Hike #190; Lower Lehigh Canal

 Hike #190

9/8/5

Lower Lehigh Canal; Phillipsburg/Easton-Bethlehem with Skyler Jermyn and Julia Gumm

 

The original journal for this one is gone too...fire...who has it? E mail me!

Skyler in the ruins of a lock tender's house east of Freemansburg

This was a fun hike. Skyler and our new friend Julie whom I met through myspace, and I thought from just talking to her on line that she seemed really cool (she told me before accepting my friend request she had to "make sure that I did'nt suck, and that it was quite the contrary", that was my first impression of her), and such was of course the case in person as well.

Skyler laying in a parking lot west of Easton, along former CNJ rail line and Lehigh Canal route.

Skyler on a fallen tree, Lehigh Canal east of Freemansburg

Skyler and I drove around in Bethlehem looking for a place to park, then after using a south Bethlehem on street parking area I guess it was we headed to Easton where we met Julia sitting on the back of her car.

We did the hike as we always did, heading across into Easton, then following the canal to the bridge at Hugh Moore Park (Glendon) and the canal on the north side out toward Bethlehem.

It was still warm, and we were sipping some of Skyler's "Mike's Harder Lemonades" along the way, having a great time. The entire trip was spent having great philosophical/politica/whatever discussions and it made the time fly by. When we'd reached the rope swings near Freemansburg we all took a swim in the Lehigh, and agreed that this was like the end of Summer celebration. We dried off with this weird shammy pad Skyler had bought, the predescessor to the Sham Wow!

We continued on into Bethlehem, then crosses as I recall on the Hill to Hill Bridge into South Bethlehem. We then wandered up and down the street a bit looking for a place to eat before we settled on a pizza place.

On the Hill to Hill Bridge, Bethlehem PA

Afterwards we walked the streets back to the car to finish the day. I remember being in a hurry at the end, and I wish I had'nt been. It was such a great late starting hike with such a great feeling that could have been extended into a crazy night hike like so many others, but I was being lame. Oh well.