Hike #1279; Phillipsburg/Easton Loop
12/12/19 Phillipsburg/Easton Loop with Justin Gurbisz, Cory Salvesen, Dan Lurie, Jennifer Tull, Carolyn Gockel Gordon, Sarah Jones, Zach Robinson, Chris Kroschinski (Cupcake), Ken Zaruni, and Shane Blische
Easton Circle for the Holdays
This next hike would be another nice loop in the area of Phillipsburg and Easton. I had an idea of some stuff I wanted to do, much of which we’d done before, but a few things that had been on the “to do” list for a bit that we hadn’t gotten to.
Phillipsburg Mall
The main thing I wanted to try to do was the walk the entire length of Northampton Street through Easton. It’s less than three miles long, but it’s really a nice urban walking route. I had always wanted to do it, and Justin said he wanted to do it too.
I decided to plan it into a hike last year, but Justin wasn’t able to make that one, so I rerouted the hike and said I would just do that one one of them that he could attend.
One of the few remaining anchors
I was originally looking at a route with a meeting point of Union Square and the boat launch in Phillipsburg, but I wanted to do some more new stuff. I struggled for a bit to come up with a hike that had enough new stuff until I looked again at Phillipsburg Mall.
I had not walked through the mall in a while, and it could come to the point when it will abruptly close. I wanted to get another look at it before they have a major problem. Now that there are leaks in the roof, and they’ve had some bad stuff happen lately, I needed to go back.
Sunset from P Burg Mall
In addition, the enormous new warehouse had just been built along Rt 22 near the mall, and I’d not had a chance to get a closer look at it. The building must be a half mile long itself. It’s a behemoth. That and some of the old Ingersoll Rand facility were things I wanted to have a look at.
With these things in mind, I started organizing the route and filling in between with some other things that I’d done before that would make it a more interesting route including some railroads and a bit of the Morris Canal Greenway.
Fun mirror
I made the meeting point the section of the Phillipsburg Mall lot close to Panera Bread. I hate Panera Bread (Justin and I always talk about how it’s like seventeen dollars for a half a grilled cheese and a shot glass of soup, and the girls in that go there in yoga pants fit in these pants because they’re starving), but it was the convenient end of the mall to walk through its entire length.
A few were running behind, but once we had most everyone, we headed into the mall over near the Kohls.
The only stores I really have any interest in any more are the antique mall and of course Spin Me Round, which has in addition to music lots of interesting books. I’ve gotten some good history ones while in there, so I wanted to have a look again. We walked past it by accident first, so I ended up being the only one to actually go into that store. I almost got a book on the Reading Terminal in Philly, but opted not to.
Looking empty
If my old friend Stephanie had been in there I might have hung out longer, but the rest of the group was already a little bit further ahead. Everyone who had been running behind had now caught up and was in the mall waiting or me to get back over there.
Nearly vacant
It was sad to see the buckets of water on the floor, and deteriorating bits of the roof coming down.
The Phillipsburg Mall opened up in September of 1989, and was a hugely busy place. It was still doing pretty good business up through the early 2000s until they removed the food court.
Now, even the pizza place that used to be at the north side of the mall has closed. There’s no place to get food inside now. There is still a Verizon store, a few kiosks, a GNC, a massage parlor for which they tried soliciting us, a Gold’s Gym, Kohls, the antique store, and Spin Me Round.
Sun setting on the old Sears
I was surprised to see that they still had the mall Santa there for photos with the kids. We said hello as we walked on by and made our way to where the Sears used to be.
Anchor stores have been leaving like crazy. The Kohls was originally a K Mart, and when they went out of business in 2001 or so, I had gone to it and the one in Mansfield, and bought 41 pairs of shoes at an average of a dollar a pair. I still do have a couple of those pairs left that haven’t been completely worn through or burned up in the house fire, because they were protected under my bed.
The Sears with some remaining flooring
Sears was a big one to go. They closed shop in 2017, and then less than nine months later, a seven hundred square foot section of the Sears roof collapsed, which prompted them to demolish that entire section of the building.
They also demolished one of the other stores, I think the Bon Ton. Bon Ton was originally another store too, which I don’t remember the name of. We walked on through, and passed only a couple of people on the way.
Sunset over old Sears
We exited the mall building, and then turned to the left to reach where the Sears section used to be.
We walked right out over footprint and foundation, and some of the floor tile was still visible as we crossed it.
I don’t know how they would go about redeveloping this property, because half of the mall is in Pohatcong Township, and the other half is in Lopatcong Township. I don’t know how they handle the taxation or whatever else when it comes to this, but sounds complicated.
Morris Canal
We made our way over to the new town house development on the north side, and then took the access road down into the development.
Some buildings were being built, and were wide open. I wanted to just run inside of them, but there was a car parked there, probably someone watching over it.
We continued down below the buildings, to the Morris Canal Greenway. When the homes were built, it was agreed upon that they would utilize a portion of the Morris Canal as their retention pond.
A view toward the mall
The county got a greenway out of it, but we should have gotten a pedestrian crossing of Rt 22, which somehow was not included in on the deal.
We only followed the canal very briefly to the left, and then emerged on Lock Street. We turned right on that, which I’d never done before, walked a short distance, and then cut to the left after passing over the Lopatcong Creek. We headed up hill through fields around the new tree plantings that are a sort of wetland restoration project.
Warehouse
We came out at the top of the hill close to the new warehouse that is under construction. We turned left on a new road and followed it west a bit, and then turned to the right to parallel the new building to the north.
The first door at the very end of it was wide open, and so I had to have a look.
I walked right in, and much of the building remained still open, with nothing really put together yet. There were no signs anywhere saying to stay out, so I turned left and walked the entire length of it.
Warehouse
Justin and Sarah soon joined me inside, and I think maybe Cory too.
The building must have been a half mile long. It was seriously huge. I think it’s definitely the longest building in Warren County.
Once we got to the other side, we turned left and went out a wide corner window. We then continued away from the building a bit in through a bit of a cut. Supposedly, this building is to be served by the railroad quite close by, but I haven’t heard very much.
Warehouse
We walked through this bit of a cut and headed over toward the railroad tracks, the former Morris and Essex Railroad, then the Lackawanna. This was the line that was constructed through to Phillipsburg when the Warren Railroad took the route to the Delaware Water Gap.
It was Conrail and then Norfolk Southern for years, but now it’s being run by Black River and Western, the railroad that Shane works for.
Window view
We continued along the top of the slope and crossed the old access road that went to Ingersoll Rand, which is now much demolished. I think one of the only buildings left from the site is the old power house associated with it.
From 1903 until 2000, IR was the biggest employer of people in Phillipsburg, but for some reason, the official website for the company, now headquartered out of Dublin, Ireland, makes no mention of Phillipsburg.
Ingersoll Rand building in Phillipsburg at the turn of the century, IR collection
The Ingersoll-Sergeant Drill Company opened in Phillipsburg in 1903, and within a year employed over 1000 people. In 1905, it merged with the Rand Drill Company.
Warehouse
Ingersoll-Rand built the Valley View section of Phillipsburg as housing for its workers, and then the Hillcrest section for the more upscale management people.
The company grew to having over five thousand employees in it’s peak year, 1954.
Labor strife followed through the sixties and seventies, and IR gave up different departments to other businesses. It continued to shrink through the 80s and 90s until eventually selling out entirely. Most of my time hanging out around Phillipsburg it was already closed.
Lehigh Valley Live image of Valley View under construction, in 1919
I was living in Phillipsburg from Fall of 2000 through fall of 2001, and it was done for then.
With the new warehouses going in, they I believe will be taking over more of the old IR site, with plans on starting distribution center operation in 2021.
The new warehouse
There was no good way to get down to the tracks for a while, so we continued to walk above the cut to the west a bit. Cory called me up, ready to meet up, so I directed him to park at the Hillcrest Mall, and then head down Roseberry Street to meet up by the tracks.
Likely former trolley bridge site
We skirted a chain link fence, which actually had cameras on the inside facing more property under construction. This was more of the area where the actual IR buildings used to be, so I guess they really are redeveloping it.
We headed down the slope toward the rail grade when I could see the old IR spur track breaking away from the main one.
There are still rails a bit of the way on the old spur, which turned away from the former Morris and Essex division here, and headed down to connect with the Jersey Central.
Spur track to industry off of Stocton St
It connected with the CNJ very close to Green’s Bridge.
I had tried to trace this old line as part of a hike back in January of 2004, which was at times an ordeal with the IR facility still there and all fenced off. It also involved a lot of bushwhacking and looking for clues. Some old timers ended up telling me exactly where it used to go.
We ended up finding a good amount of the remnants, as well as houses that had been built directly over top of it.
Exploring the IR spur in 2004
This time, we backtracked and used the spur to get us down slope a bit to the former Morris and Essex, then we turned to the left to head east on it.
A piece of the IR spur in 2004
Above us to the right, I pointed out where the piers were to what I believe was the trolley bridge over top of the tracks. There are other piers on the other side as well.
We continued and the railroad came out of the cut and out to Roseberry Street where we met up with Cory.
We all continued walking the tracks a bit further on the other side, over top of Warren Street next to the school where there were cars parked and something going on.
I had wanted to cut up hill after Warren Street into Walters Park, but the slope was pretty bad, so we just continued a bit further to the Walters Park foot bridge, which Shane pointed out was a re-purposed old turntable that had been turned into a bridge.
We turned to the right and climbed the slope up to the north side of the bridge, and crossed over a former spur track that went to industry on Stockton Street. I didn’t realize there were still rails in place to that.
We turned immediately left at the top and crossed the lawn in back of the Joseph H. Firth Youth Center, and then came out on Railroad Avenue. There was a fence to the left of us, which I thought might have a cut through, but it didn’t. We had to walk out to Stockton Street, and then go left, then left again into the lot where the railroad used to terminate.
The former industrial area is now a sort of mall I guess I would call it.
We walked over to it, and I ushered everyone inside the double doors and up steps. This was just one of the little weird things I wanted to throw into this hike.
One of my favorite restaurants, Marianna’s, is inside this mall place, as well as several other things.
We walked the length of the mall area, and then went out the front door of it again onto Stockton Street. We passed by some old, mostly demolished industry on our left.
Ruins
We headed down hill a little bit, and then turned right on Chambers Street, back up hill a little bit.
We turned left on the much narrower Washington Street, which turned again to the right and followed the top of the slope above the entire South Main section of Phillipsburg.
When we got a little further, the first opening in the trees revealed a very nice view to the south, over all of the neighborhoods around South Main Street. We had several more views coming up.
Washington St. view
I pointed out Morgan Hill to everyone, and where we had made our way down the golf course on one of the more recent hikes.
We continued on along Washington Street, crossed Hudson Street, and then there were more homes on the left side than previously. Still, we had some great views between them.
We continued on to the intersection with Bullman Street and turned to the left. At the end, there is a long set of stairs that go directly down to South Main Street with some outstanding views.
View on Bullman St. stairs
No one really saw the stairs coming, and were ready to turn left or right at the intersection. They thought I was walking down the slope into someone’s back yard.
View of Easton from Bullman Street Stairway
I stopped everyone a bit down the stairway for our regular mandatory group shot, and then we continued on to the bottom, with great views along the entire way.
We turned right on South Main Street, down hill, and then turned left on Northampton Street. There, Zach cut out, as he planned to get picked up there earlier (his last hike with us ended up going well over the distance it was supposed to, so I can’t blame him!).
The group on the stairs
It was also at this point I planned to split the group if necessary. I wanted to cross some questionable bridges, and I couldn’t make everyone just do that.
View from Bullman Street stairs
I announced that anyone who didn’t want to cross could instead go over the Northampton Street free bridge, and then turn left and head out toward the McDonalds.
I was kind of surprised that everyone except Dan was ready to do the bridge, and even Dan might have done it except that he wanted to make a McDonalds pit stop.
All o us walked on through Union Square area, past the bar building that’s made to look sort of like an old station, and then out to the former Lehigh and Hudson River Railway bridge across the Delaware River.
stairs
I had hiked this bridge only three times in the past, and for good reason.
Originally, the bridge had a walkway only part of the way over. Near the middle, it just stopped, so if a train had come, you were pretty much screwed. The first time I did it was with my friend Bode, when we watched a train go over it and realized this was our only safe time window if we ever wanted to cross it.
The second time was in 2003 when I was finishing a twenty plus mile hike with Tea Biscuit and Skyler, and we saw the opportunity to hurry across the bridge and get to the cars faster than if we walked around to the free bridge.
The most recent time had been in the past year, when Justin and I decided we would try to cross the thing at night, and figured if a train came that we could jump off onto one the supports or something. When we got a bit further out, we were surprised to see a walkway had been put up across the entire bridge, including the missing sections. It ended up being an excellent little walk with some fantastic night time views. I knew I’d have to do this again.
The group on the steps
So, this time, everybody joined us, and we had no problems.
We continued across, and then entered the cut where the railroad used to join with the Central Railroad of New Jersey. We continued ahead through the cut below Mount Ida.
Bullman St stairs
There is a little cave in the rock below Mt. Ida that we’ve checked out before. Someone asked if there was anyone in there when we went by, and a voice called back “yeah...”.
So, we didn’t bother him, and continued to the former Central Railroad of New Jersey bridge over the Lehigh.
This was a bridge that had not been used by a train since 2017, but even at that time it had barely been used. There is a fence at either end of it to block it, but the chain link has been cut making it easy to get through.
We stepped through, and began crossing the bridge.
This one was open railroad ties down to the bottom for most of it. It was a lot longer a distance of this than I remembered, and it can be a bit more unnerving in the dark when we’re looking down through at headlights and such.
Shane and I stayed on the ties in the middle, because it looked like the safest way to go about it, but others went onto the walkways on the outsides. I wouldn’t trust those things, because they turn to wood a little further on, and then they are absolute crap that couldn’t hold anything.
The stairs
Just before the end of the bridge, it went to being solid deck, which was a relief.
We continued out to the other end and stepped through the fence. I turned back to see the last full moon of the decade shining bright over the bridge, an amazing sight to see.
We took a break here, admired the moon, and waited for Dan to get back across to meet back up with us.
There were a lot of homeless people around, walking the tracks and such. We watched one walk by us along the edge of the shadows, and the next one that came out we thought was Dan.
Dan was just behind, and when we were sure it was him, we waved him to come over to us. The homeless guy thought we were talking to him, and so he came over. It old him we were summoning our friend who was right behind him, but he was welcome to join the rest of our hike if he liked. The guy seemed beyond uninterested, and moved on down the tracks to the west. We all started walking not too far behind him in the same direction.
Bridge view
The access to this section was off of Washingston Street in Easton. Lehigh Drive breaks off and passes beneath the bridge, and then parallels the railroad at the base of a slope.
We walked west, and soon passed by multiple tents to the right of us where the homeless are living. One was a rather outlandish shanty.
None of them said a word to us, and we continued on. Shane pointed out a set of rails that was once a part of a switchback that served a power plant at the bottom on Lehigh Drive.
Easton view
We continued along the tracks, and eventually passed under the giant Easton and Northern bridge, which was owned by the Lehigh Valley Railroad. This bridge is about a half a mile long over the Lehigh, at an angle where it curves twice over it’s lenght, and employs both trusses and plate girders in its spans.
I haven’t walked that one in a while, but I would like to get back out there. The trouble with that one is that it is single track wide, and several ties are missing from it. It’s definitely the most unsafe one.
View of the dam at the forks of the Lehigh and Delaware
Both the Central Railroad of New Jersey that we were walking and the Easton and Northern were atop tall walls. We weren’t going to climb up to the Easton and Northern, nor were we going to get back down to the street level. We continued ahead.
Last full moon of the decade
The tracks came eventually to an area of a mowed yard to the right as they curved to the left where there used to be an industrial spur. This was where we would be leaving the the CNJ line. I told everyone to keep quiet, and we made our way through the grass and up hill.
Once we got to the top, we skirted the homes on the upper slope, then went around a retaining wall that took us up toward Palmer Street.
Moonlight over the CNJ bridge
Once on Palmer Street, we turned right slightly up hill, and soon reachd the right of way of the old Easton and Northern line.
The right of way in this area was mowed, but there were railroad posted signs on it. Google maps even shows this section as a dotted line trail now, but it’s not official. There are two pretty bad missing bridges over Spring Street and Iron Street ahead.
The power plant switchback spur
I had first hiked this section of the Easton and Northern in February of 2002, and it was really messy even back then. We managed to get over the two aforementioned bridges, as well as the long one out over the Lehigh, but I wasn’t about to try any of that at night.
Or actually, I was. I did try to walk out onto the Spring Street bridge before I turned back and said “Let’s just go down and walk the road, it’ll take less time anyway”. The ties are so badly rotted that they are like planters with stuff growing out, and the superstructure is nearly hollow.
Under the culvert
The rigth of way up until we got to Spring Street was actually quite wonderful. There were no weeds, and the entire thing appeared to be mowed, unlike the first time I tried to walk it.
Eric Pace and Bob Bodenstein trying to push through on our hike in Feb 2002
We went down a path to the right of the Spring Street structure, which then took us beneath it and out to the road. We turned to the right, and then to the left on Iron Street to reach the second bridge.
Both are steel bridges with metal stanchions in the middle, and then either side of the bridges are otherwise completely made of wood.
We climbed back up underneath the Iron Street bridge, and then continued on the clear right of way ahead, which in a very short distance becomes a paved trail. This was a rather recent development of the past several years. The paved trail used to end at 25th Street.
Bode on Spring Street bridge in Feb 2002
After the pavement started and there was an access to the right, we continued ahead under the pretty new concrete culvert beneath 23rd Street. This used to be a concrete bridge with really crappy metal bracing underneath. It was honestly probably in danger of collapse by the time it was replaced by the box culvert that’s there now.
Justin and I checked out the graffiti there, which is always something sort of odd and uplifting. This time it said “You direct where your footsteps take you”. A nice sentiment, but our favorite one got painted over, which read “Life is an aquarium. Tap the glass.”
We continued from here out across 25th Street onto the older trail section, where there is still not yet a crosswalk. It was a nice and easy walk from here out and across Freemansburg Avenue.
Just ahead, we came to where a branch of the Central Railroad of New Jersey used to come in, but there is now a trail on that which connects at a slope to the south of the original.
The original 23rd St bridge in 2002
We continued out across Freemansburg Ae, which also does not have a crosswalk yet, and went to the left behind the Wallgreens.
The right of way actually goes through where the Wallgreens does now, and used to cross 25th Street again on a bridge that was torn out around 2003 I think it is.
Now, the trail weaves around off of the railroad bed, and then makes its way back up to the fill again adjacent to the old Dixie Cup factory, which remains mostly vacant now, but it supposed to be repurposed into something else.
Old 25th St bridge in 2002
We made our way out toward the Northampton Street crossing, and just before that cut down through a path that led out behind the Wendy’s. We walked through the lot and then headed over to the Taco Bell for a bite to eat.
I had myself a couple of shredded chicken mini quesadilla melts and a steak soft taco, which was glorious.
After our break, we got to my original plan of walking the entire length of Northampton Street back to Phillipsburg, which I’d always wanted to do.
It actually wasn’t as greatly interesting as I’d imaginied it would be. I figured it would be a good holiday spirit thing, but we didn’t do exactly like I thought we might do when I initially planned it.
We didn’t really stop anywhere, and the only part of it that was particularly attractive was the part from the circle to the bridge, where it was lit up amazingly, lights in every tree, and a giant candle erected over the statue in the center of the circle.
The entire almost three mile stretch went by very very quickly. I took everyone from the circle to Lehns Court, which is now just a alley open to pedestrians only that I really like.
The alley in Easton
The buildings are older in that area, and I think it’s fascinating that the town center is still inthe same location that it was in colonial days. In fact, the Easton circle was one of the first public readings of the Declaration of Independence.
We still had a ways to go from here, but I’d have liked to stop in some of the bar and grill places passing through. I know people who work in them, and it would be fun, but the way I laid this hike out, there was just too much more to do.
We headed through the alley and then out across the free bridge into New Jersey. We turned to the right at Union Square, and the guy running the gas pumps, who had no customers at the time, told us not to stand there.
We continued doubling back the way we had come, but passed the bridge we crossed earlier. We walked down the Bel Del Railroad tracks past where people get onto the excursion train, and then to the former Jersey Central and Lehigh Valley Railroad bridges.
An engraving from the 1800s showing the canal and double decker rail bridge
Shane and I tried to explain how both railroads used to use the same bridge to get over the Delaware, and that it was a double decker burr arch truss construction.
I was surprised to see that the platform had been extended from the last time I had been there, where now it extends under both of the railroad bridges.
Morris Canal loading area in Phillipsburg
We turned to the left after the bridges, and climbed up what would have been Inclined Plane #11 West on the Morris Canal. We then followed the paved canal greenway trail through the park parallel with the Delaware for a while.
My then and now
When we got to the end of the paved pathway in the park, which weaves around like a cul de sac, we turned to the right through a hole in a chain link fence to follow the Bel Del Railroad again for a bit more to the south.
We remained on this until just before the bridge over the Lopatcong Creek, and turned left to head back down toward the sewer plant.
I almost thought we had to get through a hole in the fence or squeeze through, but I was slightly disoriented. We had to go around to the right. In this area, I showed everyone the top of the arch where the buried former road underpass below the Morris Canal is. This is the only known aqueduct that carried the canal over a road left along it’s 102 mile route.
THe aqueduct that carried the canal over the road can be sen here, as well as Bel Del and Lopat creek crossing
The trail is in place through here, and skirts the sewage plant out to South Main Street, and then the trail is a crushed stone path along where the canal used to go out toward Green’s Bridge.
Dan stopped at the treatment plant road, and I didn’t realize he wasn’t with us as we continued walking ahead to Green’s Bridge. I pointed out the remnants of the towpath base that still exist in the Lopatcong Creek below to the right.
Another then and now
We all continued on to the intersection with Lock Street, where I was going to turn left, and then continue on out by way of a field to get back to the mall and the end.
When I realized Dan wasn’t with us, I told the others to go ahead, and I was going to go back to look for him. Cory went with me, and we found that he’d already got an Uber from the road where I’d last seen him. We waited with him for his ride, and then continued on our way.
Another one
Cory and I took Lock Street past the two remaining Lock Houses, which are now much altered, over top of the locks, and then turned right on Chestnut Street briefly. We then turned to the left into a ball field park. We skirted the edge of that, and then came out on Liberty Blvd, which has a sort of parkway style island up the center of it. We chatted about diet and health type of things for a while, which was cool. We turned left on Foch Blvd, which took us right into the mall parking lot to finish up. Dan had made it back okay, and Justin was ready to head out when we got there.
I’ll have to do some more Phillipsburg and Easton stuff for sure through the course of the Winter. There is literally so much more I want to see, and just not enough time to see it all.
HAM
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