Biking: Gold Mine Trail
Gold Mine Trail is a 19-mile Pennsylvania rail trail that overlooks the Stony Creek Valley, stretching from Schuylkill County at the east end, across Lebanon County, to Dauphin County at the west end. As far as I can tell, it has no official name, since it is not officially a recreational trail. I have found references to it on the Internet as the Stony Creek Trail, and as the Schuylkill and Susquehanna Trail, and as the St. Anthony’s Wilderness Trail.
We prefer to call it the Gold Mine Trail because we started from the eastern access off Gold Mine Road, which is known to the local population as an infamous roller-coaster mountain backroad. The name, of course, comes from a legendary gold mine and long-deserted village.
The trail runs on the abandoned right-of-way of the Schuylkill and Susquehanna Railroad built in the mid-1800’s to carry coal from the mining operations around the town of Rausch Gap to the Susquehanna River. Later the railroad was converted to an excursion train to the resort of Cold Spring. Today Gold Mine Trail is maintained by the Pennsylvania Game Commission as an access road for the state game lands. Once a year they open the trail to motor vehicles for a one-way drive west to east.
We were riding with my brother and sister-in-law, who had ridden part of the trail before. We parked the car at the state lot off Gold Mine Road in Lebanon County. From there, the trail extends eastward for a couple miles into Schuylkill County where it ends at a reservoir. I remember hiking that trail 30 years ago with my church youth group. But today, we want to ride west. There had been severe thunderstorms the night before, and the skies were overcast, so we were prepared for muddy conditions and the possibility of more rain. We were glad to find the trail in excellent condition
despite the rain. After a short distance we encountered our first obstacle where a small tree had been blown down across the trail. We had little trouble pushing it out of the way. The trail surface was quite smooth, considering it is maintained only for off-road type vehicles. The part we rode had gentle slopes which were practically imperceptible by the optical illusion of looking down a long straight path through the woods. It seemed like only our change in speed, or the effort needed to maintain a speed, gave any real clue as to the slope of the ride. A few miles into the ride we crossed a bridge over a rushing stream. We decided we would stop there on the way back. Along the way we passed a dozen or so other cyclists. We also saw several single-track trails heading up and down the mountainside.
St. Anthony’s Wilderness is the second-largest road-free area in Pennsylvania, and it is criss-crossed by numerous trails. Our only drawback was that we were on a time restriction. We had a birthday party to attend that afternoon. So when we reached a large fallen tree blocking the trail at around the 7.5 mile point, we decided it was time to turn back. On the return trip, Broken Claw noticed where the railroad once had a spur northward up the mountain toward the gap. We stopped at the bridge as planned.
The bridge is significant for a number of reasons. It crosses Rausch Creek, which drains the upper valley into Stony Creek. Rausch Gap, besides being the geographical gap in the mountains, was the name of the mining village of the 19th Century mentioned above. Also at the bridge the Appalachian Trail (AT) crosses Gold Mine Trail. While we consider Gold Mine Trail to run east-west, and the Appalachian Trail to run north-south, the zigzag nature of mountain trails produces one of those directional anomalies. Heading “west” on the Gold Mine Trail, you have to turn right to go “south” on the Appalachian Trail!
I have since learned that this section of the AT was actually relocated during World War II to circumvent Indiantown Gap Military Reservation (now Fort Indiantown Gap). Rausch Gap is known to AT hikers because it has one of the most unique shelters along the Trail, built into the stone foundations and chimneys that are the only remains of the old mining village. However, overuse in recent years seems to have left it in disrepair.
Another feature at the bridge is a project of Penn State University. All you can see is a large vertical pipe emptying treated water into the creek. It’s kind of spooky because you can’t see where the pipe or the water comes from out here in the wilderness. Anyway, from the brief explanation on the sign, it has something to do with the de-acidification of forest headwaters.
All in all, it was a great day to ride. The weather turned out much better than we expected. The skies remained mostly cloudy, keeping the temperature comfortable, but we didn’t have any rain, and sunshine broke through several times. We definitely plan to return so we can ride further, take more pictures of the sylvan landscapes and maybe explore some of the side trails.