Bretz Coke Ovens

The old beehive coke ovens at Bretz are just across the creek from the Deckers Creek Trail. This picture is actually made from beside the trail, though I've walked (crawled) across the spooky old RR bridge numerous times to explore the coke ovens site. It was even more interesting a few years ago before they did a major environmental cleanup. Lots of dirt was moved and removed for that project, several interesting old building shells were taken down, and a nice old coal mine entrance was closed in.

My friend Jay and I took an 8x10 Deardorff in on my tandem bike a number of years ago and got some nice shots. Later I managed to get a small Cirkut Camera in using my BOB trailer. I hope to post some of those photos to my Booger Hole documentary photography/music blog soon, but I'm sure getting behind the many projects like that I need to finish.

The coke ovens are fascinating. I believe there were about 150 of them, and most are still in pretty good shape. The few that are caving in provide a better idea of their construction. There were several slightly differently shaped bricks used in the construction (5, I think).

This day we went up Kingwood Pike again and finally got to do the longer loop, weather had cut the ride short the two previous times this year. I've been wanting to shoot a video of the fantastic downhill run after the long climb up the Pike. This picture looks back toward the end of that run. There is a wonderful fast sweeping turn just out of sight in the dip here. I did try to shoot video with my camera mounted in a bag on the bars, but had too many problems this time. That's a great reason to go back up very soon.

Today the rain held off until we were off the road and onto the trail. The storm hit just as we were past the coke ovens.