Hike #1349; Bethlehem to Phillipsburg

Hike #1349; Bethlehem to Phillipsburg

8/20/20 Mt. Olive/Allamuchy/Byram Loop with Stephen Argentina, Professor John DiFiore, Justin Gurbisz, Ellie Zabeth, Jack Lowry, Sarah Jones, Kirk Rohn, Brittany Audrey, Tom Vorrius, and Serious Sean Dougherty

This hike would be a point to point repeat of one of my favorites, that I’ve posted almost as many times as my anniversary hike over the many years.

Ever since my first time doing the Lehigh Canal towpath all the way through between Easton and Bethlehem in I guess it was 2003, I’ve fallen in love with the route. It has tons of history, tons of swim spots, and is overall easy.
I really wanted to do something to Bethlehem because we didn’t have our annual March on Musikfest hike, so this would sort of be the substitute for that. Jack brought his guitar, and there was plenty of music. It wasn’t the same, and Sean joked that we’d call it “Quiet Fest” instead.
I wanted to try to have our own party instead of the fest, but everyone was busy a lot of the time. I just couldn’t pull anything together in time, and it was kind of depressing.

Former Reading Bethlehem Branch right of way

I figured we could do something a little bit different, and instead of starting up in the Moravian north section of town, we would start in the south section by the casino.

Along South Bethlehem Greenway

Things are always changing, and what last year was known as Sands Casino, is now known as Wind Creek.
The obvious lack of Musikfest left a sort of open sore, and I wanted to have a really nice hike anyway, so I figured we would try to go up on the Hoover Mason Trestle that goes around the steel stacks on the south side of town.
Unfortunately, I found out that even that was going to be closed, which threw a wrench into my doing the south side. Still, I didn’t change it up, and altered plans right away to make it as good as we possibly could.

Former Reading Bethlehem Branch

We met at the boat launch in Phillipsburg by Union Square again, and then shuttled in a couple cars to the start point, an on street parking spot in South Bethlehem just up the street from the Museum of Industrial History.
We walked to start off over to the Lehigh Pizza, which is actually a great pizzeria for Pennsylvania.
Once we had had a snack and got some drinks to go, we were only a block south of the South Bethlehem Greenway, which is the former Bethlehem Branch of the Reading Railroad. It made no sense to head down into Wind Creek if we couldn’t walk by anything cool, so we instead walked the railroad bed to head toward the Minsi Trail Bridge over the Lehigh.

Playground along South Bethlehem Greenway

I had seen that railroad grade since there were still rails in the pavement, and it was nowhere near an official trail. It’s quite strange to see it now.
Everything keeps changing, and on the very first section of it, there is now a building that is kind of built out over it. The first bit is not a trail, and it’s beat up, but there is this weird hole in the building for the trail when its done.
We continued walking to the east on the rail trail, past some metal sculptures, and then to a little playground on the left. It was not some wussy playground, and had some really fun spinny things in it.

Bethlehem Steel

We moved on ahead, and Bethlehem Steel came into view on our left. We took the first good opportunity to cross over the highway to get to the beginning of the Minsi Trail bridge.

Bethlehem Steel

I had taken some photos when I hiked this back in June of 2003, of the gantry crane at Bethlehem Steel, and down the line of the Hoover Mason Trestle and roads to the steel stacks, as well as the high house.
I had done a then and now of the high house before, but I’ve never used my really good Hoover Mason photo for one of them yet.
I felt that the photo was so good that it was one I didn’t want to put out there and have someone steal. Here, I finally have done a comparison, with a Metrotrails logo on it.

The crane in 2003

So much looks so different around the site today, I can hardly believe it myself. I started by taking a comparison shot of the gantry crane with my 2003 one.

The crane today

On that hike back in 03, my brother and Skyler Jermyn and I wandered into South Bethlehem, which was not nearly as gentrified as it is now, and went into a Spanish bar where we drank and hung out. Tea Biscuit was not even legal age yet.

Bethlehem Steel, 2003

The view of the Steel Stacks I’d gotten from the Minsi Trail Bridge in 2003 is almost no longer possible. The tracks are gone, and two larger new buildings have been built.

The view today

I got the first couple of shots, and then called the group back to have a look at what I’d just put together. A lot of them had never seen how Bethlehem Steel used to look from this vantage point. The camera I used to capture it was a Minolta QtSi with 100s speed film.

My view from 2003

I was also back then carrying disposable cameras that I’d gotten on special sale at different store closeouts, the same as when I got my huge collection of K Mart shoes.

The same scene today

I had gotten several of them on sale I think from both K Mart as well as the Acme in Washington before it closed. They had three packs of them.
I would run out of film rather regularly when I was using that, and so I tried to make the photos count more. A lot of times the picture decisions were stupid, but I got some good ones here and there.

High house in 2003

We got across the bridge and headed down the steps that lead directly to the Lehigh Canal towpath in a very nice section. We then went for a dip in the river.

High house and Wind Creek today

It was really hot out at this time, and the river was very necessary for cooling off at this moment. We layed in it for a little bit, then hung out under the bridge.

Jack was playing a “NOT California Dreamin’” song, a variation of the Mamas and the Papas hit.
We eventually got going ahead a bit, and started into some Rascals music. We had started the hike doing “People Got to Be Free” by then, which is a rather simple melody, but the lyrics change pretty much in every verse, which is quite cool.
The river cooled us off pretty well, and we were soon on our way to the east.
The canal is still watered through most of this stretch, although it’s rather shallow and a bit grown in for the stretch from Bethlehem to Freemansburg.
Since the last time I’d walked this, there was a nice new little picnic area along the river side of the canal that I don’t remember from before. It was nice that along the way was actually kept mowed.
Soon, we approached Freemansburg.
This little canal town has one of the most authentic looking sections of the Lehigh Canal still intact, maybe even more so than Hugh Moore Park where the ride is in Easton.

Justin on a bridge thingy

I stopped everyone after passing under the Freemansburg Bridge over the canal and the Lehigh River and told them of some of the local history here.
When the canal was abandoned about 1932, it remained much intact for several years. It was decided that this bit of the Lehigh Canal would be a good representation of the original Erie Canal for the movie version of the classic novel “Rome Haul” by Walter D. Edmunds.
Outside scenes were shot featuring mules pulling boats on the Lehigh Canal.

Picnic

The movie starred Henry Fonda in his screen debut, and was titled “The Farmer Takes A Wife”. It was released in 1935 by Director Victor Hugo, who went on to direct “The Wizard of Oz” after this. The film also costarred the same actress that portrayed the wicked witch in the Oz film.
We continued walking along the path ahead, which was lined with Ailanthus trees on the river side. These are the favored tree of the highly invasive Spotted Lanternflies, which have at this time pretty much taken over everywhere.

Lehigh Canal near Freemansburg

One particular Ailanthus tree on the right was so completely covered in the things it was disgusting. Justin took his hand and swiped at them, and they dive bombed us.

Lehigh Canal in Freemansburg

It’s like the things literally want to land on people or any object close by. They are extremely clumsy in flight, and just appear to want to land on anything.

Lanterflies

They end up killing trees because they cover the bank and excrete something that creates a mold. Soon, a black tar like substance is seen making its way up the tree. At the base, it can get so bad that it looks like a foam.
I posted the photos of them, and its amazing how completely disconnected people are to the world because of the covid19 crap. They were all over the postings saying “I sure hope you reported this”, to which I respond its out of control. Completely. Every mile of a fifteen mile hike was inundated with these things, and a phone call will mean nothing. There are no employees somewhere that will come out and kill them. It’s too late.
We continued through the town and past the foot bridge that connects, and then made our way to the old lock house and Lock #44.
The old lock house is well restored. There also used to be a mill to the right along the towpath here.
Lock #44 lifted boats 8.6 feet. It was of composite construction with wooden lining inside, which is all gone. Previously, the site was manicured, but now more has been added.

Lanternflies

There is now a walkway going down from the towpath and into the actual lock itself to give visitors the idea of just how deep it was.
We had a seat at some benches over near where the mill building used to be, and waited for a bit because both Brittany and Serious Sean were to meet up late.
It was starting to get a little darker by this time, and a guy walking the towpath from the east stopped and talked to us. He had a D&L shirt on, so he was apparently some sort of employee of the Delaware and Lehigh National Heritage Corridor. He told us that we had like twenty minutes or something and the park was closing, so we hurried on out of there before he came back to check.
We of course would be out of the Freemansburg area by then, but we had a long way to go before we got to Easton.
I sent Brittany some directions to a spot where she could connect ahead, where there is a rather new parking area for the D&L Trail. Sean would find parking up on street in a development a little bit to the east of there. Before that, we continued to the secluded section of the trail.

Lehigh Canal

There is a great rope swing just a little further down after heading form the lock house, and we stopped for another break there. It wasn’t too dark yet, so this was a fun little swim.

Lock view in Freemansburg early 1900s

We continued from our water spot and met with Brittany in a section where the road paralleled the canal. We then continued through a section of a much more secluded feeling woods heading to the east.
There is a high wall to the north on which the former Central Railroad of NJ traveled. Even the other side of the Lehigh River doesn’t have much on it in this stretch.

Lock 44 then

We continued through the woods and eventually came to Lock #45, also known as the Repubic Lock. The little settlement here is known as Republic.

Lock 44

The lock lifted boats 5.7 feet, and the remaining bits of it are made of both masonry and concrete. The lock house walls are still partially standing, but it deteriorates more every time I come back to the site. There were still open windows in much of it when I first arrived at the site, but now there are only a couple of sections of wall standing, and it looks like more of it is about ready to fall.
We pushed ahead from here, and it was a lovely shaded section. It went by pretty fast from this point to Lock #46. This one was known as Hope Lock.
The lock is badly silted in from river flow, and barely is recognizable as a lock. Hope Road, which is an access to a boating club now, crosses the canal, which is just a sort of silt mess ahead. There used to be a general store and such on the berm side of the canal. I understand a lot of that is gone because the railroad was built there years later.

Da group

The lock house used to sit on the berm side of the canal, but it was destroyed when the railroad went through, and the replacement lock house is on the other side of the Hope Road culvert now.
The towpath switched sides of the canal at Hope Road. Lock 46 was the outlet lock to a slack water section of the Lehigh River. The canal occupies a former river channel next to an island and the towpath moves to the land side.
We jogged left on Hope Road, then right on the towpath, and the canal soon exited into the river.
We continued ahead a bit more, and there are good deep spots for swimming. Original rip rap rock is still in place from when the canal was constructed here.
We walked to a rope swing and a large wooden platform over the river and jumped in a few times. Most of the group opted to go in this time.
Surprisingly, while we were there, several people riding bicycles with lights were still going by.
Serious Sean joined up with us while we were swimming there, and arrived with a life size cardboard cutoff of the band Kiss! He ended up carrying it for the rest of the hike!

After our swim, we headed from under Rt 33 to the boat launch area. From there, the Lehigh Canal used to cross part of the river on a causeway for a towpath. It then continued on the island which had an amusement park on it, and moved on to the other side of the river. Prior to that, the towpath remained on the north side and a chain ferry was used closer to the next dam over the Lehigh.
The D&L Trail shifts from the towpath at this point to the Central Railroad of NJ right of way, which is paved beyond the parking lot.
We walked on along this, which went by really fast. We continued to the riverside park, and then through a swath of woods before descending from the railroad bed to cross the Old Glendon Bridge into Hugh Moore Park. We then continued on the towpath again on the south side out to the east.
We skipped the Guard Lock 8 and Dam 8 on the canal, and passed it on the rail bed.
We eventually came to Lock #47, which had a lift of 8.6 feet. This was originally a double lock for opposing traffic, but one of the locks has been filled in.
Just ahead of this point, there used to be two more locks, #48 and 49, which were both covered over with railroad fill when the Lehigh Valley Railroad was built. At that time, the two, which lifted boats 8.1 and 5.7 feet, were replaced by the current Outlet Lock that was unnumbered, which had a lift of 13.8 feet.
We changed things up a bit here and left the canal towpath to walk the former Lehigh Valley Railroad tracks.
My plan was from here that we would turn off and then walk over the Delaware on the former Lehigh and Hudson River Railway bridge. I’d discovered doing it with Justin that it had had a new walkway put on the side of it, but historically it never used to have one. It’s now a great view.
We stayed on the tracks heading to the west, and then took a lower level and ended up below where the old railroad station used to be. Part of it is built into the railroad fill. We ended up having to backtrack and climb back up to the tracks at this point.
John and Stephen decided not to walk over the bridge, and headed back to Union Square on the roads. The rest of us continued along the bridge, and hid briefly from a cop parked right below.
When it was clear, we walked on over the road and then through the cut below Mt. Ida. We then reached the junction point where the Lehigh and Hudson River line went left.
We got on the bridge, and there were great views of the forks of the two rivers, and of the Northampton Street free bridge just ahead.

KISS!

We paused and checked out the view a bit, and then headed back on to the cars at the boat launch lot. From there, we finished crossing, turned left on the Bel Del Railroad, and then through the lot across from Union Square on the other side.
It might not have been a Musikfest hike, but it was still a great August night hike and I was glad we got to do something in that area with that really happy sort of feel.

HAM