Hike #838; North Easton Loop

Hike #838; North Easton Loop

4/2/15 North Easton Area Loop with Michele Valerio, Jess Collins, Dan Asnis, Jen Berndt, Stephen Argentina, Stef Statler, ?, Larry Philips, and  James Quinn.

The group in Hackett Park

Our next hike would be another Easton area loop trip, this time on the north side of town incorporating some of the great trails I'd used for past hikes as well as some new stuff I'd never used but had wanted to. I had recently started posting night hikes again, partly because I enjoyed them so much, but mostly because I needed it badly to deal with stress.

I've needed to get out and do extra hiking more than ever. The level of stress at work has continued to be high, and my schedule keeps changing regularly. Fortunately, my Sundays remain free to continue doing the regular weekend hikes, though that had until recently been in question. My level of stress was through the roof. I had been having a lot of breathing trouble, and continued to see doctors for it. In the fall, I was put on more steroids to stop inflammation in my lungs, and I ended up gaining weight fast from that again too. My doctor told me I probably wouldn't, but then at a later appointment told me "oh yes, that's normal". I've felt the most out of shape I've been in my life, out of breath, out of energy, and the things that keep me going were being pulled away from me.

I had reached my wit's end when I received a note at work telling me not to read my local history and ecology books on my own breaks, and instead read about carpentry and power tools. It also said rather than my volunteer work and "trail related hobby", to take night classes on plumbing and carpentry. I'd recently received a long awaited promotion I was told I had, but following this appointment was faced with a barrage of insulting and inappropriate notes, and up to five written reprimands a day. Time usually spent on Metrotrails items had to be spent writing rebuttals to send to the Union.

If this weren't enough, harassment from lunatics from my past and worsening respiratory conditions brought me down further. I would get light headed and lose feeling in my extremities. At the doctor's office, I had an asthma attack while using a nebulizer, and was stuck there 2.5 hours. The low point for me is embarrassing to the point where I almost didn't leave it in this entry.

While driving to work, I had a breakdown or panic attack to the point where I could not move. Shaking, convulsing, and frightening to drive even the short distance back home. My mind was racing with too many things at once. I was aware of everything but with such a feeling of disarray that I couldn't make a move to improve anything. Death to me seemed at the time like a more desirable circumstance. Although I am usually against the use of any medication, I took a xanax which calmed me down, and put me to sleep for about four hours.

After a stress test, my doctor deemed me "too worried". He felt that stress might be the biggest problem I'm facing, and I could be dealing with all sorts of physical manifestations. Of course, I'll probably always have some lung issues due to the scarring from the fire in 2010, but the doctor said that my lung capacity was at something like 104% (whatever that means), and being so above average should compensate well for the issues I have.

Although I am prescribed medication, I choose not to take it and deal with it my own way, and hiking is always best for me. The Easton area trip with familiar places as well as some new ones was just the thing to positively inspire me.

View from Paxinosa Road East

We met at Town Center Blvd on the north side of Easton, Forks Township. Michele, Jess, and Dan met me there to start off the hike. It was a pretty warm temperature at this time, quite comfortable. We headed south, behind a few stores, then east on Old Mill Road. We then headed up hill to the south on Sullivan Trail to Paxinosa Road East.

I had driving this road before in order to reach Gollub Park, with the overlook at St. Anthony's Nose, but I'd never walked the road before.

View of Wind Gap

Once on the road, there were nice views to the north, of the Kittatinny Ridge and Blue Mountain (Actually pretty much the same ridge, at the offset near Pen Argyl PA, the first of the 'doubling gaps" of the ridge, it changes names locally to 'Blue  Mountain'). We could soon see Wind Gap very clearly between houses and across their back yards as we followed the road along what is known as Weygadt Mountain. I wonder how many who live up there even know that is it's name.

View toward Delaware Water Gap

Further on, we had some really great views of Delaware Water Gap. We didn't pause to gawk for too long because these views were of course over people's houses and yards. We continued to walk the road until we got to he parking area for Gollub Park. The park has it's only limited parking rather far away from the actual trails.

Paxinosa Inn, burned 1905

The area was named for the Paxinosa Inn, a large resort atop Weygadt Mountain, and a stop on the local trolley line which followed the road we had been walking. The original hotel burned down in 1905 and was replaced by a "fire proof building". This building burned down in 1931

Second Paxinosa Inn, burned 1931

We walked the road to where it ended, and continued on the path with the beat up sign saying "George Gollub Park". The trolley right of way was actually on a driveway to the right, but turned off quickly and the trail re joined it. We continued on this path with the former site of the Paxinosa Inn above us.

Ruins at former Paxinosa Inn site

There are four standing things remaining of what I understand was a pavilion that went along with the Paxinosa Inn. We went on up to it and checked out the view through the trees. Across the Delaware, the new high school construction in Phillipsburg was coming along well. We could see the framed out building taking more shape than the last time I'd seen it.

View from Paxinosa Inn Porch

Historically, there would have been a much better view from the top, without any trees obscuring it. After the site was abandoned, it grew over fast. There are so many people who have no clue anything used to ever be up there on the mountain.

Historic view from Paxinosa Inn

Dan stayed down on the trolley right of way when Michele, Jess, and I ran up. We could then follow the pathway along the top to get back to the trail.

Paxinosa Inn

View from Paxinosa Inn

The trolley right of way continued along the slope, then passed through a cut with a dramatic bend to it, then continued to descend from Weygadt Mountain to the south. The path from the former inn descended to reach the trolley right of way, and another foot path led on to the St. Anthony's Nose overlook. There are conflicting stories about what exactly St. Anthony's Nose is; some say it is this overlook to the north, others say it is a rock outcropping a little further down off of the trolley right of way. Whatever the case, the trail leads to an outstanding overlook into Weygadt Gap and over to Marble Hill.

There was a group of young girls and guys coming up from this point when we walked down, and I told them about the Marble Hill trail system before they moved on.

View in Gollub Park

We sat and enjoyed the view for a little bit. The others who were going to join us would need a little time to get out to places to park anyway. I had already talked to Larry who was close, and soon Stephen called me. This was a surprise; I was happy to hear he'd be joining us, as he did not RSVP.

After taking in the view, we climbed back up to the trolley right of way and started following it's gradual route down hill to the left.

View from the trolley right of way of the Delaware in Easton

The trolley right of way had a really nice route down hill. We had good views through the trees at Marble Hill across the river, and then when we crossed the power line right of way, good views of Phillipsburg and Easton beyond.

Historic view from the trolley line

We continued gradually down hill on the right of way which seemed to continue to get narrower. There was a path down to the thing from a house somewhere above, and it had been recently cleared by someone and somewhat improved from the last time I had seen it. There were no "no trespassing" signs on the right of way, so I can only assume that the entire thing is still a park through here.

Historic view, St. Anthony's Nose?

Recent view, St. Anthony's Nose?

The section was one of my favorites. I had followed this section of right of way with Jillane before, but I never tried to figure out where exactly it came out. I figured there must be a way of following through on such a wide and obvious path.

While walking we reached a spot with rock outcroppings below us. This is one of the spots often labeled as St. Anthony's Nose. Some call the overlook further up in Gollub Park St. Anthony's Nose, others say this is it. Old postcards show it as this. The pointed up rock is likely something that would hold such a name, but today it is relatively unknown except to locals, and tough to get to because it's only really from above. There was a guy out chopping wood in his yard above the former trolley right of way, but  he didn't bother us at all.

We went down to the rock outcropping which offered us views up and down the Delaware. I slipped while stepping out there, where there was a potentially fatal fall if not careful. Dan decided not to join us out on the rock itself. Michele and Jess checked it out though. Some of the rock appears to have broken off in more recent years, but it still sticks up, though obscured by trees from afar.

The right of way was still easy to see, though it was growing over with some Japanese Barberry. Obviously hardly anyone walks it south of the rock formation. We continued down, and there were some trees fallen over it. We could still walk on through pretty easily

Abandoned old trail steps

The rail bed soon reached a fence and "no trespassing" signs. Fortunately, the trail at least used to go up hill to the right, to reach Shawnee Avenue. The trail was obviously sort of cut off. It at one time had stairs to connect the right of way with the road, but they had washed out and were for the most part destroyed. We walked up to them and had to climb a bit to get to the opening onto the road, then followed it down hill. The rail bed came out to Woodland Road, then joined Shawnee Road, and we continued on it. Stephen joined us on this road section, having parked on the road.

We continued on Parker Avenue, and then turned left when we got to Kemmerer Ave. It was here that we were joined by Stef and her friend (I feel bad I can't think of her name!).

College Hill trolley

We continued down to a right turn on Wayne Ave, then a left on Mixsell Street, and another right on Lafayette. We wandered through streets for a bit, as I tried to follow them on my phone. Jen had parked at Lafayette College somewhere and soon met us on the road. We then walked Paxinosa Ave south to a corner with a seasonal view of Phillipsburg and the Delaware River, then made our way over to Reeder Street. We continued basically on the roads closest to the hill side, then cut into Lafayette College where a path led half way down the slope, and connected to the one that comes up from Bushkill Drive. Larry was down there where he parked, and joined us at this point. We all headed to the top of the steps to the overlook of Easton and had a quick break.

Stef and her friend cut out temporarily; her friend didn't want to cover the distance we were doing, and so she would take her back and re-join us a bit later.

The group at Lafayette College

It started raining at this point, but fortunately did not last long. It was a good thing it wasn't too warm. Like we had on so many other hikes, we followed along the top of College Hill through the campus, then crossed into the Fisher Campus with the Amphitheater on the slope. We took a break at the campus store for drinks and restroom break before moving on from Fisher Campus, down past the back of the buildings and to the access road. We cut across and down to Rt 22, and descended beneath it's bridge over Bushkill Drive and it's namesake creek.

I had planned to bring everyone through Easton Cemetery, but even though it wasn't dark yet, the gates were already closed. We'd have to follow the Easton Arts Trail, which turned off the former Lehigh Valley Railroad bed to cross the Bushkill Street Bridge, then kept to the paved route below Rt 22 along the creek. The railroad bed crosses again a little further ahead, at which point the trail follows that.

Since the last time on this trail, it had been adorned with different kinds of art.

Planety things

There was an archway immediately after turning from the bridge, and then some planet type of things and other weird stuff. We wandered along the path toward 13th Street where there were kids smoking pot and the old mill across the creek. The mill had been completely gutted on the inside for redevelopment. When I think about things like that, I wonder how they can do something like this in Easton PA, but they won't do it with places like the former Greystone Psychiatric Hospital in Morristown.

We turned left on 13th Street after checking out another old mill, then headed up a little further than we usually go to Spring Garden Street so we'd go near Stef's house, and she could join us again. James also parked on this street to complete the rest of the hike with us.

Once together, we continued on the road a short distance to 17th Street, and down to Wood Avenue. We could cross almost directly to the parking lot to ball fields across the street in Lower Hackett Park. We followed along these to reach the Wilson Bike Path. The pathway connects to the former Easton and Northern/Lehigh Valley Railroad bed heading north from Easton, which we've followed so many times in the past.

We came up to cross the pedestrian bridge over Rt 22 and had to wait for Dan, who was putting his flashlight on. I had to remind him that we couldn't have flashlights in this section because technically we weren't supposed to be in this area after dark. We made our way up hill on the trail, following a former road, and then crossed Hackett Ave into Upper Hackett Park. We managed to get across this park and over to the rest of the path leading down hill to the old railroad bed. We turned left at the bottom and followed it to the north.

This section had only been completed as a trail in 2013. Before that, it was a simple rail bed unofficially used as a trail. I preferred it the other way, but I suppose now it lends itself very well to night hiking. We walked by the industrial properties on Edgewood Ave after crossing, and a few workers looked on at us as we wandered by, and they were unloading or loading something outside. We passed through woods and across a bridge over Bushkill Creek, then crossed Bushkill Park Drive and passed behind several homes. A light went on on one of them as we went by, but we just moved along. We crossed Bushkill Creek again, and passed Penn Pump Park before crossing Northwood Ave. There was an officer or something in a car near this crossing, but no one gave us a hard time for continuing on the trail through the dark. When we reached the north side of the last industry, we took a break so everyone could catch up. It was a lot more comfortable from this point where we were around less development on the rail bed.

We headed north over Stocker Mill Road, and beyond through nice pleasant woods. The rain had stopped, and the ambient light of the nearby road was enough to see without lamps. The temperature too had gone up. This felt like a Summer night hike, almost too warm, but really just right. We reached Penn's Grant Path, another paved trail that crossed on an old roadway, and turned right to it's east end over Bushkill Creek. We turned abruptly left on Bushkill Drive, then right on Kesslerville Road. It wasn't far up the road we turned right onto a paved path.

The paved trails for most of the remainder of the hike weren't really a problem to be on after dark. I'd hiked them before in daylight in November 2013. I chatted with James, who ironically had lived in Easton when I was doing really a whole lot of Easton area hikes. It's too bad we didn't know each other then. We continued to the next trail intersection, at what used to be a farm road, and followed it down hill to the right, then turned left again on another path in a wide open area between developments. We followed this path to a right turn, and some of the group ahead continued on the grass. I had to holler to them to turn right to Meco Road, which is where the path turned right to reach anyway. We followed Meco Road briefly across Sullivan Trail (a road), then turned left on another paved path which led through and around the Meco Fields. This trail came out to follow roads closely, then intersected another path that went between houses heading southeast. The path came to a line of trees, which I believe was an old road, where we'd turn right.

While walking, we were talking very silly things, and somehow something came up about Pilgrims and Ninjas again (yes, it's come up before). I think I mentioned something about ninjas wearing armor, and Stephen responded "Ninjas don't wear armor! They wear....fresh linens!!". A list of silly statements followed about Ninjas smelling spring time fresh and such. It was just the kind of silly laughs I needed.
On the past hike, we turned left at this point and headed to the Forks Township Trail, which is the former Uhler Branch of the Lehigh and New England Railroad. This time, we would turn right to follow the path down hill to the south. I had never followed this route.
The path was older than the rest we had been following. The pavement had been there for longer, and was beginning to heave in some places because of the larger tree roots coming through. We crossed Meco Road again, then Kirkland Road and Ramblewood Drive. This section of trail was sloped down hill in such a way that I'd not have known looking at the google maps.
As we walked through this heavily developed area, there was a peaceful feeling. The valley ahead of and houses on the opposite hillside, part of Weygadt Mountain, each had a little light, and I thought how each of those houses had people settling in for the night. Only those of us who experienced this moment could relate to the feelings I had looking over this serene and beautiful spot. It was a moment where I fully recognized my place in the world, and anything beyond that is indescribable. This ranks among the most beautiful things I have ever seen; it wasn't an amazing high vista, an abandoned asylum or historic structure, it was a simple place at a simple moment that could never be duplicated with such splendor.
The path crossed a brook at the bottom of the slope on an obvious old road bridge. I was pretty certain before this was some sort of road, if only a farm road, but the concrete bridge with metal railings led me to believe this was a regular community road. We headed up hill, and the trail weaved to the left a bit.
These trails were perfect for hiking at night. During the daytime, they lose something in the revelation of the bright peripheral vastness of the residential communities. It was sad to me when the trail came to an end at Dayton Drive. We turned right on Frost Hollow Road, and right again on Elizabeth Ave to get back to the supermarket where we had parked.
The hike seemed to end too fast. It seemed like their should have been some transition between the experience on the pathway and the brief street walk back to the parking lot. I suppose any ending to this hike might not live up to the glory of the previous section.
The most important thing about this hike was the reminder that I can free my mind of worry and stress without the use of medication, or really anything other than what I've always done. My cure will always find me as long as I continue to do what I love. There is bliss to be found in the most unlikely of locations and situations. I'd have the next three days off for exploring and relaxing, and on this night I found the balance I needed to enjoy it.