Hike #1149; Northampton to South Bethlehem

Hike #1149; Northampton to South Bethlehem

8/11/18 Northampton to South Bethlehem with Daniel Trump, Jennifer Tull and Tanya M.

This next hike would be another point to point trip to end at Musikfest. It’d be another night hike, and this one we would actually end up walking through the fest for.

Clouds break

It started with the typical everyone being afraid of the weather deal. The weather had been rainy every day, for maybe fifteen minutes at a time, and then nice.

Ironton Trail

The hike I put together for this one would include some new stuff, but also a rehash of a Musikfest hike I had done in August of 2006. It was the first really great one.
It poured rain while I was at work, and then while I was driving to Pennsylvania, the clouds broke and the sky was blue again.
They darkend again, and we ended up having to walk in some rain at the very start, but it was short and ended fast.
Where I parked happened to be near Carolyn Gockel Gordon’s car. She was hanging out at Musikfest, not hiking, and so Jenny decided to message her something. I went to hump the car or something and made some comment about leaving the gas cap on.

Historic image of the rock cut outside of Northampton

I met the group at the Iqor lot, and we shuttled to the start point in Northampton. It started raining again right at the start so there was no avoiding some of it.

The rock cut today, changed due to development

We parked over near Newhardt’s Pharmacy where my late friend Kyle Zalinsky used to work. We then started walking from there on the Ironton Rail Trail.

Nor Bath Trail cut

The trail had been developed to connect into town with the D&L Trail, which has a parking area right there. It now follows parallel with the active tracks on the side, and keeps close to the roads. We started walking in the rain, and Dan brought no poncho or umbrella or anything, so he got pretty wet at the start.
We made our way along Clear Springs Drive along the parallel path to the tracks, then crossed parallel with the intersection with Horwith Drive and started walking up hill on the paved trail.

Rail cut

The Nor Bath Trail follows closely the route of the Northampton and Bath Railroad, but deviates where it is still active in this area. We managed to follow the trail up hill through the rain, and then out to a parking lot and where it parallels Hollow Lane through a development. There are signs along the way pointing out historic sites that used to be along the way. In the development was the former site of Plant #5 one sign had said.
We continued across Phyllese Drive and went into a deep rail cut, finally away from homes.

Nor Bath Trail cut

The rain also started letting up. I was able to put my umbrella away for a bit. It started back up again briefly, but I didn’t have to have the umbrella open for long.
We passed connecting paths and then crossed Savage Road, followed by a brook below called Dry Run.
We skirted a development on the south side of us, and passed a connecting trail that leads south to Wayne Grube Memorial Park. One of these days I’ll include that trail into a hike, because it looks like it may be extended.

Nor Bath Trail

We crossed over Bullshead Road and continued through more pleasant farm lands on both sides of the trail.
I related stories to everyone about the previous times I’d hiked this route, and the mix drink I’d made up that everyone loved back in 2006.
We continued across Weaversville Road, and then paralleled the Bicentennial Park on the right side. We crossed over busy Airport Road, which I couldn’t believe had any kind of crosswalk whatsoever and continued to Jacksonville Road.

Road overpass

At this point, we left the rail trail. It does continue up to closer to Bath, but this point is a bit further north than I wanted to be. By following Jacksonville Road, we could get to the former Bethlehem Branch of the Lehigh and New England Railroad and follow it south, which was what I’d done with Celeste and Justin the last time we hiked it.
We followed the road east, and were able to walk a short bit of the way through Jacksonville Park. We skirted farm lands and soon reached the LNE railroad track and turned right.

Wetlands on the development paths

The tracks are still active in this area, but don’t see fast and frequent traffic. They follow very closely the Monocacy Creek, which was flowing heavy due to all of the flooding, but it was still good enough that I was able to go and lay in it for a few minutes and feel better. It was still quite humid.
I pointed out on the way where the junction was with the branch line that went from this one out toward Catasauqua. We then continued over Monocacy Creek on a bridge and emerged on Beth Bath Pike.

Farm overpass

From here, like the last time out, my plan was to turn right and follow the road to the south, and then use development trails. I would have remained on the railroad, but it travels way far to the east and it would be more direct to use these other paths, then return to the railroad later.
We walked along Beth Bath Pike, which has a wide grassy swath to the right side much of the time, but it was still a longer than I’d like road walk.

Nor Bath Trail

We passed a couple of old farms, and when we got to the newer developments, I noted a path sort of mowed down behind a buffer of trees along the north side. It wa a gamble, but it looked like we could rather easily walk through without a problem. Dan was following on aerial images and immediately figured out what I was up to; there was an opening in the development where no house had been built, and we should be able to walk from the path out to the development a short distance from where we get on the trail system.

Field views

The path was not an official trail by any means, and it looked like a private land owner might be maintaining the entire thing. Regardless, it was easy enough to walk through on.

Nor Bath Trail

As we reached the point where we wanted to turn off, it was starting to get to where some sections were overgrown. We pushed on through, but when we got to where the house was missing, where we thought we would be able to turn off and get on Harriett Lane south, there were two new houses built. Since it was kind of crummy out, we fortunately got away with walking between the homes and then south on Harriett Lane without problems.

Nor Bath Trail

We followed the road to the south to the intersection with Hanoverville Road. I turned to the left after crossing the road and skirted a retention pond as to get off of the pavement. The paved trail started just on the other side anyway, and we climbed to it.
The trail continued to the east and then south with a small waterway to the north side of it. In the middle, it was designated as “Crawford Park” from what I can find on line. The path took us all the way down to the bottom of the park and Crawford Drive.

Old foundations along 512

We turned left at the end, and followed Crawford Drive to the intersection with Southland Drive and turned right. It wasn’t far on this before we got to another paved trail that leads off to the west. We followed this below town house developments and above regular houses to where it crosses the little stream the trail had followed previously. Once on the other side, we turned to the left through open field and walked parallel with the brook as best we could without getting our feet completely soaked.

Inspirational billboards

There was a paved path to the west of us in this section that we could easily have followed, but we opted to stay closer to the water anyway. We continued south.

The informal development path

We tried to stay following a line of planted trees because the root system was higher and it kept our feet more dry. We skirted the rears of homes and then came out behind some trees to another section of paved trail at the cul de sac of Clearview Lane.
We got on the paved path and followed it to the south, which lead to Stoke Park Road. I had thought to continue straight across into a grassy area, but it had been so wet that I instead figured we could just do an alternate route with a little bit more road walking.

Crawford Park

We walked only a short bit on this road, and then turned to the left on Rainbow Drive, and then immediately right on Briarstone Road. At the end of the road was a gate we could pass.

Development path

Tanya decided she was going to cut out early. She didn’t have the right shoes, but she handled everything pretty well anyway. She had some friends hanging out at Musikfest, and so she was going to try to connect with them and use Uber to get out. She likes the long distances, so hopefully we’ll see her again.
The rest of us continued on to the left, and when the access road turned away we continued to walk directly behind apartments.

Tree line wetlands

We walked around a sort of club house building through the grass on the west side of the little apartment complex, and came out on Jacksonville Road. We turned left to follow the road under the underpass beneath Route 22, and then soon turned left on Blair Road into another development.
This was pretty much the crummiest road walk section of the hike, but wasn’t all that bad. We walked out to the intersection with Kenwick Road. Along the way, there was a house under construction we went in to and looked around.

Tree line wetlands

We followed Kenwick to the south, and then turned left on Macada Road. We followed this to a right turn on Wedgewood Road, followed by another right turn on Cross Creek Road. This took us out to Bridle Path Road. We went directly across this and into some sort of Christian Academy property, and skirted field and homes on the right.
We continued to the back of this property and then turned to the right. There was a house along the way that might have been a caretaker’s house, but no one bothered us.

Wetlands

We turned left, parallel with the houses beyond the Christian property, and then headed south to a grassy area on the southeast side of the development. Here, it was only a quick jump through some weeds into the lands of the Bethlehem Golf Club.
I love hiking golf courses in the dark. Our timing worked out just right. There was really no daylight left, just as we reached the golf course. We started walking it to the south, and could use the golf cart paths to a great degree. We soon came upon a large party tent, but no one there.

Development path

We went under the tent, and there was a bar and such. All they had was water and Sprite, unfortunately. Their kegs had already been kicked, but at least we tried.
We continued a bit to the south, but we thought we heard and saw movement. We cut far to the right, up hill from the tent to stay away from people in the club house or where ever. We then headed south through the course, which had some ambient light.

Sunset

We ended up walking out to Illicks Mill Road and turned to the left on it. If I had been thinking more clearly, we would have just crossed the road directly and continued through golf course out to the next park and gotten on the Monocacy Creek Greenway from there. I didn’t think of that though.
We followed the road past the local play house, and the people greeted us very friendly. We then continued briefly down hill to Illick’s Mill, which was where I had first seen Chad Stokes and State Radio.

When we mat Chad Stokes the first time at River Fusion for Illick's Mill

There was a benefit called River Fusion to save Illick’s Mill, and Chad Stokes and the bands with whom he is involved do a lot of community outreach for a large assortment public benefits. It’s really cool that the place is saved now. In fact, AMC has their meetings there now.
We turned right along the Monocacy Creek, on Monocacy Creek Trail. It was really muddy and I ended up falling in there at least once. There are tons of informal trails through those woods, and we somehow got away form the official one we were supposed to be following. We meandered through a bit and eventually just decided to get on the old Lehigh and New England Bethlehem Branch again and follow the tracks.

hahahah

We were able to get back on the trail again easily at Elizabeth Ave, where it skirts the Burnside Plantation, a living historic farm land. We followed the path under Willows and headed from the end into the woods. People were out up there, but fortunately didn’t stop us.

Carriage thing

We continued through the woods, and the sound of the Monocacy Creek was pretty strong. We crossed over a little repurposed railroad bridge after crossing another abandoned Lehigh and New England branch, then ascended to follow a long bit of board walks out to Union Blvd.
The board walks were insanely slippery this time, but nothing there was flooded. When we started the hike, Musikfest was shut down due to weather temporarily. Down along the creek, it can flood pretty badly.

"Start Making Sense" at Musikfest

We walked through Musikfest parallel with the Monocacy Creek, and we passed by a tent where music was playing. We had a look in, and it was a really good Talking Heads tribute band called “Start Making Sense”. We caught the end portion of their set before moving on.

Old CNJ station

We made our way down toward the old Jersey Central station, and there was another band that wasn’t quite as good playing there. Distorted sound. The station building looked amazing all lit up however.

Historic postcard of Lock 42, aqueduct, and CNJ station

We stopped here briefly, and then continued on the tracks behind it. The CNJ is abandoned beyond the station and becomes overgrown, but we turned off to the right and crossed the foot bridge over the Lehigh Canal, at Monocacy Creek Aqueduct. Usually, I’d stop and swim here, but with all of the flooding the creek that feeds it was pretty gross this far down stream.

Steel stacks

The aqueduct and one of the locks were together at this point, at Lock #42. We headed down the canal to the east from here, and continued in the dark, with the occasional view of the lit up Bethlehem Steel stacks to the right of us.
We made our way to the Minsi Trail Bridge, which has steps to the top we could climb dirctly from the towpath in order to cross over.

Bethlehem Steel and the Lehigh from Minsi Trail Bridge

We made our way across and turned left, and it wasn’t all that long before we got to the Iqor lot area. I had a look at the machines around again to see if there was anything I could mess with, but there wasn’t really.
Dan drove me back to my car to finish off another really fun and interesting night hike.