Today's description is snow, sun, snow, sun, snow and sun, repeat indefinitely. I was on an old rail bed for almost all the miles. This is now called the Sandy Creek Trail, but the road was the Franklin-Clearfield Railroad. Frankly, I'd never heard of it!
It turns out that this line was built as an extention of the Lakeshore and Michigan Southern, which was already part of the New York Central system since the 1870s, but operated separately. NYC wanted to connect the LS&MS to other lines they owned in Pennsylvania. Although it seems like they should have been mostly carrying oil in this part of the country, they primarily hauled coal and general freight. The F&C connection gave NYC a complete line of their own to the docks on Lake Erie at Ashtabula.
You can see a narrow seam of coal at the bottom of this cliff.
The line was built in the first decade of the 1900s, and supposedly has some impressive infrastructure, but not on the stretch I hiked today. My biggest question of the day is the continual, regular crosswise depressions in the rock. Sometimes it seemed like the line might have been laid with concrete ties (yes, this is a real thing. They weight 750 pounds each). But I finally decided I was seeing actual rock. The bedrock in the right-of-way has apparently been leveled where the ties would need to be laid. This makes some sense- you couldn't have some ties higher than others. I was picturing men with sledge hammers, but I suppose by 1910 they might have used steam hammers or drills. Diesel engines had been invented by then, but hadn't been mass produced or used commercially.
If anyone has any knowledge on this, speak up!
The best natural feature of the day was this balanced rock.
Most of the snow was "styrofoam pellet" type. It would catch in hammocks of spider webs!
When the sun came out, all the water would evaporate.
The bridges on what I walked today are gone, but some of the abutments remain.
Miles today: 16.7. Total miles so far: 1531.7.
Bonus Section: New independent author: Annabelle Crawford will be revealing her debut work: Fifty Ways to Lick Your Loved One. With a Foreword by Sophie Rose Crawford including tips and techniques.
Preview: 1. The straight up kiss. 2. The sideways swipe to test what's on your spoon. 3. The ear cleaning. 4. The sampling of the fingers to determine what you ate and did not share. And 46 more!
 | See Rockland Tunnel |
5 comments:
The "styrofoam pellet" you had was graupel snow. I never knew what it was until today!
That balancing rock is impressive.
Aww, that last picture is too cute.
I love the photo with the steam. And WHAT? A railroad line you hadn't heard of? Whose lovely doggy is that? <3
The balancing rock is really cool. My dad is a "railroad guy" - if I remember, I'll ask if he has any knowledge about the concrete ties/bedrock. Doggie kisses are so sweet! April
Graupel snow!
Ann- I knew you would like that one- hug Gibbs for me
Stacy- that is one of Sue's pups. Sophie is the other.
April- great!
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