Hike #589; Phillipsburg/Easton

 Hike #589; Another Phillipsburg/Easton Excursion

10/6/11 Phillipsburg/Easton Area with "Action Adam" Stevens and "Commando Tom" Petrucci

Giant pipe along the Delaware in Phillipsburg

My next hike would be yet another crazy near loop in the Phillipsburg and Easton vicinity.

Like a previous time, we would start walking from Hillcrest Shopping Center. Adam and I wandered through the path at the back of the shopping center, and then across the ball fields directly behind it. We then took a path that went close to the hospital, turned slightly right across another ball field, and emerged on the corner of Berkeley Ave and Edward Street. We continued up Edward Street past a private community on the right, which had a nice paved path access that was closed off.

When we reached Guy Road, we turned right.

Guy Road! Phillipsburg

I realized after a bit that it was probably a bad idea to have worn the corduroy jacket I had bought in Lancaster the previous Saturday, because it was quite hot out. We continued to turn left on Mazie Road, then right onto Lynda Road out to Red School Lane. We turned left again here and started heading out to Belvidere Road and Marble Hill.

Warren County had just received a grant to do work at Marble Hill Preserve, so I was doing scouting for the trails up there. The regular Sunday hike a couple weeks prior wasn't enough to cover all of the trails there, so this time we would do some more recon work. I needed to see what all the trails were like and how to incorperate them into county stuff.

At the end of Red School Lane, we crossed Belvidere Road and headed up Marble Hill following the utility line. I had walked this with Cathy a few years prior, when the Mountain view road development was first being constructed. It's amazing it still hasn't gotten any further than it did at that time.

View heading up from Belvidere Road, looking toward Red School Lane, P Burg

We gained elevation pretty fast. We passed one cul de sac on the right, and then ascended to the Mountain View Road end where the paved road continued up toward the water tower above. I was considering going up by the water tower to cut over to another potential trail route, but that will have to be the next trip. This time, I wanted to check out the approaches to Marble Hill Road so we went straight.

View from along the utility line on Marble Hill, toward Morgan Hill

The view from the power line on the way up was nice, and we could see Red School lane heading off, but the next view from along the farm lands next to the power line is always much better. There's sort of a 180 degree view that shows Morgan Hill, Phillipsburg, and the outskirts.

Marble Hill view toward Phillipsburg

Earth mover on Marble Hill

View of St. Anthony's Nose form Marble Mountain

We were both out of breath from the climb, making me realize I need to get more exercise. We leaned on a giant back how left on the utility line, which had been there two weeks prior before and didn't appear to have been moved. We then continued down the west side of Marble Hill (I told Adam it's Marble Hill if you come from Phillipsburg, Marble Mountain from the Delaware!).

We soon came to a trail that crossed the utility line. I think if we'd gone to the right it would have switched back and then led to Marble Hill Road where I wanted to be, and to the left it led out to private land and a field. I started going left until I realized we couldn't use that route all the way through, and instead headed down the utility line which was pretty steep. I twisted my ankle a bit on the way down.

When we were nearly to Marble Hill Road, we turned left off of the pathway through woods parallel with the road. i figured that would be what I'd do when we put the trail in, have it parallel the road for a short distance to where another cuts in. We bushwacked through some undergrowth that wasn't that bad until we got to the next path, a small ATV trail. We turned left and used it to ascend yet again back up Marble Hill/Mountain. It was rather steep, but soon we would get to where I was familiar with it, crossing two small tributaries and making it's way out to the rim where we could see the Delaware down through the trees. A fork in the trail ahead would lead to the same place both ways, but on the last visit I'd used the one to the left, so this time we went right.

We came to a large fire pit with a limited view through the trees across to St. Anthony's Nose on the PA side. We then continued down the trail to the next fork.

Marble Hill/Fulmer Mine

Marble Hill/Fulmer Mine

Ruins of the mine works on Marble Mountain

The old road to the left is the one we always use when coming the opposite direction to access the Fulmer Mine. Adam hadn't been there so we wandered on over to have a look. We went inside for a bit, and checked out some of the ruins around the outside, and then continued to head down hill on the old road way. This might have at one time been sort of a rail tramway to haul the iron back down to the river, but I'm not sure.

Commando Tom was planning to meet up with us around here, and so he had just arrived at Union Square, Phillipsburg. He parked and started running on the former Bel Del tracks north toward us.

Adam and I headed down hill, and on the way met a couple of guys who were having a camp fire off to the left. We chatted with them a bit, and didn't find them to be a problem, and so kept going. At first, we only smelled the smoke and thought maybe there was a forest or house fire somewhere nearby.

We continued down the hill and soon reached the road at the bottom. We turned right onto the road and then crossed onto I think a gas line to reach the Bel Del tracks. We sat here for a bit to wait for Commando Tom.

I made shrieking noises hoping for a response from him. When we saw him come running, he saw us and turned around the other way, probably thinking us to be some sort of hoodlums. We talked on the phone and he turned around.

Man love in a tree along the Delaware, P Burg

We all headed down a path to the edge of the Delaware River, and got pictures of the giant hollow tree. I put Adam and Tom in loving positions in the tree which provoked a good deal of laughing.

We then continued along the path below the railroad and the pump house, along the Delaware to the south.

Busted concrete wing wall at the outlet pipe along he Delaware, P Burg

We passed the few outlet pipe spots, and when we reached the giant one I always like to walk through, we found tha the big piece of concrete at the base had busted off and was laying in the river. I didn't remember it being like that before. I think the weight of the water during the recent floods had probably busted the thing right off, amazingly!

Big pipe

Big pipe

Big pipe

I was a bit concerned going into the big pipe because two weeks before we'd had to crawl through a huge mess in order to get through. The storms had carried all sorts of debris into it, almost shutting it off. We walked on through, and were surprised that the pipe had almost no water running through it.

Side pipe

Big pipe

End of the big pipe

When we got to the smaller side pipe, I decided to try crawling down it a bit, but didn't want to go too far out. We made our way through the rest of the big pipe, and I was surprised to find that the east end had cleared out quite a bit! I suspect that the town probably did some sort of work to push the branches and such through, because it was backed up quite a lot. We were able to get through without really crawling, although it was still narrower than it had been on previous visits.

We came out of the pipe and began walking Rt 621 south on the other side, and then turned right to walk the parallel Andrews Alley to 3rd Street. Along the way we met a guy who runs AHL Windshield Repair. I can't remember his name, but he was a nice fellow. We chatted with him about the trail that's supposed to come through, and all sorts of stuff. He told us he was a carpenter by trade until he was disabled. He seemed like one of those cool neighborhood friendly guys; a young girl on a skate board high fived him as she went by.

On the Rt 22, Bushkill Street Bridge

We continued down the street, and then made our way up across 3rd Street/Memorial Parkway to the side of Rt 22 on the sidewalk to cross the Delaware. This time the guards didn't give us any really crazy looks like they did the previous time. We walked across and admired the views up stream.

View from the Rt 22 Bridge, with Getters Island

It was starting to get dark, but we could still see Getter's Island and the gap in the mountains ahead very well. I didn't have a concrete plan yet, but it was forming, as to where we'd go next. We opted to head across Lafayette College and north because there was a new section of trail along the Bushkill Creek I'd yet to cover.

Rt 22/Bushkill Street Bridge

On the other side, we turned right and headed over to Bushkill Drive from Garden Street and Rt 611. Some guy went by us on a bike and said "Happy New Year". We then walked by a car wash, where Tom said "I'M GOING TO RUN THROUGH IT!".

He took off running through the exit of the car wash screaming in a high pitch, and when he emerged on the other side, there was a stoic looking meat head guy standing there with his arms crossed, not looking at all amused. It was absolutely hilarious, and Tom mellowed out a little bit for a moment! We referred to him as the "Car Wash Bouncer" because he had exactly that look.

We soon turned right to the stair case up College Hill.

View from the College Hill Steps, Lafayette College, Easton

We climbed the steps and soon reached the statue at the top. A young black girl was sitting up there, and looked rather oblivious to the world around her. I said "you picked a really nice spot!" to which she agreed. Action Adam climbed right up onto the statue and stood there for the better view, and we started chatting with her about college and what she was taking. She said something about business. Commando Tom asked "Are you going to work on Wall Street?". The girl went on about how she didn't want to go to NY for that, and Tom replied "Then don't bother!" and lectured on how that's where everything is. It was quite humorous. I got up on the statue as well, and changed the topic to how terrific the Taco Bell Chipotle Chicken Flat Breads are. We left the girl with Tom saying something like "I want YOU to take over Wall Street so I can lounge and eat Taco Bell".

Lafayette College Hill statue, and a lecture on Wall Street.

We walked off to the left drinking our Tilts and Bandit wine, across the grass and toward the Fisher Campus. Along the way, we passed quite a few people. When we passed one dorm, Tom, rang the intercom saying "hey baby" or something, and some guy answered and asked if it was someone else, and we ran away. Tom jumped around and threw himself into the grass being all silly, but nothing could compare with what happened when we passed dorm full of Frat boys doing some sort of initiation.

Tom started heckling them from the window, and I immediately got a bit nervous and started walking further ahead. Within seconds, Adam was in on it too, and both of them started singing the Backstreet Boys' "I Want It That Way" to make fun of them. It was absolutely hilarious, but I took off to the steps of the Fisher Campus. I realized when I reached the two large campus buildings that I shouldn't worry so much. I was with Adam and Tom, and no security of any kind would be able to catch the three of us even if they did try to stop us. I lightened up for the rest of the night.

We descended to beneath the Rt 22 bridge from the college access road, and then crossed Bushkill Drive to the old Lehigh Valley Railroad bed which had been paved over as a trail. We had followed it the previous time we were out here, but stayed close to Bushkill Drive even where the businesses had built over it. When Easton developed it as a trail, they made the official trail route go across the Bushkill Creek along the cemetery property since so much of the rail line was obliterated. So this time, we would follow the new trail way on the old cemetery road and continue on the new section out to 13th street. Once we were there, we turned right and headed up to Bushkill Drive again, and turned left.

Resting along Bushkill Creek north of Easton

While walking the road, Tom spotted a nice path along the end of a chain link fence down toward the creek. We decided to check it out, and it led to a lovely little dam over the creek, with a long angle drop off. I figured we could probably walk across it was so low, but none of us tried it. We sat here for a while and had a nice relaxing break before moving on. We tried walking along the creek itself, but it got too overgrown so we went back to Bushkill Drive.

We soon crossed over Bushkill Creek on the bridge that led to an old industry that seemed to be converted to residential and restaurant type of business. Tom tried pressing alarm code buttons at the front door, but it didn't work, so we all went running beyond the building north along the former Lehigh Valley Railroad again. We followed the clear path, still unpaved and not an official trail, until we got to where the paved path went up hill to the left into Upper Hackett Park.

We continued through the park as the paved path turned left and then ascended to the height of the land in the park, through the frisbee golf course.

As we neared where the path crossed Hackett Ave, we saw an SUV that looked like a police car, so we turned around fast and started heading across the grassy field. We opted to go out to Hackett Ave and walk that for a bit, and it turned out not to be a cop, but rather a lot of people at some sort of a ball game at the fields ahead. We then crossed Hackett Ave and followed the trail down hill a bit. The area was very disturbed and full of debris at this time, and I tried to walk through it thinking they had covered over the trail, but they had not. I just didn't go far enough. We got back on the trail and used it to descend and cross Rt 22 on the pedestrian bridge to Lower Hackett Park. We then continued on the path as it crossed over Wood Ave and regained the former Lehigh Valley rail bed. We passed the Wonder Bread facility and soon came to Northampton Street at the Taco Bell. We of course went in for some dinner.

I had three of those wonderful chicken flat bread sandwiches, and Tom ordered the same. Unfortunately I felt sick after that, probably due to the combination of that and what I'd been drinking. Tom even went back and ordered a giant burrito. I had to relax for a little bit before I could even start moving again, I was hurting so bad. It felt like heart burn combined with stomach pain. After we finally started moving again, I felt fifty percent better immediately, and then a lot better even after that.

We walked the rail bed until it took us out to 25th Street. The trail then went to the right of Wallgreens, and we all left the trail and went inside.

Wallgreens, 25th Street, Wilson

I had a couple of chewy cookies at this point, which helped me to feel even better. We then wandered the store a bit and acted silly.

Cat we found in Easton

Cat we found in Easton

Cat we found in Easton

The trail continues a bit further to the south, but then cuts off. We opted not to try to follow this on this occasion because a lot of it gets really overgrown and very difficult to follow. We opted instead to try to follow back streets on back toward the center of Easton.

There were hardly any cars on the road, and so it was a rather easy walk.

HAPPY!!!!

On the way back, we came across the sweetest young cat, probably eight or nine months old, which was very lovable. It was standoffish at first, but it circled us a bit for a while, without getting too close. It then realized we were safe, and approached us. It absolutely loved being pet, and went back and forth between each of us looking for attention. Had it not had a collar on it, it would have been difficult not to bring it home. We played with the cat for a bit before moving on. It followed us only maybe a half a block after we started walking, and then went back to presumably it's home.

Adorable sweet cat in Easton

Descending to the end, Easton PA

Yes!

Yes. Restroom mirror at Easton Exxon station.

We continued down to the Tobacco Store at the Exxon station where I had always gone to get my quart of Lehigh Valley Chocolate Milk for 88 cents, the cheapest anywhere, but the formula for Lehigh Valley Chocolate Milk had recently been changed. It now read "Tru Moo" on the label, and they advertised that they'd gotten rid of the high fructose corn syrup. The container also boasted of how much more healthy it was. To me, when I drink a chocolate milk, I'm not thinking "I'm going to have something healthy!". It's a damn CHOCOLATE MILK!!! It's a treat! But anyway, the formula was changed and it doesn't taste nearly as good as it once did.

Furtunately, Tom realized they sold the pints of Clover Farms, which was always one of my favorites as well. Clover is made with real sugar, yet it has always had the good taste I've come to love with Lehigh. I am now a faithful follower of Clover Farms, Harrisburg Farms, and Cream O' Land varieties. There are a few others that are often good. I was glad Tom found the good stuff, and I bought two pints.

We headed out to the Northampton Street Free Bridge, and crossed to Union Square where Tom had parked his car. He was good enough to return Adam and I to our vehicles to finish off another amazing fun night of craziness.