Hike #845; Easton Area Loop

Hike #845; Easton Area Loop

4/23/15 Easton Area Loop with Justin Gurbisz and Dan Asnis

Bridge

Our next hike would be another night hike I had planned for western Warren County, with some scouting for a new trail system we were planning to put in. My buddy Matt was unable to attend, so rather than do this one, I last minute made a change of plans based on participation and we headed to Easton.

Justin had arrived early and experienced every bridge connecting Phillipsburg and Easton including all rail bridges and the signal bridge over the former Lehigh Valley Railroad. He was picture messaging me stuff about it for a while. Only he and Dan showed up, and so I figured we could head into Easton and sort of wing it. I know the area well enough and there are tons of things to see.

We took a stroll to Free Bridge Wine and Spirits first. I saw that they had Weyerbacher brewery's Blithering Idiot barleywine, so I purchased some. We then headed out past the station like building along the old Bel Del. We crossed the parking lot, then headed over onto the Bel Del tracks heading southward. We turned to the right when we got to the Morris Canal arch, former base of Inclined Plane #11 West.

Plane 11 West

I pointed out where the railroad bridges used to cross, and how their was a double decker arch that predated the current two bridges. We made our way back over and along the tracks heading south a bit more to where the plane passed beneath the Bel Del tracks, and we made our way up to the old canal basin site where the toll collector's house used to be.

From that point, we turned back behind us and climbed to the former Lehigh Valley Railroad right of way. It looked so strange this time, with the trees growing so high over it.

The tower on this hike

Looking at the old signal tower bridge over the former Lehigh Valley right of way, it's amazing to see that the trees have grown so high over the top of it. The view from the top is much more obscured than it ever was when I first started climbing it.

The tower on one of my hikes in 2001.

We continued over to the bridge over the Delaware River, and I checked with Dan if he'd be comfortable enough crossing it quickly. He probably wouldn't be able to get over it as quickly as Justin and I could, so he opted to go back and walk over the free bridge. I told him to meet us near the McDonalds on the other side.

It's a but unnerving for me to cross this bridge. Ron Short, who was my best friend for a time, lost his life on the NJ side of this bridge. He had been hanging out on it earlier, and had left some of his pictures there. He went back to get them later, and the walkway section let loose. He fell thirty feet below to the ground next to the Bel Del tracks. He was found by a girl walking by the next day.

Walking on those grates makes me think of Ron and the horrible end he met at the bridge. I cautiously stepped on each one, some of which were a bit loose. We got to the other side and had to make the wide stride to get to the ground because there's a large section without anything to step on. The bridge was also missing ties out near the middle this time. I think they must have been intentionally removed to keep ATVs from crossing.

Once on the other side, we turned right to climb Mount Ida. This rock outcropping was something my friend Ron referred to as "Coca Cola Mountain" because of the billboard that was on it for years. Mount Ida is the historic name. Many historic photos of Phillipsburg and Easton were taken from this location, and so I wanted to get some matching ones.

Historic view from Mt. Ida including the original covered bridge

I managed to find photos that included the original covered bridge, second bridge to be completed across the entire Delaware, as well as later when the current Northampton Street Bridge was completed.

Historic view from Mt. Ida after construction of the Northampton Street Bridge of today

The area looks vastly different in all three views in terms of industrial and recreational points developed along the forks of the two rivers.

Present view with Rt 22 also in place.

While we were heading up the mountain, I was surprised to see an older gentleman with an army hat there taking photos. When Justin and I were on our way up, we did the same when a Norfolk Southern diesel engine came by with many cars towed behind it. I also noticed it had a 1950s model Black River and Western engine in the line as well.

Present view of former Lehigh Valley Railroad from Mt. Ida

Historic view of Lehigh Valley Railroad from Mount Ida

We stopped to chat with the guy, who knew quite a lot about the railroads in the area. I always love meeting with people with that common interest. Rails are truly amazing and never get old to me. He mentioned the BR&W engine on there too, and I thought it was neat that we noticed the same thing. He also asked if we noticed all the containers on the train that read "EPIC". I told him I saw them, and then he told us that they contained waste material...human waste! Only he called it "the dirty dirt"!

We chatted for a long while, but we had a lot of time to go, so we said goodbye and headed to the top to take our photos. There were some great views of the bridges in town of course, and then we headed over to the west facing sign where we could also see the former Central Railroad of NJ crossing the Lehigh and leading away from the former Lehigh Valley line. We could see Dan pacing around by the McDonalds and shouted out to him to look up at us. I know he could hear us but he didn't look up to see.

Current view of former CNJ bridge on Mt. Ida

I figured we'd better head on down so that Dan didn't get too worried about where we were. I hadn't programmed his phone number yet so it'd take me a while to simply call him.

Historic view of Easton on Mt. Ida.

We passed our new friend and said goodbye again, then turned right along the tracks. We headed along the rock face of Mt. Ida and the Central Railroad of NJ used to turn off to the right to cross the Lehigh River on another long bridge. I'd crossed this before on a past hike years ago but hadn't bothered trying again recently.

Another view from Mt. Ida

Another historic view on Mt. Ida

The last time I'd crossed this bridge, we had to crawl with some difficulty under chain link fences, but this time it was all cut up and easy to go over. We headed across, in plain sight from the McDonalds and many other businesses below. A police car went by while we were up there, and we just hid behind a tree for a bit.

Signal bridge on the CNJ line

Historic view of the CNJ line

Once the car was out of sight, we continued out and over the barricades blocking off the west side of the bridge. Dan headed up the hill to join us at the access to the tracks and we all headed onto the shelf above the Lehigh heading west. The tracks are still in at this point but they're growing over rather quickly. We continued out of sight of the nearby roads, but then passed several homeless campsites.

The tracks through this area were a bit more overgrown than they were in past years wandering through. In some areas, the stilt grass was so thick that one could only make out the outlines of the rails beneath it. We passed old structures like a shelter, old switch boxes, and a signal tower, now all overgrown with various vines and other vegetation.

We continued on the line until there was an old industry to the right. There was a behemoth of a large brick building several stories high with a chain link fence around it, and a much older two story peaked roof structure, masonry in construction with stucco exterior. The larger brick structure was built amazingly close to the stone one, which was most certainly of a much earlier vintage. I would guess that the old house must have dated to at the latest early 1800s, but very possibly to colonial 1700s.

Historic stone house

Both buildings were sadly boarded up and inaccessible. There were breaks in the fence so we could easily get a closer look. One board on the larger building was loose, but not enough that we could get in without much more effort. We explored a bit, but then continued on the railroad bed further west. The tracks ended around this point with a spur to an industry to the south. We were able to continue to follow the right of way for a ways, but it was getting more overgrown.

We went a little further, then on to East Street where it was parallel with the rail line up hill. I figured this would be a good opportunity to get up to the other rail trail. I climbed up at a point that I thought looked like it'd be the street, and it was. There was crumbling concrete wall barriers on the edge that we had to climb up, and the edge of the road was blocked by a wood fence rather than a galvanized guard rail like most places. It certainly wouldn't hold a car from going over the edge if it needed to! It's not often we see things like that any more.

We turned left on the street although I realized soon we should have gone right. The turn took us too far away from the railroad from where we wanted to be and we had to make a turn back in the other direction to get back toward it. We didn't go all the way to the trestle site where I'd wanted to climb up to it, Iron Street, but we climbed down to the trail and headed to that road anyway because I wanted to show Justin the old wooden trestle over the road. We got to that point and crossed much of the trestle, but then turned back because we had to go the other way anyway.

There were kids playing down hill in the park shouting out "Look! They're up on the trestle!", seeming surprised that anyone would attempt the crossing.

Old trestle

Iron Street Bridge in 2002

Iron Street Bridge in 2015

We had a closer look at the bridge on the other side. It's safe to say that this bridge will never be re-purposed as a trail bridge. It will need to be replaced altogether, even for pedestrian use. Being of wooden construction, it was rotting very badly. Every bit of exposed wood we could see had rotted through the center and  often we could see right through to the other ends. This wood was holding up the entire bridge. It would never support a locomotive today. It might not support a maintenance vehicle.

Holloe bridge support

It's kind of sad to know that the day is coming when that bridge will certainly have to be removed. We discussed how each politician is probably hoping it just doesn't happen during their own administration. The bridge will eventually collapse when those hollow ties finally give out under their own weight. When that time comes, they can't simply demolish it and remove the remnants; they will have to dispose of the creosote soaked framework in some painstaking and expensive process that is likely to cost millions.

We  headed on back to the somewhat newly paved trail section and the box culvert placed at the 23rd Street overpass.

Box Culvert on the former Easton and Northern

This was the former Easton and Northern Line, a branch of the Lehigh Valley Railroad. I'd been hiking this one for many years and never thought they'd have replaced this particular bridge with something so much smaller.

Earlier 23rd street overpass on Easton and Northern, 2002.

It's so strange to see how much these places have changed. Justin and I walked ahead of Dan through the box culvert, and noted the graffiti on the walls. We discussed how it's surprising to see so much positive message graffiti these days in the most unlikely of places. On the wall here, we found a striking one we'd never heard before:

"Life's An Aquarium...Tap the Glass"

The quote was thought provoking. It seems to encourage harmless provocation for personal entertainment. It's use as an analogy for life encourages action just outside the realm of social acceptance, but at the same time is overall innocuous. The thought rattled around in my mind while my body moved smoothly along the all too smooth and level surface of the paved rail trail. We crossed 25th Street at grade and continued on around the corner, behind the new Home Depot area and retention ponds associated with it. We then turned left on the paved path that leads out in a roundabout way through Palmer Township. It at first skirts behind homes and such and then gains the right of way of a former Central Railroad of NJ branch. My plan was to walk to Family Thrift, along the trail at Milford Street, and then head on out to the former main CNJ line and D&L Trail back toward Easton.

I had thought Family Thrift was open until 8. It's a fantastic store, and it's where I picked up the grey pin striped suit for Justin that he wears often. I figured we'd shop around a bit as part of the night hike, but it had closed at 6:30.

Disheartened, we lumbered across the street to the abandoned parking lot and control building. There was obviously some homeless person living inside this little shack, so we left pretty soon. I thought about it for a moment as we were walking down the rail trail heading west. I'd rather do this section in the dark because there's not much to see on it initially. I had wanted to check walkways under the Rt 33 bridge, but I had my doubts about how accessible it would be. With the quote rattling around in my head, I thought of the abandoned Dixie Cup factory, and how I'd gone in a few years back but didn't return. Justin and I could pull that off with no problem.

I brought up the idea, and we immediately turned around and followed the rail trail back the direction we'd come. We reached the former Easton and Northern line again, then headed out to cross William Penn Highway by Wallgreens at an angle. We then crossed 25th Street on the paved path where the rail bed had been removed and continued on toward the factory.

Cup

We wandered on up hill and continued on the rail bed a short bit, then I began looking at the fences to the right. There was a break in it where you could just duck on by. There were no "no trespassing" signs to be seen. People obviously hang out in this area. I showed Justin the way in I'd found before, still open in the same way it was several years ago. Inside we found large open areas but nothing otherwise of particular interest.

Cup

We must have walked around the perimeter of the base of the building at least three times. I had wandered this by myself before, looking for stairs that might lead to an upper level, but never found anything. Justin and I were coming up with nothing either. Every hall looked about the same. We found our way into offices and side rooms, thinking each time that we'd found a set of stairs going up. Nothing. We eventually found it off of one of the regular long warehouse rooms, and followed it directly to the top, skipping the unnecessary middle floors. Once at the time, we made our way to the right and then down a hallway where we could see an open area in the roof. There were open slanted windows we could step through to get on this lower roof section. It was completely invisible up here to anyone around.

There was a large metal framework upon with the famous cup sat. A ladder hung just a jump from reach to the roof area, which Justin grabbed with ease. The thing was not holding on by very much, with old welds breaking off badly. Justin doesn't weight so much so he had an easy time not breaking it. I decided not to climb any higher.

"Two Men, One Cup"

I made some off color remarks about "Two Men, One Cup" while I was photographing Justin climbing up to the top. He didn't go to the top of the cup because that would have meant being seen from further away. Even at night the thing is somewhat illuminated. When he was satisfied at the time reaching the almost highest point, he came back down and we headed back the way we came. We got to the stairs with no problem, and then ended up walking the lower floor for a couple of laps trying to figure out the way we'd originally come in. We couldn't find it.

When I got to a room that I thought connected, we came across a new truck with an obviously often used trailer attached to the hitch. We had to get out of at least that part. It was actively being used for storage. We made our way out and I guided us to the east side of the building. We walked north from there, and when we'd reached just about the furthest north we turned left down a long hall. This led us back to the way we got in.

We carefully climbed on out, and when ready dashed back to the fence. In the very short stretch back, a glance to our right revealed a silver car, apparently security, that had not been in there before. We moved across so quickly that the guy (probably asleep) didn't seem to spot us. We jumped down into the fence, then climbed through the weeds back to the rail trail. As we paralleled the other side of the fence, we came near to the apparent security car. There was indeed someone inside, but we could make out their figured leaned back onto the seat. He probably was a sleep after all!

Factory along the trail

Our factory visit was a great success. Even if the rest of the trip had been totally boring, this made it all worth it.

We made our way along the trail toward the Taco Bell. We had Dan go there and wait for us while we did our exploring, so we had to go back to meet him. The rail bed remained paved from this point, much different than it looked the first time I'd walked it in 2002.

Same view in 2002

We got to Taco Bell and I saw the sign advertising the new Buffalo Chicken Doubledilla thing. The employees there sold me on it. It was pretty tasty; I wasn't really in the mood for buffalo chicken, but it was a large serving that I was happy with. I also got a free caramel apple empenada. While eating the thing, I spilled the apple good on my cell phone. "UGG I got apple shit on my phone" I bellowed out. Justin immediately quipped "Does that make it an iphone?". It seemed so much funnier at the moment than it probably was.

We made our way from the Taco Bell back to the rail trail across Northampton Street. We were able to easily descend where the path leaves the railroad and crosses Wood Avenue to Lower Hackett Park. From that point we headed onto Wood Avenue, then right on 17th Street to a left on Spring Garden Street. I thought Stef Statler might meet up with us again here, as we'd been in contact. We stopped by her place, but she decided not to come along this time. We took a break there before moving on to the east a bit more.

When we reached 13th Street we turned left and descended, crossed, and passed beneath Rt 22. We then cut through the woods to the right on the south side of the old mill building. There was no way in there, so we continued on to the parking lot and then onto the Carl Stirner Arts Trail, which at this point was a former Lehigh Valley Railroad right of way we'd hiked many times. The trail continued after the rail bed left it, parallel with Rt 22. We continued out parallel with the Easton Cemetery, then across Bushkill Creek to regain the railroad. We went up hill from there when we got underneath Rt 22 to climb to Lafayette College Campus on the same route we've followed in both directions many times. When we got to the top, we made our way up into the Fisher Campus. There were parties going on all around, but nothing we got invited to. We stopped by the college store to use restrooms and take a break, and I found Reece's pieces in my pack that were in a bag shaped like a carrot. I'd been holding onto these since Easter and had forgotten about them. We pigged out on those at Fisher Campus, then made our way along the edge of the bluffs with the views of the Easton city lights below.

Justin and I at Lafayette College. Photo by Dan Asnis

We made our way to my favorite overlook of Easton, at the war memorial statue looking toward the statue in the city circle. From this point, we headed down the stairs to Bushkill Drive and turned left. We followed the road out toward Rt 22, and then crossed that bridge on the north pedestrian walkway. Once on the other side, we descended to street level to walk back to the Union Square area we'd parked.

We had covered a lot of ground in a short time, and explored a lot of stuff. It was just the type of positive reinforcement I needed to keep myself going despite all the negativity at work.