Lehigh Gorge (17-Dec-2015)

The Glen Onoco access of the Lehigh Gorge State Park is not far from where I live and not long ago it was one of my favorite places to go hiking. In the past ten years the amount of people that visit this park has greatly increased and the degradation of trails on the bordering gamelands is very evident. The trail most affected by increased traffic is the Glen Onoco Trail and the only real maintenance on the trail seems to be the addition of warning signs. I will say that I did this hike in the rain and I would suggest that you do not do the same. The signs are right, this trail is dangerous and it should really only be attempted by experienced hikers under good weather conditions. In recent years multiple people have died on this trail, so my warning is not without good reason.

To reduce impact and for safety reasons, I believe that both the Game Commission and Lehigh Gorge State Park should restrict this area to access by hunting license or permit only. Other State Parks like Ricketts Glen do this for trails in the winter months when conditions are treacherous. In addition to the dangerous aspect of this trail, it was loaded with trash.

These items were underneath the rhododendron across the trail from the "Wear Boots Sign". I would like to point out that if you are not accustom to hiking trails like this boots are not going to make much of a difference. 

Lots of beer cans along this trail. I have never come across a Wildlife Conservation Officer hiking this trail and by the looks of things not many people, if any, do. It is not an area where many hunting infractions would take place, but in the non-hunting months I think a lot of citations could be handed out. In my opinion this area should also have cooperative patrols with the DCNR, because most of the   hikers access through the State Park. Also, boots were stressed more on the signage than no alcoholic beverages and that makes sense.

This is a good section of the trail. I did not photograph the washouts. I really just wanted to get by them as quickly as possible.

Even the smaller falls on the way up are nice. How can people add trash to this?

There were a number of items that I could not reach today. This Gatorade bottle was not one of them, I was able to safely retrieve it without even a soaked foot. In the Spring I will be able to get to much of the items that were out of reach today. 

The items on the left were tucked away down a somewhat deep crevice. The can on the right speaks for itself. If you ever see someone place a piece of trash in a hole, crevice or tree cavity, please inform them that it is not a trash can, it seems there are many that do not know the difference.

The stream was lower than I have seen it on other occasions, so this fall was the most impressive of the day. When there is a good flow the higher fall above this looks much more impressive. 

On most hikes the higher up or further in on a trail you go the less amount of trash you find. On this hike it was pretty steady all the way through.

This is the highest fall on the hike. The trail does continue up the side, but by this point my bag was getting full and my clothes were completely soaked through. I took it slow on the way back down and ended up taking a different route. It was not my intention to do so, but there are no distinct trail markings and multiple trail off-shoots surrounding the falls. This is one of the problems with the degradation of the area. There are too many of these trail off-shoots and the more there are the greater the erosion seems to be.

There should not have been this much trash from my car to the top of the falls, but there was and more that I couldn't get to. This trail was one of the nicest in the area and because it has been neglected it is now extremely unsafe and trashy. I will be back to take out the trash again, but both the Game Commission and the DCNR really needs to step up and do something about patrolling, the trail conditions and start working to restore some of the areas. Many of the off-shoot trails could be blocked and planted with native species, this would serve two purposes. The root systems would stabilize the soil in some portions, preventing further erosion and certain tree species would work to shade the area, which would help keep this nice cold water stream cold. 

Yesterday when I wrote this post I was under the impression that this trail was on DCNR property. There are no signs at the trailhead or between the DCNR and Game Commission lands as to a boundary. I believe most like I did think they are walking through a State Park when they do this hike. As I have said before it is important to know which agency owns the land you are hiking on and the laws do vary between them. More signage would be helpful to the general public. 

You too can help with taking out the trash! If you get out hiking take a grocery bag with you, give it a second use and fill it with trash while you are out! Every bit helps. You can also help contributing to this project here: Help Fund Taking Out the Trash