Hike #833; Beverly/Delanco to Roebling

Hike #833; Beverly/Delanco to Roebling

3/15/15 Beverly to Roebling with "Serious Sean" Dougherty, Jim "Uncle Soup" Campbell, Mike Heaney, Lara Nycum, and Ling ?.

The group at a wall built by Serious Sean

Our next hike would be another in the Perimeter of NJ series, the second to last one closing in the gap between where we'd left off in Beverly area and Trenton. On this trip, I had hoped to get some bonus miles in to connect from where we'd last left off all the way to Roebling, but such would not be the case because we would cover 18 miles simply reaching that point.

NJ Perimeter completed so far

We are fast closing in on the NJ Perimeter. Only six full day hikes remain in this series, and seven or eight other hikes that will include small segments of the perimeter we've missed are necessary to finish this off. I've set an arbitrary deadline of November 2015 for completion.

At the start of this hike, there was an air of uncertainty facing all of this. It's seemed like a lot of things have been coming down on me all at once. I have gotten so close to achieving this goal, but so much work into scaling off each section, putting time aside at least once per month in order to complete it, and now things were looking like they would take a turn for the worst.

At work, I had not come in for snow plowing on Sundays when I was at pre planned events three hours away. The boss started giving me a hard time for not coming in (We had four trucks with plows on them, but wanted all six full timers to come in). He'd been picking on me every Summer for four years about making me work all Sundays and put an end to my hikes, and he even tried filing a Union grievance against me when I first started because of the title I hold in Warren County (Commissioner on Board of Recreation). After the plowing thing, I received a note stating that if I can't get to work, I need to walk or take a taxi. He likes to "stir the pot" but he kept pushing, and then said that he would schedule me to work every weekend. I told him that he'd already given out a schedule to everyone, and he was now changing it basically to screw up the events that were already planned in advance. I was intentionally scheduled to work on Warren Land Preservation Day, which is sure to have over 1,000 in attendance. I told him if he scheduled me, I just won't come in, so he sent something to the Superintendent saying it was insubordination.

I had to reach out to the Union in the days before this because it happened in the week leading up to a potential promotion. The boss wanted to promote someone else so that he'd get another employee from elsewhere, and was looking to make me look bad for certain. Another typed list of crazy claims came my way, which I had to send to the union. I spend at least five hours typing rebuttals to crazy claims; time I would normally have spent working on trip planning and such.

In addition, my breathing kept getting worse, I have been having what seem like asthma attacks and losing feeling in my extremities. Extreme fatigue along with the stress I've been feeling has been making everything worse.

One week away was my 18 year anniversary hike, and I'd barely done invitations and such like I normally would leading into this. I was worried heading down that no one was going to show up. For once, I was not carpooling with anyone and didn't know for sure who would make it. I was so thankful and relieved when five others came.

The hike would be quite excellent, especially when compared to previous NJ perimeter hikes. There were a lot of interesting points and changes in scenery. It was of course a 'weird' one, because it's not necessarily what a lot of people consider when they look for hikes. These differences are what make these trips special for me, and we had the right group for it.

We started walking from the Beverly/Edgewater light rail station on the River Line. This was formerly the Camden and Amboy Railroad, first civilian passenger railroad in the US. Newcomer Ling had almost missed us by parking at the opposite side of the station from everyone else. Mike and Lara were running a bit behind, but it gave Uncle Soup and I the opportunity to run to a nearby bathroom and store.

When we started walking, the first thing on the agenda was to connect with the previous hike. This meant heading south for a little bit. We followed the Pennsylvania Avenue parallel with the north side of the tracks for a bit, and found a cool looking hollow tree that Uncle Soup climbed in. We then crossed the tracks and followed Railroad Ave. This road was open at first, complete with a stop sign, but then shortly after abandoned. It was paved, but the pavement was grown over with Japanese Stilt Grass. We managed to walk it parallel with the active tracks for a bit, then along a tree farm to reach Perkins Lane.

From Perkins Lane, we turned left, cut through a line of trees and across a parking lot to some kind of business, then took a path out to a spur track that went into another industrial site off of Rt 543.

We turned left on 543, but only briefly. Eagle Lane, which went into an apartment complex, was where we'd left off the last time. At this point, we had to make the judgement call if we were going to head to Delanco or Beverly station to take the train back. At that time, it was a fraction of a mile less to go to Delanco, so we went with that. We turned to the east from here, along 543, continuing on our NJ Perimeter.

We turned left on Princeton Ave in Delanco Township, following it to the end. There were woods on the left and straight ahead, but no trespassing signs. A police officer went by us when we were on the main road, and we were certain he was going to come back and ask what we were up to. It always seems to happen because people just DON'T DO this. So, we didn't try trespassing, residents would certainly see us go in. I must have looked nuts too, because I was wearing a bright blue blazer with a yellow butterfly collar shirt. It was a little chilly for that, but I remained comfortable enough for the entire hike.

NJ Geological provinces

We turned right on Colgate Ave, then left on West Ave, which led us to the entrance to West Avenue Nature Trails at the Dunes. There were sloppily painted white, orange, yellow, green, and blue trails going through the property, but we paid no attention to really any of them. Our goal was to follow the ones closest to the perimeter. A section shown on the map, exempted from public access, was a mulch compost site in the center. We kept to the left, which took us to a view out over the Delaware, the first of the day. There were two beat up looking old piers in the water, and some sort of bridge coming from the industry to the west of us. We continued to the right, and left the 'official' trail to keep closer to the water. On the way, we passed a "trail closed" sign that was laying on the ground. We simply kept close to the waterfront, followed a berm past the mulch facility, then descended to a woods road that led to what looked like a past river access. We climbed off trail steeply from here to a narrow berm with more views, then had to climb down from that to reach another offical trail.

The trail section was much easier, as it was just a simple woods road. It followed higher bluffs along the Delaware than what we'd seen on the previous hikes heading north from Camden.

All of this section of the state is still "Inner Coastal Plain", but somehow this was getting a bit different. These bluffs seemed steeper to me. I thought maybe they were terminal moraines left over from an earlier glacier before the Wisconsin Glacier. They provided us with some nicer scenery than there had been on some of the other NJ Perimeter ones before this.

The trail "officially" ended, and there was a sign on it that read we were leaving the Delanco Township property. We must have entered the Beverly area. We continued with no change in the woods road we were following. There were a couple little side paths that led out to some overlook areas along the river.

View on the bluffs along the Delaware in Beverly area

The bluffs were very steep and obviously eroded off. When I got close to the side, I could see that it was quite steep heading down if we were to fall. There were also only small trees holding up the embankments. Our trail descended from this higher ground to a small tributary flowing out into the Delaware. Fortunately, there was a reasonably good crossing involving several concrete pipes that could be stepped across. We made our way over and checked out another little viewing area over the Delaware on the other side.

Pipe crossing

The area beyond the creek was more dirt roads that saw use than the other side was. Serious Sean found a boogie board back there along this route and carried it around for some time. He's become well known for finding fun "props" to play with while out on these hikes!

We continued to views of the river, and we watched a tug boat pushing a large boat up the Delaware for a short time. We then continued on the woods roads until they opened up into a wide grassy area next to a water treatment facility. Fortunately, we were not blocked from reaching the riverside and could easily just walk along the grass along the river.

The grassy area came out to the William A. Gaines-James J. Russel Memorial Park with a small pavilion and nice views. We took a short break under the pavilion and took in the views. According to historic markers, this was once close to the spot of Dunk's Ferry, an historic crossing and one of the first such ferries in North America, having begun operation in 1695. The town of Beverly was originally known as Dunk's Ferry, but the ferry only operated until the late 1800s, when the town was renamed Beverly. General George Washington and the Continental Army used Dunk's Ferry as a crossing site during the American Revolution as well, a less famous crossing than the one north which bears his name.

Steps along the Delaware in Beverly

We continued walking along the waterfront with some nice views up and down the river. There was a strange set of steps that looked like ones that go to someone's front porch going down to the river out of this park. Bank Road followed the waterfront to Cooper Street where we  had to turn inland to the right a bit, then left on 2nd Street. We went over to have a look at the waterfront on Walnut Street, but we wouldn't be able to get through. There were beautiful yards with access to the river, with a giant Sycamore growing along it.

Delaware Waterfront in Beverly

In this area was the Mayor's house, which we noted by his car with the Mayor's license plate. His beautiful estate was also right along the river. We made a left through an alley leading us to Van Kirk Street, another lovely one, but we couldn't pass through on the road along the river because it was all private. We had to turn right here and head out to Warren Street.

Along this stretch, there were some really nice, stately homes and several beautiful old churches of multiple denominations. One particular church was actually in an old homestead rather than a church. Other stately properties had names like Toad Hall, and one had some of the weird trees we'd seen on the hike from Washington's Crossing that resembled Metasequoias. Lara recognized it but again we could not positively identify it.

Giant Sycamore nearing Edgewater Park

We passed more nice big trees and pretty homes heading to Edgewater Park, then turned left on Woodland Road, then right on Cottage Ave. We made another left on Edgewater Ave, then right on Linden Ave to Park Ave. Another right turn continued on Linden Ave into a residential area. The curving road reached a point where it turned away from the river, but there was a small park to the left. We were able to walk into the park near a possibly abandoned octagonal shaped house, then went around a chain link fence on a path to get on the other side.

We reached a point with a stream, and we had to hang onto the fence in order to get across. I got over, and just as Ling was coming across, I realized there was a hole in the fence from the other side to walk right in. By that time, Ling already got her feet wet

Crossin' the crick!

We took a little break there, and Sean started building a wall out of cinder blocks that were in a pile just through the fence. This looked to be a party spot, with a grill on a stand right by the blocks similar to the ones we use in state parks. After building the wall, I got a video of Sean kicking it all down.

From this point, we headed along very easy woods roads heading along the river up stream, but slightly turning away from it. There was another cove in the river, and several berms when we finally turned off the main woods road onto another lesser one. We followed some berms that were most certainly very old dredge spoils, with some metal contraptions on the sides just like on previous ones we'd seen. We reached the edge of the river and were able to follow it without too much difficulty heading east.

There was a faint path along the river, and we reached a spot where a small waterway separated from the river had to be passed by. We still kept to the river side, and reached where a waterway entered the river. We had to turn inland following the mouth of this waterway, with a large industrial building in view on the other side.

Contraptions at former dredge spoil

We headed through woods and came to more metal contraptions that might have been more to do with dredge spoil operations. This one had been abandoned for a very long time. Trees were growing through it and it was now fully in woods. We reached the south end of it and had to go right. We could see pipes connecting it to yet another spoil area on the other side. Down in the rut between the two was a small shanty made of sticks and tarps where someone had been living, but not recently. I didn't even want to get close for fear of finding a dead body. It would be more of an annoyance than anything else because we'd probably have to answer a billion questions.

We crossed a more open field area, then headed through to another woos road out to an access along the River Line tracks. We were able to turn left and parallel the tracks very easily heading toward a water tower reading "Historic City of Burlington". Ling asked about it being historic, and why it was so, because there are so many places that read that they are historic. Burlington is actually quite historic, having once served as Capital of the West NJ Colony prior to the Declaration of Independence, and it was founded very early on by Quakers, in 1677. The oldest house still standing in town was built in the 1680s.

Entering Historic Burlington

We continued walking the road over a beat up little bridge parallel with the tracks, and passed a guy at what looked like a compressor building surrounded by a chain link fence. He didn't say anything to us, though it seemed like maybe we shouldn't have been back there. The road came out to Devlin Road, then we turned right as the road went left to the industrial area, and we went left parallel with the River Line on Broad Street, toward Greenlanders Park. We didn't go far before turning to the left onto a paved trail following along Commerce Square Blvd.

The road went straight on toward the Burlington-Bristol Bridge in good view.

Burlington Bristol Bridge

The bridge was rather different than a lot of them we had passed by along the Delaware. It had a feeling of antiquity, though I found out it was not nearly as old as I had originally thought. The bridge was completed and opened in 1931, a truss structure with a left span function off of two heavy pieces of concrete on either side that weight slightly more than the lift span itself. The bridge has been proposed for replacement, but doing so would require an extension much further off and the removal of several  historic structures, so it's likely such will not happen any time soon.

The pathway we walked came to a turn, and headed along the river front. There was an abandoned building on the left which Uncle Soup and I went to check out. When we got in it, a black pickup truck parked over near the industrial complex. It had tinted windows, and we were very close to the bridge. I figured it was probably some kind of security, so rather than have a problem we headed on our way beneath the bridge. The walkway continued on the waterfront with lovely views.

Holy Innocents Chapel

To the right was the Doane Academy, founded in the early 1800s by George Washington Doane, one of the earliest Episcopal preachers in the  US. The Academy was a school for girls, but also took in boys which was strange for the time. Much of the building had a newer appearance, but one church section in the front had a very obvious look of antiquity.

The section is called the Holy Innocents Chapel. Completed in 1845, it is probably the oldest example of a Gothic Cruciform Church in America, and the precursor to what would later become known as "Gothic Revival". The church is a replica of Stanton St. John, in Oxfordshire, England, and suggests that architect John Notman and Episcopal Bishop Doane were supplied with drawings of that church.

The rest of the building had obvious old parts, but also some very new parts. Two buildings which looked to have once been separated by a courtyard had brand new construction in between with Tyvek walls in place, and a plan shown on a board in front as to what the "improved" Doane academy will look like.

We continued on the trail along the waterfront, getting hungrier all the time. We were looking into places to eat, and Serious Sean recommended a pizza place on High Street in the middle of Burlington. Sean had played music there in the past, said it wasn't the greatest ever, but it would probably be a good stop. It doubled as a bar so we could get beer and pizza.

Mike and I split a pie with black olives that was actually really good. It was a really nice sit down lunch to break up the day, and I enjoyed it more than eating after a hike, especially with the way I'd been feeling. If I ate after a hike, I know I would have been completely knocked out and unable to function. It might even be dangerous for me to drive. This worked out very well.

While we walked to the place, a guy who told us he was just moving to the area walked with us to the place. While inside, we chatted about hiking and I gave him our information. Maybe we'll see him on an upcoming hike! After eating, we headed out and back down High Street to the waterfront once more.

We continued on the Burlington Waterfront Promenade along town, passing some old industry with a tree growing out of the smoke stack, and then into a lightly residential area. We had nice views of the river, which gave the illusion that it was narrower here because of Burlington Island. This island was once home to an amusement park, but there is no bridge to it. Because of this, we are not trying to do that as part of the perimeter.

Burlington Riverfront Promenade

We continued on the walkway to a marina area near the mouth of the Assiscunk Creek, and the Yorkshire neighborhood founded in 1793. We crossed over the creek and followed East Pearl Street out of town. On the left side, we soon passed the first abandoned building of the US Pipe Company. The handsome old stone structure lie behind a fence, but I could easily have fit through the gate to check it out. Still, with likely security and a group of people I wasn't going to chance it now.

Abandoned US Pipe

The first building we passed was small, but the next few we saw were quite huge. I had no idea how big this plant really was. It sprawled out over several acres, with much of it looking to be 19th century masonry construction.

US Pipe building today

Historic view, US Pipe building

The site had no activity at all in the first sections. We walked along the fences remaining on Pearl Street, which soon changed names to River Road. It appeared as though the eastern most section of the old US pipe facility was still in use, with it's much newer buildings, but I'm not sure what industry is there. US Pipe reportedly closed it's doors in 2007, but some of those old masonry buildings look like they've been abandoned for longer than that.

We made our way further along the road as it curved to the left out closer to the Delaware River. There was an abandoned and collapsing dock structure in view just off to the left as we walked. We then came to a new construction area with some sort of retention pond and very recently disturbed ground. We walked along some of this to get off of the road, then curved back out to River Road near an asphalt plant building and crossed the Bustleton Creek on the road bridge. On the other side, a woods road led parallel to the creek past an ugly dump site.

Ship on the Delaware

There was a giant ship in the river, apparently loading or unloading something for the asphalt plant. The tide was low, so we remained along the river heading up stream from this point. There were lots of pebbles and such, and walking the river side was quite easy for a while.

As we continued, the Delaware River-Turnpike bridge came into view. This bridge, completed in 1955, is impressive looking but I really can't believe it wasn't given another name yet. Most all of these bridges have been named after some historic figure, but this one has a rather boring name.

Delaware River-Turnpike Toll Bridge

After passing beneath the bridge with no problem, the shore became littered with bricks and old concrete. There was concrete of all shapes, busted up and used apparently as fill for whatever industry used to be just up the hill from the edge. The trees were really cool looking, all sorts of strange shapes growing around and over the rocks on the shore.

Concrete wheel and tree

While walking this section, which was considerably narrower than the sections closer to the bridge, Ling and Mike were behind with myself in the lead, followed by Serious Sean, Lara, and Uncle Soup. All of a sudden, a Raccoon came charging at us. I didn't see it at first, but heard the angry welps it was making at us. Serious Sean yelled "RABID RACCOON! RUN!!". We all took off sprinting along the shore. When Sean yelled, I looked back to see the Raccoon very close to us. We all ran for a bit, and when I turned around, the damned raccoon was still chasing close by! We kept on running and it took a little while for it to give up chase. When it finally did, we turned around and watched it walk off. We were then able to alert Mike and Ling not to walk by that section of river, but rather to climb the hillside and go over.

Dock ruins

Once we got past this danger area, we continued following the river around a bend until we came to a long abandoned dock area. The wood was rotten and barely exposed from the water. During high tides it's obviously under. We climbed up over the rocks and twisted, deformed Sycamores growing on the edges to make our way to the dock. This section would become one of the most difficult we'd have to face on the NJ Perimeter series.

An old building stood at the end of the dock section. We had to climb on up from the dock, then make our way along the edge of a chain link fence barring passage to an old industrial site with nice stone buildings. This was not going to be easy to get through. I climbed to the edge of the fence and found a gate, which I was able to barely squeeze through. While the others were catching up, I used the opportunity to go and check out the old buildings.

Old buildings

There was what appeared to be an old rail trestle, like a coal trestle of sorts, and two warehouse buildings close together. They appeared empty and unused, but there is some sort of industry that still uses the front portion of the property. I didn't want to hang around and have a problem. I also pulled the button off my yellow butterfly collar shirt while squeezing through.

We opted to continue bushwhacking along the fence, which was horrible. There were some green briars, which are very abrasive, and then vines that were almost impenetrable. Sean went ahead with Lara while I  hung back with Ling and Mike to help them get through tight areas. There were times when we had to hold onto the fence or branches because the river's edge was an old bulkhead and we simply had to hold onto something. At one point, while helping Mike around, he grabbed a branch that seemed sturdy, but it broke off, sending him falling between the metal bulkhead and the eroded edge. Luckily and amazingly, he was alright, and I helped pull him back up. There was a giant metal spike protruding from the edge of the dirt, which he somehow missed only enough for it to rip his pants but not hurt him.

Bushwhack

We made our way through the mess until we got to the end, where it turned to reach H. Kenneth Wilkie Park. Unfortunately, there was a wing fence hanging over the edge that Sean said we'd have a "50% chance of falling in". Even I wasn't ready to swing myself under that, though I've done such things before. Uncle Soup and Lara were ahead and somehow managed to get through and out of the site. There was another gate just behind us that I could squeeze through, so we opted to go through that way. We then made our way to the corner of the fence by Wilkie Park, from which point I could lift up the chain link enough to slide underneath to safety. I helped Mike and Ling through, and Sean scaled a lower section of fence with barbed wire, carefully throwing himself over. When we all made it out, Uncle Soup called me to let me know he and Lara had found a similar spot and were out safe.

The four of us walked down to Wilkie Park on the shore and laid down by the slanted concrete for a break. It was a wonderful relief to be out of that mess. We continued on the waterfront and met back up with Uncle Soup and Lara, then head to head out to Front Street from the park. This was a pain because Wilkie Park was chain link fenced and we had to exit by way of a regular gate.

We continued on Front Street, with a side trip left on Winter Street, right on Riverview Ave, and right on Summer Street back to Front Street. This was now the town of Florence, which had some nice old homes on the sides. We took one side trip down to Volunteers Park along the river front, with more nice views before continuing on.

Steps!

As we walked through Florence, we were now on higher bluffs above the river, with some park areas near it. We went by a section of closed off old metal stairs that led all the way down. Sean had his gloves on, grabbed hold of the hand rails, and slid quickly all the way to the bottom, which pushed him into a run onto the stony beach of the Delaware. It was amazing, but looked insane! When he asked if anyone else wanted his gloves to try it, of course none of us went for it!

After the steps, we continued to where the road turned inland. We cut off of it into a grassy area, then found a path leading down the bluffs from the end of the mowed area. The path took us to a very interesting spot with bicycle jumps and such. There was a good seasonal view from the bluffs out to the river beyond. Sean found a plastic bunny.

Delaware bluffs view toward Roebling

We descended on a rough path which took us to the edge of the Delaware again. There was a nice rocky beach section we were able to walk here around a cove to the northeast. We followed the shore past a couple of beacons for navigation, then reached a rocky slope where we had to climb up hill a bit. At the top, there was a paved trail that I was not expecting to find. At first, I wasn't sure if it was a trail at all. This was part of the Roebling and Sons Steel Mill property, somewhat recently re mediated. The mill site was founded by Charles Roebling, son of John A. Roebling who designed the Brooklyn Bridge and other earlier structures.

Along the Delaware approaching Roebling

The paved trail led around the former mill site, and at the far end we found only one building still remaining from the once vast plant. We continued as far as we could on this trail, then it looped us around near a retention pond, and to a point where we could ascend to the residential part of town. We continued through Roebling Park which had some nice walkways and such above where the mills would have been.

What Roebling once looked like

Serious Sean found a basketball which he tried dribbling around for a bit, but it didn't have quite enough air in it.

This was very obviously a planned industrial town. Most of the houses were about the same size, double family, but still large enough to be generous to the workers. Each place must certainly have at least two bedrooms. Everything was of brick construction, and one house near the north side was much larger than the others, probably a hotel at one time.

Striations along the Delaware

The sun was starting to go down along the Delaware in the direction we'd come from, leaving beautiful striations through the clouds over the river. We crossed the end of the park and turned right down 2nd Avenue with a line of Sycamores. We then passed by an old building associated with the mills, followed by more of them that are associated with the Roebling Museum. I plan on going back to check out the museum on a later trip. The entrance to it had trestles in place with an old engine and crane on display. We walked by these, a giant bucket, and a giant mill wheel on the way through.

Roebling Museum

The wheel looked just like the one we had climbed on during a hike in Phoenixville PA, which has since been removed. We took Hornberger Ave from here directly to the Roebling light rail River Line station and got tickets quickly. We arrived just before the train got there and barely had enough time.

My original plan of going to Bordentown just wasn't going to work out for this one. I will instead save that hike as the last one in the NJ Perimeter series. Much of it will be very easy and go by quickly compared to others because of the road sections and the Delaware and Raritan Canal portion.

The ride on the train was so much more direct than the crazy 18 mile hike we had just taken. We were back at the Beverly/Edgewater station in no time, and well before dark.

My stress level was not gone yet, but this trip definitely helped. The amount of stuff we experienced on this one hike really justified how I need to fight to keep it going, and helped me to get ready for the crazy week ahead.