Hike #937; Phillipsburg Area Loop

Hike #937; Phillipsburg Area Loop

5/19/16 Phillipsburg Loop with Alyssa Lidman, Lowell Perkins, Evan Melquist, Nick ?, Sue Bennett, Jason W. Briggs, John Spiridon, Jennifer Berndt, James Quinn, Sarah Jones, and Phillipsburg Trail Committee.

The group on the Morris Canal

A night hike would mark my first group trip back after backpacking. It’s strange coming back, because the time away from everyone but one person sort of changes the world. I kind of forget my place in the world. I both lose my identity, and also realize it more.
I came up with an interesting loop around Phillipsburg area that would incorporate the Morris Canal quite a lot, as well as Warren Highlands Trail and connections, and then other random stuff, some of which I’d never done before. It ended up being a really great time with a lot of laughs, as is to be expected.

Hikin' the mall

One thing I had never done on any of my hikes in the past, amazingly, is hike through the Phillipsburg Mall. I’d been going there my entire life, hiked all sorts of stuff close to it, but never brought the group in. We’d done tons of malls before, which is always a laugh: Hackettstown Mall before it was destroyed, Ledgewood Mall, Jersey Gardens Mall, Rockaway Townsquare Mall, and many others. How Phillipsburg slipped through the cracks so many times is beyond me.
We went in near the Bon Ton, walked on through, and then stopped into my friend Stephanie Nagy’s store, the Spin Me Round music and book store. I used to visit her store regularly when she had it in Hackettstown, but the Phillipsburg location was working much better for her, and she probably has the most interesting store in the mall in all honesty.
I looked through for new books (I’d bought an Erie Canal Trail guide my previous visit), and everyone looked through CDs and such. We had to wait for John S. to rejoin us, then we could move on, so we stayed and chatted with Steph and her employee Grier Elizabethh a bit.
On the way out, Sarah kept breaking off to check out other stores, so we had to reign her in too. We made our way out of the mall, then west across the parking lot toward the new development going in. The plan here was that they would utilize the Morris Canal as part of their retention pond system. I wanted to walk it to make sure they were doing it okay.

Morris Canal/retention pond

I have a few issues with it in that it doesn’t entirely use the old canal towpath. At one point it is actually parallel with the berm of the retention pond. We walked over it anyway and had a closer look.
At least we get a trail out of the mess. The developer should have been forced to create a crossing of Rt 22 for us to put anything in really. As of now, the greenway is screwed up with Rt 22 because there is no good crossing. We will have to route something to the nearest traffic light.
We followed the stretch of the canal to the end of the development piece, then the prism and towpath become overgrown. We walked the parallel Lock Street from there.

Former Morris Canal

I realized pretty early on in this hike that it would be among the most educational of night hikes. I went over the history of the Morris Canal quite a lot, how it was the greatest climber of the world’s canals through inclined plane technology in addition to the locks, then went on to talk about the county’s Morris Canal plan. There is really a whole lot to see in the Phillipsburg area, so I was just scraping the surface of what we would be going over. We continued on Lock Street toward for former Inclined Plane #12 West at Jim Lee Jr.’s house.
As we approached, I pointed out a driveway that was the original inclined plane. The canal was refurbished several times, and it was not until 1842, the final refit, that the scotch turbine driven inclined planes were first implemented. The turbine works on a similar principal to a sprinkler system, and was a huge innovation for it’s time.His

Historic view of former tail race tunnel and power house

We walked down the road past this to the site of the later inclined plane, as well as the power house and tail race tunnel outlet. I got a pretty good then and now photo of the site wandering through.
We had a brief look around, then made our way back onto Lock Street to head into Phillipsburg further.

Present day view of tail race tunnel and power house site

The canal and the Lopatcong Creek were one and the same some of the time, but other times were apart. I believe this was a section where they were together again. A couple of the locks are now buried or destroyed up ahead, as we turned to the right past a ball field. Lock tenders houses however, are still standing though they have been altered quite a lot over the years making them rather unrecognizable as such. While walking the road, James met up with us and parked his car along the side. We all continued on into Phillipsburg from here. I noted some masonry and such along the section before we reached South Main Street.

Former Morris Canal

We had to cross the creek on the road bridge, turn right on South Main Street, then turn right onto the canal towpath which was one with the stream again. We could see the old mill building with no roof on it nearby, which was sort of sad. I hear tell they are going to do something with it (other than demolition) but not sure what yet. We didn’t walk the towpath too far because it’s a dead end back there. We’d have to wade right through the creek to follow it down, and while I am not opposed to this, I’m sure not the entire group would want to follow through with that. We headed back to South Main and headed over to Green’s Bridge. A stone viaduct built by the Central Railroad of NJ spans the valley and is still a defining characteristic though the railroad is abandoned. Former Lehigh Valley Railroad crosses on the other side of it on a girder bridge, but it was originally a deck truss on stone piers right next to the current one. I pointed out to everyone the remnants of the canal towpath walkway still in the creek. I also told Jason about the old bottles Jillane had found there, and he pointed out some tops he said were like 150 years old.

Historic view at Green's Bridge

We headed along the former canal route, still one with the creek here, under the bridge and past the Nortons Cork N Bottle liquor store. Just past here at a former mill site we met up with the Phillipsburg trail committee.

Present day view at Green's Bridge

It was a while waiting for everyone to show up. The Mayor, Steve Ellis, who I used to work for, was not able to make it, but Randy Piazza was there, and he gave a history talk for us at the start. When the group all arrived, we walked through everything along the creek. I went down in the creek when someone said something about old slag from an iron furnace in there. I nearly got stuck in the mess.
It was really cool how bubbly and shiny black the refuse from the old furnaces was. I’d never seen it in the area before. We walked with the trail committee to the first bridge over the creek. Others that showed up were Jim Lee Jr. and Al Amey who I worked with at Kittatinny Valley State Park, as well as many others.

Lopatcong Creek and former canal

The trail committee headed up to walk an abandoned road on the other side of the creek, which will one day serve as part of a loop trail, but the rest of us continued on Morris Canal Greenway into Phillipsburg.
I pointed out where there is a filled in aqueduct that carried a street that is now gone beneath the canal, but we couldn’t really get over to it, and I wanted to keep us moving along.
There was a ball game or something going on at the elementary school, which has part of it’s field built on the canal, so we couldn’t walk through. We kept back to the street, and made our way to the former Lehigh Valley Railroad deck girder bridge overpass. We went beneath, turned left, then left again shortly onto the right of way to follow it west.

Crossing an old LV Railroad bridge

We continued on the old rail bed, which was a bit more overgrown than it had been in the past, and at the next bridge we had to navigate through some nasty poison ivy to get onto it, and then it was undecked. It always takes some time to get people across undecked bridges, but with poison ivy at approaches it takes even longer.
Once we all got over, we continued on the rail bed for a little bit longer to I think Stockton Street where we turned left for a block. At the intersection with Howard Street, we went into the woods on a footpath, which led shortly to the old railroad rights of way where the Lehigh Valley Railroad had it’s spur and yards connecting with the old Belvidere Delaware Railroad.

View from Mt. Parnassus

We turned right when we hit the railroad bed, and continued to follow it to a trailer across right of way. Some homeless people had obviously been living in it. Lots of junk out front and blankets and such inside. We continued on from here on a path away from the first railroad bed, then turned right on a second. This one led us to near the back of the public park, where the Morris Canal continued out. The canal route is a paved trail through the park parallel with the Delaware River and Bel Del Railroad, but it ends at a sort of trail cul de sac loop at the end, and there is a hole in the fence. We followed a trail on a likely old rail grade down to the left around the fence, then right onto the park property by stepping through the fence. No one was getting that we were going through while I was inside, because no one followed me, so I finally hollered for them to follow.
We continued on the former canal route until we were to the former basin site, below Mount Parnassus. My plan was to show everyone the view from the top. I took them to the far side of the basin, through the fence, and to the abandoned double tracked Lehigh Valley line that had blasted through the mountain around the turn of the century. I led everyone up the crazy steep path to the very top.

Historic view from Mt. Parnassus

John S. was particularly impressed by this and everything we saw, since he’s been a Phillipsburg resident for quite some time now. James and Sarah had both lived in the area for some time, and even they had no idea a lot of this was there, so it was cool for them as well.

Present day view from Mt. Parnassus

Everyone loved the view from the top, but many had not seen the view below. I mentioned that many historic photos had been taken from this point on Mt. Parnassus, and that it was really cool. I could point to exactly where the boat basin was, now a skate park. The pictures above should showcase the changes far better than I can explain.

At the Morris Canal arch

Phillipsburg was supposed to be the home of the Transportation Herigate Center because there is so much transportation history. Aboriginal trails first came together there, on which the early turnpikes such as the Easton-Morristown Turnpike were routed. Then, the canals came along and three of them came together at the same place. Our view of the former Morris Canal basin also would have been Inclined Plane #11 West. This was the first plane on the canal to be abandoned and deemed obsolete after the advent of the railroad. At the bottom was the canal arch, where the canal let out to the Delaware River. This was our next point of interest. I led everyone steeply down the opposite side of Parnassus, beside the skate park on former boat basin, then through a hole in the fence down the former inclined plane, over the Bel Del Railroad tracks, and along the route of the inclined plane.
The Morris Canal used to have a wooden dam that provided enough slack water to usher boats across the river during times of high water, and a lock would bring boats into either the Delaware Canal or the Lehigh Canal. The Lehigh continues all the way to Port Jenkins above White Haven PA. The Delaware Canal continued some sixty miles south to Bristol PA, to tidewater on the Delaware.
After the canals, the railroads arrived. Our view showed us the Lehigh Valley and Central Railroad of NJ bridges, as well as the Bel Del Railroad. Also in the area were the Morris and Essex which became the Delaware, Lackawanna, and Western, and the third railroad bridge was the Lehigh and Hudson River. Other incarnations also existed, and later there were the trolley lines. It’s more of a transportation pinch point than most anywhere I can think of.

Union Square present day.

At the canal arch, we climbed around a bit, and there were a guy and a girl doing a photo shoot that were surprised we showed up. I climbed up the concrete thing inside the arch on the metal ladders, followed by Sarah, Lowell, and Nick. Lowell was falling in the water trying to swing around, using sticks.
After that we headed to Union Square and stopped at Jimmy’s hot dogs. A train went by while we were there. Thanks to my friend Shane Blische, who couldn’t be on the hike this time, I have several historic photographs I got of the same location. I don’t know the photo credits for those, but I am sure he will throw them into the comments here.

Historic view of Union Square

My camera wouldn’t work fast enough to get a photo of the train coming. Oh well.
We were at Union Square way longer than I thought we’d be. It took them a long time to make all of the food we ordered, but it was worth it. We were hungry. We also got some drinks and hung out for a bit. It was a nice little break. When we were done, we walked from there across the Northampton Street Free Bridge to the Easton side, then down the steps to the right of it to the walkway along the Delaware.
The free bridge is always a really nice scene when the sun starts to go down.

Historic view of Union Square

We followed the Delaware up stream for a bit to the Rt 22 bridge, originally called the Bushkill Street Bridge. There were now “no pedestrian” signs on the side of the bridge, which was odd. It’s always had a pedestrian walkway, and we’ve always enjoyed crossing it for the great view up stream, but this time there was that. We ignored it and just went over the way we always had anyway. The NJ side didn’t have anything saying to stay off. Just as we got to the bridge, there was a drawer laying along side the road, probably fell off someone’s vehicle transporting a dresser. Lowell, Evan, and Nick had shared drinsk and food and had other stuff, but none carried a backpack.

Historic view with LHR engine at Union Square

They picked up the drawer and put all of their stuff into it. It looked hilarious, with them taking turns carrying this drawer full of stuff all over the place. I can’t imagine what they’d have said if someone stopped us and asked what the deal was with the drawer.
We got off of the bridge and headed down to an alley parallel with North Main Street back in Phillipsburg, then headed north. We followed the Warren Highlands Trail route for a time to the giant pipe near the water authority place, and then went through. Everyone always loves the big pipe, and it’d be a bit more difficult going through this time of night, but we managed alright. Once on the other side, we turned right up stream along the Delaware. Everyone powered ahead and missed the potential swim spot.

When we got to the other paths, we headed up hill across the Bel Del tracks to the Warren Highlands Trail. We followed that easily up hill, then turned right on the orange Iron Mine Trail, to the Fulmer Mine. We took a break and hung out there for a bit, always another popular place.
We then headed further on Iron Mine Trail back to Warren Highlands Trail. I was glad to see it was in good repair and I didn’t have many weeds to cut back. We followed Warren Highlands down through the Rhododendrons, then past the yellow trail to the red blazed Lopatcong Connector Trail. This one is weird these days because the new high school is right there now.

Drawer holders!

We followed the connector trail up to where the township mows it, and regrouped. From there, we remained on it down to the regular part of the park. We cut away from the trail to followed the paved pathways to the east a bit.
We emerged from the park at Rowe Lane and Belvidere Road. We cut right on Belvidere Road briefly, then turned to the left through church property which has large mowed open areas. As Jason and I walked ahead, we had a big red fox come running along, not expecting to see anyone out there, and got really close to us. Startled, it took off, but it was cool to see it up so close.
We emerged on Red School Lane and walked Cantebury Road to Woodbine Road to Powderhorn Road. People driving by probably wondered what we were doing. At Stryker Road we went south a little bit and got on another paved path. It took us by a school, and we cut across the yard and then went over a hole in a fence to take us out on the Strykers Crossing strip mall, Schoolhouse Village.
We crossed Rt 57 here and continued on Strykers Road. I noticed the guys were still carrying the drawer, despite the fact that we passed garbage cans both at Lopatcong Park and the school! Hilarious!
We took Strykers Road to the Morris Canal towpath and turned right. The refurbished section was pleasant to walk all the way out to Rt 22. We then were able to cross the prism and ascend to the highway not quite but close to across from Phillipsburg mall where we could drive up for some Taco Bell...but unfortunately they closed the drive through early, at about 11 pm. I think we finished at about 11:30.
This was definitely the right hike to post for this particular occasion. It was a great one for history, but also to reconnect with the rest of my life and the projects I’ve been involved with, a reminder of who I am. A week out in faraway new places very much can disconnect a person. I felt like I was back, and feeling better about it.