Montour Trail Camping Committee

Just west of the culvert where the trail crosses Santiago Rd, there's a triangular area that was the junction with a short spur line. The triangular area inside the junction is a possible campsite.

Here's the view from the trail. The path toward Roy (in the red jacket) is the old railroad grade, and it is elevated about 20 feet above the surrounding terrain. It leads to the back side of the possible camping area, which is inside the triangle of the "Y" (not on the RR grade proper, which is full of old ties). The houses on the opposite side of the trail are not visible from the potential camping area.

Here's the view back in the woods, maybe 30 ft off the trail. A bicyclist is passing by on the trail; the flash of his yellow jacket provides some help with orientation. To make a campsite here would require removing quite a few trees, but the site could remain shady. The ground seemed dry and firm when we were there, and lots of other areas were soggy.

Report from Troy and Charlie

We were able to visit North Star Junction to review the site for possible Montour Trail Camping.

Montour Junction is an old WYE that was used to turn locomotives in the days of the railroad. It is a triangular piece of right-of-way and one third of the triangle was the mainline railroad, which is now the current trail. The other 2/3s of the triangle are now covered in brush and trees, and the actual "track" is covered in old moldy railroad ties (The iron rails have been removed).

My estimate to make this a viable campsite right along the trail would be about 8 hours of heavy brushhogging by tractor and some chainsaw tree removal, and 3-4 hours with an excavator to smooth out the dirt and also to plant grass.

Now, if you would continue past the clipboard and keep walking through the brush, following the moldy wooded ties, you get to another junction area. This would be a great spot to camp because it would be very private. The only problem in my opinion, is there would be too much physical labor required to remove all of the ties that are still in place (see photo).

Troy at the upper junction, in among the RR ties. The second pan above
is probably halfway back toward the finished trail.

So, in my opinion, I think we should clear the brush next to the trail, and have a nice spot for camping that is not too far off the trail, and also provides the smallest amount of work and cost to the trail. I like this area a lot, and I personally think the site prep could be completed in two days, and we would need to add a picnic table and a fire-ring. A port-a-john would be useful in this spot also, but the delivery truck would need to ride on the trail to deliver it, once in the Spring and once in the fall to recover it, and also weekly to maintain it. The trail surface in this area is not the best, so in my opinion, the truck would do a minimal amount of damage to the trail.

Electronic mail: mary [at] shaw [dot] org
Sorry, but I can't put a mailto link in here because the spammers will harvest it. To contact me, edit the pieces together in the obvious way.

Snail mail: Shaw-Weil Associates, 414 South Craig St PMB 307, Pittsburgh PA 15213


Charlie on the trail, and where the clipboard is sitting would be one possible entrance to the campsite, or is could be the actual campsite if it is located right along the trail.	Roy is starting down the trail that follows the RR alignment. To reach the area of the second panorama above, go back 30-50 feet and turn right, toward the trail. (this image is part of the first pan above)

Santiago/North Star Option for Montour Trail Campsite

Report from Troy and Charlie