Hike #545 3/4/11
3/4/11 Easton/Phillipsburg/Martins Creek/Brainards Loop with Matt Casey and Jim Delotto
My next hike would be another impromptu taking advantage of my unemployment day. Matt Casey was available, as was Jim DeLotto, and so I went to Easton to meet up with Matt.
We met on Cattel Street at the Wawa; I left my car parked parallel with Cattell on Porter Street. We walked north from there to Lafayette Street, but went a bit too far and had to turn back. We took Lafayette to a left on Reeder, then right on Wayne, then left on Hillside.
Seasonal view from College Hill
We ascended steeply and some great seasonal views were soon visible. We followed Hillside slightly up hill and saw a guy walking his dog. To our left was an old woods road. The area was somewhat developed and I could see houses up there to the left as well, but it also appeared clear. I asked the guy if that woods road went through, and he told us it was an access road for the houses in the area. We opted to try it out. It turned out this road just dead ended, but we were able to follow animal paths very steeply to the next road up.
On the abandoned portion of Edgewood Ave, Easton
Seasonal view from College Hill, Easton
This next road, apparently part of Edgewood Ave, was a dirt road that dead ended off of a driveway. It was probably at one time a through public road, but now it was just a dirt route going through to the current Edgewood alignment. We turned right on this out to the paved road and headed up hill more.
We came to the crest of the mountain here, past a house, and then cut down hill very slightly to Paxinose Road. We cut through the weeds to avoid making a hairpin turn going out of the way.
Seasonal view from College Hill, Easton
We turned right on Paxinose and continued. This road, a dead end, led out to Gollub Park. On the way there was a tremendous view to the north with Wind Gap and the Blue Mountain in plain sight.
View of Wind Gap PA from Gollub Park
As we continued on we could look back a bit and have more of a view seeing out as far as Lehigh Gap, the next major gap in the Blue Mountain to the west.
View of Lehigh Gap from Gollub Park
We continued on and had yet another even clearer view across Forks Township and beyond to the Delaware Water Gap.
View of Delaware Water Gap from Gollub Park
At the end of the dead end street we came to the entrance to Forks Township's Gollub Park. We followed the path, an old woods road into this. I had always wanted to include this site on a hike, but there was limited connectivity to it with other trails, so it was best to do it with only a couple people. I had found it one night with Kyle Zalinsky in the fall of 2009. I'd since brought Jillane back once, but still hadn't included it in a long hike.
View of the Delaware from St. Anthony's Nose, Gollub Park
We walked along the path, really an old roadway for a while, and then where the road twisted around in the other direction we continued on a foot path. This led us down hill steeply to the dramatic view from St. Anthony's Nose. There was a dramatic bend in the Delaware River and another steep slope on the opposite side.
View from St. Anthony's Nose, Forks Township PA
View from St. Anthony's Nose, PA
View from St. Anthony's Nose, PA
View from St. Anthony's Nose, PA
Matt on St. Anthony's Nose, PA
We could see quite far on this occasion. After taking in this spectacular view, we dared to try something crazy: bushwhack down hill from St. Anthony's Nose to the north. We saw a spot where there seemed to be a cleft in the slope we could make our way down. There was still some snow and ice we had to be careful on, and it was like a talus slope beyond that, so the rocks were often loose. Matt took one fall, and I took a couple, but neither of us were badly hurt.
Climbing down from St. Anthony's Nose, PA
Climbing down from St. Anthony's Nose, PA
Abandoned old trail below St. Anthony's Nose, Forks Township
I could see as we descended that we were heading toward houses. Delotto met up with us below here at an overlook parking lot along the Delaware. He had called me and realized how close we were, so he called out, and I could hear him plainly. We continued to descend down to the left away from the houses.
As we came over a small crest there was a farm to the left and someone's shed and storage area to the right. We continued down closer to the farm, but stayed far enough into the woods. I was surprised to come across a rock trail, certainly where a walkway had once been made in the stones along the side of the escarpment. This may have been done a century ago, and had long been forgotten judging by the blow downs over it. It was certainly intended as a foot path, perhaps to access St. Anthony's nose by hikers of generations past.
Crossing a creek to Frost Hollow Road, Forks Twp
I descended through easier terrain across an old woods road that connected the farm area where a new home had been built to the shed and equipment over to the right. I then went straight on and crossed over a brook to Frost Hollow Road and turned right out to Rt 611 where we met Delotto.
Along Frost Hollow Road, weird thing.
We decided to take a turn onto Winchester Drive which paralleled the somewhat new golf course on the left. There was an odd stone pile made of some sort of mill wheel (probably a reproduction) and a giant boulder. I climbed up on it. I guessed it was probably intended to hold some sort of sign promoting the golf course or development but not sure.
The road took us slightly up hill and around a corner. We joked and talked in old man voices, just acting silly.
Forks Township Recreational Trail
We soon reached the Forks Township Recreation Trail, formerly the Uhler Branch of the Lehigh and New England Railroad. I had not walked this trail since doing it a long time prior with Tea Biscuit (the day we walked over 31 miles).
Delotto being a monkey
Forks Township Recreational Trail
We followed the trail north to where it terminated at Frutchey Hill Road. Since my last time here, a set of steps had been constructed down to the road from the trestle. This trestle over the road had a long chain link fence over it, just as it did before. I opted to go down and around instead of over it this time, as did Delotto, but Matt decided to try it.
Matt crossing the trestle over Frutchey Hill Road, Forks Twp.
Matt crossing the trestle over Frutchey Hill Road, Forks Twp.
The trestle was long, and on the other side Delotto and I climbed back up to the right of way. Matt crawled through a hole in the fence on the opposite side that was still there from my previous visit. We then continued on the rail bed north through some farm fields and behind houses. I spent some time here on the phone rescheduling my weekend's hike for the next day instead of the following Sunday when I had originally planned, which was amazing that I was able to do it.
Along former LNE Uhler Branch
Along former LNE Uhler Branch
Along former LNE Uhler Branch
Farm view Along former LNE Uhler Branch
This section of the rail bed took us out to Lower Mud Run Road, where a trestle used to be over the road. Half of the trestle over the creek below was still in place, and the previous time here Tea Biscuit and I were on the other side, but we opted not to do it this time. We turned right followed by a left onto Rt 611 and followed it north with some nice views over the Delaware River.
Half trestle along former LNE Uhler Branch, Lower Mud Run Road
Along the Delaware near Martins Creek PA
View of the Brainards Trestle, Martins Creek PA
At one point we followed an abandoned paved road parallel with Rt 611 on the river side. We continued along the road until we came across an abandoned house on the right.
Abandoned house, Martins Creek PA
Abandoned house
Abandoned house
Abandoned house
Abandoned house
Abandoned house
Abandoned house
Abandoned house
Abandoned house
Abandoned house
Abandoned house
Abandoned house
Abandoned house
The house was right along side of the road, but we just had to go check it out. Delotto ran in first when there was no traffic, followed by myself and then Matt. In the first floor, it was very strange. There were no floor boards, or barely any, where we first went in. It didn't seem that they had rotted, but rather had been taken probably because of their value. The house was of stone construction, at least in part, and like many of these old homes the floor boards were probably very valuable. My old home in Port Colden was probably from around the same time period (early 1800s) and had some really nice wooden floor boards. Fortunately these floor boards were saved by my Aunt Bonnie and Uncle George before the remaining house was demolished.
The floor area beneath the framework, the crawl space area, was filled in with crushed up cinder block or concrete or something. Either the basement had been filled in with this to relieve liability, or they needed to dispose of some refuse. Whatever the case, it was rather strange. There was an open area where a stair case would have once stood, but this perhaps was removed for preservation like the floor boards. One can only speculate. I turned right into the second room which still had much floor in place, though it seemed week. Toward the north end of the building was a set of stairs in good shape I was able to go up. The second floor still had all of it's boards in place. There was another set of stairs up to a finished attic area with carpeting, but it didn't connect to the rest of the attic which was accessed by a set of pull down stairs like the once I had in Port Colden, though they were not old and neither was this one.
There were some teaching books strewn about the floor on the upper level. Mostly just text books save for one childrens book about Jesus. The second story was surprisingly not all that bad.
Delotto joined me upstairs and looked around, but we didn't want to be there too long. There was a house just south of this one that we had been within view of when we entered. We called out to Matt who was still downstairs to come up with us. We heard a huge crash and some cursing. Matt had fallen through the first level floor in the second room! Furtunately he was alright, and soon joined us upstairs.
Abandoned house
We exited the building through a back door onto a rotten step. Fortunately we did not fall through this one. The railroad tracks of the former LNE Uhler Branch were directly behind this place, still used as an industrial spur to access the Con Agra facility barely to the south.
Abandoned house
Along former Lehigh and New England Railroad's Uhler Branch, Martins Creek PA
Along former Lehigh and New England Railroad's Uhler Branch, Martins Creek PA
Along former Lehigh and New England Railroad's Uhler Branch, Martins Creek PA
Lime Kiln, Martins Creek PA
We turned right and headed south on the railroad tracks. They took us through a nice narrow cut and then out across Rt 611 next to a nice old lime kiln. After passing the single one there were a few others across 611 from the tracks.
Along former Lehigh and New England Railroad's Uhler Branch, Martins Creek PA, lime kiln.
We continued walking along the tracks closer to the Delaware and soon came to the Riverside Bar and Grill. This was a famous bar, having always been promoted on the radio station WZZO but I'd never gone in before. We were all hungry and so this was a convenient stop. We went in and sat at the bar for burgers and fries. We all had the same thing, and chatted with a nice guy there about music. He was surprised that at our young ages we knew anything about music from his time. It turned out we actually knew more than he did! We had a great conversation and left the bar feeling full and happy. Delotto picked up our tab, a very nice gesture on his part which we were very thankful to him for. He has always been one of the most generous people I've known.
View from the Brainards Trestle of the Delaware
Crossing Brainards Bridge
We continued north along the tracks from here through Martins Creek past one of the giant old portland cement silos, now used I think for something agricultural or something, and soon reached the former Lackawanna Railroad's branch that led to the left to Bangor and Portland, and to the right across the river to Brainards. We cut across a bit of a field over to those very active freight tracks and crossed Martins Creek itself on a deck style girder bridge, with an abandoned earlier bridge to our right. We then continued out with the old quarry operation site to the left, and an abandoned concrete building to the right and crossed the trestle over the Delaware into NJ.
Crossing Brainards Bridge
We reached the junction with the Bel Del Railroad and headed south through Brainards, a town that owed it's existance to the former quarry industry across the river. The workers would have walked across the railroad bridge, outfitted with a pedestrian walkway strictly for their use, to work at the quarry.
Old shelter along the Bel Del, Brainards NJ
We continued south, I think through Harmony Township along the old railroad tracks and through a small community of homes where a side road went off to the other side of the tracks, the river side. I forget what exactly this community was called. Delotto used the opportunity to walk on the road a bit instead of the ballast covered tracks.
There was also an abandoned, or seemingly abandoned industry to the left at some point, all fenced in. We'd have to come back to explore it at another time.
Bridge crossing on the Bel Del, Harmony Township
The narrows north of Phillipsburg at night
The narrows north of Phillipsburg at night
It started getting pretty dark. We passed by a house with a wheezing unhealthy sounding dog (this has happened with another Delaware Riverside dog up in Hutchinson to the north. Must be a Delaware dog thing). We soon began to pass through the narrow bluffs along Marble Mountain heading into Phillipsburg. We turned to walk the road parallel with the tracks since they ran side by side for a bit.
Matt was talking to some people on the phone, and had some obligations to take care of, so he had a friend pick him up along River Road just as we were approaching Phillipsburg. Delotto and I returned to the railroad tracks just about when we came to the pump house place and walked past the water treatment plant towards the Rt 22/Bushkill Street bridge. We then turned onto South Main Street and climbed steeply to the bridge and the pedestrian walkway. We crossed and saw the creepy Getters Island to our right, then descended on the other side to Riverside Drive. Rt 22 ahead was closed, with a police car blocking the way. There must have been another accident on the cemetery curves in Easton, which is pretty commonplace on that dangerous spot.We turned left on Rt 611 to Bushkill Drive and headed to the steps at the base of College Hill. We climbed them up to Lafayette College with some spectacular views over the city.
View of Easton from College Hill
View of Easton from College Hill
View of Easton from College Hill
View of Easton from College Hill
We went by the statue and then walked across the campus. There were a lot of people around, but no signs of any Friday night parties like I would have imagined.We reached Cattell Street and turned left past the Wawa, then right on High Street to a left on Porter to get back to my car, furtunately still in one piece (sort of, the winter had been hard on it) and I drove Delotto back to his car on 611 north of the city to finish another awesome day.
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