Abandoned PA Turnpike (PikeToBike Trail)
Last Saturday, Alison and I headed to see the “abandoned” portion of the PA turnpike, which is now an 8.5 mile trail. There’s all sorts of video and photos online about it, and it surprised me that I hadn’t even known about it prior to stumbling upon PikeToBike.org while looking up some Appalachian Trail info. Perhaps the biggest reason it’s worth going to see is that this section of the turnpike has been abandoned since 1968 and contains both the longest (and shortest) tunnels on the PA turnpike. The whole stretch has kind of a “Centralia, Highway 61″ feel to it because of the cracked roadway, illegal dumping and ample graffitti, but it is nonetheless quite a cool place to visit.
PikeToBike has a lot of information about the trail. It’s not officially open, but is apparently well traveled. We didn’t encounter anyone the entire time we were there. The Sidling Hill tunnel is supposedly 1.3 miles long (I didn’t measure) and… far darker than I expected. The damp tunnels eat light! If darkness weren’t pressing in from outside, too, I’d have liked to explore the ends of the tunnels a bit more. There are some huge fans sitting on top of the entrance of the Sidling Hill tunnel that I’ll have to explore next time. There’s also an air space in the upper part of the tunnel that can be accessed, which would be pretty cool to get into had I been armed with a more powerful flashlight. It was kind of an eery feeling just walking/riding through this tunnel with such a limited amount of light. For some reason I expected to be crashing into abandoned vehicles, old mattresses and the homeless, but both tunnels are barren throughout. However, the effects of vandalism and time are apparant in the entire length of the tunnels and particularly on the tunnel entrances.
PikeToBike lists some of the projects that would be worthwhile on the property; including paving one of the four lanes (in order to make it accessible via road bike) and adding some minimal lighting the the tunnels. This is on top of tunnel maintenance and repair, which is also pretty badly needed. The roadway is pretty rough but is fine for mountain biking. If you’re going through the tunnels, bring a real flashlight!
Go check it out for yourself!