Wheeling Through Winter ...

“It was one of those March days when the sun shines hot and the wind blows cold: when it is summer in the light, and winter in the shade.”

                ~ Charles Dickens

                    ~ 1812-1870

The temperature soared to 73 degrees and snow still sugared the ground on a beautiful mid-March afternoon when I spotted this man wheeling his way along the Delaware & Lehigh National Heritage Corridor (D&L Trail) on an ATV bike at Lehigh Gap.

In the shadow of the Kittatinny Ridge, also called Blue Mountain, 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.

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.

 

Early Spring Crocus ...

“Spring work is going on with joyful enthusiasm.”

     ~ John Muir

     ~1838-1914

What a joyful sight to see these early bloomers enthusiastically reach toward the rays of the evening sun on the second day of spring ~ March 21, 2021 ~ spring has finally sprung after a long winter! 

These lavender Early Spring Crocuses were showing off their simple beauty in the early evening along the Ironton Rail Trail, which loops more than nine miles through Whitehall Township, the Borough of Coplay and North Whitehall Township, Pennsylvania.

Because of their very early bloom time, these blooming crocuses are often considered the first sign of spring, a cheery welcome to warmer weather!

Growing from bulb-like structures called corms, crocuses are low-growing perennial plants from the Iris family. They can often be seen peeking up through the snow well before any other flowers appear on the landscape. Bloom colors on the tube-shaped flowers include mauve, lavender, and yellow.

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.

 

Wintertide At Wehr's Dam ...

      “Melancholy were the sounds on a winter’s night.”

      ~ Virginia Woolf

      ~ 1882-1941

Its icy beauty in infrared as winter infuses Wehr’s Dam with a frozen splendor as sunset dances cheek to cheek with twilight at the finish of a late February day. The waters of the Jordan Creek spill over the dam to then flow beneath Wehr’s Covered Bridge.

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