Hike #651; Phillipsburg/Easton Loop

 Hike #651; Phillipsburg-Easton Loop

9/14-9/15/12 Phillipsburg/Easton Area Loop with "Naaron" Young, Cesco and Giancarlo Tetto, and Dave Dech

The group in the drain tunnel

My next hike would be another impromptu night hike, again at Marble Hill in Phillipsburg. We continue to move along with the development of the Warren Highlands Trail and the system up there, and Dave Dech, planning director for Warren County told me he'd like to move on the other connecting trails up there. There would be a new yellow trail following an old woods road, as well as a connector trail down into the Lopatcong Township Park. I'd started hiking from there before, but never considered an official trail, but Dave pretty much had the permission. The next move was to head on up there and look to see where it would go.After work, Naaron and I, who are now working together, met him at the park. We parked on a nearby side street and wandered on in. The three of us made our way along the paved paths to the north end of the park, and then cut into the high weeds heading up hill gradually. This section would have to become a maintenance thing for the township to take care of. It would be too much of a mowing burden for the county for sure.We bullied on through and got to where there was somewhat of a tree canopy so we could move easier. The chain link fence for the future high school site appeared to the left, and we skirted it on down hill. This was some rough hiking, but it cleared up just before we reached the existing Warren Highlands Trail that I built.From this point, we turned right and followed the trail across two wash areas, then headed down hill where I built the trail to the right. We followed an old woods road used by ATVs which took us gradually down under a nice stand of trees to Marble Hill Road. From there, the projected trail route would turn right and then right again to follow the power lines up hill back to Warren Highlands Trail. We walked up the road and past this point to the future parking lot, which was once a shooting range off the road. A pile of dirt had been put up over it to block cars from parking there. Cesco and Giancarlo joined us at this point and pulled their car off.We tried to bushwhack from here on to the power line, a projected new trail route to connect with the lot, but it was too rough. We made our way back to the road and to the existing path on the power line and headed up hill.This was really pretty steep. I was getting quite sweaty. Before reaching the Warren Highlands Trail, the entire power line had been completely cleared out. Apparently they were working on doing the entire thing, and so I would have to hold back from blazing here because the posts would just disappear anyway. We continued up hill past the trail, then over the hump where there's a view to the south. Dave left us here to wander back to his car at the township park. The rest of us headed back to the trail and followed it to the west. Some of what I built had a bit growing in, but it was overall pretty good. I was happy to see on Google Earth that someone had taken a picture of my newly built trail with blue blazes, for the world to see.We followed the trail and stopped at the overlook area, and took the Iron Mine Trail to the Fulmer Mine where we took a little break. We then headed down to the Warren Highlands Trail again, and crossed River Road to the Delaware. We visited the hollowed out Silver Maple, and took a really nice swim in the river which was well needed. Only Giancarlo didn't submerge completely.From here, we followed the river down stream to the giant pipe. Always a hoot, we headed through the pipe out to North Main Street. Cesco did a head stand in the pipe on the way through.Once on the road, we followed the trail route to the Rt 22 bridge. As usualy, we crossed, I gave the history talk, and we made our way over to Bushkill Drive, then up to Lafayette College. It was now awake with kids going to classes and dorms, unlike the recent times up there. We headed down through the Fisher Campus, then under the Rt 22 bridge to the rail trail, which was now dubbed the Easton Artison Trail or something. The official trail follows Bushkill Creek on one of the old cemetery roads after turning off the old Lehigh Valley Railroad bed. It then regains the railroad bed and follows it to 13th Street. In the recent visits we headed right and went on through Hackett Park, but this time since we did extra stuff at Marble Hill and would be closing in a full loop, we headed left on 13th. There is an old mill on the intersection of the road and trail, and I decided to walk around it in the dark. The south side of it had a window open, with no boards, so we went on in to have a look around. We were able to walk through all four stories of it I think it was. There was an old elevator in the middle, and the stairs were very sturdy. It was really cool to finally be in this thing I'd seen so many times. The windows were mostly boarded but a couple allowed us to see out. After exploring the entire thing we made our way out and back to the street unseen, and celebrated in our good fortune for getting in and out without a problem.We then followed 13th south to Bushkill Street and turned right. We followed the road until we got to 17th Street and turned right onto Wood Avenue. We were then able to continue the short distance to Lower Hackett Park and get on the trail again. It soon crossed Wood Ave and headed up to the old LV railroad bed again. After crossing Northampton Street, we celebrated with more Taco Bell, as we had done previously. This was a really great stop this time.After this stop, we continued on the trail out toward Wallgreens. We opted not to continue beyond the end of the LV bed trail, or to follow the longer former CNJ line, and follow some back streets back to Easton. We stopped in the mini mart along 611 like we usually do, and then continued out to the Northampton Street Free Bridge and crossed. Usually we finish right here, so it was weird to continue on from this point, up hill on Morris Street. I used to live only a few blocks away from there, and so it is always this deja vu feeling when I walk up that which I did so many times when I called it home.

At the end of Morris Street, we crossed the pedestrian bridge over Rt 22 and followed back streets, past my former boss Steve's house, and then on back to the streets around the Lopatcong Township Park. I'd drank too much and was tired, and so the good friends that they are, Cesco and Giancarlo insisted that they help drive me home. It worked out that it was on the way for them anyway, just a slightly more back road route. I could barely stay awake for the ride enough to navigate so I was glad to have Giancarlo driving my car.

I somehow did manage to take a shower before going to sleep, and I was still fine for work in the morning. It's good to have great friends who look out for me when I'm irresponsible.I need to try to find balance between the professional planning and building of trails, and my crazy partying self that just wants to be wild and crazy and stay out late. Somehow I feel that I used to have a better grasp of it than I do now, but I think I can find my way back. So many things still seem off balance in my life, but things are overall good.