12/11/2008

By Rita Floriani

Reading Eagle Correspondent (reprinted with permission)

Tucked away behind Fort Indiantown Gap Military Reservation in the northwest corner of Lebanon County is Cold Spring Road. Located at the southern base of Second Mountain, this back-country road climbs up and over the mountain.

We took this road, Mike, Dave and I, on a warm day this past summer. As soon as we began the steep drive down the north side of the mountain into Stony Valley, it was easy to sense the beginning of an adventure, for the road there is not paved; cars must navigate at a crawl down the long, rugged, gully- and rock-filled route to reach one of the most hidden and remote trailheads in the area.

We had just entered the southern edge of St. Anthony's Wilderness, the largest roadless tract of land in southeastern Pennsylvania.

At the base of the north side of Second Mountain, we drove over a small bridge and crossed Stony Creek, the stream that flows along the length of this isolated valley, which sits between Second and Sharp Mountains. A short distance ahead, we came to an open area off to our right and parked. We had reached the starting point of our hike: the Cold Spring Trailhead.

Almost immediately after we began our hike, we came to old stone walls, rock steps and the foundations of buildings that had stood there more than 150 years ago. We wandered around and explored the site. To better understand these ruins, we carried with us the map of the site from the Lebanon County Historical Society's book entitled "Cold Spring Hotel Site: Uncovering its Layers of History."

As far back as the early 1800s, a tavern had stood near the spring. Then coal was discovered nearby and the Dauphin and Susquehanna Coal Company constructed a railroad to remove the coal from the valley. In 1850, the coal company built a large hotel here. When the coal proved to be of poor quality, the coal company went out of business and had to sell its property.

The Schuylkill and Susquehanna Railroad Company took over the rail line and ownership of the hotel changed many times. In 1880, a new resort hotel was built and the railroad was used by the summer vacationers to reach this remote site. In 1900, the hotel burned down. From 1924 until 1942, the Lancaster YMCA operated a camp here.

With no coal and people no longer venturing into this secluded valley, the railroad ceased operation and the rails were removed in the 1940s. The remaining buildings all eventually disappeared from neglect and vandalism. In 1945, the land was sold to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and is now part of State Game Lands 211.

All that now remains are the stone remnants, a long bike trail on the railroad bed and, of course, the cold mountain spring.

We continued our hike, following an orange-blazed trail that ran parallel to both the Stony Creek to our left and the old railroad bed to our right.

The damp forest floor was home to countless red efts and more Indian pipes than I had ever seen. At one point, the ferns had grown so high around the boulders which we had to cross, it was difficult to see where to put my feet. We paused briefly at Stony Creek and saw a mass of lily pads on the water.

In the quietness of the trail, I was feeling thoroughly immersed in the loneliness of this deep wilderness, when off to my right, I caught sight of a solitary bicyclist through the trees riding over on the rail trail.

Leaving the orange-blazed trail, we cut across the rail trail and followed the Yellow Springs Trail as it climbed up Sharp Mountain. The trail, littered with a hodgepodge of boulders and large branches, was rugged, but pleasantly challenging.

We reached a small pool and saw where the trail got its name. Iron compounds in the water gave the Yellow Springs its yellow color.

As we continued our climb, we intersected the Appalachian Trail and kept heading uphill until we came across the remnants of an old mining operation. Following a side trail, we came to a stone tower about 25 feet high. The tower was used for the ventilation of a long abandoned underground mine.

We looped back down to the Appalachian Trail and reached a sign posted on a tree with an arrow. The sign said, "The General." Following this narrow side trail for half a mile, we came to an old, red, rusted steam shovel, abandoned decades earlier from a mining operation. It sat there on that mountaintop totally surrounded by trees. The name "General" is found stamped in the metal on the back of the steam shovel.

Returning to the Appalachian Trail, we followed it to the Cold Spring Trail and back down the mountain to where we had started our hike.

It had been a great hike. It was remote, rugged and historic. And hikes don't get much better than that.

•E-mail hiking columnist Rita Floriani at entertainment@readingeagle.com.