Hike #159
On the washed out railroad just north of Tatamy
12/19/4
My next new scouting hike would involve some familiar ground with some stuff I had never led one of my full hikes on yet. My plan was to begin with a loop in Jacobsburg State Park near Stockertown PA, and then walk the abandoned Lehigh Valley Railroad south into Easton ending on the north side of the Lehigh River across from Hugh Moore Park. I had scouted the section in Jacobsburg previously, and was ready to post it to my friends as well as the AMC. Unfortunitely, the only ones to show up for this one were Chris Jones, and Susyn Mihalasky, who I had met during leadership training in Nockamixon earlier in the year. It was a rather crummy looking day, so I suppose it is not too surprising more people did not show up. We spotted my car in Easton and headed north to Jacobsurg State Park where we began walking from the large parking lot, unmarked and gravel on Belfast Road.. A bridge used by the Henry’s Woods Trail was completely washed away at this site, and the upper Henry’s Woods Trail, my planned route, was officially closed to public.
Washed out foot bridge that spanned Bushkill Creek in Jacobsburg State Park
Collapsed truss bridge at the south end of Jacobsburg State park
Rail yard in Stockertown PA
Washed out railroad just south of Stockertown
Washed out rail line between Stockertown and Tatamy
View of Tatamy PA across the fields from the railroad
On my last visit, the trail was closed as well, and covered with ice. I nearly fell off a large incline into the Bushkill Creek. This time was a bit safer. We entered the trail passing an ampitheatre on the right. We walked the Henry’s Woods Trail to some old historic buildings, and viewed another bridge that had been washed out. Sadly, it was a beautiful od iron truss bridge, probably over 100 years old. We continued uphill on a blue blazed trail, heading over a hill with a nice view over the countryside. The trail led us out to Jacobsburg Road at the intersection of Fehr Road. We headed down Fehr to Douglasville Road heading downhill through farmland. Somewhere along the way we crossed the right of way to the abandoned Nazareth Branch of the Lehigh and New England Railroad, though at the time I did not know where it was. After crossing a bridge over Bushkill Creek, we turned right onto an abandoned road, now a trail along the creek. I believe we made our way along the Sobers Run loop trail out to the LNE right of way, now part of the trail, then north to Belfast Road. We turned right at the intersection of Balfast and Keller Road, and immediately turned right onto the yellow/green blazed trail above the Sobers Run brook. The trail was nice, and took us up onto the road briefly. We headed up across Belfast Road, then after a bit of woods across Jacobsburg Road followed by State Park Road. At a trail intersection, we turned right to see if we could see the remnants of the village of Jacobsburg, but all there were were a few foundations. We did not go all the way. We soon headed back to the trail intersection where we began following the red blazed Jacobsburg Trail. We immediately had to cross the Engler’s Run brook. I stood in the water to help the other two across. Some side trails broke off of this old road trail, but we stayed on the most obvious route, except for near the end when I decided to get a closer look at a quarry area where there were signs marking it “No Trespassing” and “closed to public”. There was a nice view over the Bushkill Creek valley and one of the old buildings below. We soon made our way back to Belfast Road, which we used to walk back out to the village of Belfast. We walked down the road toward Stockertown, stopping by a deli along the way for some food and drink. Chris and I picked through magazines to see if we could find junk mail to send to his friend “Stove” as we called him. We continued on the road until we reached the former Belfast Junction, where we began walking the railroad grade south behind buildings and out into Stockertown. We had to make the detour where the industrial area was built over the right of way, but we were able to pick up the active tracks to it nearby. We kept out of site by walking between trains. Just north of the junction with the former Uhler Branch of the LNE, we found that the railroad was terribly eroded after the recent flooding. Tracks were suspended in the air above large washouts! The damage was extensive. We continued south into Tatamy where we stopped for more food and drinks at a little mini mart there before heading on. We soon had to walk around another bit of industrial land before continueing on the right of way clearly on to Easton. Along the way, Chris and I began kicking a beach ball about that we found. We kicked it off the right of way several times and ran to retrieve it. One time I climbed into a large ditch to get it back, but we eventually lost it. On the north side of Easton, I saw a new paved path began ascending up hill to our west, and wondered where it went, but I opted to continue on the right of way straight. We walked along an apartment complex, then came to a fence promising prosecution to anyone caught trespassing on premises. Susyn did not want to make our way around it, so we headed back and out to the nearest road along the Bushkill Creek heading south. We were soon able to reach Wood Avenue where we could get on the right of way where we’d gone times in the past. This time, just after crossing Northampton Street, we opted to make a stop at Taco Bell for some food. It was soon going to get dark, and I was pushing to continue on quickly.
Rail trail just north of Easton
Easton PA
Chris loves tooth paste from Easton
Chris was not in such a hurry, as he ate slowly and complained about all food. saying things such as “You call this a burrido? I call it crap in a torilla.” and complaining that the special Baja Blast Mountain Dew available only at Taco Bell was crap. He was hamming it up quite a lot, as he chewed every bite with an extreme look of discontent his face. He would add to this with comments like “You call this a taco or burrito? I call it crap in a tortilla.”, and he ranted on and on about how the Mountain Dew Baha Blast which was exclusive to Taco Bell was not worth visiting the store for. He would take a bite, pause, breath deeply as if he were struggling with it, and take as much time to ham up his dinner consumption as possible! Susyn was unable to continue on from this point, and Chris and I continued on to pick her up later. We walked the railroad righto of way, climbing down where the bridge had recently been removed over 25th Street. We continued walking down hill to the Lehigh River on the road rather than the railroad bed as we were running out of daylight and I did’nt want to get my car towed. We made it back alright, though tired.
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