Hike #1211; Nazareth to Easton

Hike #1211; Nazareth to Easton

4/4/19 Nazareth to Easton with Justin Gurbisz, Brittany Audrey, Jennifer Tull, and Ken Zaruni

Indian Tower in Nazareth

This next hike would be a point to point between Nazareth and Easton.
I needed a night hike, and I happened to see a post on one of the Pennsylvania hiking groups about the “Indian Tower” in Nazareth. I needed to know more about it. I needed to see it.

Old Acme site in Nazareth

I found out where the thing was, and started making plans on how I was going to put it into a hike.
This is the kind of thing that starts to get a bit more difficult. There are not that many formal trails in Nazareth proper. There are ball fields, industrial sites, railroads, and all of them are less knit together than the normal stuff I try to work with for night hikes.
Still, I think I managed to throw something together that would be special. I take these kinds of things as a sort of challenge. I wanted it badly enough, so I had to make it work.
I met the group at the K Mart in Easton. I chose the spot pretty much because it was about the right distance, but because I’d already used it for past ones and it comes up easy.

JOOSE!

We all shuttled in my van to the starting point, which I hadn’t 100% determined yet. I knew I wanted to use a big grocery store lot as not to have any problems.
The Giant food store seemed to be the most obvious choice. It was an easy shot there up Rt 245 directly from Easton.
We pulled into the store and simply started walking along the front of the shops.
We cut across Rt 248 the way we had driven, and then went across the long abandoned former lot where there used to be an Acme.
We cut up a hill through grass from the area of Jandy Blvd, and then up to Easton Road. We turned left here, a bit back in the direction we’d come, and stopped at the J&D Beverage Center.
I wanted to see if they had anything particularly interesting, and I found some of Dogfish Head’s Palo Santon Marron beer at a good price.

No accident free years since '87....

They also had “Joose”, the sort of generic Four Loco I used to drink sometimes, which we only found in certain places for a while. I grabbed one of those since I’d not seen them in a bit as well.
I ended up cracking the thing open, and it lasted from here at the start of the hike all the way until we got to Stockertown! That’s really milking it!
We continued from here up to railroad tracks which I guess were Delaware, Lackawanna, and Western, formerly Bangor and Portland which had become part of that. The Lehigh and New England also ran really close to where, but I think they were just super closely parallel.
We followed the tracks for one block to Green Street where we could see there was an old spur to a quarry. I tried to take a few photos of that, and none of them came through on my phone.

Holy Family School fields

We turned left off of Green Street to skirt some ball fields to the left. This took us a bit up hill and behind a fence, with quarry property behind fences further to our left. We followed the length of the park, and then passed an historic house in the front. Next, we turned left and walked directly behind an industrial building, also skirting the quarry fence heading west.
We came out from behind the building and headed slightly north to reach Prospect Street and turned left. There was a swath of grass on the north side of the street we were able to walk without having to be on the road too much. We followed this all the way out to Kim Donald Kromer Park at the end of Prospect. Some crushed stone trails encircled this park heading west.

Future cemetery lands

We made it to the parking area on the other side of the park off of Gracedale Ave, and then cut to the right over the road. Rather than continue on roads, we skirted the edge of a field heading north. There’s a utility area and water tower along the residential areas to the right, and just fields to the left. It was easy to just skirt all of that, then cut over a bit of field at the end to come out to Penn Allen Road, which becomes Mauch Chunk Street. We only went along the road a short distance, and then cut to the left into the bit of field associated with the Holy Family School.

Future cemetery lands

There were people playing ball in it to the right, so we skirted to the left as far as we could. I’d planned this route out very closely a few days before, but I hadn’t really looked at it closely since, so I made a mistake and we started going into the woods at the far northwest corner. I realized the error pretty quickly and we went back out. We then skirted the north side of the Holy Family place, went around the school building itself, and then continued directly across Convent Avenue into a cemetery.

A view on the hill

We continued through the cemetery only a short distance, then turned hard left up hill through trees and only light brush. This took us across an abandoned possible road shelf, then out to another open field. Another old road cut off to the left, and was descending toward Convent Ave, but we went straight to the north and skirted another ball field to the left.
At the end of this field, we cut though a line of trees and into future cemetery area. What I think was a mausoleum was at the far side of the open area, but we cut over to the left, heading sort of northwest.

Indian Tower

As we reached the top of the hill, the Indian Tower came into view in the distance. It had a line of trees encircling it, which was kind of strange when it’s supposed to be a lookout tower.
We headed directly across the corn field toward it.
The Indian Tower was constructed on the highest point of the original settlement of Nazareth’s 5,000 acres settled in 1740 by German Moravians.
The original structure erected on the site in 1867 was known as the “The Summer House”.
It was built by John Jordan Jr. who later donated money to replace it with the existing tower.

Indian Tower

The tower was so named for the burial ground it overlooks. Local legend has it that it was a lookout for hostile native Americans, but the truth is that the local tribes assimilated with the colonists in this area.
The local cemetery, where interments began about 1744, only has four known native American burials in it.
In addition to recreation, the thirty foot high tower has been used as a civil defense post during World War II and an emergency service repeater station.
Prior to making our way to this point, I had been texting back and forth with Commando Tommaso Raimondo Petruccio about meeting up with us. He’d been having foot problems and was unable to hike like he used to, but is slowly improving. I was hoping he’d be able to join for the remainder of the hike, but he’s unfortunately not quite there at that point yet.

Tower steps

As we approached the tower, Tom was waiting for us in the top of it.
Amazingly, he had never been up there before either. The site, despite it’s beauty and uniqueness, is relatively unknown. The fact that I’d never even heard about it let alone been up there, and I’d been traveling through this area for so many years, is almost unbelievable, even to me.
The view out there wasn’t as spectacular as the nearby Kittatinny Ridge, but it was still really nice, and we could actually see that ridge when looking to the north. Wind Gap was in plain view, at an angle I’d never seen it before, as well as the Big Offset beyond.
To the south, we could see out toward Bethlehem. It was a good spot to hang out.
Outside the tower was a mound an historic marker denoting old burials. We came down from the tower to have a look around, and said our goodbyes to Tom.

Tower steps

He left us with the hopeful words that he might be joining us again in about two months.
From the tower, we headed to the east a bit, back into the newer cemetery lands. We skirted the north side, turned right behind the mausoleum thing, and then cut into the woods over a pile of sticks.
There’s not too much abrasive vegetation in there, so it wasn’t too bad. A little further in, there is a good clear path to walk, so we got on that and started heading north.
Unfortunately, the path led right into a back yard and we had to turn around again.
We followed it back to the more open woods, and then cut off trail back to the west. This took us to a somewhat overgrown old field where we could turn right to the north.
As we neared a private home, we cut to the right into some woods. There was no trail in this seciton either, but it wasn’t very hard to walk through. We came out above High Street.

Tower view

We skirted the hillside to the right and took a more gradual route down from the slope above High Street. We then were able to cut directly across into an access road to what must be some overground water tank or something.
We skirted around this, then descended slightly to the edge of the Greenwood Cemetery. We turned left along the boundary of that to the height of more land, and then turned to the right along the top of the cemetery. This one also had an excellent view into the Lehigh Valley from it.

View from the tower

Heading east, there were some great views. Justin talked about an abandoned cement plant of sorts we need to go and see that’s been recently abandoned. We also discussed the Portland Cement industry and how it’s so unchanged in this area, while other places it’s much more mechanized.
I’ve been inside a lot of these old style plants in the past, and was amazed by all of the equipment, and the giant room-length augers used in the mixing processes.

View from the tower

When we reached the east end of the cemetery, we descended rather steeply to the end of Black Rock Road. Directly across was the Nazareth Dog Park, part of Nazareth Borough Park, which was pretty well set up. There was a section for larger dogs to the left, and the section for the yappy little dogs to the right. It’s probably good to keep those apart.
The road was gated at the end, but did continue down hill through the woods. I’m not sure where it goes, but it might have once continued out to Bell Ave.

Tower view

We cut across and then turned to the left of the dog park. We skirted the edge of the thing down hill for a bit, and then made our way toward a small brook that passes through the park. This was the western fork of the Schoeneck Creek.
We crossed over it by way of a metal foot bridge, but there was a much nicer stone one just downstream from that.
We headed out to skirt the parking area, and then made our way over near Porter Street to the intersection with Broad Street. There was a handsome stone entrance way to the park there.

View from Indian Tower

As suspected, the park was a WPA project during the Great Depression. Much of the infrastructure here was constructed by the WPA in 1937.

Monument at the Indian Burial Ground

We turned briefly to the left out of the park, and then to the right on St. Elmo Street. I resisted the urge to do the voice of the Sesame Street character.
We followed this street to the intersection with Willowdale Ave and turned to the right. This took us briefly to Rt 191, Lawn Road.
I had followed much of this road in the past, on a hike in September of 2005. At the time, I followed an old map where I thought I’d be able to get on a railroad right of way that had been destroyed by quarrying, but was not represented as such on my maps. I never thought I’d walk the highway stretch again.

Indian Tower

When I put the hike together, I couldn’t find another better way of getting through, but really the section wasn’t as far this time as when I did it in 2005. We were getting on 191 much earlier.
This was by far the crappiest section of the hike. There wasn’t much to see, and it was all residential, save for a closed cheese store and a Rita’s Italian Ice (I could never get with the Italian Ice thing. I much prefer ice cream).
We continued on down the road until the residential areas on the right ended, and there were quarry lands. It was wide enough that we could walk through the grass at least there instead of right along the road.
Soon, we came to the point where the railroad tracks cross the road.
This railroad was originally the Bangor and Portland Railroad, which later became a part of the Delaware, Lackawanna, and Western.

Cemetery view in Nazareth

There were a lot of lines parallel with one another, and Nazareth was a sort of a hub. The Lehigh and New England had it’s line closely parallel with this.

Cemetery view

From the north, the Lehigh and New England’s Nazareth Branch comes down from the main line (that’s the route we followed into Nazareth on our trip in 2005).

Nazareth Borough Park

The branch to the east was the Uhler Branch which continued to below Stockertown and out to the Martins Creek Branch of the Lackawanna in Martins Creek.
The Lackawanna had this branch to Nazareth, which traveled to Belfast Junction and continued north on what is now the Plainfield Township Rail Trail. To the south from that direction, the Lehigh Valley Rairoad’s Easton and Northern line, now mostly a trail, continues south toward Easton. The line from here to Belfast Junction, followed by the Easton and Northern, was the route of the remainder of our hike.

WPA bridge from 1937 in Nazareth Boro Park

The Bangor and Portland/Lackawanna line is very surprisingly still active at this point, but only to serve an industry known as Prime Conduit just to our left.

WPA bridge

To our right, south, we could see where the tracks were severed at the ledge into the quarry, covered over with dirt at the end of the stop. That bit only exists as a run off for the juncton to the industry.
We turned to the left to follow the tracks to the north from here.
This brought back some memories. When we did this back in 2005, Mr. Buckett gave us some bananas or something. I forget for sure what it was, but it caused an absolutely horrible stomach pain. It was a hot day, so we were already chaffing and walking all funny, and then whatever that was we ate made us all feel sick.

WPA entrance to Nazareth Borough Park

We continued to the north along the tracks, which went into a bit of a cut. There was what looked to be a former connecting spur right of way on the west side as we headed north. It probably served the same industrial site.
Soon, we entered a wooded section and reached the crossing of the Bushkill Creek. I had remembered this location as having some very vertical cliffs on the west side, but they didn’t look as pronounced as I remembered them. I told everyone the story about feeling sick in this area. It’s really nothing to everyone else, but there’s something about those connections.

End of the tracks

Commando Tom told us about the trail plan in this area. He had scouted some of the stuff out there for the new connector trail between the regional trails.

Lackawanna branch

The plan was to connect the Plainfield Township Rail Trail, which is part of the township he manages, with the Jacobsburg Environmental Education Center. He said in the past that the side with the cliffs was too much, and that they’d work instead with the other side of the Bushkill Creek.
He told us when he met up with us earlier that there is a piece of it in place, and we could see the clearing of it from the bridge.
There was a plan to connect these trails, but they needed to use the railroad underpass.

Feeling sick on the bridge in 2005, by Fred Hafele

Apparently, Norfolk Southern doesn’t want to sell the property there, but it would probably work because the trail could remain farther back away from the railroad operations.

The Bushkill Creek bridge

The trail, as planned, will continue to the north and utilize the right of way of Route 33 and cross over to Filetown Road, just below Jacobsburg EEC. That road is a dead end and had been much rerouted for construction of 33.
We crossed over the bridge, and then the trail was clear on the left side. It appeared to follow the abandoned right of way of a second track, or maybe an older track from the Bangor and Portland line. The original creek crossing was probably wooden, so it could be the original.

Cliffs and Bushkill Creek

It was a really pleasant walk from here, and then I was very surprised to see a clearing as well as a new trail side kiosk erected along the Bushkill Creek. There was no literature in it, but it’s ready for it whenever they get around to it.
Even more surprising to me was the crossing they’d built over the Bushkill Creek.
They utilized a bunch of crap and stones it seems, and sort of made a weird plank bridge over it that certainly wouldn’t stand the test of really any flood.

Rail With Trail

We didn’t turn this way. We had to continue parallel with the railroad tracks out to Belfast Junction.
I had been in touch with Sarah Marc-Aurele who was considering meeting up with us just ahead, but we didn’t connect because she thought we’d be closer to her jogging area than we were by the time she got there.
The trail we were walking was quite good, and actually a very good representation of “rail with trail” and how it can work in a tight area. I always try to share examples of this with Ryan Lennox as ammo against Ulster County, who are actively trying to remove active tourist railroad in favor of trail, probably for grant money.

Approaching Belfast Junction in 2005

The route continued to the left, and we’d have been smart to follow it, but I was being a stubborn purist and ended up bullying through on the abandoned right of way.

The same view today

When the tracks ended at weeds, I just continued walking through as best I could. It’s not impassable, but it’s not always very fun to try to do.

New Kiosk

I tried pushing through this section, but it started to just get too bad. I ended up bushwhacking off to the left to get back on the trail, which took us clearly back out to Route 191 at Belfast Junction. Brittany fell behind because she found some carcass she had to look at.
We continued to the right at Belfast Junction, which is a very hard right. We passed the parking area and continued on the official trail route heading south. It didn’t take long before we were in back of Devery’s Pub.

New crossing

I had mentioned to Sarah that we were going to be behind Devery’s, but she didn’t know what it was.
It never ceases to amaze me how little people know about their local geography, but then I remembered that there’ s so much more for a mother to remember, and just getting out and exploring even the most local of places happens infrequently as a result.
Brittany caught back up after Ken went back to find her; she had crossed directly because if you don’t know, it does look like the more obvious way to go.
Justin found a new dog shit bag and wore it on his head like a papal hat.

It's all right...going to the end of the line...

We continued south on the trail from Devery’s, and continued south to cross Industrial Blvd next to the Rt 33 exit. We crossed directly and continued on the trail south.

Lackawanna rail bed

We crossed Center Street adjacent to a municipal park and then reached Bushkill Street. We then turned to the left and headed to where the former Lehigh and New England Railroad’s Uhler Branch, now Norfolk Southern or something, crosses over. Brittany wanted to cut out early but I convinced her not to.
We headed onto the tracks parallel with a scrap yard, and walked between parked rail cars until we reached the spot where the Easton and Norther, which we had been following, used to cross over the Uhler Branch. An industrial area was built over the Easton and Northern.

On the Easton and Northern

The first time I hiked this oover fifteen years or so earlier, the line south of this crossing point was actively used as an industrial spur to Tatamy. In the Fall of 2004, it washed out quite badly, with rails suspended in the air. It was never repaired.
Over the years, weeds and such continued to grow in around the washouts, and today it remains much the same as it did then, with big washouts and tracks suspended in the air (though many ties have fallen out), but now there were some quite large trees growing through all of it.
The tracks are still clear at first across the Bushkill Creek Bridge. Just then, they got washed out and bad.
Fortunately, this time there was a bit of a path worn in along the railroad bed. In the past, this section was kind of hard to bully through.

Poop bag hat

We pushed on through until the path was pretty much nothing. The rails were still suspended in some areas, but it was easy to miss. It was getting a lot darker by this point, so navigating this was tougher.
Sarah didn’t realize where and when we’d be in this area, so she ended up just going home.
We pushed to the right of the railroad (artvand into adjacent fields to continue to the south. I was texting Sarah, which messed up my ability to see, and I walked head on into a giant stake that was stuck in the middle of some coffer dam sand bags. I flipped over and landed on the ground, but not without all of my weight coming down on the stake. It was a miracle I didn’t pierce my abdomen with the thing. It hurt really bad.
I had to just lay there for a little bit. It was amazing that I barely even had a mark on my stomach (a large bruised formed by the next day and has lasted over a week).

March 2004, before the line washed out

After I started feeling better, I got up and we headed further to the south. The entire area was dug up and full of these stakes, because they were building a new development.

The washout as it appeared in late 2004

I kind of always thought this area would remain undeveloped. I figure the railroad bed will eventually become part of the trail, but they probably have an issue with the industry that used to use it. I think the long term plan is to replace the road bridge to the west with a pedestrian bridge and then put the trail through there.
We continued from the right side of the rail bed, where they were putting the new stuff in, over to the left. We then cut through fields and followed a tree line for a bit toward the Bushkill Creek.
Once we couldn’t go any further, we cut into the woods, which wasn’t too hard with ambient light from nearby, and came out in the lot of the industrial site just to the north side of Tatamy.
We followed through this site and out to the gate off of Main Street. Tony’s Pizza is across from there and to the right, and so we decided to head over there for a little dinner break.
We had stopped here many times before, and the owner was a bit crotchety. He remembered us because we were too loud and rowdy, but said there was no one else there so it was okay.

Yummies

There weren’t a lot of slices left to pick from, so I just got one so everyone would be able to get one. They also had a sort of creamy Italian Wedding soup, so I got some of that.
This turned out to be a great idea. Both were quite delicious. I did end up laughing probably too hard again. We were served by a younger waitress so the crotchety guy didn’t seem to care much.
When we were done, we simply crossed over Bushkill Street, next to the intersection with Main Street, and started following the Easton and Northern Railroad bed to the south. It would be trail from here to the end.

Happy 12th Justin!

We passed around the fire department and a couple of other buildings where the trail was rerouted away from the railroad bed. It rejoined it after crossing Bushkill Street just to the south.
Soon, we reached the cleared open area of town houses or something and crossed Wagon Wheel Lane. There were people out on a balcony who saw us and started saying stuff like “Do they know what they’re doing?” and “Why are they walking the bike path at night?”. I responded with something stupid in a pre-pubescent broken voice mumble, but I don’t remember what.

Before the development; 2004

The first time I hiked this section, the houses were only just starting to be built, and Wagon Wheel Lane hadn’t been put in yet. We crossed Newlins Mill Road and continued south along the Bushkill Creek along a nice area of shelf.
Somehow, the response from the people on the porch, and their shock toward us walking at night, led us into a discussion about night hikes, perception, and personal growth. Jenny said she’d never have done it until she tried it. She just figured she should be inside when it gets dark. It really is something that society sort of beats into us that we should be in after dark.

Schoeneck Creek crossing in 2004

There is just too much life to live to be sitting inside all the time. People will come up with whatever excuses they need not to go out. I think in many instances it’s a knee jerk reaction to just avoid. Walking is too closely associated with work, and it’s hard to break down the wall that finds greater pleasure in it than effort.

Bushkill Crossing in 2004; photo by Matt Fenimore

It’s just human nature to self serve. They see hiking as something done for exercise or imposed socialization rather than the pleasurable life experience it should be. When they do come out, they cater it to exactly what they expect to see, with familiar nouns they like such as “Delaware Water Gap” or “Merrill Creek” or wherever.
Familiarity is paramount and new and diverse things introduce an element of surprise. Things like what I do have the inherent potential for a dissatisfying experience.

While it’s not my responsibility to fix the perception of people, I’d like to keep trying to open more minds and share my world. This simple stroll along the banks of the Bushkill, with all of the lights going by on the busy road on the other side is beyond amazing when the mind is open to perceive it.
We continued across the bridge at Schoeneck Creek where Penn’s Grant Path joins the trail, and continued to the south. We crossed Stocker Mill Road, and then Northwood Ave at Penn Pump Park. Soon, we crossed Bushkill Creek on the decked railroad bridge, which for years remained simply railroad ties. It’s only been in the past few years it was completed.
We crossed Bushkill Park Drive next, after skirting a couple of homes, and then crossed Bushkill Creek again. Soon, we came out to the old Binney and Smith location, which is one of the very old Crayola factory locations. They still apparently use this site.

The group at the Binney and Smith Plant

As we walked past the facility, I pointed out how the very modern looking building is actually built atop a much older grist mill which might even date back to the 1700s. It’s incredibly easy to miss because it’s painted over in the same beige color as the rest of the structure.

A view of the original mill section at Binney and Smith

We continued across Edgewood Ave and continued to where the trail was moved up hill into Upper Hackett Park, while the railroad bed becomes private after it goes into the Huntsman plant. That location has recently been abandoned and I’ll have to see it one day.

Huntsman section of the rail bed in 2004

I walked the rail bed right through the Huntsman site in 2004, and no one said anything to us amazingly. Maybe I’ll be able to do it again.
We headed into Upper Hackett Park and turned left along the old entrance roadway.

A possum in the tree

Soon, we crossed over Hackett Avenue, and started to descend. We actually missed the turn off at first because there was a clearing into the hillside beyond where a bunch of crap had been dumped like wood chips or something.
We headed down hill and crossed over the foot bridge over Rt 22 where we mooned traffic, and then headed out toward Wood Avenue.
The trail turns to the right somewhat close to Wood Ave, and then crosses over. It ascends gradually to regain the former Easton and Northern Railroad bed. It used to head into the Wonderbread truck parking lot from there, but all that has been torn down and rebuilt with some health place I think.
Justin I think it was pointed out a possum up in a tree near the crossing of Northampton Street.
We turned to the right as we got closer to the K Mart, and headed out past the Taco Bell and the Wendy’s to get to the lot quicker from the railroad bed to complete the hike.

Huntsman section of the rail bed in 2004

This was a really good one for me. We saw a whole lot of new stuff I’d never seen before. I’d really never done an in depth hike through Nazareth yet. I also got to see a lot of places that have changed, and continue to change.
The metamorphosis of places around me really define the passage of time. I feel contemplative rather than a nostalgic fool, and my awareness of it all makes the world more rich, but tangible.

HAM