Hike #255 11/28/6
11/28/6
Stryker's Crossing/Marble Hill/Easton with Cathy Fisher
Overlooking the Phillipsburg area in an area ready to be developed at the time
Stryker's Crossing
Near Phillipsburg
Farmers Fair Grounds
Near Phillipsburg
Near Philipsburg
New development near Phillipsburg
New development near Phillipsburg
New development near Phillipsburg`
View from the new development near P Burg
View from new development, P Burg
New development area in P Burg
View from new development near P Burg
New development in P Burg
View in new development, P Burg
View in new development, P Burg
View near P Burg
Descending from new development area
Park in Phillipsburg
Above the park in Phillipsburg
New High School site, P Burg
Marble Hill in P Burg
Outcropping on Marble Hill
Marble HIll
Fulmer mine on Marble Hill
Fulmer Mine on Marble Hill
Fulmer Mine on Marble Hill
Marble hill mine ruins
On Marble HIll
View from Marble Hill
View from Marble Hill
View from Marble HIll
View from Marble Hill
View from Marble Hill
Bel Del tracks below Marble Hill
Bel Del tracks below Marble Hill
Hollow tree below Marble Hill along the Delaware
Delaware River
Along the Delaware in P Burg
Possible old outlet from Pump House, P Burg
Below the pump house in P Burg
Rope swing in P Burg
Giant pipe in P Burg
Giant pipe in P Burg
Giant pipe in P Burg
In a giant pipe under P Burg
Giant pipe under P Burg
Coming out of the giant pipe under P Burg
P Burg
P Burg
P Burg below Rt 22
Main street from Rt 22
Approaching the bridge
Getters Island from the Rt 22 bridge
View from the Rt 22 bridge
Up stream Delaware view from Rt 22 bridge
Getters Island from Rt 22 bridge.
Easton PA
Old pathway up College Hill, Easton
Rt 22 bridge from College Hill
Easton view from College hill
Monument on College Hill
Monument on College Hill, Easton
Monument on College Hill, Easton
Fisher Campus, Lafayette College
Mausoleum in Easton Cemetery
Path up to Easton Cemetery
Easton Cemetery
Easton Cemetery
Easton view from the Cemetery entrance
Easton Cemetery
Easton Cemetery
City hall at dark
Northampton Street Bridge at dark
Looking into Easton at dark
P Burg. Before Eckerd went out of business!
P Burg
In P Burg
In P Burg
Stryker's Crossing, P Burg
Cathy and I got a late start on this Tuesday, so I decided we could do an exploratory hike in the areas of Phillipsburg NJ and Easton PA, covering some ground I'd long wanted to do. We began the day at the Motor Vehicle DMV where Cathy was trying to get a duplicate license, then we headed in my car to Stryker's Crossing on Rt 57, where we began our hike from a little mini mall called "The Crossing" I believe. We began by walking north along Strykers Road passing some newer developements, as well as some sixties and fifties style homes and some ballfields until the farmer's fairgrounds came into view. At the intersection, we turned left on Belview Road through some lovely farmland. We followed this road through and made a left hand turn onto Upper Belvidere Road. We walked for a bit, and made a right into a new developement under construction. Only one house was completed and occupied, the first on the left. A couple others were well along while the rest were only in the foundation stages. We walked up the road for the view over the area, as well as to se if there was any public land on the top. Where the road came to a Cul de sac along a power line, another driveway continued up to some kind of a water tank. I walked up to it while Cathy waited at the base of the driveway. I could not find any public land, or anything that looked reasonable enough to bring Cathy through, so I went back down, and the two of us walked along the power line back to Upper Belvidere Road. Soon, we reached an access road to what looked at first like ballfields to our right. We headed in only to find a large park of grass with paved trails criss crossing throughout it. We wandered these paved paths across the large field, leading to a parking area. There were some people walking their dogs in the area. We continued west through the park, heading down hill a bit into a fenced off part of the park. There was a "No Trespassing" sign that appeared to have been hanging on the fence, but it was laying face down on the ground. We ignored it and headed into this section of the park. I could see a water tank on the hillside to the northeast, and thought of the Skylands Magazine article written by my friend Bob Koppenhaver that descriped the end of the trail in the Marble Hill Preserve. We began walking toward it. The paved paths ended and we were now on what appeared to be an overgrown access road. The view was terrific from up here. We continued to a flat plateau on Marble Hill, and then cut into the woods to the left heading toward some cliffs in the woods, which were also described in Bob K's article. We wandered to the right of the cliffs, over a hill to where I could see the trail below. I followed a side path to the edge of one of the cliffs, but no really good view. We walked along the trail down hill, gradually at first, but then steeply over dead leaves. I held Cathy's hand climbing down. We soon reached the mouth of the old Fulmer Mine, a 30 foot deep old iron mine in the Marble Hill Preserve. This was also described in Bob's article, often times called "The Ice Cave", Cathy and I visited here once before on a short hike after work. I went into the mine to have a look around, then we left, heading down hill passing foundations of buildings. The trail led us down hill on an old road to River Road. There were some nice somewhat obscured views of the delaware River below. When we reached the road, we began walking briefly on the old Bel Del Railroad tracks, then headed down along the Delaware on a nice cleared area. There was an interesting opening of a tunnel with a welded shut metal door on it, which might have been below the old Pump House, as part of it's works. I could not get into it, though. We soon reached a nice rope swing and a tree big enough to stand inside. We continued on as the walkeway along the river got narrower. It became narrowest when we came to a pipe letting out into the Delaware. The pipe was qite high, and I found that I could walk into it standing up straight. I decided I wanted to check it out. Cathy decided to wait behind while I walked through the pipe. It was very long, going back and forth, up and down, and breaking off in another direction, but the main pipe, staying for the most part somewhat level, eventually led out. It opened up into a large room, then came out under a bridge on the street on the north side of Phillipsburg. I would say the pipe must have been at least 1/4 mile long. I went back and got Cathy to come through the pipe with me. It was fortunate that we had a flashlight.
We continued on the road to near South Main Street, Phillipsburg. We walked behind some buildings, then up across the Rt 22 bridge into Easton. There were some great views, including Getter's Island where a murderor was hanged in the 1800s for murdering his wife, and where bodies landed when a steamboat exploded in the river. We then walked through Easton to the stairs up to Lafayette College. We climbed the stairs and were offered terrific views of the Easton-Phillipsburg area, better even than I'd pictured. The stairs were steep, and broke in two directions before coming back together at a statue celebrating war veteran alumni that had died in US wars. We continued through the Lafayette College Campus along the top of a ridge, passing some beautiful buildings. We descended a bit through an ampitheatre and past the Fisher buildings, then down more stairs to the access road. We crossed a lawn and climbed under a Rt 22 bridge to Bushkill Ave and walked a bit of the former Lehigh Valley Railroad's right of way to a bridge over the creek into the Easton Cemetary. We turned left on the other side of the bridge and followed a sidewalk under Rt 22 once more and up into the main part of the cemetary. This cemetary was quite eerie, with brownish colored tombstones, many of which were very very old, dating back to mainly the 1800s in many cases. We walked around the perimeter of the cemetary, reaching another cemetary gated where we could not access it from where we were. We decided not to try to go in to that one this time. We continued, turning right down hill when I saw some workers at a truck. I walked over to ask them a few questions about the cemetary and how to get out. They gave me directions for a different return route, and told me that this cemetary alone, not counting the adjoining one, had nine miles of roads in it! The men were blowing leaves with large blowers. They were amazed that we were hiking as far as we were. I said farewell and Cathy and I descended to near Rt 22 at the cemetary bends, then out of the cemetary along one of the access roads above the Bushkill Creek back to the bridge we'd come in on. We walked from here along the former Lehigh Valley Railroad right of way along, then along Bushkill Drive into Easton, walking along the riverview park on the Delaware to the Northampton Street Free Bridge. We walked across, then made our way up Morris Street with some more obscured views of Phillipsburg's main street area. It was getting quite dark. We continued to the Morris Street turnaround where we used the pedestrian bridge over Rt 22 to near the High School. Rt 22 was busy, with cars and trucks barrelling by us at high speeds. We continued walking up hill along Rt 22 until we reached Roseberry Street. From here, we walked up to the Hillcrest Mall, and continued through the storefronts to a side street parallel with Rt 22. We continued on these parallel side streets across Red School Lane, passing by a school and then along a somewhat new road along a developement back to Stryker's Road where we turned back towared the Crossings strip mall. We stopped in at a little mini mart before walking back over to the car. It was well after dark by now, and we'd covered 15.5 miles!
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