Hike #740; Easton/Tatamy Area Loop

 Hike #740; Easton/Tatamy Area Loop

11/30/13 Easton/Tatamy Area Loop with William "Guillermo" Fabel, Brandan Jermyn, Ed DiSalvo, Jennifer Berndt, Chris "Cupcake" Kroschinski, Darlene Perez, Monika Kwiecinska, Lindsay Haber, Dan Stone, Steve Levy, Gregg Hudis, Beata "Maya" Blatkiewicz, Jaime Dritt, Marcello ?, Deb and John Esposito, Ira Hays, Shanx ?, Scott "Tea Biscuit" Helbing, Amanda Lance, Jim "Mr. Buckett" Mathews, Eric Pace, "Danger Dale" (Darlene's brother), and Carol Van Giezen.

The group on a "frog" north of Tatamy

Our next trip would be one posted somewhat last minute, and somewhat close to home. My original plans to go away for the weekend had fallen through, and so I abruptly posted a hike I had been wanting to do for some time on short notice, surprisingly to great response. It was nice to see that I could post something so quickly and have so many participants.

The trip would bring me back to some of my roots once again, these memories that will always be with me, not to haunt me, but to act as a companion with all of the new places I visit.

Just the week before I had lived out my dream of hiking over sixty miles in one day. Prior to that time, the most mileage I had ever done in one day, as I scaled it, was 31.75 in Northampton County PA, part of which we would repeat for the first time since then on this hike. There were several other odd trails I had been wanting to incorporate into a hike, and so I scaled off a route I thought would be a winner.

We met in the morning at Penn Pump Park north of Easton. Much of the hike is technically an Easton address, although we wouldn't be in Easton till the latter portion of the hike. My initial 15 mile loop I had planned was between Penn Pump and Tatamy using old rail lines and development trails.

I've always loved Easton area. It's got so much history, but even when I was too young to appreciate as much of it as I do today, the rivers, canals, rail lines, and attractive topography was always something that set it apart.

In Uzal W. Condit's 1885 book "The History of Easton Penn'a", he lavishly illustrates the subject area of this hike as follows:

"No stranger of taste ever visits Easton without being charmed with the hills and valleys and shining rivers, ever changing in grandeur as the observer changes position-"

Certainly, those of us who completed most of the hike would see much of the diversity the Easton of today has to offer.

After meeting in Penn Pump Park, we began our walk by heading up hill, Northwood Ave to Tatamy Road. We turned right from here to enter Keystone Park. We walked around the edge of the school near the park and exited via Lewis Street. It was brutally cold at the start of the day, much colder than it had been on any of my hikes since the end of the season, save for maybe some of the previous week's death march. This was certainly the coldest at the start of a hike, anyway.

We powered through it, and from Stocker Mill Road made our way back out to Tatamy Road. We continued north to a strip mall and convenience store on the right. I went in for a snack, though I forget what I got, and we continued right around the store and into the development on Corriere Drive. Mr. Buckett met us in this area, having run slightly late. At the end of the cul de sac was a trail head, the beginning of Penn's Grant Path, one of the trails I'd not yet done.

We followed the path down hill, which took us into a narrow gully along the Schoeneck Creek. The trail was paved and wide, which was good for socializing, though many of us were putting scarves over our mouths and just wanted to keep moving rather than converse.

The trail took us past an old home site and across the Palmer Bike Path, formerly a branch of the Lehigh Valley Railroad I'd hiked many many times in the past. We'd pass by here again later in the day. We continued straight across the old road bridge over Bushkill Creek, and directly to the left was Kesslerville Road. We headed out to the road, climbing the grassy hill up to it, and turned right on the parallel paved path further up hill. This paved path forked off to the right, away from the road. This would be our next route. I opened up a good heavy beer that Dan had given me and we continued on.

I had discovered how extensive these pathways were while scaling off the old Uhler Branch of the Lehigh and New England Railroad, now the Forks Township Trail, further to the east , for the Metrotrails website. I was surprised to see these developments complete with so many interesting paved paths all around and through them. I thought this could make for an interesting hike, or at least a connection for one. The developments had not been there all that long, and so the last time I truly scouted this area there was nothing to walk at all.

The path took us behind homes, skirting a line of trees that on the other side had nothing but farm fields. This path came to an intersection with an old roadway which now makes up part of the trail system. This was once the connection to Ben Jon Road. The road is no longer a through route, though to the left and right both it can be reached on either end.

We turned right here, heading down hill sorrounded by fields. Before coming to Meco Road and the southern end of Ben Jon Road, we turned left on another paved path, which followed a large, open area beneath power lines. This pathway led us across Wagon Wheel Drive, then after a bit turned right out to Meco Road. We had to turn left on Meco Road across Sullivan Trail and past Liberty Terrace, then turned left onto another paved trail. This took us out, across and between soccer and baseball fields.

I had a nice time laughing and carrying on with Mr. Buckett in this section, which was nice. I miss having him around all the time. The trail took us past a parking area, then across Richmond Road and Vista Drive before paralleling Winchester Street. Near the intersection with Upper Way, we turned right, as the path took us down a corridor between several houses, across Upper Way, Middle Way, Lower Way, and Vista Court. It then came to a pathway intersection.

The path went south and north, with the south one leading south far through the development. This would not be our route this time. This time we would head north through the trees, past a storm drain area, then ninety degrees to the east near more homes. We soon hit Scheffield Drive and had to turn left, then right again on Winchester Drive at the end of this.

A short distance up Winchester Drive was another paved path off to the right. We made the turn here. We were now very close to, but not on, the abandoned and nearly forgotten Uhler Branch of the Lehigh and New England Railroad. Tea Biscuit and I had hiked this line as part of the aforementioned 31.75 mile hike in October of 2003.

Over a decade ago, while we were walking through, we took the rail line in the opposite direction. The right of way led us from a line of trees out to this new development that was scraping all remnants of the old rail line from existence. Even we could not see where it turned due to all of the heavy construction.

Today's trail took us out across a road known as Brinker Lane, no doubt the first one Tea Biscuit and I came to over a decade ago, after which we got lost. At the time, the development was just barely started, and the two of us somehow ended up in cultivated fields growing low crops like beans and such.

Lost in what is now development

Back then, of course I did not even have a cell phone yet, let alone a GPS system to show me where the rail line should have gone. Somehow we always managed to find what we were looking for, but with a much larger margin for error as far as mileage is concerned. The line to the north has nearly been farmed out of existence, and then beyond it is still active as a spur line to the Forks Industrial Site. We would walk a portion of it later.

Today's trail took us around a slight bend of what was otherwise a straight route. This was where the rail line turned to the north. I pointed it out to my comrades, who were warming up slightly but still not enough to be interested much in a history lesson.

Now on the rail bed for certain, we crossed over Ramblewood Drive and made our way through a line of trees. The route now resembled the railroad right of way as it should, keeping with the line of trees for a time. After a slight bend to the north, the tree line ended and the paved trail crossed Long Drive. We skirted homes to the left and a golf course to the right before crossing Winchester Drive for the last time. From here, the rail bed continued as a trail, though not paved, and known as the Forks Township Recreation Trail. The developments we were passing through ended abruptly, and we were now in lovely farm lands. I knew everyone would love and appreciate the dramatic transition from one extreme to the next, still on the same lovely former transportation route.

The scenery changed yet again as the rail line switched from cultivated fields to a forested shelf with lovely views through the trees to the Delaware River to the right. It was now quite a bit warmer than it had been when we started, and despite the proximity to the Delaware River, there wasn't much wind, and if there was the trees provided a more than adequate buffer.

Eventually, we reached the abandoned deck style girder trestle over Frutchey Hill Road. I had first crossed this with Tea Biscuit ten years prior, and we had to go around chain link fences and through a hole on the other side. There was no going under what was there now, and so I opted to go over. The township installed some handsome stairs down the south side of the trestle for hikers to reach the road below, which was my intend for most everyone to follow. I figured a few of the intrepid hikers might follow me over the dilapidated structure.

To my great surprise, the majority of the group followed me over the bridge! This was both impressive and stressful because it is so exposed. This could certainly land us in some trouble. While in the middle of the bridge, and taking note of the horribly decaying railroad ties with inches of moss infiltrating several inches of their girth, I looked to the right to see the fire scorched ruins of the historic Mineral Springs Hotel. The hotel had burned down within the month, and it was sad to see another historic structure in ruins, no doubt soon to be demolished.

I got across the bridge, crawled through a hole too small for me, and then helped others pass their packs over and through. Ed helped more of the group as well to get over.

Once on the other side, Eric and Mr. Buckett opted to follow Rt 611 to our next road crossing, Lower Mud Run Road, and the rest of us followed along the abandoned rail right of way, which in this area is not a trail. Hopefully one day it will be. I'd followed this section more recently, I believe in 2011 with Delotto and Matt Casey. It wasn't much different than I remembered it at all, and we got through relatively quickly. Once we reached Lower Mud Run Road, we descended from where a bridge once spanned both the road and Mud Run in the gully beyond. Half of the bridge still remains as it did a decade ago when Tea Biscuit and I first tried to cross it, realizing it was only half there. This time, we would turn left, up hill along Lower Mud Run Road.

We eventually came to a quarry road on the left, which I thought might have at one time been a gravity railroad line because it was so well graded and did not take any serious turns. Guillermo claims that it was always just a road, and he knows one of the owners of the upper end of it. It's shown sort of as a trail font on Google maps, so I thought this would be an interesting way of making a connection.

The route was very clear and nice for walking. We had not trouble getting through until we got to a power line crossing. This area offered a really nice view toward the quarry to the north and Jenny Jump Mountain to the east. We could also see Kittatinny Mountain. The route wasn't totally obvious from the power line, so we just simply crossed, and it was apparent once again on the other side as it made it's way out into open cultivated fields. I hurried everyone across this, and we weren't stopped for anything. There was nothing saying not to be here, so I suppose it was fine. It was actually quite lovely, with a solitary tree out in the field the only thing block the view of the Blue Mountain ridge in the distance.

The roadway took us out to Richmond Road and crossed directly. It was obviously still used in this area as a farm lane, but beyond it was overgrown somewhat more. We continued across which led us out to Short Road. The road continued on across this road, but it was prominently signed with "no trespassing" so we didn't bother to go through. We turned right on Short Road, then left on Uhler Road, onto which the quarry road soon emerged anyway. There was an abandoned former quarry area just north of Uhler Road which it would have accessed, on the property of a farmer Guillermo knows.

We continued on the road for a while, around some nice farm lands until we came to Kesslerville Road. Here, there was a nice old stone house on the right hand side, sitting a ways off the road. My trusted mechanic friend, Dan Galloway, saw the picture I took and informed me that the home was moved carefully by the Amish, jacked up and brought to it's current point. It's great to see amazing structures like this saved rather than demolished like so many of them in NJ are.

When we reached the active railroad spur line, the former Uhler Branch of the Lehigh and New England again, we turned right to follow it. Mr. Buckett and Eric opted not to walk the tracks and instead take the road to Tatamy where we'd all stop for pizza. The rest of us had a nice walk along fields, across Sullivan Trail and then into woods and across Little Bushkill Creek. Just beyond is where the former Lehigh Valley Railroad crosses the former LNE line at grade, which has an interesting crossing fixture not often seen known as a "frog". I stopped everyone for a group picture here. It is also where we would turn.

To the south, the former LV rail line was a clear through route the first time I hiked it in March 2004.

The line to Tatamy before it washed out on an early hike.

Today, the rail line south from Stockertown to Tatamy is an absolute mess. While the tracks remain in place, they had been washed out terribly, shortly after my first time hiking through (note the rail cars on the now abandoned section pictured in 04).

Shortly after the washout

During my next visit to the site later that same year, and shortly after a major flood, the tracks had been completely washed out in places. In many spots the rails were suspended in the air above deep eroded holes. They remain so today, but are now totally grown over with weeds and high grasses that make it very difficult to see where to place our feet.

We managed to navigate through the mess and came out into an industrial area in Tatamy. We reached Tatamy Road and all stopped for some pizza for lunch. Jen, Cupcake, Darlene, and Darlen's brother all joined us here to continue on the hike with us. We had some great pizza, and the owner of the establishment remembered us from the previous time we'd visited, on a night hike in August of 2011. At the time he told us that if it were busy he'd kick us out, but that he wasn't and he thought we were funny. This time, he wasn't much of a stickler, and everyone else was louder and more obnoxious than me for once! Even his only employee laughed and joined in on some of the ridicules conversations.

Before all of us were finished, some of the group opted to continue walking. The remainder of the planned hike was simple. The Palmer Bike Path began directly across the street from the pizza place, and we simply follow that to the cars at Penn Pump Park. No one was much longer in the pizza place, and I soon caught up to most of the people in the front of the group.

Palmer Bike Trail before it was

The trail now took a circuitous route around a developed area before crossing Bushkill Street, then made it's way out to another new development. This is another one (pictured) that bears little resemblence to how it looked nearly a decade ago. At that time, the right of way entered an open area where new homes were to be built, and where today they are in place and a pavilion sits next to the trail. The old road through here was completely re-aligned, which made it difficult to find where the right of way continued on the other side at the time. Today, it's obvious paved route continues over the old road route, now covered over with grass so that no one who doesn't know better will ever notice it.

I do wish they had never paved this trail. The natural cinder base was always best for walking. I remember in 2004 having a friendly argument with a passing cyclist (which didn't make it into the journal entry then I see), about the future of the trail and how it would all be paved. I told him it wasn't good for what I was doing, but he wanted to see it happen to make it easier for him on his bike. I really feel it detracts a lot to the natural beauty of the trail.

Somewhere along the way, Tea Biscuit and Amanda joined us as well near to the last stretch, with their dog Chance.

The rest of the way back to Penn Pump Park went very fast. We were finished with the entire hike before 3 pm, which was unbelievable. We had a very full day, but everyone moved along at a good pace, and so we were done.

With no other plans, and because Tea Biscuit and Amanda had just joined, and Jen, Cupcake, and Darlene had only joined a short bit ago, I asked if anyone would be interested in continuing the hike back to Easton. Not only did those few want to continue, Guillermo, Ed, and Dan all wished to continue. Tea Biscuit had recommended for some time that we do the Weyerbacker Brewery tour in South Easton, and if we left now we might have enough time to make the last tour at 5pm. We got back on the trail and were off to the south.

Palmer bike path before it was

I had not been on this section since it was "completed". For a long time, the trail to the north of here, and from Hackett Park south was all complete, but the missing link in between was a nice greenway of non abrasive plants criss crossing the narrower path, undecked old bridges, and black cinder base. In the last few months it had been "improved" and opened officially as the connecting trail. The bridge just below Penn Pump Park over the Bushkill was now lined with high chain link fences that made it feel like a jail going across. It would no longer be possible for fishermen to drop their lines from it, or even get a nice photograph without carefully focusing through the links. I was not at all happy with the so called "improvement".

We continued south from here over a second disappointing decked bridge, and then past an industrial site that retained at least a little of it's character with the exposed rails still showing through the pavement of the parking lot. We crossed over Edgewood Ave and climbed to the right, leaving the rail bed, to Upper Hackett Park. Again, when I first hiked here, we could walk right on through the industrial site, but a deal was struck that the place would build a path around the outside of the site if the right of way through was given up.

Fortunately, the Hackett Park connection is at least attractive. We climbed the hill, passed the frisbee golf area where there were actually guys playing, and then crossed Hackett Ave to descend the hill on the trail toward Wood Ave.

We crossed the pedestrian bridge over Rt 22, then continued on the trail parallel with, then over Wood Ave, then beyond over Northampton Street past the Taco Bell (we actually did not stop this time to try to make the tour). We continued along the trail as it led out past the old Dixie Cup Factory.

LV rail line, now Wilson Bike Path, former 25th Street Bridge.

The right of way ahead, which I'd walked for years as well, has changed incredibly. My first group hike over it was in 2002, and at the time the route was a clear right of way out across 25th Street on a high fill. It was already developed as a trail south of the next road crossing, William Penn Highway, but this section remained an abandonment since 1986. Shortly after the photo here was taken, the bridge was torn out, the fill plowed away on the south side, and a Wallgreens was built. Fortunately, the trail concept was kept which circumvents the new building.

After crossing William Penn Highway, we got on the paved trail as it had been (although it was closed while the box stores were built to the east of us, another new thing since my first visit), and along the way we found some cart things used in the stores to move around containers and chairs and such. Cupcake started by trying to ride it down the paved trail, which looked like a blast.
I got on one of the carts and rode it for a while myself, crashing several times, and twice off of the trail into the grass and down a long embankment to the right. It probably would have been more painful if I hadn't had anything to drink. After my second crash I passed it along and continued. Darlene's brother hung onto one of the things for a while, but didn't feel like carrying it for too long.
We continued on the trail back to 25th Street. It now crosses over, though it's obscure still, but this time we'd again turn right as I'd done on other hikes and make our way to Front Street, then right on Stewart Street parallel with ball fields, then down hill past the old stone building we'd passed on many a night hike. We followed the road to the paved connector path down hill to the former Central Railroad of NJ right of way, which by this time was now completely developed as part of the D&L Trail. On our previous visit, it was ready for pavement but not yet finished. We turned left on the newly reworked trail, which before reaching Glendon Hill Road turned sharply right on a switching route down to Lehigh Drive and the old Glendon Bridge. The last time we were here, the bridge was closed to all traffic, both foot and pedestrian. It was now re-worked with a new pedestrian walkway on the right, and the driving lane was once again open out to Hugh Moore Park.
We continued across with the idea that we would cross the other Glendon Bridge over the railroad tracks and canal, but we came to this being well fenced off and blocked. Looking down, the Lehigh Canal below us was nearly dry, and we figured we could find a good spot to get across it without getting wet. This would take us a little more time, but we could still make it for the last call at Weyerbacher.
The second spot I tried to cross seemed to work out the best. I got across and helped a couple others, and everyone seemed to be doing okay. We made our way from the canal up to the railroad tracks, which meant climbing a rather steep wall, then dashing across. We managed to get everyone over the tracks before the next train came, which would undoubtedly would have been long and set us back more. We climbed from here up to Main Street and turned left, then continued to a right, steeply up hill on High Street. The sun was setting nicely as we crested the hill next to an old building that looked to be some sort of old pumping station or something (it was now a church). We continued along the road and turned left on Crescent Street to reach the Weyerbacher brewery where we were re-joined by Mr. Buckett, Eric,  Brandan, and Carol.
The place was nice, and they gave us all samples of pretty much everything for free. We stood around a large counter and asked the servers for tastes of each item. These are very strong beers, so even these samples, when all are tasted, can get a good buzz going.
Tea Biscuit had to head back home because they wouldn't let Chance in the building. He was going to head back down, but ended up not coming.
When the last tour was starting, we headed to the room where they had the giant tanks. A young girl gave us the full tour of the entire place, step by step on the process of making beer. It was quite interesting. Toward the end of the tour, the girl asked if anyone knew the "proper" way to drink beer. Of everyone there, only Darlene knew the answer, and the girls told us that she was the only one that ever correctly answered that question.
I think most of the group ended up purchasing some beer. It was indeed quite good, and quite strong, with some of them at 11% alcohol by volume. We made our way through South Easton, and turned left on I think Iron Street, and continued down to Canal Street. Dan left us at this point, as did Mr. Buckett, Eric, and Carol, and Brandan joined us to continue once again with the  hike having taken an eight mile break.
Guillermo and I laughed a lot, feeling pretty happy. We managed to get from Canal Street back into the main part of Easton, passing beneath the rail lines then over the Lehigh on the Rt 611 bridge. Our next stop was at the McDonalds along the left side on the other side of the bridge. We probably really needed the food after all of that beer.
Having had a good break, we continued north through Easton, directly through the center square, which was one of the sites of public readings of the Declaration of Independence in 1776. Once north of the circle and and across Bushkill Creek, we ascended the stairs up Lafayatte Hill for the outstanding view of Easton, as we do on so many other night hikes. We were still feeling great, and so the hike continued. I think "Danger Dale" was really starting to feel it at this point. Those stairs really do people in after a long distance.
We continued from the top along the edge of the campus, then down the stairs through the Fisher Campus. I tried to slide down every rail, but my butt didn't want to move either because of the cold or my pants. We continued across the main access road beyond Fisher Campus, then went under the Rt 22 bridge at the Cemetery Bends, then down to the old rail bed that is now the Easton Arts Walk. We continued on this paved path which turned off of the rail bed and onto the old cemetery road, then back to the rail bed until we reached 13th Street. We turned right, then left on Bushkill Drive, and continued along that until we reached the apartments in the old industrial building across the creek. We crossed the access road bridge, then got on the trail to the railroad bed on the other side. This took us right back to the trail at the base of the North Hackett Park incline.
From here, we would just follow the route we had already taken back to Penn Pump Park. Fortunately, Guillermo's car was not towed from here. We even added an addition 2.5 miles from here because Jen's car was up at the pizza place to the north.
As I was walking that final stretch, the bottoms of my feet were once again feeling painfully raw, like they were the week before. I still had had a little soreness this time from the 63.4 miles I'd hike the last week, and I suppose the bottoms of my feet hadn't had enough time to heal either. I had no blisters, but I suppose this is the closest thing to them that I can get, and it takes a lot to get me there.

I had walked 34 miles. Had I not done the previous week's hike, this would be my record. My friends joked with me that now I would have to up the mileage on all of my hikes to be satisfied.
Certainly, I was not satisfied with fifteen on this one. Nor twenty or even thirty. Ed and Guillermo had both just about equaled my previous record on this trip. The hike ended with a rewarding feeling, probably between 10 and 11 pm. I'd successfully grafted together my past experiences with amazing, newly created ones on familiar but greatly changed ground as well as places totally unknown to me. It was a focused look at the past and optimistic view toward the future that I am glad to have shared with everyone.