“But memory is an autumn leaf that murmurs a while in the wind and then
is heard no more.”
~ Kahlil
Gibran
~ 1883-1931
A
single autumn leaf rests in the cascading waters of Resh Falls, which flows
like silk in harmony with autumn along the Kittatinny Ridge, also called Blue
Mountain. I shot this long exposure capture on a beautiful October afternoon at
Lehigh Gap along the Delaware and Lehigh National Heritage Corridor (D&L
Trail).
The
Lehigh Gap in Slatington, Pennsylvania, is a crossroads where the Lehigh Gap
Nature Center’s trails connect two historic trails – the Appalachian Trail and
the D&L Trail.
Resh
Falls is one of the Five Falls at East Penn along a unique area of the D&L
Trail.
Railroading
has a rich history in the development of lower Carbon County as three railroads
went through the Lehigh Gap.
East
Penn Township had two of them on its side of the river as the Lehigh Valley
Railroad ran along what is now the D&L Trail. The Lehigh and New England
Railroad ran parallel about 75 feet higher on the mountain on what is now the
Lehigh Gap Nature Center’s Bobolink Trail.
The
engineering needed to build these railroads would be a wonder today, but when
you consider that they were done a century ago it becomes more impressive. They
built pools along the railroad to collect runoff similar to what we now have as
detention basins.
These
pools still collect water and they discharge the collected water at five
waterfalls that can be observed year round when hiking or biking the D&L
Trail.
The
Appalachian Trail, a foot path, follows the ridge on both sides of the Lehigh
Gap, running 1,245 miles south to Georgia and 930 miles north to Maine. Running
from Wilkes-Barre to Bristol, the D&L Trail passes through the Lehigh and
Delaware rivers and their canals in Pennsylvania.
