Lehigh Valley Black Diamond Trail

 This morning, Diane and her granddaughter Dani, Marie (yes!), and I headed for a piece of the Black Diamond Trail for a little hike.

And why does it have that name, you ask? It's on the bed of the former Lehigh Valley railroad, in fact, the very piece that ran in back of my farm if they ever manage to extend the trail that far.

So far, they only have about 8 miles of trail. When the Lehigh Valley shut down in 1976, most of the ROW reverted to the owners whose land was crossed. So getting the linear "pathway" back is presenting challenges.

The Black Diamond was the name of the signature passenger train of the LVRR. Here's a picture from about the 1960s, I would guess

The four of us walked two miles out and then turned around. Very level (rail trails are) and easy walking. It was plenty hot, but we were walking at 8:30, so we certainly got out there before it got really hot.

This end of this piece of trail is located at Upper Taughannock Falls, where Elaine and I hiked 12 years ago (wow- how can it be that long ago?). It's hard to believe. This is a "cauldron" of rock where the water spirals down. It's difficult to get a good picture, and the light certainly wasn't right at that time of day.

Here are Marie, Dani, and Diane.

I spent a fair amount of time working on the final edits for the book, and we visited with Dick and Darla. Tomorrow Marie and I head out for our yearly hike.

Miles hiked so far in 2024: 271.1

See Lehigh Valley