Just Moseying Along ...

“It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop.”

                        ~ Confucius

                             551-479 BC

A late September evening marked the first time I spotted a turtle along the Ironton Rail Trail, taking its own sweet time moseying toward the creek.

The Ironton Rail Trail loops more than nine miles through Whitehall Township, the Borough of Coplay and North Whitehall Township in Pennsylvania.

The Ironton Railroad was a shortline railroad in Lehigh County. Originally built in 1861 to haul iron ore and limestone to blast furnaces along the Lehigh River, traffic later shifted to carrying Portland Cement when local iron mining declined in the early 20^th century. Much of the railroad had already been abandoned when it became part of Conrail in 1976, and the last of its trackage was removed in 1984.

In 1996, Whitehall Township purchased 9.2 miles of the right-of-way from Conrail, transforming it into the Ironton Rail Trail.

Great Blue September ...

“Man’s heart away from nature becomes hard.”

                       ~ Luther Standing Bear

                                  ~ 1868-1939

 A Great Blue Heron seems to pose for a portrait while perched at Wehr’s Dam as it peers into the waters of the Jordan Creek on a late September afternoon.

The dam, built in 1904, is next to Wehr’s Covered Bridge, which dates back to 1841, at Covered Bridge Park, Orefield, Pennsylvania.

Red Fox In The Late Summer Grass ...

“The grain, which is also golden, will bring me back the thought of you.

And I shall love to listen to 

the wind in the wheat …”

                                ~ The Little Prince

                                      ~ 1943

                        ~ Antoine de Saint-Exupery

                                                ~ 1900-1944

 A beautiful red fox peers through the high grass of late summer on a September evening at Trexler Memorial Park, Allentown, Pennsylvania.