtha is a conservative Democrat. With the Democrats in control he is getting his earmarks, and those include Earmarks for the bike trails. Thus I expect something this year, which is both a Presidential election but also an election for the House of Representatives.

[happyslug]

3. 12 inches of snow fell night of 2/19/2008, more snow and more pictures.

Pictures of the Conemaugh River Gap, this is the road out of Johnstown toward Pittsburgh, the bike trail will go on this road, it is the best way through the Conemaugh River Gap West of Johnstown.





Pictures of my house, 12 inches on the street, as you can see a lot of snow piled up. The sidewalk is the other side of the Snow Pile. The Road and the Sidewalk is separated by a Grass strip. All three are at the same level. That is how much snow has been piled up on the grassy strip. More snow is piled along the side of the house on the opposite side of the Sidewalk. Yes a lot of snow for Johnstown.