How Wet Is That Doggy In The Window?

Arbitration

Wyoming Area School District Business Manager Tom Melone appears deep in thought during a special meeting on April 15 in which the board unanimously rejected an arbiter's recommendation to approve a teachers union contract.

Umbrellas

Hayes Creek Branch Hike To Sandy Run

The Hayes Creek Branch Railroad (a.k.a. Lehigh Valley Lumber

Yard RR) started at lumber yard (on the Hazleton Branch) 2 miles

west of the Borough of Weatherly and ran to the Lehigh Valley's 

main line one mile east of Tannery. The branch was built in the 

early 1900s at a cost of about $2 million and was just 12 miles in

length. It was abandoned around 1965. To learn more about the

Hayes Creek Branch and the railroads that connected the 

Wilkes-Barre and White Haven areas with the Lehigh Valley

click on this link.

The hiking route: Magenta line is the Hayes Creek Branch. Light

blue line is a trail running through State Game Lands #149 that hooks up with Meir Road (T406).

View looking east (towards Lehigh Valley RR) of the 

former Hayes Creek Branch Trestle spanning the 

Lehigh River about one mile south of Tannery. 

In its day the trestle was 1/4 mile in length. 

Pillars reaching as high as 90 feet. Built in 1911 by 

F.M. Talbot Company of NYC,  E.B. Ashby (NYC) 

chief engineer. Cost of trestle project close to $1.2 million

 Trestle pillar above the former CNJ Railroad (now
the D&L Rails-To-Trails) on the west bank of the
Lehigh River.

 Standing on the fill of Hayes Creek Branch where
a trestle crossed the Lehigh River (view looking east).

Old RR ties on the Hayes Creek Branch.

The Hayes Creek right-of-way looking southwest towards Sandy Run.

A pano of Hayes Creek Branch. Trail in the middle cuts through State Game Lands #149 heading out to Meir Road.

Atop another trestle pillar at Sandy Run.

A concrete footer for the trestle near the banks of Sandy Run.

A pillar of the former Sandy Run trestle.

This is where my hike ended as I was

stymied in finding a way to cross the creek. 

Wading across not an option. Water to cold and 

moving way to fast for my taste. Maybe

try again in the summer when water

levels are down. And warmer! BTW, across Sandy

Run and behind this bridge abutment is a ROW

of the former Drifton Branch line that was 

part of the CNJ railroad. During a recent hike

I did walk this fill from D&L Trail in the gorge

up to Meir Road. From there the

Drifton Branch continued onto private property 

running parallel with Meir Road. That is where

I ended my hike, turned around and headed

back into the Lehigh Gorge.

Snow. More Snow. And It's March 30.

The Lucy Fund "Party 4 Life"

Michael & Mick

Matryoshka dolls in the likeness of Michael Jackson and Mick Jagger and The Rolling Stones done by artist Igor Kulagin of Scranton on display at Art Seen Gallery on Public Square in Wilkes-Barre during the Diamond City Art Walk Third Friday Wilkes-Barre. The 2014 Art Walk season will run March through October. (PETE G. WILCOX|THE TIMES LEADER) MARCH 21, 2014

Spring Showers

 

Wyoming Seminary students walk through steam that wafts up from a steam pipe near a construction site on campus along Sprague Ave. in Kingston on Wednesday. (PETE G. WILCOX|THE TIMES LEADER) MARCH 19, 2014

State Playoffs

 

 Meyers High School boys basketball coach Pat Toole takes Lamont Twyman aside for a few words of encouragement during Saturday's PIAA Class 2A Boys' playoff game against Delaware Valley Charter at William Allen High School in Allentown. Meyers won in double overtime 52-50 to advance to the semifinals. (PETE G. WILCOX|THE TIMES LEADER) MARCH 15, 2014

Penguins 5, Bulldogs 1

 AHL Linesman Scott Pomento gets tangled up with the Penguins' Pierre-Luc Letourneau-Leblond (34) and Bulldogs' Morgan Ellis (44) in the first period of Friday's AHL game at Mohegan Sun Arena in Wilkes-Barre Township. (PETE G. WILCOX|THE TIMES LEADER) MARCH 14, 2014

Public Square Then & Now

1891 (northwest corner)

2014 (northwest corner)

Wonderland High School

 

KISS Theatre Co. cast members at Thursday's dress rehearsal of "Wonderland High." KISS Theatre Company located inside the Wyoming Valley Mall was notified by the mall that the theatre must vacate the premises in 90 days. (PETE G. WILCOX|THE TIMES LEADER) MARCH 6, 2014

Twilight XC Skiing

XC skiing with Jeff, Ben, and De Ann in Upper Lehigh, Luzerne County.

Snow Storm

 

Jonathan Nix, 16, of Conyngham uses a snow blower to clear the snow from his neighbor Jane Stecker's driveway on Woodland Drive in Conyngham during Wednesday's snowstorm. (PETE G. WILCOX|THE TIMES LEADER) FEBRUARY 5, 2014

Boy Scouts Winter Fun Day

 

Snow Over Wilkes-Barre