Parking at Saucon

[RRR]

I know this post should probably be in the Stream section but I want to make the maximum no. of people aware as possible. I was parked at the pull-off next to the bridge under the 78 overpass this morning and was fishing just below the bridge. A Park maintenance worker yelled down to me that I was parked in a no parking area and was subject to being towed. I walked up and saw there were indeed new no parking signs there which he said were put there a couple days ago. Same thing on the side road just before the bridge. I read on the other thread that they are cracking down on all the unwanted visitors to the park, as well they should. The Park workers had gathered up several dump truck loads of litter that they had piled up into small mountains of trash waiting to be hauled away. The problem is that once again the pendulum has swung too far to the point that the ONLY legal parking area in the entire Park is now the big lot at the swimming pool. That's great if you're 20 yrs. old and don't mind walking half a mile to the overpass area. Personally, after 4 heart attacks, quadruple by-pass surgery and several stents, I found that walk through head high weeds to be a little taxing in the 89 degree heat today. As the Parks guy said, just another example of slobs ruining it for the law abiding folks. When the Hell are we going to get tired of this crap as a nation and REALLY start cracking down on the lawless instead of penalizing the innocent?

 

[JackM]

The death penalty for littering? I'm in.

 

[LouM]

The problem is they let it go too long and the riff raff was out of control. I f they had enforced it a long time ago there would be no problem. I went there many years ago on independence day and the park was full of dirt bags, bait fishing and littering. I called the WCO and he replied that it was a ongoing problem and he would send his dep. over albeit after the holiday when they were gone.
It was a great creek at one time but has gone downhill, I hardly fish it anymore.

 

[Smike]

This is kind of ironic, in that most of the problems were from the ones parking AT the pool parking lot.

You can still park on Raven Street, which is only about 100 yards or less from that spot.

I agree they let it go far to long, that place was getting out of hand, BBQ's, Rap music, and the cops showing up (all prior to 9 am on a nice summer trico hatch weekend)

On the flip side, with all money coming in and residential redevelopment ongoing (middle and upper class) They are being forced by the new residence to clean it up.

 

[lestrout]

yo Smike

I agree with you on all points. At least things weren't as bad as when I first started ffishing the Saucon a few decades ago, when the park had a lot of drug dealing. Someone was shot and killed there, and for a good while, I would see a motorcycle cop cruising around the area. The ffishing buddy who first showed me the creek would always be sure to be packing when he ffished the Saucon.

 

[Chaz]

You may find parking on the upstream side of the bridge along the road that follows the creek. I haven't looked there, but the no parking signs have been up for a while now.

 

[Smike]

Ya 20 years ago it was the real wild west :-D Even the browns would try to bite your hand off. They were the real nasty ones, from Benner springs if I remember.

 

[govtmule]

Yo yo Smike...Rap music?...not my choice either but come on...you must be 75

 

[Sylvaneous]

LouM wrote:
The problem is they let it go too long and the riff raff was out of control. I f they had enforced it a long time ago there would be no problem.

OMG! When I lived there 13 years ago, it was overpopulated by questionable and sketchy souls on weekends. The soccer fields were, however, like a UN with students and residents from so much of Latin america and Southern Asia.


It was a great creek at one time but has gone downhill, I hardly fish it anymore.

Bethlehem had a well-run, if under-manned parks department. When we started a Saucon TU chapter, we hoped to leverage the parks dept with TU and the Fish Commish and state and federal grants to get habitat structural work done in the denuded park area between the walls. I was back some years ago and, after time and a few tropical systems, so much of this was flatter than ever. 15 years ago, Saucon was my stream of choice. It provided the best fishing and was the 'most rising-est' stream in the Lehigh Valley.

It can be helped, fixed and saved. If Big Spring, which, of all the things a trout stream needs, only had cool and fertile spring water, can be regenerated, Saucon can as well. It actually has a rocky, gravely bottom and a gradient, by heavens! And bugs besides midges and cress bugs.

Syl

 

[Smike]

by govtmule on 2015/7/15 21:01:43
Yo yo Smike...Rap music?...not my choice either but come on...you must be 75

Lets just say the Allmand Brothers were a bit before my time.

 

[PhilC]

It's called reggaeton not rap...