A Flare For Leaser Lake ...

“Keep your face always toward the sunshine ~ & shadows will fall behind you.”

                         ~ Walt Whitman

                          ~ 1819-1892

The golden hour certainly has a flare for Leaser Lake as kayakers at left blend into the silhouetted beauty and sunflares on the lake in summer, my most favorite of seasons, while a gorgeous late August sunset colors the lake with golden hues in the shadow of the northern Blue Mountain Ridge, New Tripoli, Pennsylvania.

Leaser Lake’s namesake is Frederick Leaser, an American patriot who in September 1777 with his farm team hauled The Liberty Bell from Philadelphia to Allentown where it was concealed in Zion Reformed Church for protection during the Revolutionary War. His homestead is located one mile north of the lake.

Leaser Lake was built by the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission for water-oriented recreation and opened for public use in 1971. Lehigh County leases this area from the state and operates and maintains the park. The land north of the lake was purchased by the county in the early 1970s. It is entirely wooded and is used for nature study and as an addition to the State Game Lands No. 217.

 

Surreal Sunflare Field ...

 “Listen to the silence inside the illusion of the world.”

        ~ Jack Kerouac

         ~1922 ~ 1969

A flare of a “mad orange sunset” illuminates a beautiful field in the surreal, where you can listen to the silence inside the illusion of the world.

I created this image by blending my shot “Flares Of A Mad Orange Sunset” with background texture by Jai Johnson for artistic effect.

Sunflares sparked an abstract beauty around a mad orange sunset on July 5, 2021 along the Ironton Rail Trail, which loops more than nine miles through Whitehall Township, the Borough of Coplay and North Whitehall Township, Pennsylvania.

Looking more like the moon than the sun and shining with a wild beauty, the sun held court in a hazy, milky sky.

The orange haze in the evening sky was likely the result of wildlife smoke in southern Canada affecting conditions very high in the atmosphere.

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.

 

Flares Of A Mad Orange Sunset ...

“Meanwhile the sunsets are mad orange fools raging in the gloom....”

 ~ Jack Kerouac

 ~ 1922-1969

Sunflares spark an abstract beauty around a mad orange sunset on July 5, 2021 along the Ironton Rail Trail, which loops more than nine miles through Whitehall Township, the Borough of Coplay and North Whitehall Township, Pennsylvania.

Looking more like the moon than the sun and shining with a wild beauty, the sun holds court in a hazy, milky sky.

The orange haze in the evening sky is likely the result of wildlife smoke in southern Canada affecting conditions very high in the atmosphere.

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.