Hike #822; Camden to Cinnaminson

Hike #822; Camden to Cinnaminson

1/11/15 Camden to Cinnaminson with Jillane Becker, David "Captain Soup" Campbell, Jim "Uncle Soup" Campbell, Jennifer Berndt, Erika Daniels, Justin Gurbisz, James Quinn, Sarah Jones, Stephen Argentina, Lyz Hagenbuch, Ric Giantisco, Mike Heaney, Michele Valerio, Serious Sean Dougherty, Sarah Carmona, Wilma Vargas, John Huber, Dan Lurie, Lara Nycum, Evelyn ?, ?, Susie Duncan, and Lance Beden.

Group shot along the Delaware north of Camden

Our next hike would be yet another in the NJ Perimeter series. Two major sections remain of the perimeter we have not yet covered: the section we've been working on to the south, and from Camden north to Trenton. This would be the first of the latter missing section. My plan was to meet at our end point, Cinnaminson Station, and take a train to Camden, then PATCO speed line to Philly. I figured it was always worth crossing the Ben Franklin Bridge again. We'd then follow the waterfront north.

Perimeter of NJ completed so far

We had been covering a lot of ground, but I want to finish the entire perimeter of the state by the end of 2015. Because of this, I decided to start posting two in the series per month rather than one. Since we're doing stuff from Camden north, it's a lot different than the bay area further to the south, so it's still not bad doing more of these hikes because each area is so different. Shown to the left is a map detailing how much of the perimeter we've finished.

Metrotrails press for this has been great; there was an article in Warren Reporter penned by MT Vice President Matt Davis, and then a great story ran in both the Express Times and Star Ledge about my Perimeter of NJ series. This hike was incredibly well attended by friends of many years and newcomers.

Sarah Carmona, one of my high school classmates finally came on her first hike with me, which distinguishes her as the one I've been inviting on hikes for the longest amount of time before finally attending: 17 years! She was a huge help at the start, being a local who takes the train we would take every day.

Although I knew this would be a good hike, it was far from what I had expected we'd find in a very good way. Serious Sean told me later that this was his favorite Metrotrails hike to date. Mike Heaney commented that it was the weirdest he'd been on.

We boarded the train at Cinnaminson Station, which didn't seem to take long to arrive. We rode it to an exchange area in Camden, where we switched to the PATCO Speed Line. This took us across the Benjamin Franklin Bridge into Philadelphia, to a station at 8th and Market. We had used this connection before, twice. The first time was on the first Buckettfest Hike in February of 2008, where we crossed and  hiked Cooper River Greenway east. The second time was a year prior while hiking from Camden south on another Perimeter Hike. This time, the ride was slightly different because the train took us along the north side of the Ben Franklin Bridge. In the past it had taken us on the south side as I recalled. Someone told me they had been doing work on the bridge.
When we arrived at the station, we headed up to street level, and then made our way to a nearby Burger King to try to catch up with some of the group meeting us in the city. A couple were to meet us there, James, Sarah, and Stephen would meet us by the bridge when we crossed. I recall Lara met us in the Burger King. We hung out for a little bit before moving on.
Mike Heaney knew exactly how to get to the Liberty Bell from where we were, and I figured it was a good opportunity to go and try to see it again. We headed over to the pavilion and most of the group went on through the line to see it. There was just about no line at all so it was a good time to be there. Erika was supposed to meet us there, and so we waited around a bit.

After exiting, we headed north to another block where Erika would be coming out from the train. All together, we cut to the north past the national park buildings to the corner of 5th and Arch Street. Here, at the Christ Church Burial Ground is the grave of Benjamin Franklin. This was the third time we'd visited this site. Any time I'm close by I'll visit this grave.

Ben Franklin's Grave

Uncle Soup I think it was suggested that we go down the street a little bit further to a new memorial to Franklin that was put up near the fire department. Someone said that Franklin was the father of the fire departments. We wandered on down there to find a Franklin bust made with lots of old keys apparently. It was some homage to the key and the kite thing. We took a quick break here, and checked out the little court yard behind it that had strange hippo statues.

We headed from here to 4th Street north and passed the US Mint. We also passed the site of the Zion Lurtheran Church where funeral services were held for President George Washington in 1799. Nothing is left of the church, only an historic marker. We turned left from 4th onto Race Street and turned onto the walkway onto the Ben Franklin Bridge headed for Camden.

Crossing Ben Franklin Bridge

We continued across the bridge with amazing views of  Philadelphia and Camden. I'd seen it all before, but it's one of those unique bridges I never get tired of, sort of like the Brooklyn Bridge. The walking deck sits high above the driving lanes which gives it a neater perspective. It was a nice clear day, so visibility in all directions was quite nice.

The bridge was completed in 1926 to accommodate both vehicle and rapid transit trains or trolleys. The original trolley lanes were removed in favor of more vehicular lanes in recent years. I pointed out to everyone that the bridge was constructed with trolley stations built into it, but they were never used because the trolleys went out of service before they could finish the development of them. It adds an interesting flavor to the look of the bridge today.

On Ben Franklin Bridge

We headed across to the Camden side, and James and Sarah were on the far side of the bridge headed toward us. When we were just stepping off of the bridge on the stairs, Stephen came running up from a nearby station. Together, all of us headed toward the waterfront. We re-grouped at Delaware Ave, and then began walking north, beneath the bridge. We were now on the next leg of the NJ perimeter. I knew this section would be an interesting one immediately, as we entered an old industrial area, through a parking lot with a giant water tank and excellent views of the Ben Franklin Bridge.

Ben Franklin Bridge view

A side street went around more industrial areas where we passed strange homes built into ugly shipping containers. We hung a right and passed a screwed up looking but very old stone house. Part of it's apparent formerly gabled roof was missing, and the work looked to be of early 1700s. It was three stories tall, which leads me to believe it was not from the 1600s. It had a later brick addition as well.

William Cooper Tavern

I of course looked into area history later, and found that this was the very historic Benjamin Cooper House. Benjamin was the grandson of William Cooper, one of the earliest Englishmen to arrive in the area in the late 17th century. The building is significant as one of America's earliest remaining extant dwellings that were associated with a major ferry. The main stone structure was built in 1734, as I'd suspected, and was added on later.

Historic view of Benjamin Cooper Tavern

During the American Revolution, British Lieutenant Colonel Abercrombie commandeered the structure, still in the Cooper Family at the time, for use as British headquarters while that army was occupying Philadelphia. The structure was used as a tavern, a ship yard office, and residence over the years, and remained in reasonable shape until a fire tore through the upper portion of the building on Thanksgiving, 2012. There is a "Save our Waterfront" project which aims to save the building which remains in private hands.

Historic view of Benjamin Cooper Tavern

 We took a turn to Erie Street, then left on Byron Street. We continued on Byron to 4th Street, which led to a dead end. However, at the end of the dead end was an ATV path which went out into an overgrown field. We followed it.

The paths led sort of to the left, first through the field areas, then through high grasses and into woods. The area is known as Cooper Point. We soon came across an abandoned mini van. Jen climbed in the cab and Serious Sean got on the roof.

Willow tree with it's branches rooting back into the ground nearby, at Cooper Point.

This was a very interesting area. There was a lot of garbage around, the estuary plants, but also some nice big trees. Most prominent were two big Willows. One of them had a long branch that spread back out to the ground, then re-rooted itself! I climbed up on one of the branches while everyone was messing around with the car and other stuff. We then headed out directly to the waterfront.

Former pier sites

We walked out to the water where there was tons of ice all busted up. Ric was karate chopping some of them. All along the waterfront were some old wooden pilings from bulkheads or piers from years ago. It was a good thing the tide was down or we'd have not been able to wander this section. We walked along and then came across a beat up old hatch back car sitting out in the water. It looked like it was a Honda Civic.

Is that a Honda Civic?

We continued on the shore, then headed up a bit back into the trees where we found another path following the shore line. There were some strange blue blazes, but they seemed to have turn blazes too, at corner points they were doubled. These weird "blazes" did take us the correct way to remain on the waterfront.

Old bulkheads

Next, we came to some more old bulkheads with some nice big trees growing from them. Metal retaining walls were set right up against the water's edge from former industry. We continued on the path until it led us to Pyne Poynt Park, an open grassy ball field park with a path around it. We continued to the far side of it, but there were boat places beyond so we couldn't get through. We continued along the east side of the park, then ran over to a playground to goof off for a bit.

Joseph Cooper House, built 1691

Next to the playground was a ruin, which I did not notice right away. Of course, we would have to go to visit it before leaving Pyne Poynt Park. This turned out to be the historic Joseph Cooper House, built in 1691! The roof was gone on this building. Like the Benjamin Turner house, his father's house suffered a similar fate. It too was the victim of fire in 2005. Joseph Cooper was the son of William Cooper, the aforementioned Englishman who settled here. J Cooper started the ferry that operated from the location. The brick addition to the home was built about 1785. The house was purchased by the city of Camden in 1913 and for a time was used as a library.

Joseph Cooper House in 1936

Although only the stone frame remained of this one, there were signs on it that the building would be "re-imagined" with a glass roof. It's nice to know this historic structure would be revitalized.

Adaptive re use

I don't know if they intend to use it as a greenhouse or what. We walked out of the park and went a couple of blocks inland to see if we could find a convenience store, because some of the group was hungry. We found some corner stuff, then returned to the close waterfront and followed streets to the Cooper River crossing. There was one paved path section that went behind apartments getting closer to the river.  When we reached the State Street crossing, we found a new bridge spanning the river, and the older bridge converted for pedestrian use. The historic movable truss bridge was built in 1898.

Historic state street bridge

We of course walked across the nicer old bridge, and no sooner did we set foot on it, both Serious Sean and Justin were climbing up the thing.

Serious Fun

They reached the top of the trusses on either side, then started making their way to the very middle with the plaque reading the date and builders. I can't believe in such an urban area and with people driving around like crazy we had no problems. One guy pulled his car over to watch them climbing with a dropped jaw. A rap song was blaring the lyrics "Baking soda I got baking soda". Very strange.

The two of them climbed around on the bridge, down the trusses a bit, then we moved on to the east down State Street and made a left onto Harrison Ave north. The road led us to an all new Salvation Army church location. At first we thought it was going to be a store, which we'd all end up purchasing some sort of silly clothing at. It ended up being a nice visit because they had lovely restrooms and a nice little cafeteria type area where we could stop for our lunch break.

Teasing James

I'm sure they must have thought it strange, this group of people just walking in, sitting down, using the restroom, and doing other strange things (like Justin, who hid behind a mannequin Santa Clause beard). One of the ladies who worked there happily came up to me and asked us what we were doing, and was interested in hearing the NJ Perimeter story. We had a nice break and made our way out to the road, continuing north.

We reached 27th Street, and then turned left, followed by right on Buren Ave, and left on 28th. We headed down hill, and there was a memorial thing where apparently someone died in a car crash or something. There were booze bottles all sitting on the memorial, so I added my empty MD 2020 bottle. I'd been sipping it all day, the concoction I had started making at DJ Ray's new  years party of Orange Jubilee flavor MD, Malibu Coconut Rum, two kinds of vodka, John Pershouse's spiced mead, blackberry brandy, and Seth Gollhadt's Peachtree Schnapps.

There was a path that went to the left, but it seemed to end at the wetland line. There'd have been no way through. We continued on a right along Adams Ave past a giant lovely tree, then to where a couple of white school buses were set up with satellites on top. A sign read that thirty or something veterans living in these buses. It also noted that they were all over sixty years of age. I at first just thought they were derelict buses and took a picture, until I realized they were serving as a home.

Veterans bus

There were even people in the thing. It was rather depressing. We were surprised from the bus site to find a trail. The trail led slightly to the right. There was also a road straight ahead behind the buses that went into a wetland, but we didn't follow this because some of these veterans might have tried to pump us full of lead for walking across their yard (reminder: this was Camden).

The trail section brought us out to Harrison Ave again. We turned left along the road, and there was a lovely new wooden walkway out onto a wetland. I noted that at the end of the boardwalk was a stream flowing in gentle curves. This was a wetland restoration project. I'd been involved in some of these in the past when I worked for Hunterdon County Parks. The stream side can be restored, and we planted Bakers Willow chutes in the sides. These chutes will grow off as new trees. I noted some of these growing in the banks, as well as other planted deciduous trees.

A short distance down Harrison Ave from here was a dirt road going off into the woods to the left, the continuation of the trail route. This was shown as I recall as proposed trail route on the East Coast Greenway maps I had gotten from Andy Hamilton a couple months back. We followed the dirt road and it became Farragut Avenue. There were signs at threes trail heads that said "The Camden Greenway". Farragut Ave was also a very nice road to walk. It was totally a dirt road, which was not expected. All of the rest of the grid of streets headed southeast were paved connecting to it, but this one was not.

Farragut Street

At the end of the road, an ATV path cut to the left out to Petty Island Road. This island has lots of tanks and such on it. I doubted that we'd be able to visit the island, but we turned left to try to anyway. Before we'd even reached the end, there was a guard shack with a guard waving at us to go back. There were also abandoned railroad tracks parallel with the road. We turned around and found an ATV path into woods to the north. We followed it through an open meadow and continued. We reached the river side here, and could see Petty Island with it's tanks and the bridge to it, and up stream we could see as far as an old rail bridge and the Betsy Ross Bridge.

The woods were full of more junk, and some old road pipes. We followed a vague pathway along the water to a more obvious used ATV path which led further along the river. I thought it looked like it could have been a railroad bed, but maps would indicate it was not. The pathway split, and there was a little peninsula ahead. It didn't look as though we'd be able to get through. There was a creek that entered the river here, and we would have to cross it to get through. Still, I wanted to have a closer look.

To my surprise, this route looked more feasible than not. I walked over to the tributary and was easily able to step over without getting my feet wet. Further, if I busted through any of the ice, there was a solid layer underneath. We were not over water, but rather over the tidal area that sometimes goes under. That is why we had several layers of ice rather than just one. I ushered everyone over the creek and we continued along the shore line, save for Dan who, ever resourceful, found his way along a more inland path to meet up with us just ahead.

The route we had been following, and which Dan had followed to meet back up with us, was originally part of Fish House Cove, but it was filled in in 1931 as a dredge spoil. This dredge spoil has been abandoned for so long that it bears little resemblance to that former use. It does explain the level berm we had been following however.

I stayed in the back to help, and a lot of the group went pretty far ahead. There were views across of the abandoned power plant at Fisher Point.

Solid formerly wet stuff

When we reached the steep shore slopes further ahead, a lot of the group went up to the active railroad tracks. That bothered me; it's the last place anyone should be standing in this area because trains come very fast without making sound, and because it's heavily secure and people are not supposed to be on it. I hollered up for everyone to get off the tracks and those of us below would meet up above with them. We headed along the shore line and the steep slope for a bit, and Sarah and Justin goofed off with a toy trike they had found, apparently trying to make it sink. We then got parallel with Bannard Ave with the idea that we would go up there. We had to climb steeply up the slope. I waited for Jillane to make it up and we hurried to the tracks. The trains go by every fifteen minutes or so, so I wanted to  hurry to get off of there. Unfortunately, although the road was close, it was a high vertical wall unseen in my aerial images, so we'd have to run down the tracks in order to get up to the road. We found an opening and headed through to a grassy area and were soon on the road. Luckily, there was a bike path at the end of this section. I believe a couple of the hikers cut out at this point.

We followed a bike path briefly, then cut through some woods on a brief off trail bit to Tinsman Avenue. A left turn here led us to a clear right of way for utility or something, all mowed, and with views beyond a fence over the tracks and out to Fisher Point. It was a fantastic discover of a route that kept us off roads a bit further.

We came to a vantage point where we could see the curve of the railroad tracks to the left, and straight ahead was some sort of path heading down hill at the corner of someone's yard off of East Springfield Ave (maps show a lot of the right of way we walked as more of Bannard Ave). We headed down to the edge of a lovely pond with a trail following the perimeter. This was called Tippins Pond. It was formerly a sand a gravel pit, but was re used for recreation in 1988. Keeping to the elft, we came to a nice dock that offered us more views of the river. This was a nice site to re-group again. A path took us up from the pond to a parking area off of Cove Road, which leads to the abandoned power plant at Fisher Point. We turned left across the tracks and checked out a dead end trail which follows a boardwalk out onto the Cove.

Cove trail

This was a really nice spot, with views of Philadelphia across the Cove, and the Delaware River. Most of us checked it out. When I got back, a couple others in the group had also cut out. I waited for the others to get back from the boardwalk and checked out the historic Vennel Tavern House which sat on the bend in the road, within sight of where we were.

Historic view, Vennel Tavern House

The area was originally called Steele's Bay, named for William Steele of Ireland who owned a large tract there behind Petty's Island. The cove was later named Stone's Cove for John Stone, who owned a farm along the body of water. The land later came into ownership of Parr Willard, who sold a few acres to a Doctor of Divinity named Thomas Hood in 1892. The house was erected some time between 1792 and 1795. He sold the building in 1899 and it became a fishing club property. Around this time the area became known as Fish House Cove. It changed owners a few times, and eventually Isaak and Emily Vennel opened it as a general store, then a hotel and tavern.

Vennel Tavern House

The railroad we had been following was the very historic route of the Camden and Amboy Railroad. The line was the first civilian passenger railroad in the United States when the first section opened in 1832. The section we had been walking on was completed in 1834. It eventually became part of the Pennsylvania Railroad system.

Camden and Amboy Map

When the Pennsylvania Railroad needed to expand their trackage, it was to take over the site of where the hotel was. The Vennels sold the tavern to the railroad, and they relocated it up the hill in 1896. The house went through several more owners, and the rich Philadelphians who used to visit dwindled. Pea Shore, a popular beach back in the day and a favorite place of poet Walt Whitman's, was destroyed when much of the land was turned into more Dredge Spoils by the Army Corps of Engineers in 1931. The power plant was later erected on the land, and the historic tavern house was preserved in 1988.

Today, Fish House Cove is one of the largest and most diverse freshwater tidal marshes remaining in New Jersey. It is an oasis of vegetation and habitat surrounded by a portion of the most densely populated few miles in the state of NJ.

When everyone returned, we opted to follow a dirt road parallel with the railroad tracks heading north. On the right, there was some sort of an abandoned garage, which some of the group went to investigate. It was collapsing, but that didn't stop anyone from climbing around. Jillane found a giant trap set with bait at the far side of the building. We continued past here, and there were accesses to the right, but then the dirt road ended at the railroad tracks. I didn't want to chance walking the active tracks for a long time, so we backtracked and followed a utility right of way out to River Road t the east, skirting a quarry area. Stephen and Justin climbed to the top of some big dirt piles in the quarry. Serious Sean cut away to walk one of the new girls to the nearest train station. We met back up with him where the former Pennsylvania Railroad goes over the road. Just after the underpass, we turned left on Derousse Ave. This took us past the Pennsauken train station.

Delair Bridge

Although this area says Pennsauken on the station, old rail maps show this area as having been known as Delair. We continued down hill to where the Pennsylvania Railroad crossed over the Delaware on a monster of a trestle. The Delair Bridge was completed in 1896, and was the first bridge of any kind to connect New Jersey with Philadelphia. It is 4,396 feet long.

Historic view Delair Bridge

The bride consisted of three large through truss spans and one pivoting span for passage of ships, as well as long sections of trestle on both NJ and PA sides. Derousse Ave took us down hill a bit further and we soon reached a pier area very closer to the bridge, with a boat launch and two docks on either side of it.

Historic view, Delair Bridge

The current Delair Bridge is mostly the same structure that was completed in 1896 save for the draw section. The pivoting truss was removed and replaced with the current vertical lift span in 1958 to accommodate large river traffic by offering more clearance.  The bridge was used for both freight and passengers by the Pennsylvania Railroad until passenger service was discontinued in 1969. Passenger service was then reactivated for the Atlantic City line in 1990.

Delair Bridge lift span installation historic shot

We waited on the docks for a while with hopes that we'd see a train cross the span, but none ever came until we were much farther to the north. We checked out the views in both directions, and to the north of us was the Betsy Ross Bridge.

Locomotive crossing Delair Bridge

The Betsy Ross Bridge is a much newer span; work began on it in 1969 and completed in 1974, however traffic was not opened up on it until 1976. The reason for this holdup were the incomplete Pennsylvania highways that were to be served to this bridge. Many will note the "Blue Route" mentioned, but we've been told there was planned to be Red, White and Blue routes. Many "Evel Keneivel" ramps as they were called were constructed and never used for these highways that never came to be, and it was uncertain how access would be made to the bridge. In fact, we have hiked some of the unfinished highway in PA near Valley Forge as long ago as early 2008.

Betsy Ross Bridge

Betsy Ross Bridge was originally to be called Delair Bridge before taking the name of reputed seamstress responsible for making the first American Flag. It was the first motor vehicle bridge in America to be named for a woman.

After our break at the docks, we continued heading up stream along the Delaware through a section of woods toward the base of the Betsy Ross Bridge. There was a good path into the woods here. John Huber left us at this point to cut back to the station. When we reached the bridge, there fences all around it. This one would not be as easy to get around as previous bridges we had passed beneath. We backtracked and got on another path that led us to the fence line, then followed it on a rather good path heading east. Somewhere there were supposed to be old tomb stones washed up on shore in this area, but we did not see any. Perhaps they were all covered in ice.

We came out on Engard Ave, walked across a swath of grass and reached the River Line tracks (former Camden and Amboy). We were able to hurry across them to reach South Engard Ave by way of a path. The train happened to be flying by when we crossed, but fortunately no one was hit! We continued down Engard and soon reached abutments to yet another rail line! I had no idea this would be there. The line is not really visible on aerial images. I didn't think we'd get anywhere following it, but just to be sure I climbed to the left abutment. There was a path! We had a good route to continue west, and it was not blocked off by the chain link fence beneath the rest of the bridge. The chain link fences turned to either side of the rail right of way, and we continued north, crossing Pochack Creek just beyond the Betsy Ross Bridge underpass.

Engard Ave bridge site

The rail bed was in very nice shape. It continued to a junction site on the current line called Tippin as I recall. ATVs used the right of way regularly making for very easy walking. Only a couple of places had some low branches. While walking this, Erika found a funny empty chip bag that read "Rap Snacks, Bar B Quein With My Honey" flavor. It read "Stay in School" under the title. It cracked me up that such a product existed.

RAP SNACKS! (stay in school)

The rail bed reached the former junction with the main River Line, but just past that point was a spur going off to industries and parallel with John Tipton Ave. We took the spur out to that road, then went left on Rt 543. On the road, we saw a sign for the Griffith Morgan House, oldest house in Camden County circa 1693. It just happened to be on the next turn we'd need to make. It was going to be dark soon, so I wanted to see it as soon as possible. Uncle Soup cut out at this point and we walked down the road to the house.

Historic Griffith Morgan House

The house was obviously very old, but not all of it dates to 1693. A portion of the lower floor might date back that far. It's hard to find historical info on the house on line, but from what I did find was that it may have been built ni 1715, and that it was originally attached to the earlier 1693 structure. It rather obviously had upper levels added to it, and consistencies in stone work are such that they were done at different times.

All I could tell by searching was that it was at one point in ruins. It was lived in until the 1960s and fell into ruin some time after before being refurbished. Although it claims to be the oldest home in Camden County, the ruin we visited in Camden city itself was a bit older.

Griffith Morgan House

The sign on the road in front of the house was so faded we could barely read it, and there was some sort of yard out back that looked to be a road department or something. Not a very convenient location.

We passed behind a commercial site and reached a gate at a second one, then had to turn slightly right to the railroad tracks again. I figured it would probably be best to just get on the tracks quickly and make our way the short distance to the Rt 73/Pennsauken Station. We got on the tracks and followed them for a bit, but as I watched the station I saw a car move from being parked within sight, then a NJ Transit police car pull up. We took the first left off the tracks we could, just past a chain link fence and onto a dirt lane with an abandoned rail spur going to the commercial site. We hiked from here along a berm that separated a body of water on the right, possibly another old dredge spoil, from the Pennsauken Creek which was on our left. Some guy in a water authority truck was down there and drove right by us. Fortunately we had no problem. I couldn't see the station at this point, so we just kept on going until we got to a dead end.

The railroad bridge crossed Pennsauken Creek here, and we opted to just run across the creek on the rail bridge if no trains were coming. It wasn't too long a span, but it was long enough that we'd have to be careful. We waited a little bit to see if a train would go by. They should go about every 15 minutes. I figured after waiting about that amount of time and seeing nothing that we should be able to see if there was something coming because the stops were pretty close by. We started dashing across the bridge. As soon as I reached the other side, I saw the lights of the engine coming toward us. Jillane wasn't across the bridge yet, so she ducked off the tracks on the other side while the others all ran down the slope on the north side. Once the train had passed, Jillane crossed the bridge easily.

Historic Pennsauken view

The Pennsauken Creek is a very historic area I would love to explore more, but we had a long way to go and we hadn't made it nearly as far north as I'd anticipated we would. We covered a good amount of mileage, but there was just too much to see which added mileage and took time. We started walking along Rt 73 and passed the Tacony Palmyra Flea Market area. This of course was not open and was a site we'd need to go around in order to do the perimeter, not to mention maybe about five miles of Palmyra Cove Nature Preserve. It was far too dark for these trails. I had to accept that the next hike in the series from here would have to start from Palmyra rather than Cinnaminson. I had initially thought we might even make it beyond Cinnaminson, but such was not nearly the case.

Instead, we walked up 73 to near the Tacony Palmyra Bridge, turned left and reached the Dunkin Donuts and convenience store where we took a break and let the others catch up. Justin and Stephen ran into the place after a while, and they had begun running into the Nature Preserve thinking we were doing that anyway. Dan had continued along the tracks and was just going to walk back to Cinnaminson.

We took a pretty long break at the Dunkin Donuts before moving on. I was very contented at this point because I'd now physically connected the hike we'd done over the Summer along the Pennypack Creek to Palmyra. At least we'd made it that far.  We left the Dunkin Donuts and followed Temple Blvd to a side road to the River Line. We followed the River Line Trail, a parallel paved trail beside the tracks a short distance to the Palmyra Station. Here, James and Sarah opted to take a train back. I'm not sure who else cut out at this point, but we had all talked about doing it until Lyz and Ric said they were going to just walk it. Jillane said she would walk it too, so pretty much everyone else continued with us walking beside the tracks through towns.

We passed the Riverton Station, and then reached Cinnaminson where we were parked. We all stood around for a few minutes trying to figure out dinner, but everyone was sort of scattered on the topic, either going in different directions or just heading home, so Jillane and I did the same.

Everything would be simple for what remained of the Delaware between Palmyra and Trenton; we will meet at a station, follow the river front as best we can, and make our way to the nearest station as it begins to get dark, then take the $1.50 ride back to the starting point. Even better, with each Jersey Perimeter hike, we get closer to home which means a lot less driving. Only the much farther south ones would take a long amount of time to reach, and even they will continue to get easier as we close in the gaps.

This certainly was one of the most diverse of recent NJ Perimeter trips. I'm left with very high hopes for the next section from this, Palmyra north. If it's anything like what we have been experiencing on past hikes, we might not make it as far as planned destinations, but that's fine. The NJ Perimeter series isn't as much about finishing the whole thing as it is the experience. I wouldn't have wanted to take short cuts on something like this, it's been far more interesting than I ever would have anticipated.