Hike #847; Easton Loop

Hike #847; Easton Loop

4/30/15 Easton Area Loop with Brandan Jermyn

Loitering

This next hike would be another impromptu Easton loop, similar but also different than the previous one. I had re-posted the scouting hike on Warren Highlands that we had planned the week before, but again changed it when it was only Brandan and I. I picked him up from work and we set out to do the hike from Union Square, Phillipsburg.

I had an idea for a different loop that would work out pretty well I thought. I was glad Brandan could make it, because no one else signed up and I really needed to get out badly. As before, work was driving me crazy and I needed something positive to jolt me back to feeling alive. During the previous days, I'd had another panic attack at work, the third time in my life that this has happened. It seems like things aren't quite as bad as they were, but I'm adversely effected by even more simple things at this time. To make things worse, the allergy season was hitting me hard. My energy had been feeling completely drained. I wasn't really even looking forward to the hikes very much. I'd had one scheduled for Sunday in Carbondale PA, and I didn't even bother looking at the route like I usually do as the date approached.

This hike ended up being exactly what I needed. We headed out from Union Square, still not even sure which route we would take. I figured we did the abandoned trestle the previous time, no need to go back that way right away. We instead headed across the Northampton Street Free Bridge on the north side, then descended to the right down steps to beneath it.

We  had a nice walk along the waterfront, then continued to the Rt 611 bridge. We had a good view of Mount Ida, which Justin and I were on a week before.

Mount Ida view

The first time I was up Mount Ida was with my friend Ron Short and the rest of the group in 2002. Ron used to call it "Coca Cola Mountain" because of the advertisement that used to be on it I suppose. The advertisement can be seen painted on on the old postcard view.

Historic view of Mount Ida

We continued across the bridge and turned left on 611 south, passing a sign that shows pedestrian crossing, but with very short legs. I took a cell phone shot of it to send to my Superintendent because she likes odd signs. We continued to the left and descended to the former Lehigh Canal towpath down to the river side. This section was where the canal used Lehigh slack water.

We walked on to the first canal section in South Easton, and checked out the lock tender's house ruins. We then crossed the canal on the lock and headed over to see an abandoned building I'd never bothered to look at before. We continued on the paved trail that goes below the towpath because it had also been a while since I had explored the ruins down there.

At Glendon Iron Works

The ruins, caked between the paved trail and the towpath, are those of the Glendon Iron Works, which opened in the area about 1843. Very little remains of this once enormous enterprise. We reached the first bit that had a covered roof still in place and went in to look around. There are sleeping bags and such laying around where the homeless have been staying, but we didn't see any of them. There was also a lot of spray paint on the walls.

Glendon Iron Works

We went  back out of the first section after getting an amusing photo of Brandan sticking his head up into a vertical metal pipe. The next bit we had to climb through a former window opening to a covered area. Much of the ruins was masonry but there was also concrete from the later years of the business.

Glendon Iron Works

The entire area of ruins as it remains today appears so small compared to what the photos show of this giant industry. The company used to smelt iron they got from the Teabo Mine in Hibernia NJ, and they shipped at one time primarily by Lehigh and Morris Canals. On the west side of the ruins, it was apparent that a large earth mover had been in and wrecked some of the ruins. This worried me a bit, these ruins might not be here that much longer.

I used to play in the ruins on hikes with my grandfather years ago, so it was really cool to crawl all through them the way we used to and see it pretty much unchanged from how I remembered it.

We left the ruin and continued on the nice paved path lined with good sized Mayapple plants. To the right of us, the Lehigh River appeared to have a man made causeway along it that I'd not noticed before. It most certainly must have had something to do with the iron industry here.

Glendon Iron Works ruins

We continued on and returned to the towpath. We could see the coal chutes along the former Lehigh Valley railroad tracks to the right. It was a nice, relaxing walk through here, and I was feeling really good about being out there at this point. I'd calmed down a lot. We made our way to the main part of Hugh Moore Park and continued to the old Glendon Bridge, the roue the D&L Trail now uses to cross over the river. They'd added a concrete pathway next to the traffic lane of the bridge. On the other side, the trail ascents via a paved switchback to the right of way of the Central Railroad of NJ. We continued on this out to the ball fields a bit further to the west. Once there, we cut down hill a bit closer to the Lehigh on the paved trail following the former trolley right of way.

Trolley line at chain dam historic shot

We continued along the path to the Chain Dam, a large extant dam with a fish ladder along the trail. The trolley passed beneath a culvert at this point, also still in place, under the former CNJ railroad.

Former trolley line at Chain Dam today

The site looks quite a bit different today and few realize this was ever a trolley right of way. Rather than follow the trolley line or the rail bed, we continued straight ahead on what was once the towpath of the Lehigh Canal. The later canal crossed over to an island in the river where there was an amusement park, but prior to that they were ferried over closer to the dam, and a towpath was built along the slack water of the river here. Some of these remnants can be found today, and an informal foot path follows along the river side to study it more closely. This is one of my favorite sections in the area, always a joy to walk.

Lehigh Canal former towpath

We followed this lovely section until it became somewhat impassable. We then climbed up to the CNJ railroad bed, now the paved D&L Trail, and began following it west. We continued until we reached the former junction with a branch CNJ line that went up to connect with the Lehigh Valley Railroad's Easton and Northern line. The grade is a gradual up hill from the Lehigh here.

Since my first time hiking beneath it on the Lehigh Canal, I'd wanted to see the underside of the Rt 33 bridge. I could see there was a walkway and figured we could get across it. Since it was just the two of us, I figured I'd check it out. We climbed up and found that the steel framework of the underside was easy to climb up. It was quite slippery, but if we used our hands we could easily slide to where we could get to the ladder. I went up and climbed the ladder to the decking across the bridge.

Underside

Once I got up on the thing and started walking across, I saw two figures walking toward me. I didn't panic, but I didn't know who could be under there. I climbed back down hastily and waited to see what was up. They waited a bit too. It turned out to be two young girls followed by two  young guys. When one guy climbed down onto a girder at a great height, Brandan quipped "Look! It's Justin!", joking that this is what our friend Justin Gurbisz would do. One of the kids said "You know him??". It turns out the kid's name was Justin also.

We chatted with them a bit and they told us we could get all the way across the bridge and climb down the other side. I'll have to go back to try it for certain. We almost tried to do it this time, but we opted instead to try to get to Taco Bell first. We climbed back down to the trail, quite happy with our discovery, and headed along the trail back toward Easton.

Along the route, there was a garage that had a bashed out door to the right. I went on in to have a look around. Nothing particularly of interest.

We continued easily along the trail to the former LV right of way. We turned left past the Wallgreens at William Penn Highway, and then across 25th Street. Just past there we got to the abandoned dixie cup factory again. I asked Brandan if he'd like to see inside. Riding on the energy we'd had from the earlier adventures, off we went to the factory again. We headed in and this time I was easily able to find my way to the top floor. We couldn't use flashlights because the building is almost all windows and we'd definitely be seen. Once we got to the top floor and headed through the window to where the dixie cup itself was, we started seeing lights flashing in from the opposite side in the rooms. I figured there might be some security walking around. We quickly headed back through the window and ran back down the steps to the lower floor. Exiting the building, we saw no sign of a guard this time. We got out easily and made our way the short distance to Taco Bell.

iYo quiero Taco Bell!

We hung out at the restaurant until they had closed, and we were apparently holding them up. We had some delicious cheap stuff, then headed back to the trail toward Easton.  We followed the trail to Lower Hackett Park across Wood Ave, and then continued through the ball field park and across Wood Avenue to Bushkill Street east. Once at 13th, we headed south to the Stirner Arts Trail on the old railroad bed and followed that along the Bushkill Creek to where it crossed again on the road bridge to the cemetery. Since we'd covered more than enough distance, rather than head up to Lafayette College we continued on the Stirner Arts Trail out toward town, and walked out along Bushkill Street toward the Rt 22 bridge. We turned and made our way to the circle in the center of town before heading over to the Northampton Street Free Bridge, which got us back to Phillipsburg where we started.

Easton Circle

I was really really tired by the end, but it was a very fulfilling trip. I can barely remember the final leg of walking to the cars. When we got to my car it was a good thing Brandan was there because I'd not have been able to keep myself awake unless I got an energy drink somewhere. I even fell alseep in front of Brandan's house after dropping him off before pulling out and heading home (Brandan had to call me up from in the house to remind me to move so my car didn't wake the neighbors up!).

Hanging out with my old friend and putting a new spin on some familiar old places was exactly what the doctor ordered. When I got to work the next morning, even though we were out late, I was physically a bit drained but feeling very awake and quite alright. I'm not feeling really great yet, but I'm definitely on my way, so long as nothing else shoots me down.