Hike #1024; Phillipsburg/Easton North Loop

Hike #1024; Phillipsburg/Easton North Loop

3/30-3/31/17 Phillipsburg/Easton/Martins Creek/Brainards Loop with Shane Blische, James Quinn, Justin Gurbisz, Brittany Audrey, Sue Bennett, and Dan Asnis.

Our next hike would be another night hike, this time a sort of repeat of what I’d done a few years back with James De Lotto and Matt Matthew Casey. We hiked a loop between Easton and Martins Creek/Brainards, using the old rail lines and more, and we really had a great time with it. It was a good one to repeat.

1936 image of the Northampton Street Free Bridge

There is a great deal of history, as well as great scenery, a nice place to stop for some food, and various other little interesting things. The latter portion of the hike history from Martins Creek on is provided by Shane.

View of Easton from Lafayette College

We met at Union Square, Phillipsburg. This was a bit different than the previous time, because then I’d met in Easton and we looped back. This time, we’d hit the Lafayette College steps and such earlier.

At Lafayette College

Once everyone was together, we started walking across the Northampton Street free bridge to Easton. We descended via the steps on the other side to the walkway along the river below Columbus Park. When we got to the amphitheater, we headed back up and continued around a corner on Rt 611 to reach the Lafayette College steps. We climbed up these pretty quick and took in the view of Easton from the top, then moved on across the campus.
It’s a beautiful campus, founded in 1826 and named after General Marquis De Lafayette, who had been recently touring the country. We followed pathways through the campus to the north, past the Fisher Stadium, and continued several blocks to I think Lafayette Street.

At Lafayette College

Justin was climbing on some sort of art sculpture metal thing in the campus, and I think he nearly got caught because someone said something about campus security. We ended up being okay, but we got out of there.
We headed east when we got to Lafayette Street, and then turned to the left on Reeder Street, right on Wayne Avenue, left on Paxinosa, then to Parker and then veered left on Shawnee.
The old trolley line was right below us, the present day route of Woodland Road. I don’t know where it went down hill, but up hill it went to serve the Paxinosa Inn.
We followed Shawnee a short distance to the beat up old steps that descended to the right to the old trolley right of way. This was probably at one time a trolley stop or something, unless it was another Gollub Park entrance later after the trolley was abandoned.
We made our way down the rough steps, and were soon on the trolley bed, which gradually ascends Weygadt Mountain parallel with the Delaware River.

The old steps

We paused for a moment for Justin and Shane to walk on some crazy branch as we started the climb.
At the top was the site of the the formidable Paxinosa Inn, a famous hotel that drew in people from New York and Philadelphia in it’s heyday. It was built in 1888, four stories high, and named for the famous Shawnee Indian chief who famously supported the English during the French and Indian War.

Historic postcard image of the Easton Trolley ascending to Paxinosa Inn

The hotel was built by local businessmen taking advantage of the lovely vantage point atop Weygadt Mountain. Even today, the trolley bed offers some really nice views.

Modern view from the trolley bed of the same Delaware River scene

To the right, below the trolley bed, is a rock outcropping known as the original St. Anthony’s Nose, a rock outcropping, probably natural, at a river outlook.

Historic view of St. Anthony's Nose

Today, people usually refer to St. Anthony’s Nose as the overlook in Gollub Park, but from he historic photos, it’s actually the rock outcrop just to the south of there. It’s still recognizable, but this time we didn’t get down to it because I was a bit concerned about time and whether or not we’d be able to bushwack off of the mountain before dark and still see everything.
We continued on the trolley bed toward the top, where it makes a hairpin turn. Just before that, we cut up hill through the weeds a bit to head to the former site of the pavilion associated with the Paxinosa Inn.
On top, we could see the old platform base and about four of the stanchions that once held up the pavilion. This is really the only remaining thing other than the trolley bed to show that there was once anything up on top of Weygadt Mountain, in what’s now Gollub Park.
We could see the route of the trolley on the other side, going down the hill toward Paxinosa Drive. There were no remnants we could see of the former station stop.

Historic postcard image of the Paxinosa Inn trolley stop

In 1905, the original Paxinosa suffered a devastating fire. The completely wooden structure was a total loss. The headline read “Mountain Hotel, near Easton PA, Destroyed By Fire”.

Historic postcard image of the original Paxinosa Inn

It read: “Easton, Pa., July 11. — Paxinosa Inn, an imposing structure on the summit of Weygadt mountain, three miles north of the centre of this city, was destroyed by fire. The loss is $150,000; insurance, $20,000. None of the guests or help was injured, but some lost their clothing and jewelry. The fire started from an overheated flue in the laundry, east of the inn, and leaped to the big structure. An hour later the building was in ruins, so rapidly did the flames spread.

The inn was 40 by 340 feet, and was four stories high. It was buildt entirely of wood, and there was no way of checking the flames, once they spread from the laundry. A. B. HELLINGS and his sister, MRS. PIGGOTT, of Philadelphia, who conducted the business, lost their entire personal effects while they were saving those of the guests.”

— Tyrone (Pa) Daily Herald, July 11, 1905

1905 post fire view of Paxinosa Inn site

On about the same site, a new Paxinosa Inn, labeled “fireproof” was constructed. This time, it was constructed of brick. Despite these claims, it too burned down in 1931, never to be rebuilt.

Paxinosa Inn historic postcard view

I would imagine the fact that this amazing point was not rebuilt is blamed at least partially on the Great Depression. It must have been quite a place to see.

Historic Paxinosa post card

Today, some of the foundations of the structure can be found in the weeds, but the most notable thing remaining are the stanchions to the pavilion to the northeast a bit.

Historic postcard image of Paxinosa Inn pavilion

We walked to the former pavilion site, and then continued along the ridge top out toward the river. We crossed over the trolley right of way once more and soon reached the nose of Weygadt Mountain with the view across to Marble Hill.

Paxinosa Inn pavilion site today

We took in the nice view for a bit, and then I tried to figure out where we would cut over to get down off of Weygadt Mountain. This would be the trickiest and most slow going section of the entire hike.

We headed back up hill, but not all the way to the trolley bed. I cut to the right before that and we gradually headed down the mountain almost due north.

Frost Hollow wash

It was off trail, and we tried to parallel the private property signs. By following this, it was very steep and with loose rocks. We had to at times jump from rock to rock to head down. One particular rocky spine was extremely slow going and those of us ahead were waiting for a while for everyone to catch up.
Once the descent tapered off a bit, we started moving along better. We headed down to a dry wash parallel with Frost Hollow Road. James and I climbed down across the wash, while much of the group crossed over on a sketchy log just down stream from us. We took a break on Frost Hollow Road for a little bit.

Frost Hollow; group photo by Shane

We made our way down hill to the right, then immediately turned left on Winchester Drive, which parallels a golf course. There was some sort of weird stone thing in front of it where we all climbed a bit. I saw it as a good group photo opportunity.

Group silliness

We continued up Winchester and walked through the parking lot of the golf course a bit; there were signs on the north side of the road in the fields saying that it was to be developed more as part of the course.

Weird cliff side bridge on the LNE grade

A short bit further down Winchester, we came to the abandoned Uhler Branch of the Lehigh and New England Railroad, which Shane also refers to as the Martins Creek Branch. I’ve seen both referred to, and always used Uhler because it was marked on USGS maps.
We turned right to begin following it to the north. It at first passes through lovely rural setting within a line of trees like so many other rail trails. To the south of where we got on it, it becomes a paved development path, which disperses on routes other than the railroad bed after a short bit.

Frutchey Hill/Sandt's Eddy trestle photo by Shane

This branch of the LNE was a later arrival than many of the other ones. I can’t remember the exact date, but Shane will certainly remember. It was sometime right around the turn of the century, either late 1890s or early 1900s. I think it was built in 1904.
Only the section between Con Agra and Forks Industrial Site is abandoned today. Those two businesses still use the trackage from either end.
We continued to the north, and came into deeper woods, and then a high cliff above the Delaware River where we still were able to get some very nice seasonal views. We paused at a strange cliff side concrete bridge where there was a rock outcropping below, with a view from it.

Trestle at Sandt's Eddy

We continued on the rail bed to the south from here until we got to the tall trestle that crosses Frutchey Hill Road at Sandt’s Eddy.
The bridge was closed off with chain link fences, but I’ve crossed it plenty of times. I believe the line was abandoned in 1969, so it’s pretty badly rotten on top now. The first time I crossed it I think was in 2003, and it was bad even then.
I went across first, after scaling the fence. Sue went down hill to cross the road, and Dan followed. There is a wooden stair case the trail takes, but even that was recently closed due to a bad washout sort of recently.
I was surprised that most of the group followed me over the bridge. Justin and I of course got across first, and then had to wait for the rest of the group to come on through.

Beyond the bridge, the railroad bed is pretty badly overgrown and not a trail. We waited a bit past the bridge for the others to catch up with us. Once together, we continued with what little light we had left to the north. Some sections of the railroad bed have been overtaken into people’s yards, while others had to be fought through. It was getting pretty tough to do it by the time we got to Lower Mud Run Road. There was a house just to the left of the rail bed at this point, and lots of barking dogs. We hurried down off of the rail bed to turn right on Lower Mud Run Road down hill.

Barr break stop

The first time I was at this point was on a hike in 2003 where my brother and I had to go down and over Mud Run where half of the railroad trestle had been removed. It was probably for clearance on the road beyond.
This time, we couldn’t go through, but rather went down hill, then turned left on Rt 611 north. We remained on the road until the now active spur came close, and followed that to the north, back across 611. This led us to our break spot, Riverside Barr and Grill. We went inside only to discover it was Wing Night. Of course, we had to sample some of these for our break.
They had boneless wings, which were delicious. We had that, and I recall also doing Four Horsemen shots because they could make them. It was a really nice stop just before our turn back point.
We got on the old LNE tracks to the north and soon passed by the former Alpha Cement Co.

Former Alpha Cement

Former Alpha Cement Co. building now used by Ardent Mills for grain storage. Switcher diesel #116 seen with grain hopper cars on track." Shane Blische photo
We made our way past the structure, beyond which was the junction with the Bangor and Portland Railroad, and later Martins Creek Branch of the Lackawanna. It’s still active today. We turned right there, and followed it out across Martins Creek, and then to the trestle over the Delaware River.
The trestle was built specifically with a walkway so that quarry workers living in Brainards New Jersey could get to their jobs at the quarry in Martins Creek.

Historic image of Martins Creek Station

There was once a station at the junction of the Lehigh and New England and Martins Creek Branch, built in 1906. This image was taken in 1955 by John Dziobko Jr.

Historic image of Martins Creek trestle

PRR Martins Creek Branch trestle bridge over the Delaware River during 1910s. The bridge was constructed in 1885 by the Pennsylvania Railroad to connect with Bangor & Portland Railroad's Martins Creek Branch. The bridge is now part of Norfolk Southern's Portland Secondary.

James in the thing

Just before the bridge, we checked out an abandoned concrete structure long the river, which I still don’t know the purpose of even though I’ve been there so many times.
Once we were across the bridge, we turned to the right on the old Bel Del Railraod heading south.
Dan got behind us somehow and ended up going the wrong way, north on the Martins Creek Branch toward Bangor. When I got him on the phone, I was able to point him back in the correct direction. He ended up going quite a ways before realizing it was the wrong way.
River Road parallels the old Bel Del rather closely for much of the way. I forget what year this section of the Bel Del (Belvidere Delaware, later Pennsylvania Railroad) Railroad was built, but I’m sure Shane remembers.

Historic Weygadt Gap image

View looking south to Wedgadt Gap along the Bel-Del, dated 1945.
Shane preferred to follow the road rather than the tracks much of the way back to Phillipsburg.
We continued along the Bel Del, from Brainards, which was once an old station stop, through woods down to Harmony Station. When we got to the bridge crossing of Harmony Station Road, Brittany ran down to her aunt’s house, just off of the tracks to use the restroom. I thought that was hilarious, as what family member in an area like this expects a visit late at night like that? I can only imagine the questions: “You’re hiking? Now???”

Historic Bel Del image

The power for the northbound zinc ore train, which is coming from N.J. Zinc Co.'s West Hazard plant is an ALCo RS3 and an ALCo C420.
We paralleled the roads that came close to the tracks through the Harmony Station area, with the ambient light from the houses all along.
Rumor has it that the small old Harmony Station is now a privately owned shed near the railroad, but we didn’t see it or recognize anything to have such an appearance along the way.

Historic postcard image of Weygadt Gap

We crossed a couple of bridges and passed by fewer houses as we approached the narrows just north of Weygadt Gap. In that area, the road came right up along the railroad tracks directly.

Historic postcard image

It always surprised me that the tracks and the pavement come so close together. If drivers aren’t careful in this area, they could very easily clip a train going by, because the cars actually do overhang the asphalt a little bit in places.

Historic Bel Del image

Another LHR train photographed in 1961 heads south on the Bel-Del.
Shane fell behind somewhere in this area, I think following the road. He took a few photos of a near mile marker off of the Bel Del, and then I guess waited up for Dan, who I remained in regular phone contact with, but did not catch up with us yet.

Historic Bel Del image

A northbound Lehigh & Hudson River Railway zinc ore train for Stirling Hill Mine in Ogdensburg, N.J. runs on the Bel-Del approaching Wedgadt Gap above Phillipsburg, taken 1969 by A W Kovacs.

Historic Bel Del image

The zinc train runs along River Rd. north of Phillipsburg on the Bel-Del, 1969.
At one point, the road went up high above the railroad, and most of us stayed below to avoid the hill. It’s a beautiful secluded section that I’ve always loved.

Historic Bel Del image

A Lehigh & Hudson River Railway loco is seen at Hudson Yard, northern Phillipsburg in 1939.
The road came back close to the tracks again just beyond the intersection with Marble Hill Road. I had been planning on going down to the river and going through the long pipe that I love, but the forecast was calling for a deluge of rain very very soon.

Train going by on River Road

It already started raining by the time a northbound train went by.
We decided to stay on the tracks going straight to get back to Union Square most quickly when the steady rain became very heavy. James was starting to feel a bit sick as we were getting pretty close. I convinced him that it was only a short distance and not really worth getting an Uber, or we could get him to some dry spot and I could pick him up because the distance was so short. Just after passing by where the tracks split, there’s the old abandoned farm house to the left, and we sought refuge on the porch for a bit. Justin I don’t think had seen this one, so it was another good one to have a look around.

Historic Bel Del image

A northbound LHR zinc train enters the south end of Hudson Yard in 1955 while track crews repair yard tracks damaged from the Great Flood of '55 which occurred in August of that year. There used to be a fifth track to the right of the train; it was swept away during the deluge.

Historic Bel Del image

PRR ALCo RSD12s and an RS11 in the middle with caboose head south through Phillpsburg. Photo from Phillipsburg Railroad Historians
The rain was just not letting up too much. We continued on to the south, and as we passed through more ambient light, this time from industries, James thankfully told me he was starting to feel a bit better. He and I walked off the right of way and into the lot at the boat launch where we were parked from the corner area soon.

LHR train in P Burg

LHR C420 diesels at Hudson Yard in 1966. From Phillipsburg Railroad Historians archives
Justin and Brittany arrived soon after at the lot. I didn’t wait up, but rather jumped in my car and sped back up River Road to see if I could find Shane and Dan to offer them a ride back to the lot.

PRR doodlebug at Phillipsburg depot. Phillipsburg

By the time I got out past Marble Hill, they had already cut across and ended up at the parking lot, so I had just missed them. As I was pulling back to Union Square I saw I think everyone in the cars pulling out and on their way back. We all got pretty soaked, but I think had an overall good time anyway. The last time I had walked that particular section was when I passed out on the active tracks, so it was good for me to have a more positive memory there to overlap that panicked awakening I’d had a couple years prior.
I never tire of the Phillipsburg and Easton area because they are such a major hub of transportation and history. Those hikes can never be boring.