Hike #187; Belvidere to Oxford

 Hike #187

In the corn fields of Hazen...

8/25/5

 

This is another one where the original hike journal got lost to the fire. Somebody has it...so when you find it please e mail it to me!

Along LHR right of way in Belvidere

LHR right of way near a development, near Hazen

Development built over the LHR grade near Hazen

LHR grade in White Township

LHR right of way in Bridgeville

Night hiking with Skyler

Only my buddy Skyler Jermyn and I would do this hike. We started by simply wandering around Belvidere, doing loops and such. I don't even remember what we'd wandered or anything. I know we ended up taking the Bel Del rail bed to the L&HR heading east. What happened was that on the way, while we were wandering through the age restricted community near Hazen, drunk off Mike's Hard Lemonade (which Skyler had made "Mike's Harder Lemanade" by adding vodka or something) some lady was yelling out her window "DON'T WALK ON THOSE PATHS! YOU CAN WALK THE SIDE WALK BUT STAY OFF OF THOSE PATHS!!!" referring to the wood chip path that followed near to where the railroad once went. It was around dusk and we did'nt pay her any mind and continued, but when we reached the road crossing site there were two cops sitting slightly down the road from us! We hid the liquor in the weeds and peered through at them still sitting there. After a while of waiting we decided we'd head out walking fast and see if any of them pulled out, and if they got to us we'd make a mad dash into the corn. We walked out fast, made a left turn instead of staying on the rail bed, then made the first right. I could see as we walked out and just before we made that right that one of the cops had turned around and was heading for us. I told Skyler as soon as we made the corner to dash into the corn so it would sort of throw them off. We took off and we knew that it must have shown that the corn was moving a lot, but as soon as we got a hundred or so feet in we followed the plantation line of the corn so we would'nt be able to be seen. I thought I heard them stop and the chatter from their radio over us. We slowly and quietly wandered through the fields and somehow made our way to the railroad bed from there without having a problem.

We continued on the rail bed to Bridgeville where a side trip took us to a Bagelsmith where we walked in all drunk and the girls working the registers giggled at us. We moved on from here along the rail bed as it got darker. We followed it to Pequest and then used the ATV trail to the old Pequest Furnace Railroad to get to the old Warren Railroad line, which we followed to Oxford. I was fine, but feeling really thirsty. When we reached the Busy Bee in Oxford and I saw that it had already closed, I was so let down that I layed on the bench and passed out. Skyler said it was a bad idea to be passing out there, and I don't remember it, so we somehow hiked to a nearby grassy area and I passed out in someone's back yard!

At some point Skyler called his mom to come and pick us up, and just as she arrived and we were driving off, I got sick from all of the alchahol, the first time this had ever happened to me! I was really upset with myself because I'd never gotten sick from drinking before, but oh well. What a way to end a hike...