Hike #1356; Easton Area Loop
9/17/20 Easton Area Loop with Professor John DiFiore, Jennifer Bee, and Jennifer Tull
This next hike would shift around a bit from what I was originally intending due to a pretty bad back injury I had sustained at work.
Easton, looking up the Lehigh
I had been doing a lot of lifting and working on restroom fixtures at work. There was one particular toilet project I was doing by myself that was quite rough.
Forest fire haze over the sun
Then, life guard chairs that had been on load to Round Valley were being brought back. I thought I would be fine to lift then down with two other guys. It was heavy, but it wasn’t that bad.
Everything was fine; the work was finished and I went about my day to the next project.
I headed up to Lin Supply in Washington to buy some plumbing fixtures, and as I was leaning over the county to get a look at a catalogue of parts to order, my back all of a sudden went out.
Mt Ida historic image
It was pretty bad, but still alright enough that I could get around. I continued on my day, and driving became harder. I had to sit sideways to drive my work truck.
Mount Ida now
By the end of the day, I figured I’d better fill out accident paperwork. The pain was just that bad.
My original plan had been that we were going to hike the Warren Highlands Trail around Marble Hill area and to the east, but I figured that might be too tough for me.
Ruined works
When everyone arrived at the boat launch by Union Square, they were good with us doing a different hike, a loop, that would be on easier stuff around Easton.
We started this time by walking from the boat launch area to the Northampton Street free bridge, then down the steps along the riverfront walkway to the south.
We followed this back up along the edge of the river, and above the forks of the Delaware and the Lehigh to take in the views of the dam and the former terminus of the Lehigh, Delaware, and Morris Canals.
The old suspension bridge across the Lehigh
The sun was out, but it was a very hazy look because of the California wildfires. The smoke from the fires had traveled across the country and created a sort of haze over everything.
Historic postcard of the old suspension bridge
We made our way to Rt 611 and turned left to cross the Lehigh, then left again on the other side until we got to where we could turn down to the left onto the Lehigh Canal towpath.
The Lehigh Canal, unlike the Delaware Canal, is a series of canalized river, where slack water pools behind dams were used instead of a separate canal all of the way.
Suspension Foot Bridge, built in 1886 in Easton, PA, damaged in wind storm in 1939, rebuilt in 1940, blown down in 1950, demolished in 1951.
We walked the towpath along the river back beneath Rt 611, which is below a high wall of the Lehigh Valley Railroad.
When the railroad was built, it eliminated the original canal locks 48 and 49.
One of the piers of the former suspension bridge
Lock #48 had a lift of 8.1 feet, and 49 had a lift of 5.7 feet. The original lock sites were buried under the railroad, and replaced with the unnumbered “Outlet Lock”, which lifted boats 13.8 feet. This is the most modern lock on the canal, built in 1910.
We approached the outlet lock, and I pointed out the vault building and such there. Just beyond the outlet lock is Lock #47, which was originally a double lock for opposing traffic. It lifted boats 8.6 feet, and one is buried, the other open and in good shape.
A path but no admittance...
At this point, the paved D&L Trail diverges from the towpath for a bit, and the towpath remains more authentic and historic looking. I wanted to follow the paved path moreso because I hd heard that some of the old industrial ruins along the Lehigh had been recently demolished.
We headed down the path, and along the river for a bit, and I was very saddened to find that it was true. The ruins of what might have been some of the old ironworks were now leveled into themselves. These remnants were already somewhat demolished, but some of the ruins were still covered and could be entered.
New trail work
I suppose the only problem with them was the fact that homeless people often took shelter in them. They were probably considered a liability and recently wrecked.
It looks like a very sad state now, with just a bunch of wrecked stone laying in a clearing. The ruins used to be one of the biggest highlights of the Hugh Moore Park area.
We headed further along the path, and I pointed out where the old suspension foot bridge used to cross over the Lehigh River from the cliffs to the other side.
New trail work
One pier was covered in weeds and could be seen.
The Suspension Foot Bridg was built in 1886 in Easton, damaged in wind storm in 1939, rebuilt in 1940, blown down in 1950, and demolished in 1951.
We continued ahead and back onto the towpath again, and followed that back out to the old Glendon Bridge, where the trail turns away to cross the Lehigh again. New work had been done in the park, where a bike course had been constructed nearer to the parking lot.
Graffiti
We crossed the Old Glendon Bridge, then ascended on the D&L Trail to where it picks up the former Central Railroad of New Jersey right of way to the west.
covtarded
We followed this under 25th Street and across Lehigh Drive. There was a sports game going on at Riverview Park, and we turned left off of the D&L Trail to make our way across a field and to the other paved trail closer to the river, which follows the old trolley right of way.
I was rather surprised to see that this trail had been recently redone. It had admittedly been very bad with tree roots and such growing through it and making it uneven, but that was one of the charming things about it.
Lehigh rope swing
We followed this section of trail, and then ended up coming out behind a sign saying that the trail we had just been on was closed until further notice.
There was nothing we could do about this. We didn’t have a sign where we came from.
Then, just ahead, there was another section closed. At this point we were walking toward it, but would be walking toward it if we turned around anyway, so we just went through.
This took us to the Chain Dam and fish ladder. The current Chain Dam is just a little downstream from the site of the original Chain Dam, and I showed the others the remaining dam abutment where it used to span the river.
The trolley used to turn right at this point on a sharp turn and pass beneath the Jersey Central Railroad. The Lehigh Canal originally crossed the Lehigh here.
Lehigh Canal
Mules were ferried on the canal boats using a chain ferry, and there is still a towpath, although at times obscure, along the north side of the Lehigh here. The canal was upgraded, and it traveled onto Island Park ahead in later years, with a suspension bridge on the north side, and a causeway on the south to get boaters and pedestrians across.
I decided we would follow some of the original canal towpath for a time from here, which was pretty nice. When it got rather washed out, we turned right and climbed to the rail bed.
Lock House at Hope Lock
The rail bed is paved through here as the D&L Trail, and we walked it from this point past the junction with the former branch that went up to Wilson area to connect with the Easton and Northern line. We’d come back to that a little bit later.
Old stone building
Soon, we reached the parking area for the boat launch which is only a short distance away from Rt 33. Here, the trail dips down from the pavement and picks up the Lehigh Canal towpath again, and follows it all the way to beyond Bethlehem and Allentown.
We headed along the slack water navigation section, and paused for a break at a very nice spot with a rope swing. I was getting hot, but no one else wanted to swim. I climbed up onto a tree with ladder rungs affixed to it and jumped out off the crotch of the tree.
Old house
The water was indeed super cold, but it was refreshing. I always wonder when the actual end of Summer hikes are going to end; when I actually stop swimming. This certainly didn’t feel like the last one, and it certainly wasn’t.
From here, we walked the canal towpath a little ways to the west, and I pointed out where the canal separated from the river again.
The next lock from this point is Hope Lock, which was lock #46. Flooding and siltation over the years makes the site look rather obscure, but it’s there.
At the old house
We reached Hope Road, which is now an access road for the local boating club, and the towpath used to switch sides there. A large stone arch culvert is to the right built by the Lehigh and Susquehanna Railroad, which became part of the Central Railroad of NJ.
Before the railroad, the lock house was located where the track fill is, but it was removed at that time. The new replacement lock house (and by “new” I mean late 1800s instead of early) is just on the other side of the railroad fill. There is actually a nice old wooden frame structure there still lived in.
Old stone house
I’m not sure if it’s that house that’s still lived in or if it’s another one directly across Hope Road and closer to the tracks, which is now abandoned.
Loading ramp
The boat launch access road is now built on the railroad right of way east for a bit from Hope Road, and the old stone house is best accessed from that.
It’s definitely old, but I’m not sure its purpose if not the lock house. Other lock houses were made of stone, so it’s possible this is it, but since it was a replacement one, it might be the wooden one.
We walked out the road toward the boat launch in the way we came, and there was a ramp on the left side, apparently for vehicles to load stuff to or from railroad cars.
On the rail bed
When we reached the launch area again, we took a quick break, and then I found the foot path into the woods to the left, which leads as a shortcut back up to the CNJ right of way that went up to Whitehall.
We headed up to this, and then turned hard left to follow the gradually climbing grade.
We passed back beneath Rt 33, where we used to climb up to visit the walkway under the bridge. That’s now closed off, unfortunately. This was the third time passing beneath Rt 33, after the first on the towpath, then the CNJ grade, then this second CNJ grade, and we went under it a fourth ahead.
Palmer
The rail bed turned a hard corner to from west, to north, to east, and crossed a hospital access road after passing under Rt 33 again. We then crossed Freemansburg Ave on a repurposed bridge. From there, we passed through residential areas pleasantly.
Dixie Cup Factory
It got pretty dark on this section, but the ambient light from he homes and businesses make it all very easy.
We crossed several streets and skirted a park, then the paved trail deviates from the original rail bed onto what might have been an industrial siding. The original junction point was just a little to the south of where the trail is.
We continued downhill to the intersection with the other Palmer bike path section on the former Easton and Northern Railroad, part of the Lehigh Valley Railroad system.
Taco Bell yummy
This rail line was born in the 1880s, and work began on it in 1890. It stretched from the Lehigh Valley Railroad main north to a junction with the Bangor and Portland and Lehigh and New England up in Stockertown. Most of that is now part of the trail between the points, and is one of my favorites in the area.
The line was ripped up in the 1980s, and languished as an informal path for many years before finally being turned into the path it is now.
We turned left here and came out across from the Wallgreens that had been built on top of the right of way. We crossed and followed the path around the left side of it to where a bridge used to take the tracks across 25th Street. The path now continues up there, and then passes by the old Dixie Cup factory on the right. That too is basically abandoned now, but there are supposedly plans to turn the place into upscale apartments.
Dixie Cup Factory
Just after this point, the Taco Bell is off to the left. We decided this would be a wonderful dinner spot, so we headed over there.
Lustfully dreaming of Taco Bell
Because of the covid crap still going on, they did not have indoor dining at this spot. Instead, they had installed a new walk up window in addition to the drive up, where we went to order.
The young girl working the counter had to run from back there to see to us at that location, as there were many cars coming through the drive thru.
We got our food and had ourselves yet another Taco Bell parking lot party, which has become quite the great tradition that might just continue on when all of the sensational coronavirus stuff comes to an end.
Halleluja, Taco Bel
We walked from here back up onto the old railroad grade and followed it across Northampton Street to the north. This is what we always do, and the trail turns away form the Easton and Northern line to head across Wood Avenue on a parallel route.
Hmmm
This was because of an industrial site the right of way went through north of Wood Ave where it turned to follow Bushkill Creek. They made a deal where they payed to construct the trail, if they let the corporation have that right of way. And so, the trail goes over the pedestrian bridge from Lower Hackett Park across Rt 22 to Upper Hackett Park, then back down to the rail grade to the north.
This time, I was rather surprised to see that where the trail turned away from the rail grade, there was now another trail going ahead on the actual rail grade.
We didn’t follow that this time; I didn’t want to take any chances getting off course, because we wanted to try to walk to one of the new breweries in the old Simon Silk Mill complex.
We headed along the trail to Lower Hackett, and then continued along the ball fields and such to the east. We walked uphill one block to Bushkill Street, and then walked that to the east a bit more. I texted our friend Stef Statler, because she lived right there, to see if whe wanted to join the rest of the hike, but she responded that she had moved! She was recently married, and they went off to another area, and her house was for sale.
Easton Circle
We reached 13th Street, and then turned left down under Rt 22, and out to the old Simon Silk Mill. We had just enough time to go in and see about a good drink.
Unfortunately, this time they didn’t have the good beer I’d gotten last time. It was sold out. I had thought the place we went to in the previous one was Boser Geist, but I think this place was yet another brewery in the same complex.
It wasn’t a complete loss though, because the brewer was there, and he came over and had a wonderful discussion with all of us. He was really into what he was doing, and told us about some plans to start a brew pub somewhere. The conversation turned to the historic preservation, and what a shame it was that the old stagecoach stops are being torn down.
The Cherryville Inn had just been torn down the previous year, despite the fact that it entertained some of our early patriots and was built before America even existed.
I mentioned the Newburg Inn, which was at one time my favorite restaurant, and he said he wouldn’t touch it because of the location. Sadly, that building looks like it’s going to go as well.
It was such a great discussion, and I told him we would be back to have a dinner and try some more stuff when it comes out.
Deep in the dark
We left the place, and headed east, which led us to the new pedestrian bridge that had been erected over the Bushkill Creek out ot the former Lehigh Valley Railroad bed. We followed the trail from there right onward to the Easton Cemetery. The rail bed turned left and crossed the creek but the trail follows another road to the cemetery bridge then rejoins the railroad bed.
I fell a little behind here somehow, probably because of my back bothering me or something. Jenny and Jen went ahead, and when John and I reached the end of the rail bed, where it had a terminal, they were long gone.
John and I continued along Bushkill Drive along the creek to the east. It looked like work was underway to close it off completely to all but pedestrian use. There were cones and such up, and it was just pleasant to be able to pass through there. It had already been one way anyway.
Jen and Jenny had taken roads most of the way, but John and I took the better way, and then turned right at the base of Lafayette College, and headed over to the circle. We went around the left side, and then down Northampton Street where an old friend saw me and said hi.
I must have been tired because I can’t think of who the guy was that I was talking to...but he was sitting at a table on Northampton Street hanging out!
Oh well, it’ll come to me! We crossed the bridge to finish the hike, and I was quite glad I’d chosen this route over another considering how I was feeling.
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