Trip on the Tracks

One redeeming quality of Shippensburg University was the mountains that surrounded the school. There really wasn't much else I could find good about it.

The mountains though were great. There was the dam and lake at Letterkenny Army Depot. I always remember a bunch of us running up there on the first warm day of Spring. We all jumped off the dam crest into water so frigid it sucked the air instantly out of our lungs.

I learned the water isn't the warmest in April.

There was also "Tumbling Run," an outstanding hike up the mountainside following a small stream that by the top of the mountain was a series of impressive waterfalls. Tumbling Run also featured a large rock outcropping that afforded expansive views of the valley.

There was also a lookout with a stone wall that had to be reached back a couple miles of dirt road. It offered panaromic views of the mountains and valleys, and the clear cutting of timber below.

On any given nice Spring day it wasn't hard to convince a few friends to join you for a trip to the mountains.

Once I invited a gentleman from Harrisburg, who I played basketball with, to join us on a trip to Tumbling Run. He went. But he was terrified. He had never really been out of the city his entire life. He certainly had never been in the woods. He was absolutely, positively, scared to death.

We eased his fears and urged him to hike onward, deeper and deeper into the forest. Suddenly two military jets flew right over our heads, just above the tree tops. The boom of the jets roaring past was deafening. I looked back to find my friend from Harrisburg sitting at the base of a tree, holding on to it for dear life.

I have to admit, I've never been to war but that flyover was giving me flashbacks.

The jets were undoubtedly from the army depot where we swam in the lake. After one swim with a roommate from North Jersey, my friend suddenly stopped his old, baby blue, junky car on railroad tracks and said, "I've got to show you something."

Huh?

Without saying a word he backed the car up and aimed the wheels towards the tracks. He seem to be trying to match the tires up to the tracks. He tried and failed. He tried and failed.

Suddenly he took his hands off the steering wheel and accelerated. The tires of the car were snug to the tracks and the junk of a car was riding the railroads. I didn't even know this was possible.

As the car rode along the tracks we drew the attention of a little league baseball game. Everyone stopped to watch this crazy, light blue car riding along the tracks.

We waved vigorously.

Some waved back.

In hindsight I do not think this track was active. But all I could keep thinking about was a train coming the other way down the tracks. Fortunately another cross-street was not far and my friend dumped the jalopy of the tracks and we continued home.