With the Glen Onoko falls trail closing down, you may think there isn’t much else in the area of Jim Thorpe that’s as awesome as the Glen for the area. Well you’d be wrong. Sure, it was awesome to see the waterfalls and navigate through the trails and meet people from all over, but sometimes the better paths are on the roads less traveled. 

During 1844-1845 Mount Pisgah was the location for the Mount Pisgah engine house which was part of the gravity railroad system which was formally called the SwitchBack. This engine house used steam engines to power what was called a “Barney” which allowed the cargo and passenger coaches to make it up the mountain, over 500 feet elevation! The tracks located on the trail called Pisgah Plane. In my YouTube video this is the trail I take to make it to the top and this is the same place where the tracks used to be, in fact some of the old railroad ties serve as water bars!

Upon reaching the top you find an informational display which gives you history and the remnants of the once highly effective engine house.

Further down the trail you will see a lookout in which you can see Glen Onoko straight across and to the left you can see the railroad with the entry point of Lausanne. I called this the Jim Thorpe Trifecta. 

After looking out for sometime I decided to go further down the trail where I saw other ruins, which must have been storage rooms. Passing the building i saw the remnants of an old Buick. Further up the trail it lead to another lookout area this time overlooking the town of Jim Thorpe and directly across I could see the Flagstaff Restaurant, which is now closed. After sometime relaxing I made my way down the mountain on a path in front of the ruins of the storage rooms. This lead me back to my vehicle on North Ave . After finishing my hike I was exhilarated about taking the time to hike it! I was already looking up ways to bike to the mount lookout and I did just that. ( i’m finishing this blog post as I sit at the lookout with my bike.) 

Mike