Hike #1202; New Village to Easton
2/28/18 New Village to South Easton with Justin Gurbisz, Ken Zaruni, Dan Asnis, and Tea Biscuit (Scott Helbing)
This next hike would be a point to point between New Village and South Easton, at the Weyerbacher Brewery, mostly following the route of the Morris Canal, but also planned with part of the Lehigh Canal.
BICROWAVE!
We met at the brewery, which is just up hill from the Lehigh Canal route. I got there before anyone else arrived, so I went in and got myself a bottle of Blasphemy, since it won’t be around much longer anyway (I’d gotten a lot mistakenly half priced which I still have too).
Ken, Dan, and Justin soon arrived, and we got into my van to go to the start.
As we were driving, the laughs began immediately when there was a guy riding down the road on his bicycle while trying to carry an enormous microwave oven. I immediately called it “bikerowave”.
Hunters Tavern
I parked my van on 2nd Street in New Village by the fire department, which is just below the former canal route (Jon Nelson, another fire department friend, sent me a photo of my car while he was over there as well). I had considered walking the section of the canal out behind this area, and then get on the section I’ve only ever hiked once, but the bit is so terribly overgrown I figured I didn’t want to take an hour to do less than the first mile. We instead headed out to Rt 57 and followed that toward Bread Lock Park to make it easier.
As we headed along the road past the old stone homes, Hunters Tavern was on the left.
New Village, former trolley bed on right
The tavern burned a few years ago, and was never rebuilt. Some of the building is very old and stone, dating probably to the old Easton Morristown Turnpike days like a lot of the buildings here.
I figured that someone would eventually buy it and rehabilitate it, but it doesn’t look like that’s going to happen now.
There was a sign on the outside of it saying it was a perfect strip mall site, so it looks like the seller is trying to market it as a start fresh/clean slate development site and to demolish the existing building. New Village really doesn’t need another strip mall at all.
Morris Canal
I used to hang out at Hunters years ago, actually with this guy Art, who I called Karate Janitor, one of the janitors at Warren Hills High School. They had karaoke nights and such, and I’d go in there with friends a lot to goof off. The entire bar section of the old place was burned out and gutted, but the historic part of the building was still there and looked as though it might be okay.
We continued past that, and the new signs for the new Warren Scenic Byway, which is the Route 57 designation. I pointed out where the Easton-Washington Traction Company used to go along the edge of the highway.
View on the canal greenway
In a few moments, we came to where the Morris Canal used to cross the highway. The section to the left was Bread Lock Park, which had been well cleared (actually, some of the clearing was done by my brother Alex for a community service project he had to do years ago).
Morris Canal
We started walking the old canal towpath adjacent to the highway and out to where there was a nice view over the Pohatcong Valley. We then came to the canal museum, which was a house that came with the property, and just walked up over the back porch.
The Bread Lock
We went around the bend and soon came to the former site of Lock #7, also known as the Bread Lock or Fresh Bread lock because there was a store in the old lock house, which is now just a foundation.
Lock locations were always great places to have stores, because there would often be waiting for other boats to lock through, and it was a good time to resupply.
The Morris Canal Greenway is coming together really well throughout the state, and there is a great new section from Bread Lock Park that Warren County has developed, and I had yet to walk the route since it was completed late last year. More improvements have been made since as well.
Having explored so many other canals at this point, it’s less surprising we find more remnants of the Morris Canal than I find of the Pennsylvania Canal system for example.
Bread Lock
The Morris Canal was developed at about the same time as all of the other canals, but it actually survived farther into the twentieth century than many of the others. It was abandoned in 1924, and much dismantled in 1927 with drainage structures under an engineer named Vermuele.
We passed what might be one such drainage structure to the right as we continued from the Bread Lock site to the new greenway section. There are concrete structures to the north side of the canal remnants that small stream water flows into. This was probably a weir site in the canal days.
Possible weir site
We passed where the parcourse exercise trail loop comes back to the canal towpath, and then got to the new greenway section.
I had thought that this entire next section would be following fields, but was surprised to see it cut entirely through the woods adjacent to those fields. A fine job had been done for a nice wide path trough here.
I was further impressed to see that the many years of garbage that had been dumped into the canal had been removed and put into piles of like items.
Nice cleanup job
There were lots of tires, bottles, and scraps of metal, all meticulously placed. The trail continued from this site up a slight incline, and then regained the towpath. Some of the towpath and canal in this section had been obliterated, but they put the trail right back on it as soon as it was possible to do so.
We continued walking the path, and soon the canal prism was watered as well. I was impressed at how authentic this section looked to how the canal was supposed to look. I had walked along here before, but not in years, and we skirted the fields at the time.
We continued walking, and the section continued to get nicer. Unfortunately though, a long section of it had been plowed in up ahead to where it was no longer even recognizable. It was in the middle of cultivated field, and one would not even know it was ever there.
Because of this, the county’s acquisition of it would be difficult. It really made no sense to have the trail in the middle of the field anyway, and when the proposal for a solar farm came in, it was allowed to happen with the stipulation that we get a greenway for the canal around the outside of it.
Morris Canal Greenway
That ended up being a great thing, and so now when we reached where the canal was obliterated, we turned left on the new greenway heading along the edges of fields to the south.
I liked that they put the trail markers on metal posts with pieces of wood rather than big posts in the ground. It seemed an easy way to do it, and if kept up with, it will keep the trail well marked. I’d like to do something like that with the Warren Highlands Trail in the field sections, but I haven’t been able to do so because farmers keep plowing in the edges. I’ve kind of walked away from the project a bit due to the lack of support on it, but I’m ready to return to it.
Morris Canal
We continued south, and could see the solar fields to the right. It was a nice and pleasant section to walk to the south. The trail wasn’t where I was expecting to find it; I thought it would be immediately along the edge of the field closest to the solar fields, but it was one field over from that. It headed to a point parallel with the former Morris and Essex/Lackawanna Railroad, and then turned to the right along the fields heading west. It crossed over a dry seasonal wash, and then climbed to where I expected it to go, at a point beyond an old farm underpass beneath the railroad track.
My brother Tea Biscuit called me up while I was in this stretch to meet late. He had been skiing or something I think it was, and had to go home to get his dogs first.
Morris Canal
I was originally going to have him park at the former Pizza Express, which is now closed, and then walk Richline Hill Road down to where we were, but then I realized no one will ever care that he’s parked there.
We walked along the south side of the solar field, still parallel with the tracks, and then reached the parking area where he met us. Tinkerbell is usually pretty good, and all she cares about is playing with a ball, but Waffles is pretty out of control and has to be on a leash at all times.
Morris Canal
From this point, the greenway is a bit different. The canal did cross Richline Hill Road, but up very close to Route 57. It then went through private land to a former canal store that still stands, and then to Inclined Plane #8 West. Because that is all still private land, and it does not look like the county will be able to acquire it any time in the near future, they instead acquired land on the south side of the railroad tracks to bring the greenway through. A fine job was done with making a field-side path to Stewartsville.
Morris Canal Greenway
To continue on the greenway, we turned left on Richline Hill Road across the railroad tracks, then immediately went down a set of steps on the other side to the field edge.
The new trail
The trail goes down hill gradually and crosses a small tributary adjacent to a culvert underpass built I think in the 1980s for the railroad. We stopped and had a look at it, and could see that the modern underpass had probably been encased in the original stone one, because some of the stone wing walls could be seen on either side.
We continued back up hill, and then skirted a pasture area on the right. The trail then turned to the left and headed along more fields parallel with Merrill Creek heading toward the center of Stewartsville.
View toward the solar farm
We soon came to a private driveway with a bridge over Merrill Creek. The trail turned to the right there to cross the bridge, where a new kiosk had been installed along North Main Street.
From there, the canal actually crosses to the north near the rescue squad, and is public land all the way to the Route 22, but due to a lawsuit years ago by the resident of a development known as Stewart’s Hunt, the county was not allowed to open that section of the greenway until there was an entity in place to maintain it. It’s one of the reasons the Department of Land Preservation was created.
Morris Canal Greenway
Still, we’ve not been able to open that section of greenway yet, so the tactical move has been to open sections of the greenway on either side to close in, and when we were ready there, open up the greenway between. Hopefully we’ll see it happen sooner than later.
What we did from this point was to turn left on Main Street. We then turned left to walk out behind the Stewartsville Presbyterian Church through their parking lot area. This took us to a little Greenwich Township municipal park that had a little foot bridge over a small tributary to the Merrill Creek.
Morris Canal Greenway
My plan had been that from here we would follow the paved trail that runs closely parallel with Greenwich Street. We would then get on the paved development paths to the north and pick up the Morris Canal Greenway again to the east of Plane #9 at Port Warren.
Rather than any of this, we cut directly from the municipal park into the fields parallel with the path and Greenwich Street heading west. We were still visible from the road, but the sun was going down fast.
Was that meant for me?
I figured we could just walk out through the fields and no one would know we were even there anyway, and it would be a nicer walk than being out along the road so closely.
We continued out across the fields, and when we started getting really close to the first houses of the development, we made a hard right turn.
We started following that field edge, but stayed back in the field enough that we would not be intruding on the private homes much. We continued to where the field turned to the right again, heading a bit more to the east again.
Morris Canal Greenway
We passed near the far end of Maxwell Drive, and then continued straight ahead. This took us out to the line of trees that made up what used to be the Morris Canal again.
Field view on the greenway
We cut through a swath of woods at the end by way of an ATV path coming from the private fields to the county owned fields. I have to report that to the department, because they shouldn’t be doing that really either.
Once on the other side, the blazes for the Morris Canal Greenway resumed again. We followed them to the west, along the field edge. The canal towpath and prism had been plowed in at this point, and didn’t look like canal at all, but there was still a small line of trees left of where it was.
Morris Canal Greenway
We continued up over a bit of a knoll to reach the Port Warren Park at the top of Inclined Plane #9 West, the longest such plane on the entire Morris Canal.
We headed down this, along the garae that Jim Lee Sr. had built on the route, and to the bottom of the plane at Route 519. In the near future, the driveway that follows the old towpath will be closed to traffic and be pedestrian only, and the vehicle access route will be to the north through the Miller property. We reached the bottom and turned slightly left after crossing Lopatcong Creek on 519, then right over the galvanized guide rail to resume following the former canal in a cleared section.
Morris Canal Greenway
It was dark by this point, but easy enough to follow the wide path.
We continued up and down on an undulating path that’s been victim to almost a century of floods and washouts since the canal’s abandonment, and eventually came to the old weir site where the steps and such were put in place. We went up the other side and continued on good clear towpath out to reach Strykers Road.
It was here the Tea Biscuit’s fiance Amanda was coming to pick he and the dogs up.
Park in Stewartsville
He couldn’t be convinced to stay any longer, so he walked up the street to Rath’s deli to have Amanda get him.
The rest of us continued across Strykers Road on good greenway with towpath and prism in good shape, all the way out to Route 22.
This section remains to be a problem because there is no reasonable overpass or underpass. We had to walk through the canal bed and up to 22 where we dashed across. Eventually, we’re going to have a walkway go up to the traffic light next to Phillipsburg mall for people to get across on. The highway wasn’t that busy this time, so we got across with really no problems at all.
Creek in Stewartsville
Once on the other side, I walked back down 22 to see where the best spot would be to descend on the other side. The new apartment complex that went in created a retention pond utilizing the Morris Canal’s character, which gave us a new free section of greenway, although it is not yet connected.
We got down to it, and followed it to it’s end. There, we had to cut out to Lock Street on the other side. We turned left to start following that toward Phillipsburg. The canal and towpath remain adjacent to the east section of the road.
Sunset view
We followed the road toward the former Inclined Plane #10 West. There were actually two of these planes. The original one is now a driveway that ascends on the left side of the road which we came upon first. In the earlier days of the canal, the inclined planes were a slow process powered by overshot water wheels. It wasn’t until about 1842 with the creation of the Scotch Turbine that the principal was changed and it became more practical.
We passed this first plane first and I pointed it out, and then the second plane that was in service from 1842 until the closing of the canal is on the opposite side of the Lopatcong Creek, and the trail race tunnel can be seen.
Sunset over the fields of Stewartsville
We continued on beyond this point, and came to the intersection with Ridge Street followed by Chestnut Street. Ridge Street did not add a huge amount of traffic to the route, but Chestnut Street definitely did.
I pointed out the lock houses that are still standing from both Locks #8 and 9. Both are original, and much altered, but do retain some of their historic shapes.
Lock Street came out to South Main Street soon, and we turned right to follow this. The canal weaved to the north and then back to the south, and where the road crosses over the Lopatcong Creek was the site of Lock #10, known as Green’s Bridge. The canal and creek were one at several points in the Lock Street to Green’s Bridge section.
Big tree along the canal
We continued beneath the railroad bridges of the former Central Railroad of New Jersey as well as the Lehigh Valley Railroad. Just beyond that, we passed Norton’s and made a pit stop at Canalside PJess PizzaroWe had stopped at this place once before, and it was pretty good, so it seemed like an obvious stop.
I had a slice of plain, and then a slice of white pizza or something I think it was, because almost everything else had been taken by this point. We hung out there for a bit and enjoyed the food before moving on toward the Delaware River.
The old canal route at the new retention pond
Just past the pizza place, the greenway section opens up with a good path parallel with South Main Street. We followed it along the Lopatcong Creek, and then to where it turned away at the area of where Sawmill Street breaks off to the left. The trail goes down along the sewage plant, and there is an old mostly buried aqueduct that carried the canal over the road to the river. Hopefully one day it will be excavated and showcased for it’s significant status of being the only aqueduct remaining that carried the canal over a public road. We continued from here around the fence to Morris Canal Way.
View on the Delaware
The road was built over the former Morris Canal. When it was laid out, it was to be called “Towpath Road”, but it was changed because historic groups reminded them that it was in fact not the towpath the road was on, but the canal itself.
We continued down this way out to South Main Street, and then cut to the left when we passed beneath the former Lehigh Valley Railroad bridge on Mercer Street.
This brought us to a left turn on McKeen Street. We followed that until the turn to Howard Street, but we continued straight to what used to be the Kent Yard, the rail yard that connected the Lehigh Valley Railroad to the Pennsylvania Railroad, formerly the Bel Del.
We turned right and started following some of the rights of way for a bit, then took a left on another path that led us steeply down hill among the ruins of the former industries that once occupied the lands. It was rather cold, so there were no hoodlums around and not much of a homeless camp community.
There have actually been far less homeless out there in those woods since Steve Ellis became Mayor, so he must have done something to clean up the area. I think he got an ATV for the cops so that they would be able to patrol it, and I’m not sure what else.
We made our way to the Bel Del tracks and started following them to the north. As we approached the railroad overpasses, which also cross over the Delaware, a train was coming from the Pennsylvania side into New Jersey on the former Jersey Central bridge. That one is the middle of the three. The nearest one is the abandoned Lehigh Valley bridge, which is in pretty bad shape, and the first one is the still active former Lehigh and Hudson River Railroad bridge.
Since a train had just gone by, I figured this would be the safest time ever to cross over it.
I’d crossed that entire bridge only three times before as I recall. The first time was out and back with my old friend Bode when we’d just seen a train go over. That’s the safest time of course, because there’s no trains are going to be coming up while we were on it.
Crossing the bridge in 2003
The second time was after a particularly exhausting hike loop between Phillipsburg and Bethlehem back in 2003. We were finishing, and it was just slightly less distance if we were to cross the LHR bridge rather than any of the other ones.
LHR bridge
It doesn’t sound like a really big deal, but this bridge had no walkways in the middle part. There was a bit of one at either end, but it did not span the entire length of the bridge. If a train had come, the only choice would be to hurry over to one of the metal girders attached to the trusses and hold on tightly. If that weren’t bad enough, the ties are the open kind where you can look between them and see the river below.
One might say we were “young and dumb”, but here we were considering doing that exact same thing again fifteen years since the last time I’d done it.
We continued under the other two bridges, where there was originally a double decker railroad bridge over the river, and reached the entrance to the bridge.
Dan was not with us. When we got to South Main Street, he had remained on the street toward Union Square when Justin, Ken, and I headed into the Kent yard. He didn’t want to be crossing that bridge anyway.
We got out onto the bridge, and Ken decided to go back and find Dan rather than cross.
View from the bridge
Justin and I continued on the walkway, but it seemed to go on for a while. I reached to the point where I thought it had ended, and it just kept going. All that worry was for nothing.
The railroad had extended the walkway the entire distance across the bridge.
Crossing the bridge in 2003
It looked like the entire thing had been refurbished with new rails because there were white things on it, and the old ones were pretty rusty.
Justin and I paused at the center to take in the amazing view of Easton and Phillipsburg, with the Northampton Street free bridge right between. A beautiful place.
Train passing
We continued the rest of the way across, and climbing down immediately on the other side wasn’t looking too good with the ice and such around. We walked over to the former Lehigh Valley Railroad bridge, and there really wasn’t a very good way down over there either. We decided to continue on the tracks straight ahead for a bit longer, to the former LV Railroad station site.
We got off to the right when we had the room, and as we walked a train went by us again. We passed beneath the former Easton and Northern Railroad bridge, and then came to an area where we could access the Lehigh Canal locks at the start of Hugh Moore Park.
Ken and Dan met back up, and I was in touch with them by phone. We planned to meet on the canal before continuing ahead. Justin and I weren’t down there very long when we found them. We then left the canal, headed across the tracks, and then across Canal Street.
We continued on Brother Thomas Bright Av, and then cut to the left into apartment paths.
Happy lights
We followed these for a ways, and there were some interesting lights on the ground and such. We cut through Mauch Chunk Park at the end, and then up hill on Iron Street.
As we reached the corner of the contiguous South Easton Cemetery and Hays Cemetery, we cut directly into the paths of it heading up hill.
We got through the cemetery pretty quickly, and then just stepped over the wall at the end into the parking area for Weyerbacher.
Just as we were there, a police car with lights on came flying through the cemetery. I suppose they were looking for us! I saw a light flash over our way, and they must have seen us standing there talking in the parking lot, but they didn’t come over. They just continued through the cemetery.
This was our signal to get out of there, and so Justin drove me back to my car in New Village, and we stopped to get chocolate milk and iced tea at the cigarette slop store at the bottom of the hill on the way (Clover Farms pints are only sixty cents there).
It was another pretty great hike, which has given me lots of ideas of what I can do for other future ones through the area as we head into the Spring.
HAM
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