Hike #231 8/8/6
Beginning in Frenchtown
Hike 231, 8/8/6
For this hike, I would begin on a Tuesday afternoon following working a half day, and scout out the mid part of the Delaware Canal I had not yet followed. I had done everything from Lodi north to Easton, then I had done the section between Washington's Crossing and New Hope, but never the section from Lodi to New Hope. The section was closed for a great deal of the distance due to the bad flooding that hit the area recently, and I feared I would not be able to lead a group hike on it any time soon, so the best thing to do would be to invite my fastest friends to cover these sections with me. Jason Itell, who had recently begun hiking with me was certainly in the shape for it, and my good friend Brian Esposito, who worked with me at Taylor Rental also enjoyed jogging a lot, so he was also an obvious choice. Brian and I headed down to Lambertville where we parked behind the Inn along the Delaware, bought some Gatorade, and waited for Jason to show up. We walked a loop through town briefly while waiting. The three of us then shuttled my car north to Frenchtown where I parked along the river and the Bel Del Railroad right of way. I got the largest jug of the Gatorade "Rain" beverage, which I came to really like while doing tent work over the Summer. We began by running across the Frenchtown free bridge, then north on Rt 32 toward the Lodi park office. I had planned on parking at Lodi, but unfortunitely Rt 32 was closed while they were replacing a bridge over a creek. We ran past a new little park area called "The Giving Pond" and then turned left on a side road in to the park office area. I was surprised with myself that I was actually able to keep running for such a long distance without stopping. Brian and Jason had no apparent problems at all. We were now on the Delaware Canal towpath. We immediately began heading south. While I was running, somehow dirt got into my camera, and it would not take any more pictures. I was totally upset about it. I had only taken one picture at the beginnning. We continued running along the towpath, and I kept stopping to try to get the camera to work, but could not. I stopped a lot during the course of the day, but the camera was a lost cause. As we continued south, we reached Uhlerstown where we passed under a nice covered bridge. We continued south parallel to farm land through Erwinna. By the time we reached this area, we were all very sweaty and already getting dehydrated. I had already drank my entire large container of Gatorade, and Brian and I both drank containers before we'd even started! I took off my sleeveless undershirt and rung it out, and was amazed to see it was completely drenched with sweat. I had never experiance having so much sweat that it could be rung out of a piece of clothing like water. It was amazing. Fortunitely, we passed by some sort of restaurant or business or something that was caked right between Rt 32 and the canal towpath, and it had a faucet on the side of the building we used to refill our water containers. This was a real life saver, especially in retrospect. We continued jogging south through Smithtown. I would begin taking the lead, but would immediately be passed by Brian heading off quickly. Jason would be right behind me, but he would never stop. I would run as far as I could and break into a power walk, while Jason would be continueously running behind us. Brian got to the point where he would stop further ahead and wait for us. Jason would just continue running by. This went on a few times. We passed under Rt 32, then continued south through Smithtown to Point Pleasant. After Point Pleasant the canal had a sign on it that said "Towpath Closed Beyond this Point", which we ignored and continued southbound (which was actually more east with the direction it took at this point). The towpath was getting more and more washed out until we reached a curve where we were close to Rt 32, and then it was nothing more than a river of rocks. The canal was no more, just a sprawl of rocks and debris sitting below the road. It was tough walking. We were not able to run here. It was tough enough walking even where the towpath was still in place because it now had a rocky surface due to the erosion. We tried to walk very close to the wall below Rt 32 because there we would not be seen by passing motorists. I was worried being there since it was posted as closed. Still, we continued on to Lumberville and passed under the footbridge to Bulls Island NJ, then continued south. The towpath got better south of here, and it passed through a stone place where it seemed like they were fabricating rocks for landscaping and retaining walls and such. The towpath was not in nearly as bad shape from here on out. There were some spots where it was a bit overgrown due to lack of use, but not too bad. We soon reached Center Bridge, across from Stockton NJ, and we were again very thirsty and tired. We walked off the canal and stopped at an ice cream shop. I got a large cone as I recall, Vanilla, I don't know what Brian got, and Jason ordered one as well, however it was served to him face down and splattered into a cup with a spoon in it. They had accidently done this to it and did'nt offer him another one. He was surprisingly easy going about it. The idea of having a cone was the fact that it was edible and thus created no garbage to carry. Oh well. At least we were able to refill our water here. We continued walking quickly from here to New Hope. Running was out of the questions because I think we were all getting our muscles siezed up due to the dairy products. Still, we soon passed under the Rt 202 bridge, and I knew we were almost done. We next passed the siding tracks to the New Hope and Ivyland excursion railroad, then passed through town areas. We eventually came out onto the street to the bridge and turned off the towpath. As the three of us walked through New Hope, Brian talked to a couple girls and told them that we had just run over twenty miles (I think it came out to be just over 21 miles) from Lodi. I don't think anyone was more impressed with us than ourselves. When we got to the free bridge, Brian and I decided to run across it, and he was able to Sprint much faster than me at this point. We made the first right turn into the Inn parking area and headed behind the building back to the cars, very tired but with a sense of accomplishment. I don't know how much time we did the secton in, but I know it was impressive.
The only photo I have from this hike was taken in Frenchtown along the Bel Del Railroad right of way at the parking area of Jason, Brian, and myself. I set the camera up on Brian's car.
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