Hike #332 2/29-3/1/8
2/29-3/1/8 Philidelphia/Camden, and Cooper River watershed with Cathy Fisher, Jim "Mr. Buckett" Mathews, David Noble, Alyssa Capo, Jason Itell, "DJ Ray" Cordts, "Major Tom" Conroy, Bernie Lieberman, and "Amish Paul" Hassler
In front of Liberty Bell shrine in Philly
My next hike would be an unconnected section from previous hikes, but because I was close to connecting, and because Jim "Mr. Buckett" Mathews was only going to live in the area a short while more, I decided it would be best to have a hike focused around his area before he moved.
ewwww hoagie rolls at Buckettfest #1
Buckettfest!
Buckettfest!
Buckettfest!
Buckettfest!
Buckettfest!
Buckettfest!
Buckettfest!
Buckettfest!
Buckettfest!
Buckettfest!
Buckettfest!
Buckettfest!
Buckettfest!
Lindenwold train station
Patco Speed Line
Abourd the Patco Speed Line
Aboard the PATCO speed line
Delaware River view from Patco Speed Line on Ben Franklin Bridge
Downtown Philadelphia
Philadelphia
In front of the Liberty Bell Shrine in Philadelphia
In front of the Liberty Bell Shrine in Philadelphia
Benjamine Franklin's grave
Downtown Philly
View of a street from Ben Franklin Bridge
Ben Franklin Bridge
Ben Franklin Bridge
Ben Franklin Bridge
View from Ben Franklin Bridge
View south from Ben Franklin Bridge
Ben Franklin Bridge
Delaware River looking south from Ben Franklin Bridge
Ben Franklin Bridge
View from Ben Franklin Bridge
View from Ben Franklin Bridge
Ben Franklin Bridge
Philadelphia from Ben Franklin Bridge
Camden waterfront from Ben Franklin Bridge, including the USS New Jersey
View from Ben Franklin Bridge
Wide area on the Ben Franklin Bridge
View from Ben Franklin Bridge
View from Ben Franklin Bridge
Ben Franklin Bridge
Ben Franklin Bridge looking toward Philly
Along the Cooper River Greenway in Camden
Cooper River greenway
Trail in Cooper River Greenway, Camden
Cooper River Greenway, Camden
Cooper River lake in Camden
Causeway out onto Cooper River Lake in Camden
Abandoned building on the Cooper River, Camden NJ
Abandoned building
Inside the abandoned building
The missing roof of the abandoned building
Abandoned building on Cooper River
Abandoned building
Abandoned building
Abandoned building on Cooper River lake, Camden
Abandoned car on Cooper River Greenway
Cooper River lake
Cooper River Bridge on Kaighns Ave
Cooper River Greenway
Cooper River Greenway
Cooper River Greenway
Cooper River Greenway
Drainage tunnel along Cooper River in Camden
Cooper River Greenway
Cooper River Greenway
Cooper River Greenway
Cooper River Greenway
Cooper River Greenway, Camden
Cooper River Greenway
Cooper River Greenway
Cooper River Greenway trail
Looking toward Philadelphia on the Cooper River
Cooper River Greenway
Cooper River Greenway at a railroad underpass, east side of Camden
Trail in the Cooper River Parkway
Cooper River Parkway
Cooper River park map
Cooper River bridge at King's Highway
Dam on the Cooper River
Cooper River bridge at King's H ighway
Cooper River Parkway
The railroad tracks in Lindenwold
Me at the end of our trip, in Mr. Buckett's bathroom
Mr. Buckett would co lead this hike with me, having planned the most interesting route he could find to end at his house. We began this two day trip with a party at Mr. Buckett's house; "Buckettfest 2008". Cathy and I arrived there a bit late and we drove "Major Tom" Conroy down with us, "DJ Ray" Cordts, Jason Itell, Amish Paul Hassler, and one of Mr. Buckett's buddies had already arrived. David Noble and Alyssa Capo arrived a bit late. Alyssa brought he friend Larissa as well, and Mr. Buckett's nephew also showed up. We had quite a good time, and DJ Ray supplied the music. We stayed up way too late, not going to sleep until after 4 am. I layed down at 4 but ended up getting up again, and Cathy and I were both down by 5 am. We got up at 8 am. Quite a crazy night. When Cathy and I woke, no one else was the least bit awake. I immediately began making tons of noise, and only Larissa woke up. Major Tom was sort of groggy but began to awaken. DJ Ray was totally unresponsive; I shook him and shouted and the most he would do is mumble. I grabbed him by the legs and dragged him from the living room out to the kitchen which did'nt do any good. I got Cathy to talk to him and she finally got him up. I went up the stairs and woke up David and Alyssa, and soon everyone began waking up and getting ready. It took some hustling, but we got things together and headed for the Lindenwold train station. Mr. Buckett, David, and I headed toward the station on foot while Cathy drove DJ Ray, Alyssa, and Major Tom to the station where we met Bernie Lieberman. Our train was leaving when we pulled in, so we waited twenty minutes for the next train. This was the PATCO speed line, which was different than other rail lines in NJ Transit I'd seen. We had to buy tickets from machines, then had to place tickets into machines and walk through. A train was parked, which we boarded and had to wait for it to take off. There were no conductors as well. A few people sat down behind us and seemed to get a kick out of us. Everyone was kind of down and out except for myself and Bernie from the night of partying. As the train headed west, we saw what looked like bombed out buildings from the PATCO line in Camden, and it made me wonder how such a high number of NJ's population could live in a place that looked so descelate. The rail ine went underground and emerged. We soon emerged onto the Benjamine Franklin Bridge, on a rail part of the bridge on the sides away from the roadways. There was a good view to the north along the Delaware. It was'nt far beyond it we went underground once again, and we passed the abandoned Franklin Square subway station. It was'nt far from here we got to our stop and headed up to the street. An angry older black man was shouting obscenities at us as soon as we emerged. We wandered down the street to a McDonalds so everyone could get some crap to eat for breakfast to fight off the hangover. Strangely, though I'd drank quite a lot, I was not hung over. We passed an amphibious car called a "Duck" which looked like a boat driving on wheels that could be taken directly into the Delaware. We would later see it floating from the Ben Franklin Bridge. We walked along the streets (city hall was visible) back passing the Independence Hall I think it was, then by the center where the Liberty Bell was kept. We walked along a church area, and then visited Benjamine Franklin's grave, which was covered in pennies. We walked on and soon stepped onto the Ben Franklin Bridge, which had a nice walkway (we had to call in the morning to make sure it'd be open, as they were calling for snow; fortunitely there was none). We headed out across the bridge where we met up with Amish Paul riding his bike across. I gave the bike a ride for a bit, which was really tough because for one the seat was right up my ass and too high, and it sat so high if I crashed I'd plunge off the Ben Franklin Bridge; I was sitting almost at the level of the top of the guard rails. We continued across the bridge with good views of the streets of Philidelphia, Camden, the Delaware River, and the waterfront. We could also see the Battleship NJ. We soon made our way off the bridge and emerged in Camden. Many of us had to use restrooms so we headed to the next McDonalds. We had to wait also for Jason Itell who was going to meet up with us. His leg was stil injured from a recent skiing accident, but he was feeling well enough to hike. He soon showed up, and we could'nt use the restroom at McDonalds because some yahoo was in there forever doing some sort of drug deal or something. We headed out from McDonalds along streets through Camden. Mr. Buckett led us along a route he'd scouted out during the week. We walked out the end of a dead end street where a paved trail started along the Cooper River greenway. We continued along the greenway heading east or southeast. We came out along some still standing water to Baird Boulevard and crossed over. There were some steps going up the other side, which is the trail we should have taken, but opted instead to go up the embankment to the park on the hillside. There was'nt much of a trail, just some sort of washed out old water drainage thing we could walk on. What trails we saw were mostly covered over at least in part by leaves and such. We walked pretty much parallel with the water, and soon saw an old dam or levee of some sort with a small brick building out on the water. We knew we had to go and check it out. Jason, David and I were the only ones curious enought to trek across the muddy levee to get into the structure. The roof was caving in rather badly, but it was interesting. None of us could figure out what the thing would have been used for. We continued back to the park area and then out to Kaighns Avenue which headed out along the edge of the water with a view of the structure we'd just been in in the distance. We soon turned right onto a parkway along the riverside parallel with North Park Drive. We continued on through a manicured park section, mostly all grassy fields, some ball fields, pavilians, memorials and such. It was all very open. We stopped at a picnic bench for a break at one time, and Amish Paul, having disappeared earlier, reappeared again with his car and his bike. DJ Ray and Major Tom hopped into his car and passed out, and the rest of us continued on. Cathy was'nt feeling well at all, but she was a trooper and forged onward. the further east we got, the more wooded the parkway became. Amish Paul, having used his bicycle, kept ending up ahead of us and laying in the many pavilians. Jason commented "I had this nightmare where there was a Paul Hassler in every pavilian I saw". We continued east as the river became narrow once again, and entered a more wooded trail section passing under a railroad bridge. It appeared there had been rope swings here in the past, but all were cut down. The park opened into some field areas again, and once again gave way to woods. The trail surface had changed from pavement to unimproved footpaths which I loved. We soon crossed Grove Street and kept to the north side of the creek, and there was a definite unimproved footpath for some great woodsy walking. We did a nice long section of footpath trail heading to a road called King's Highway. A pedestrian bridge across Cooper River here led the trail to a terminus at the road. It was here that Cathy and Mr. Buckett decided to take a short way out and walk to Haddonfield Train station to get back. Jason, David, Alyssa, and Bernie opted to continue on with me through the parkway heading southeast. There was a nice little dam with a lake here, which we walked by through a horde of geese, then out to an access road to the park lands. We followed the parkway along Borton's Mill Road to a turn south on Brace Road, which had a nice wide area of sod to walk on. We followed this to Berlin Road and turned left, or southeast. We crossed Rt 295 and the PA Turnpike, then turned right on Burnt Mill Road to Woodcrest Road, which led us to the railroad station we'd take back to Lindenwold. We had originally planned to walk to Lindenwold, but no one was really feeling up to it. We'd walked far enough. Still, once we arrived at Lindenwold Station, we had some walking to do back to Mr. Buckett's house on Roosevelt Ave! We must have done a couple miles there alone, as we'd made a wrong turn at one point. We all rested up briefly, and David and I ate some cake Cathy made, before going to Fudrucker's for dinner.
Weird thing on Cooper River Lake, Camden
1.) At the party, Buckettfest!2.) Cathy and David at Buckettfest3.) David and DJ Ray at Buckettfest4.) Mr. Buckett and Amish Paul5.) David, Alyssa, and DJ Ray6.) Cathy talking to Larissa7.) Buckettfest shot8.) David and I with a hoagie roll!9-15.) Pictures from Buckettfest!16.) David and Alyssa at Lindenwold Station17.) View at Lindenwold Station18.) On the train from Lindenwold19.) Bernie and Mr. Buckett on the train20.) View of some of Philly from the train on Ben Franklin Bridge21.) Old building in Philidelphia22.) Downtown Philly23-24.) The group in front of Independence Hall I think25.) Ben Franklin's Grave in Philly26.) Looking toward the Ben Franklin Bridge27.) View from Ben Franklin Bridge28.) Ben FrankliN Bridge29.) On Ben Franklin Bridge, Mr. Buckett tries to ride Amish Paul's bike30.) View of Philly from Ben Franklin Bridge31.) View south along the Delaware from Ben Franklin Bridge32.) View from Ben Franklin Bridge33.) Cathy and Major Tom on Ben Franklin Bridge34.) View south on the Delaware from Ben Franklin Bridge35.) Ben Franklin Bridge36.) View of USS New Jersey from Ben Franklin Bridge37.) Camden View from the bridge38.) On the bridge39.) View of Philly from the bridge40.) View of USS New Jersey in Camden41.) Camden View42.) On the Ben Franklin Bridge43.) View over Camden From Ben Franklin Bridge 44-46.) Ben Franklin Bridge47.) Along the Cooper River Greenway, Camden48.) Nice tree in a Camden park49.) On the trail in a Camden Park50.) Walking the messed up washway and trail in Camden park51.) Old structure and some sort of levee out on the waters of the lake of Cooper River52.) Looking across the levee53.) The old structure out on the water54.) Inside the building55.) Fireplace in the old building56.) Roof of the old building57.) The old building58-59.) David and Jason in the old building60.) View of the old building from up above61.) Me on an abandoned car in the park62.) Far view of the old building out on the lake63.) The group on the Cooper River Bridge on Kaighns Ave64.) In the Cooper River greenway near North Park drive65.) Cooper River view66.) Nice view in Cooper River park land67.) Mr. Buckett and Cathy taking a break along Cooper River68.) Amish Paul in a drainage tunnel along Cooper River69.) Picnic bench along Cooper River70.) Cooper River view71.) Hiking across Cooper River greenway72.) Cooper River Greenway73.) In Cooper River Greenway74.) Amish Paul taking a break under a pavilian75.) Me in Cooper River Park76.) Mr. Buckett and Cathy on a trail along Cooper River77.) Philidelphia in view from Cooper River78.) Amish Paul in another pavilian79.) Trail at a railroad underpass along the river80.) Along the trail81.) In the Cooper River parkway82.) Trail map83.) Bridge along the Cooper River on King's Highway84.) Lovely dam on the Cooper River near King's Highway85.) The group as seen from under the bridge86.) David and Bernie in the greenway87.) Railroad tracks in Lindenwold88.) Me in Mr. Buckett's bathroom
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