Hike #1160; Phillipsburg Area Loop

Hike #1160; Phillipsburg Area Loop

9/15/18 Phillipsburg Loop with Jack Lowry, Sarah Jones, Ellie Zabeth, James Quinn, Kenneth Lidman, Alyssa Lidman, Nir ?, and ?

This hike would not quite turn out what I was anticipating it to be, but it ended up being a nice time, segmented by the event, but still good.

Steps at Walters Park

The premise of this one was Warren Land Preservation Day. This is an event that happens every year, and started at White Lake Natural Resource Area.
Every year lately, Director Corey Tierney has been trying to move the event around to different county owned or sponsored sites, which are either our parks, affiliated with our parks, or have received money from places such as the Warren County Municipal and Charitable Conservancy Trust.
I try to lead a hike fitting into the event every year, and so for Phillipsburg I’m very familiar with a lot of it.
Things didn’t come together for everything because I had wanted to have a then and now presentation on my lap top, but there was no electricity available to really pull it off. I decided last minute not to have a table display because there was really no point. Metrotrails doesn’t have literature to pass out now.

LV underpass

I arrived slightly late, and Corey messaged me that there were already people there waiting for me.
The way I set the hike up was that I would do a four or five mile morning hike and history talk about Phillipsburg within proximity of the event. I would then do a night hike starting around three in the afternoon to end up at other points.
The original plan was to have the night hike end on Scotts Mountain, then we changed it to maybe Easton, and then instead of all of that I decided to make it a roughly ten or eleven mile loop, with the five being in the morning.
There were two new ladies at the meet point, at the event, which was located at the historic Roseberry House.

Morris Canal Greenway blockage

I started chatting with John Trontis and others who were there. Every time we were just about ready to head out, I started talking to either him or someone, or someone had to run and use the restroom.
The two ladies who came out wouldn’t be regulars in the group I don’t think. They only came because it was something shorter and seeing stuff that’s local. Unfortunately, one of them already removed herself from the Metrotrails meetup group, so I feel bad that she must not have liked it at all. I though I gave a pretty good history and showed off some pretty cool stuff.
We started walking down Warren Street from the event, and passed under the old Lackawanna Railroad, which before that was the Morris and Essex Railroad. I gave a little of the history of that. We then headed up Lynn Road into Walters Park, which has a loop around it. We kept to the right a bit, and then continued to the west side of the park. We then turned south through the grass.

Old road parallel with the canal at sewage treatment area

We continued around Walters Park until there was a paved path heading down hill out of the park toward Richard Road. We were parallel with the active tracks of the former Central Railroad of New Jersey before this, and I noticed a set of concrete steps that went down to the tracks. There was once a public path to the town out that way as well as to Richard Road, but it’s no longer legal to walk across the tracks at grade.
We continued right off of the path and onto Center Street where we passed beneath both the former Jersey Central line as well as former Lehigh Valley Railroad.

Abandoned road to Delaware Heights

When Conrail took over for these around 1976, they used the best of both worlds. The former competitors were now under the same umbrella and maintaining both sets of tracks going the same places made no sense. To the east of Phillipsburg, the Jersey Central is more abandoned, while the former Lehigh Valley line is active.
When the lines both get to Alpha, they switch and the Lehigh Valley line is abandoned. This was because the Central Railroad of New Jersey had the better bridge across the Delaware River.

Old road to Delaware Heights

We passed beneath the handsome stone culvert and then headed out to South Main Street. We turned onto Morris Canal Way, which is a road built in the prism of the old canal near Andover-Morris School, next to the former Andover Ironworks. There is a rather new plaque there that tells what the remaining piece of concrete is, the only part still remaining of the ironworks.
The official Morris Canal Greenway had been opened through the waste water facility from here, but didn’t have a real gate that looks welcoming out to Morris Canal Way installed yet.

At Green's Bridge

I led everyone around he metal wire and then onto the somewhat new crushed stone aggregate pathway that leads down toward the edge of the Lopatcong Creek. Just before getting there, I pointed out an important historic site, the only place where there is still a Morris Canal aqueduct that was built to carry the canal over a public road.
The road used to go down to the Delaware River, and passed through the waste water facility property, but has been abandoned forever. Rather than demolish the culvert, it was just filled in, and the top of the archway can still be seen.

Double culverts for Lehigh Valley Railroad and Jersey Central

I had to move some weeds out of the way to show off the structure, but everyone was pretty interested. From there, we continued on the greenway as it made it’s way out closer to South Main Street again. There is a well delineated path through that area now.

LV and CNJ culverts

Rather than continue on the greenway direct, we turned to the right at the water company’s bridge, and then left onto an abandoned road that used to continue up above the Lopatcong Creek and Morris Canal to the Delaware Heights community area, at an intersection with Carpentersville Road. This is supposed to become part of a loop trail eventually, but needs some work because it’s washing out in areas, and it’s also getting a bit overgrown at the easternmost section. It is a cool section because you can see right down to the former canal and creek below along it.

CNJ and LV culverts

We made our way up to the road, then turned to the left along Carpentersvill Road, which took us beneath both former Jersey Central and Lehigh Valley Railroads. The area is known as Green’s Bridge.
The Jersey Central crosses on an historic stone viaduct, which is quite amazing. The Lehigh Valley crosses on a deck girder bridge, which replaced and earlier deck truss bridge right next to it. I pointed out the remains of piers and abutments to where the earlier bridge was, and explained that they would keep the old bridge in service until the new one was complete as not to have an interruption in rail service.

The old Morris Canal aqueduct that carried a street beneath it in Phillipsburg, seen without vegetation around it.

From here, we turned to the left and passed beneath the railroad bridges again along South Main Street. I went down behind the piers so that I could show everyone the remains of the towpath base where the Morris Canal and Lopatcong Creek were one. We can also see the wear marks from a century of ropes against the piers had made.

Industry on Warren Street, no longer in use

From there, we continued on South Main out to where the new canal greenway section starts, and followed that back to where we had initially turned off. When the greenway went back toward the waste water place and the aqueduct, we kept ahead on South Main Street. We then turned to the right on Purcel Street and headed slightly up hill beneath the two stone culverts, for the Lehigh Valley Railroad followed by the Central Railroad of New Jersey again. We continued up hill past Flynn’s, then turned left on Wilbur Ave for a bit. I forget which exact streets we continued on, but we came out over by Richards, Cahill, and Warren Streets, and followed them back to the north.

Roseberry House

We passed back under the former Morris and Essex line, and then reached the Roseberry House and Land Preservation Day event. The house really looks fantastic these days.

Land Preservation Day

I was on the Municipal and Charitable Conservancy Trust Fund Grant Commission when one of the rounds of funding came along for the house, which is a great project.
The Georgian Style cut stone farm house was built between 1765 and 1783 it was believed. There are actually a lot of conflicting stories regarding when and who built the house. Most say the house was the oldest in Phillipsburg, and that it was built by or for John Roseberry or Joseph Roseberry, his son. The property was owned by a man name Kinney prior to that, and his financial affairs were no good, so wouldn’t have been able to build such a large and stately house.

Roseberry House

One report claims that the smaller kitchen section was actually the oldest section, and that the rest of the house was added on after that. Maybe a place to live during the construction of the main part of the house.
The story I got when I first toured it was that it was built by a richer family, and that a poorer farming family shouldn’t have had the money to have had such a house, and so they came into ownership of it after some other incident. I really don’t know what the case is. They also claim that Roseberry was an English name, but then later found evidence that they were German, changed from Rosenburger.

In the Roseberry House

Regardless, it’s a great historic site. I wandered around the event and talked to people from parks, from historic groups, and from towns. I had a nice discussion with Mayor Steve Ellis about a lot of the crazy negative press he’s been getting constantly. I asked him “When do you get redemption? All of this stuff gets proven false and then who reports on that? Who fixes Steve Ellis’s reputation?”
He had an immediate response. He said “It’s simple. It’s in the deeds. The deeds speak for themselves.”
I worked for Steve Ellis for a time at state park service and saw him in some extremely difficult situations in terms of personnel and politics, and he always handled the situations admirably, gracefully, and respectfully. It’s horrible to see what he’s going through.

Land Preservation Day

After I said goodbye to Steve, one of the guys from the town historical society came up and thanked me for bringing that stuff up. A lot of people in town are disgusted with what’s been going on, and it really is quite sad.
I went over to the Roseberry House and did a walk through with Michael J. Margulies, friend and historic preservation architect of countless places. We had a long discussion about taking chances, likening it to jumping off a cliff, and moving forward with different plans.
I really would love to take Metrotrails to another level, but it’s quite frightening. It’s easy to admit that I have comfort in where I am. My job isn’t perfect, but it pays the bills and at least it’s a park job.
Could I do better?
Yes. Of course. There is no question about that. I could throw my hat in with every other non profit organization and probably make a good run of it. I could probably manage something like that better than average. But it would take a lot of work. It probably would lose some enjoyment. There is the potential that it could detract from the dynamic that’s already in place. If Metrotrails never gets bigger than state level non profit, it’s by no means a failure. If it were just the hikes and that’s it, basically a club, it’s still a great and very enjoyable thing. I’m already winning at my own game, with no opponents, and no losers. I feel as though I operate on the fringe of everything in life, and while that can feel at times solitary or disconnected, I’m also very content to be there.
Michael and I had a much longer discussion than anticipated, going into things as deep as religion, story telling, celebration, and recollection. We talked about human capacity to think in certain ways, and how painful it can be when someone interjects something at a shallower depth to a conversation. We questioned whether that just natural capacity or if it has more to do with stimuli from childhood, such as television or other media force-feeding. I’ve definitely got to attend more of his Frideas events.

Land Preservation Day

I hung out at the event for a while, and just waited for the next hikers to show up. Jack, Sarah, and James were all up for the afternoon section of it. Alyssa had interest in it initially, but didn’t show up for that part.
I changed my original plans to go to Harmony Township or Easton to being just another loop around Phillipsburg to the north side. Once we were all together, we started walking from the event heading up hill, parallel with Warren Street, and then out Marshall Street and some other back streets toward Rt 22. I stopped in Nortons to get myself something to drink, and we continued north from there.
We headed north on Roseberry Street once we got across Rt 22 to near the new High School entrance, turned right on Belvidere Road, then left on Grandview Ave with hopes of cutting up to the ball fields beyond. Unfortunately, there was no way, and we had to head back out to Belvidere Road and go in through the regular entrance to do it.
We made our way to the red blazed Lopatcong Connector Trail I had first scouted out with Dave Dech several years before, then cut open with Jillane after work one day. Warren County got the township to take care of the trail up the hill a bit, and I stopped in to see them and asked them if they could start mowing just a bit further, and they agreed. So it’s been well maintained ever since up to that point.

WC Planner Dave Dech scouting the Lopatcong Connector Trail with me

It’s really amazing to see that the young woods have grown so huge since we first started putting the trail system together around 2012 or 2013. The trees have grown incredibly.

Grown blazes

I first blazed the trail through the section in 2013, and now the trees have grown to over double the size. With that, the blazes have also doubled or more in width. I used two inch foam brushes on it, and holding one of those brushes up to it now shows just how crazy the growth has been.
Mind you, many of these trees are invasive Tree of Heaven (ailanthus altissima) which are horrible and grow super fast. These trees are also the habitat for the invasive Lanternflies that we’re having problems with these days, so we need to try to eradicate them more than ever.
When we got to the tree line on the trail, there are just too many blow downs to take care of at once. It really requires a chain saw, and I’m happy to do the work, if they’ll just provide me with the chain saw from somewhere. We had to climb over lots of blow downs in the area parallel with the new Phillipsburg high school.
Eventually we reached the Warren Highlands Trail and turned to the left. In this section, we crossed over the wash out area created by the development of the new high school.

Washout on Warren Highlands Trail

When I put the trail in, it was above where the washout got too bad. I had to keep moving it up hill more because it washes out so bad. Now it’s to the point where I can’t really move it up any more and should be re-mediated.
We headed past this site through the Rhododendron trees, and up past the start of the old iron mining area. We checked out the view point, then got on the orange blazed Iron Mine Trail. This took us past some of the old mining pits, and then down hill to the old Fulmer Iron Mine. This is always a favorite spot for everyone on Marble Hill. On a hot day it remains really cool.

Jack in the Fulmer Mine

We took a nice break at the site for a bit. From there, we headed down hill on the Iron Mine Trail to where it rejoined the Warren Highlands Trail. My shorts were driving me crazy.
I had brought this pair of grey ones that were really soft when I got them, so no chaffing, but then after putting them through the dryer, the insides where the knitting was got really hard and painful after a time. I held back, took them off, then put them back on inside out, which took care of the problem for the most part.
We followed the trail out to where it comes very close to River Road, then cut down across, and then across the old Bel Del Railroad tracks to get down to the Delaware River in the Phillipsburg Riverview Association property. It was a nice day to be out there.

Fulmer Mine

I headed over to the water and went for a swim. The current was strong further out, but the close area was nice. Not everyone wanted to get in, but I recall Elizabeth did. I don’t think that Jack and Sarah did. Maybe they did. I don’t recall!
From there, we headed up stream along the Delaware to the giant concrete pipe that goes under the industrial site and out to North Main Street/River Road. Sarah must have gone a different way, because we thought she went down river, but we didn’t see her along the path out that way. Jack, Elizabeth, and I climbed over the big wall and headed through the pipe.
Once we were out on the other side, Jack got a hold of Sarah, and she was already at Union Square, so we just had to walk over there. We followed the trail route on the road for a bit, and then got over across the railroad tracks to get to the big lot along the river.
This was the point of more problems for Mayor Ellis too, because apparently they’ve been charging tolls to park there when it was actually owned by DOT, and they weren’t legally allowed to collect tolls. We headed through the lot and over to the hot dog place for some food and a break, which was nice.
We headed from here across the highway and past where the Bel Del Railroad station used to be. There’s now a building that is made to look like a station in it’s place.

Atop the Morris Canal Arch

We continued down the former Bel Del tracks to where the Morris Canal used to have it’s western terminus at the Delaware River, with a giant stone archway that protected Inclined Plane #11 West from the flooding of the river. We walked down and out onto the arch to get the view of the river and the other bridges.
From that point, we continued along the tracks to where the canal used to cross under on Plane 11, and then passed through Delaware River Park where the boat basin used to be. I pointed out some historic sites, and asked the group if they wanted to go up Mount Parnassus, but no one was really into it at this time. We continued where the canal used to go, then turned onto the paved path that continued to the south side of the park. We then cut through the opening in the chain link fence, past the Bel Del tracks and back into the woods to the left. All of this area was full of railroad development at one time, and the upper end was where the Lehigh Valley Railroad made it’s connection to the Bel Del, known as the Kent Yard. We headed up to that by way of a weird route of ATV trails, a couple of which I’d never used before, or at least hadn’t used on one of these hikes. There are so many of them all over the place in that area of woods, it’s amazing.

Kent Yard

We emerged onto one of the track sites and followed it to the active Bel Del tracks again. We followed those out to the access point near the waste water plant, and we got on the Morris Canal Greenway again. I showed everyone the same aqueduct remnant I showed the group in the morning along the greenway, and then we headed out toward the Roseberry House again. This time, we headed out to Limekiln Road and followed it up to Center Street where we cut back into Walters Park. We went across the ball field and over to their stage area where we took a final little break before waling the little distance down and back over to the Roseberry House to finish the hike.
This was overall just like a relaxing walk for me. I enjoyed it, but with all of the familiarity and easy, relaxed walking, it felt more like I spent the day doing a relaxing stroll (except for the chaffing part). Doing things like this now and again are definitely therapeutic.