Hike #1030; Warren Glen to Phillipsburg/Easton

Hike #1030; Warren Glen to Phillipsburg/Easton

4/19/17 Warren Glen to Easton with Rob Gearhardt and Patrick O'Riordan TheRed (Reardon)

Our next hike would be a point to point between Warren Glen and Phillipsburg, with a side trip to Easton at the end. I was struggling with how to handle my new work schedule mess, and for some reason I had the day or the afternoon off.
The way my schedule was to go was that I’d have to work every other full weekend from the start of the Summer season, and every fourth weekend up till then. This would put me off more random week days, and instead of day hikes on those weekends, I would be forced to run them as night hikes.

Musconetcong Gorge Nature Trail

I had to swap my days off because of a Warren Highlands Trail meeting as I recall, where we went over some of the trail issues. Rob is now free on Wednesdays, and so this worked out that he would be able to join me. A man of great empathy, he understood what I’d been going through at work, and he’s been a good friend hanging around more and helping me feel sane when all of the craziness has been going on.
We made the end point for this hike Union Square in Phillipsburg, and we would start in Warren Glen. The purpose for this was to photograph the Musconetcong Gorge dam, as well as some of the insfrastructure of the old canal and such associated with the now defunct Warren Glen paper mill.

Warren Glen paper mill

The Warren Glen paper mill was originally built by the Riegle Paper Company, which started along the Musconetcong River in 1862. The company grew to the large plant on the Delaware, then added the plants in Hughesville and this one in Warren Glen.

Historic image of the original mill

The paper company changed hands a few times, and the Warren Glen facility was the last one of the three sites to continue working. Some problems with DEP, some lawsuits, and some court caused the property to be unloaded fast, and for cheap.

The power canal

We shuttled to the Musconetcong Gorge Nature Preserve pull off parking area and started walking on the Nature Trail. This took us down hill from the parking area and then into the small ravine through which Pine Run I think it is flows. There are a few nice guide ropes and a foot bridge down in the ravine to get over Pine Run. There used to be two of them down there, but one of them had apparently washed away since the last time I was down there. This trail led us then down hill to the abandoned Warren Glen spur of the Lehigh Valley Railroad, which served the paper mills at both Warren Glen as well as Hughesville.

View from the rail bed of the power canal and dam

Where we got on the railroad bed, there used to be a bridge that carried it over a finger of the power canal. We turned right to follow it to the east above the power canal. The leaves weren’t out so we could see well to the dam in the glen.

The lake behind the dam

When we got closer to the dam, we headed down for a closer look. Rob hung back while I went down very close to the dam.
Musconetcong River Watershed Association is working with groups like Trout Unlimited to remove the dams on the Musconetcong, thus making it a healther river. The dam removals cool the overall temperature of the river making a better trout production stream, and eventually shad will be able to return up the river. Especially in the Musconetcong Gorge, the inundation behind the dam has flooded in what must have been a beautiful deep gorge. This has the potential for being one of the nicest sections of river in the state if allowed to run free.

Historic image of the Muscy Gorge Dam

The gorge dam is by far the largest dan on the entire Musconetcong River. None other comes close to it’s height. Not only are the dams unhealthy for the river, this one would be a huge liability if it breaks during a flood.

Gorge dam

Rieglesville, Finesville, Warren Glen, and Hughesville will all suffer major flooding if the dam were to break.
The plan is to remove more of the dams on the lower end of the river now to make it more natural. At this point, the Hughesville Dam gone, and the gorge dam should be the next one to go. I understand the one in Bloomsbury is going, but this one in the gorge is probably the most substantial one. Because the dam is ill fated, I wanted to get several photographs of it.Not many of them exist and I know not many others have taken photos of it either.

Gorge dam

When I was satisfied with my pictures, I headed back up, and we returned to the old railroad bed.
This was a spur of the Lehigh Valley Railroad, which finds it’s roots in the Lehigh Valley, between Easton and Allentown in the 1840s. It first branched into NJ in the early 1870s with the construction of the Easton and Amboy Railroad.

Warren Glen spur right of way

The Easton and Amboy line was to connect from the current terminus at Phillipsburg/Easton and head east to Bound Brook, NJ, then to docks in Perth Amboy. The Lehigh Valley line was known as “The Path of the Black Diamond” for it’s coal hauling, and so it made sense for it to have it’s own line to bring this product to market.
The biggest holdup for the completion of the line eastbound was the long tunnel beneath Musconetcong Mountain. That was completed in 1875.
We followed the abandoned right of way to the former main line of the Lehigh Valley Railroad (Easton and Amboy section). It’s still very active here. We jogged to the left on it for a short time, and checked out an old road overpass site on the way. We then cut to the right where the former Central Railroad of NJ connection was made, and then got on the abandonment heading west from Bloomsbury area.
This section of the CNJ was buitl about 1852 to Phillipsburg, with it’s main line extending from Elizabeth. The tracks are still in most the entire way, but the construction of Interstate 78 forced the closure of the section just west of Bloomsbury to Alpha. I remember my grandfather reading me the article out of the paper when it was formally abandoned, about 1986.
After that time, the new track was constructed to connect the former Lehigh Valley line with the CNJ. They were formerly competitors, but under Conrail, everything was different. They used “best of both worlds” when it came to the lines. For example, the CNJ is mostly abandoned up to Bloomsbury, or only used as industrial spur, while Lehigh Valley is active. In Phillipsburg, they switch places and Lehigh Valley becomes abandoned, CNJ active. This is because CNJ had the better bridge over the Delaware. Once on the other side, CNJ is abandoned soon again, while LV remains active.

Fenced bridge with deck removed

The tracks for the CNJ were pretty badly overgrown, but we fought through it pretty well. It wasn’t long and we were crossing the Warren Glen road. There is an historic marker there about the railroad, which is nice.
On the other side, it was easy enough to continue to walk the right of way. The only unnerving part was that we could hear someone shooting, and we just kept getting closer to them. It was quite a relief when we were walking on and the gun shot sounds got quieter.
We crossed a farm access road followed by Ravine Road on a very high fill which crosses Pohatcong Creek.
Soon, we came to a private lane overpass where all decking had been removed from the beams of a bridge, and chain link fences had been put up on either side to stop people from trying ot cross. Fortunately, that did not stop us. We didn’t cross, but we did go down to the bottom and climb up the other side.

CNJ line near Still Valley

We crossed one more farm crossing up ahead. A guy went by in a pickup truck and clearly saw us. I was slightly concerned. I’m sure he was too, because no one tries to walk this railroad bed. I was concerned because the rail bed was easily passable by truck for a while, but we were soon back into obscure lands and I felt better.
The area, known as Still Valley, has lots of beautiful historic homes on farmsteads. It’s one of those back woods sections of southern Warren County though, where there’s certainly a degree of lawlessness. We didn’t want to cause any problem.
Soon, we passed through a cut and emerged at a farm crossing very close to Interstate 78. The highway bisected the old railroad line, and the rails were cut just as we approached. The main reason the line was abandoned was because it would have crossed 78 basically at grade.
We turned to the left through open fields and made our way to the former Lehigh Valley Railroad main line, which was still rather closely parallel, and used it’s bridge to get across to the other side of 78. Once on the other side, we descended steeply from the high fill and into the field below. We crossed the field to regain the old CNJ right of way.
The tracks started back up again, and there was a good clear path heavily used by ATVs along the side of it.

Vulcanite quarry

I watched my GPS map to see when we were getting to the quarry at Vulcanite area, near Alpha. When I saw we were close, we followed a side ATV path which took us up hill a bit and to the southeast rim of the old quarry. I thought there was a perimeter pathway around the whole thing, but we could see that ATVs had no longer been traversing the entire thing. It was just kind of a turn around at a party spot that we found, so we had to go back the way we came to the railroad bed after checking out the quarry. The path along the tracks remained pretty clear going west.

CNJ line in Alpha

We spotted at one point some concrete ruins off to the left of the path. We crossed the tracks to check it out, and it almost looked like one of the little unloading trestles or something. It’s hard to say exactly what it might have been today.

CNJ in Alpha

We started getting nearer to houses as we got closer to the town of Alpha, which is basically just like an extension of Phillipsburg today, although they are municipally different.
The path emerged at a farm access off of Industrial Road. Beyond, the tracks were totally overgrown, so we were forced to turn right here. We walked across the back lots of the industrial businesses following closely to the tracks, which were often very visible in the weeds along the back. We did have to come out to Industrial Road to the corner of New Brunswick Ave due to inaccessibility.

Old barn in Alpha

Across and near Edge Road, there was a collection of farm buildings, and in particular one beautiful large farm barn with many holes through the roof. It’s a shame to see such amazing agricultural historic buildings disappearing like they are. With those holes in the roof, that building might not withstand another season.
We turned left from New Brunswick Ave onto 7th Ave and crossed the old CNJ line again.
We turned left from 7th onto Olive Street which at first paralleled the tracks. We went on Olive Street to 5th Avenue, turned right, then left on Williams Street.

The tracks in Alpha

Williams took us out to 3rd Street, which is Route 519. We turned right here and headed down hill to where the CNJ used to cross on a bridge that has since been removed. Actually, it was removed a very long time ago, because on my first hike with the group in this section, in 2001, it was already gone and very overgrown.
Just beyond the former bridge site, there is a Quick Chek on the corner of Route 122. We stopped here for a little break and to get a bite to eat as I recall, and to wait for Red Sean who was on his way and very close to our location.
I don’t recall what I had to eat. I think it was just some quick thing.

Hamming it up

While we were waiting for Sean, it was rather interesting that a guy just showed up wearing a full backpacker’s pack. That’s not something you see every day, not on Rt 519 in Alpha or Phillipsburg.
I asked him where he was off to and where he was coming from. He told us that he started all the way down I think it was in Elkton Maryland! Well, I knew exactly where that was from hiking it myself, and wondered if he had taken the Mason Dixon Trail to the Brandywine Trail. It was rather surprising that he hadn’t. In fact, he was walking pretty much all roads. I had no clue there was good dedicated trail between these points he could have used.
I gave him some directions. He was heading out for the night toward High Bridge, where he was to catch a train to head back home. I let him know some of the better routes for walking rather than going Rt 173 the entire time. Hopefully he decided to follow my suggestions.

The rail line near Crestwood Park

Sean was close, but not close enough so Rob and I headed out. We got to the lot parallel with the rail line, and then walked right through it parallel on the north side. There were no signs saying to stay out, and in fact it was like a driveway road connecting 519 with Sinclair Ave, with two homes on it.
We passed the business and then the two houses. The tracks were just in the weeds to the left of us. We opted to continue on along the edge of an open field, and then at the end cut into the woods to the tracks. We crossed over them directly and ended up in Crestwood Park.

Green's Bridge area view

We passed along the north edge of Crestwood Park, and at the other side we entered the woods along the tracks on a good ATV trail.
The path was slightly overgrown here and there, but we were pretty easily able to follow it for a while.
It was much more closely parallel with the Lehigh Valley line now, and a train went by as we walked. I counted over 100 cars on it, some of them stacked double high. Every single rail car going by I pictured as at least one tractor trailer on the highways, two if we look at the double stacked ones. This is why rail service is so important. How something so abundantly clear cannot be realized by government agencies is disgraceful.

Green's Bridge

It wasn’t very much longer when it was necessary to come out to the Lehigh Valley tracks again. The CNJ line goes onto Green’s Bridge, but it’s really horribly overgrown. It’s been overgrown my entire life, but not this bad. Rob went to check it out and even compared to what we’d been through, he said it was rather impenetrable.

Red Sean's car going by

Regardless, we wanted to wait up for Red Sean who was meeting up. I stood on the abutment of the original Lehigh Valley/Easton and Amboy bridge site, which is next to the current one, and waited to see Sean’s car, named Sanguinius, go by.
The abutment was crumbling rather badly and I figure it will have to be remediated before it causes further problems to the road below.
Soon, I saw Sean go beneath, and I directed him to a nearby development to park in.
We soon saw him coming down the road, and directed him to come up and join us on the railroad lines heading to the west.

LV bridge

Just beyond the bridges, the two lines switch. When Norfolk Southern took over both the LV and CNJ lines, they used best of both worlds, and here they abandoned the LV line, and kept the CNJ active. We then switched soon to turn left onto the old Lehigh Valley bed.
It was a good thing we didn’t try to cross the stone former CNJ bridge, because the decing had been entirely removed over the next bridge on the other side, and there were big chain link fences blocking both sides.
The Lehigh Valley line was more overgrown than I remember it being in the past, but we got through. We went through some weeds and followed the line over an underpass.

Former CNJ bridge near Green's Bridge

On the other side, we passed through a lovely deep cut. We emerged and the line was then up on an extremely high fill. The weeds got a bit worse there, but we bullied on through. It wasn’t dark yet, so we were set to go.
Soon, we came to the deck girder bridge crossing over South Main Street. It’s only railroad ties with holes between, so the other two opted not to cross it while I just traipsed across it.
They climbed up on the other side to continue with me on the old railroad bed heading to the west. After a section of fill, we crossed another sketchy undecked bridge.

LV cut

We didn’t go a whole lot further, I think just to the next grade crossing, and then we went to the left to the tree line. A swath of land used to be the Kent Yard of the Lehigh Valley Railroad’s connection with the Bel Del Railroad, as well as the route of the Morris Canal. A small foot path led us into these woods and onto an old rail bed where we turned to the right. We followed this for a ways, and then went left around a chain link fence area to the formal existing park area. We walked around and through a hole to pick up a paved path following on or very close to the historic route of the Morris Canal.

Mt Parnassus Cut

The street and the canal rather closely paralleled one another through here, past the Andover Morris School before heading into those woods. It’s a pretty good section of the greenway there.
We headed on to the site of the toll house and the base of Mount Parnassus where the former Lehigh Valley line put a cut through to connect with the yards.

Historic P Burg postcard image

Because we had enough sunlight remaining, I had to show the guys Mt. Parnassus. It’s really an amazing site to see, and even more so when you see what the place once looked like. Unfortunately, I had none of the historic photos handy at the time.
We climbed steeply up from the cut to the first view, over the Delaware River and Morgan Hill in Pennsylvania. We then made our way around to the view of the former Morris Canal basin, top of Inclined Plane 11 West, and the rail bridges.

Historic view from Parnassus

When the canal was abandoned in 1924, and dismantled by 1927, the pool at the top of the plane was turned into a land fill for many years.

Scene after canal abandonment

Today, that site is occupied by a skate park and looks very little like it did in the past. So many trees at the site make the rail bridges barely even visible.

Morris Canal Basin today

We headed back down Mt. Parnassus the tougher way, the steep route right down over the rocks. I love swinging off the branch and the rocks near to the bottom, and it’s really a more interesting way to go.
Once at the bottom, we headed back around the fence and out toward the former Inclined Plane 11W. We crossed the Bel Del tracks, and then visited the outlet arch associated with the canal.
We took a break here, then made our way back out to Union Square in Phillipsburg. This took us beneath the former LV and CNJ tracks on the Delaware bridges, and past the Lehigh and Hudson line bridge.

Historic Phillipsburg postcard image

Once we reached Union Square, we discussed getting a bite to eat. I don’t know if we were sure right away, but we suggested we cross over to Easton and try one of the places there. I’m not sure what time it was or what other options were discussed, but as I recall we revisited Mother’s bar and grill, which makes good burgers. We were pretty hungry. It was only just off the Easton Circle, so it was only a few blocks walking.
We had a seat and really enjoyed the food; the only problem was that there was a private party going on soon, and we needed to get our food finished before it started. They thankfully were able to serve us before that anyway.
Once finished, we returned to the Northampton Street Bridge to get back across to the lot near the boat launch.
It really turned out to be a nice day and night to be out, and it really helped me deal with my stress.
Things were looking up. Even with a crummy work schedule, there was some hope that the upcoming season could be enjoyable.