O Kittatinny! ...

“I belong where there are mountains and snow and clear, crisp blue skies.”

                    ~ Tom Hiddleston

                       ~ English actor

                       ~ born 1981

The mountains, snow and clear, crisp blue skies coalesce to create a majestic winter vista on a late January afternoon where the Kittatinny Ridge, also called Blue Mountain, is the star of the landscape along the Delaware & Lehigh National Heritage Corridor (D&L Trail) at Lehigh Gap.
 

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.

Running from Wilkes-Barre to Bristol, the D&L Trail passes through the Lehigh and Delaware rivers and their canals in Pennsylvania.

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.

Weathered Winter Barn ...

“Are the days of winter sunshine just as sad for you, too? When it is misty, in the evenings, and I am out walking by myself, it seems to me that the rain is falling through my heart and causing it to crumble into ruins.”

                      ~ Gustave Flaubert

                            ~ 1821-1880

A weathered barn still has beauty as it brushes a beautiful pop of red color into the winter landscape just off the Ironton Rail Trail in the painterly HDR image I shot soon after a mid-January snowfall. The trail loops more than nine miles through Whitehall Township, the Borough of Coplay and North Whitehall Township, 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.

 

Winter Delivers ...

“Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.”

                ~ The U.S. Postal service has no official motto but this phrase is often associated with mail carriers

A United States Postal Service mail truck rounds the bend of a road paralleling the Ironton Rail Trail as it makes deliveries soon after winter has delivered a mid-January snowfall. The trail loops more than nine miles through Whitehall Township, the Borough of Coplay and North Whitehall Township, 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.