Hike #1438; Phillipsburg/Easton to Brainards

Hike #1438: 9/11/21 Phillipsburg/Easton to Brainards with Justin Gurbisz, Serious Sean Dougherty, Jack Lowry, Sarah Jones, Jennifer Berndt, Stephen Argentina, Jennifer Tull, Carolyn Gockel Gordon, John Pershouse, Chris "Cupcake" Kroschinski, Darlene Perez, Violet Chen, Tina Chen, Professor John DiFiore, Diane Reider, Tina Chen,  Helen Li, and Jeremy N

This next hike would be a crazy local thing that I put together by request because Brittany wanted to have a hike that ended at her house.

Little did I know that my friends were planning a baby shower for me, and I only started getting hints that something was going on the week as it was approaching.

I came up with what I thought was a pretty good hike that involved a whole lot of stuff we've done before, and a lot of stuff I either wanted to see again because it had changed so much that we might not recognize it from before.
I stressed over exactly what the hike should be, and I knew I wanted it to be something with water features because it was still going to be pretty hot out. But, I needed it to end up on Ridge Road in Harmony Township. I had several ideas of things we could do, but then I settled on one out of Phillipsburg to Easton.

It was an easy choice to use Easton as part of it, especially lately. The city is in a constant state of flux. There is always something added when it comes to trails, and there is always some change in the buildings we see all around it. Something is torn down, something is built, something is rehabilitated.

I decided to use the Karl Sterner Arts Trail, which incorporates part of the old Lehigh Valley Railroad bed through town because that too is always changing. I had started following this when it was just an abandoned cinder right of way, and watched it go through the transition to trail very fast.

It didn't stop at becoming a trail, they just continue to add more pieces of art to it all the time, so each time we walk it there could be something new, and we never get tired of doing it.

We used the boat launch parking area in Phillipsburg again for this one as the start point, after having met at Brittany's house in the morning.
From here, we started by walking across the historic Northampton Street Free Bridge, built in 1895. It has walkways on both sides, and we used the one that faced the railroad bridges and the Morris Canal route, which is probably the more scenic way.
Once we got across to the other side, we headed down the steps on the right that leads down to the walkway along the Delaware River. We turned left down there, and waited for just a bit for some of those running behind to catch up from the parking lot.

We continued through the park, and someone gave me a Lagunitas Maximus IPA to start off my fun for the day.
We went over by the amphitheater along the path, then came out to the streets of Easton. We got to the base of College Hill, and then began to walk Bushkill Drive to the west.
Somewhat recently, Bushkill Drive has been completely closed off from the base of the Lafayette College steps all the way to the Rt 22 overpass, which is kind of a big deal. I had been walking this route for a long time, and it was always open to traffic. I would never have thought they'd close it.

The 22 underpass is only the first one, and where Bushkill Drive turns to the right, they now have a paved pathway along the right side of it for pedestrian use.
We followed this on ahead, and then the path crossed the road and picked up the spur of the former Lehigh Valley Railroad, which was off of its Easton and Northern Line. When I first walked this in February 2002, there were still some rails visible here. This was once the site of the station on that spur of the line. The trail follows the right of way ahead and under Rt 22 again. Then, the trail turns left across the blue bridge that was originally an entrance to the Easton Cemetery.

Ahead, the railroad bed is now a trail to the north as well, but it runs closer to Bushkill Drive so we took the other trail over the bridge.
The through girder bridge there today replaced an earlier pony truss bridge built some time between 1880 and 1900. It was rather drab for years, but now there is art all over the bridge as well.
We turned right on the other side and began following the trail upstream along the Bushkill Creek, and checked out all of the new bits of art that have shown up since the last time we had been on this.

There is now a zen garden added, and there is a side path from the main trail that goes by this giant chime things. The group got pretty held up messing with the chimes here while many of us were trying to move ahead.
When another trail, surfaced with wood chips, turned off to the right and down closer along the Bushkill, we chose to take that.
This led us to the old Lehigh Valley Railroad bridge where it came back across the creek. The trail follows the right of way ahead, and it was for years not going to be a part of the trail system. In fact, they went so far as to plant trees on the right of way.

Now, I understand they want to rehabilitate the bridge and it is going to be part of the trail system, though I have not yet heard a time frame on this. 
I stopped and took a dip in the creek under the bridge while others waited.
From here, we continued on the lower trail to the creek ahead, and then visited a scenic dam on the creek that I never really bothered stopping at before.
Soon, we came to the old Simon Silk Mills to the right. We used to go into these exploring in years past, but now it is all upscale apartments and businesses downstairs. Quite a bit different but glad the buildings are saved.

We soon reached 13th Street and the parking lot for the trail at the original mill structure to the left of us.
I told everyone to stay together ahead, because we would be leaving the official trail system in order to stay along the abandoned railroad bed ahead. People still use this as a trail even though it is not officially opened, but I suspect that it will be eventually.
We crossed the road, and the first lot area used to be used for some sort of emergency or rescue service for the city, but it isn't any more. Also, an old railroad coaling trestle is to the right and still standing as we went through the vacant lot.
The 13th Street Bridge was in view, which is a handsome structure built in 1886.

The rail bed on the other side of the lot becomes indiscernible between the adjacent road, but there is a good meandering ATV trail that passes through to the west just a bit more.

The right of way and ATV path opened up int o a wide open field, which was formerly the home of Huntsman Pigments.
The industry that until recently stood here was active for 140 years.
Starting in 1870, iron oxide production occurred here. The first building in the property was erected by C. K. Williams for that purpose.
Pigments were produced at the site throughout the 1900s under various different names including Pfizer, Harcross, and Huntsman.
There used to be a street along the back of the place called Lucy Street where the workers would live, on site.
The place always looked unhealthy and red. It struck me as all rust and I never used to think of it as a pigment place.
I had walked entirely through it when it was still standing.
The former Easton and Northern Railroad went right through the site, and back in 2003 we pushed on through it after I found out that the railroad bed was now in public ownership. No one stopped us and we were able to just walk right on through without any issue.

The 107 acres held by the former pigment plant is now held by Abacus Industrial Properties, and there are talks of completely redeveloping it as a newer kind of industrial use.

When the trail was developed through, the story I was told was that Huntsman didn't want the thing going through their facility, but they had a problem since the public outright owned it.
So rather than try to go to litigation, it was decided that the trail would go steeply up to Upper Hackett Park off of Hackett Ave.
The trail then descends to Lower Hackett and over Rt 22 on a pedestrian bridge before returning to the railroad right of way off of Wood Avenue. 
I wanted to walk through the property and have a look around a bit as part of this hike.

We made our way into the clearing, and it was shocking to see what it looked like now compared to before.
There was a little tributary of the Bushkill Creek that flowed through the property, but it literally flowed beneath the facility. It was in a tunnel under where the factory was, it it looked like they had been working on daylighting it.
All of the buildings at the lower level except for one of them out closer to Wood Avenue had been completely demolished, and even many of the foundations of them had been completely leveled.

The only other bit of the entire facility was one building that seemed to be standing up slope a bit, and then a section of pipes sticking straight up from the ground.

I was thinking maybe they are leaving that little bit in place in case the new development wanted some sort of reminder of what used to be there before. 

It was totally crazy to see the old road that went through the place, still recognizable to me, with the now overgrown railroad right of way adjacent to it.

I tried to set up some then and now compilations at the site using my own photos from early 2004, but I didn't have the time to really try to set them up properly, plus some of the vegetation made it hard to determine the exact spots I took them before. I'd come back and get them right in the future.

After checking out the site some more, I decided we would try to follow the old Easton and Northern line to the north. I figured it would be pretty easy because I had gone through before. I had even walked across the rather substantial dam across the creek to access the right of way in this area.

I didn't expect this to be the huge chore it turned out to be. 
We followed the grown over right of way and came upon a bit of a clearing with a chain link fence. 

I figured we would just go around it like we had in the past, but this one seemed rather impenetrable. 

I couldn't find a good way through at all, anywhere. The only thing that looked reasonable was to try to skirt around by the dam. This would be quite the task to only go a few feet.

We went back on the right of way, and then down to a lower level where there were more buildings recently demolished. Beyond the debris from these buildings was a spot along the Bushkill Creek that led toward the dam. We had to get up on the concrete and make our way around, then at the dam itself, where there was a raceway on the one side, we had to climb down and carefully make our way over a small bit of water. Then, we had to bushwhack up to the railroad right of way while hugging the fence.

Of course, I had to try this all out first. And, just because I was able to do it, doesn't mean I could expect everyone else to handle it in the same way.

Fortunately, we have quite the intrepid group, and everyone made it the way I did.

I assured everyone that this would likely be the most difficult part of the entire hike. 

We continued along the railroad bed on the other side, through a cut and along the somewhat overgrown route, which soon led us out to the former mill building that was converted to apartments. Behind the building the rail bed is now a paved trail, which was probably anticipated when the place went in, but then never happened.

I figure that with redevelopment of the pigment plant, the trail will probably make its way through finally.
We continued along it past the apartments, and the pavement ended. It remained pretty clear, and we took a nice little break for a swim in the Bushkill in this area. 

After the little break, we headed onward to the Binney and Smith place, which used to be an old mill. I pointed out when we looked at the facade of the building how the original masonry could be seen, with the old mill windows filled in with cinder blocks. The entire outside of the building is painted beige, so it doesn't look like it was ever a mill without looking hard at it.

There are still rails in the pavement continuing north from this point, and then the trail goes back into the woods beyond the mill area with some nice shade. In a little bit, we crossed over the Bushkill on a deck girder bridge, then reached Bushkill Park Drive.

Here, we turned right only briefly, and then immediately left uphill onto Church Hill Road. This took us up to the Arndts and Messinger Cemetery on the right. We went over the fence into that to the right. It's not really easy to get over or around it but we managed.

I was now trying to emulate a route I had taken as part of a night hike, and hadn't yet been through in the daylight. 

We headed northeast across the cemetery to the other end and came out near the intersection of Bushkill Drive and Arndt Road. We continued up that road for a little bit and turned left on Leib Road.

Along the way there was a yard sale, so we had to of course head on up and see if there was anything we couldn't possibly live without. I couldn't find anything in particular, but I think some in the group got something. I don't remember.

I was too busy laughing at Justin ad his using a shower head like a telephone, and then talking other dumb stuff, that I missed the turn I wanted to make. We had to backtrack a little bit, and then turned uphill to the east into the parking lot for the Kingdom Hall of the Jehovah's Witnesses.

This was another oddball thing I discovered as part of a night hike. We walked through the lot to the very back, and at the back right corner we cut into woods only briefly to reach a farm field. We skirted the farm field only a very short distance past one house, and then came out at the dead end of Fox Run Road.

The sidewalk is actually just asphalt on this section because it becomes part of the Forks Township trail system in only a short distance. We headed east out to Deer Path Road, and then went straight across on the path between homes to Mitman Road. Ahead, the trail continued parallel with Heather Lane.

It was on this stretch that I created the idea of the "Recycling Bin Fences" many years ago. There are these white plastic fences with caps on them installed all over, and the caps are often glued on, but often not. When they're not glued on, they can be simply lifted off, and a beer bottle can be dropped in to be found in twenty or so years, or whenever that bit of fence gets replaced. I dropped a bottle into one of them and it made a "cling" sound. Someone looked at me, with a shocked look, and said it sounded like someone had already had that idea. Of course! It was me!

We continued on across Hedgerow Court, and the trail turned away from Heather Lane to behind the homes. We crossed Wagon Wheel Drive next, and then came to the intersection of paved trails in Forks Community Park. Here, we turned left along the west side of the park and shifted direction to north.

Where the paved trail turned right, there was an unpaved one that went straight into the woods heading north. I had never followed this before, so that became the next route.

Somewhere in this area, we lost Tina and Helen I think it was. They didn't make a turn that we made near the cemetery and ended up going the wrong way. I think they got an uber to a point further ahead to meet up with us because they were on the phone with John about it.

We continued through the woods, and then headed to the right a bit in order to head along the north side, on just a grassy swath with several planted trees.

We came back to the paved trail that heads north adjacent to the historic Fraes Cabin, built in 1766. Michael Fraes built the cabin on Frost Hollow Road when he moved from Lebanon Township, Hunterdon County NJ, and it was moved to the township park.

We continued north across Zucksville Road, after paralleling the park access road. The paved trail then continued between  homes and businesses up across Meco Road.

Here, the trail goes across and continues to the west. We went straight to where the trail turned ninety degrees to the left, but we went to the right across the grass along a power line to reach Sullivan Trail (a highway).

In the past, I had gone straight across this, but the power line clearing had more growing than clearing. I tried walking back it, but there would be more bushwhacking that I did not want to subject the group to. We then walked down Sullivan Trail to Meco Road again, turned left, and then left again when we got to where the paved trail led in that direction. 

We skirted the sides of the Meco Fields, then crossed Richmond Road, followed by Vista Drive, and out to beside Winchester Street. Just ahead, the trail split and we followed the branch to the southeast between homes. 

We crossed Upper Way, Middle Way, and Lower Way, then Vista Court before reaching an intersection in a line of trees. There, we turned left, then hard right out to Sheffield Drive. We turned left there for a little bit, then right on Forks Township Recreation Trail. This went slightly uphill, then across Brinker Lane. 

Just a litle bit after this point there is a slight bend in the otherwise straight trail. I pointed out to everyone that this was where the trail turns onto the former Uhler Branch of the Lehigh and New England Railroad.

I had walked through this site with my brother back in September of 2003 when this development was under construction, several times in fact, but I'd never tried to do compilations with my own photos from that time.

We continued ahead across Ramblewood Drive on the paved rail bed, then across Broadway Road to Winchester Drive. On the other side of that, the rail trail continued unpaved and very nice.

We skirted farm fields with pastoral views out toward the Delaware River, passed through a cut, and followed a shelf high above the Delaware River that I love. At one point the rail bed sort of overhangs on a bit of trestle built into the hillside like an actual shelf.

We continued on out to the trestle over a brook and Frutchey Hill Road at Sandt's Eddy where we took steps down to the road. There were bicycles lining the driveway that parallels on the top.

Officially, the trail now is accessed via the driveway, but I have been using the abandoned staircase access for years. I think a few in the group might have walked on the trestle, but I didn't this time.

We continued down past where the Mineral Springs Hotel used to be, which burned down several years ago. There is still the foundation there, but apparently nothing happening.

Across the street and with Delaware River access was River Dogs, a hot dog stand that was actually quite good. I had some weird thing with peanut butter on it which was a special, but didn't dig that one too much. Their regular stuff was great though. We hung out and had a very long break here.

We started walking Rt 611 north from here, and wandered through the Sandt's Eddy boat launch, then past an old portland cement place that was more recently used by Con Agra and I'm not sure by what now. I guess the old cement silos are now being used by grain.

We continued north from here, and where there used to be a very old stone house on the left side of the road, it was now demolished. Really pretty sad to see. I had gone in it, from the railroad tracks of the former Uhler Branch behind it, about ten years prior.

The Uhler Branch of the Lehigh and New England is still used as an industrial spur at either end; from Martins Creek down to the silos, and then to the Forks Industrial site from the Nazareth area.

We continued up the road, passed some buildings that were right into the right of way of Rt 611, and some lime kilns, and we turned onto the tracks to the north where they crossed.
We stopped at Riverside Bar and Grill briefly where Tina and Helen were waiting for us, and we continued on to the north a bit more past more former concrete industry buildings.

There was an abandoned building to the right we went over to check out just about when we got to the junction site.
I had never checked this one out before, and wasn't even expecting to find anything over there.
After goofing off for a bit, we went outside the building, and goofed off more. There was an old staircase, partially collapsed, going up the building, and Serious Sean and Tina climbed it.

From there, we got on the old Martins Creek Branch of the Lackawanna, and followed it over the Martins Creek itself toward the Delaware River. Down below the tracks and to the right along the river is what I guess is an old pumping station.
We went down in it, as I always do, and had a look around. There is a shelf around the inside of it that makes for a pretty nice little walkway.

Because there was good acoustics, we hung out and had a little singalong in the place.
From here we continued up to cross the Delaware River on the rail bridge to Brainards.

Jim DeLotto was waiting for us on the other side and had gotten us drinks and such. He was already down along the Delaware River at an epic little swimming beach I had wanted to get down to, but the group really wasn't all that into taking a swim again. Apparently it was only me!
When we got to the other side, I headed down to the beach to meet up with DeLotto and took a few swigs.
I had found out from John doing his GPS thing that we were already beyond fifteen miles by the time of reaching Brainards, and at that point there was still a good distance to get on the Warren Highlands Trail and head up to Brittany's place. In fact, we would have had to walk the old Bel Del Railroad for a while before even getting to that point. 

I took a dip in the river when I met up with DeLotto, and then together the two of us walked back uphill toward the entrance to the area.
The property down there along the Delaware is in part municipal, but much of it us state park land actually assigned to the state park where I work. The municipality has closed off access to it because of so many people driving to the site to party and leaving too much trash.
We headed uphill and checked out an old coaling trouble off of the Bel Del Railroad, then headed out onto the street in Brainards where the rest of the group was as wating for me. I think some of them were already working on getting a ride back.
Once again, I was totally happy to accept a ride back as well. We had already done above fifteen miles which is always my sort of personal rule, and we had already connecting to so many spots I've previously done that it didn't matter to have to go farther. I checked all of my personal boxes, and so I was happy to just relax for a bit.
It was starting to be apparent before the event what was going on. I had said that I would probably not stay for the party because I had to get home to the baby immediately after.

When I started seeing people showing up that had not been on the hike, I got what was happening.
It was kind of awkward for me, and I let Jillane know what was going on. As I should have expected, she was livid, and while Cupcake had texted her to let her know what was happening, there was no damage control that could be done. 
Despite having good intentions, a lot of stuff got screwed up. They disconnected the battery to the car, which with a Honda Element causes some major problems. I ended up having to go to the dealership that week to get reset codes because I couldn't even use the radio in the thing until it was reset. 
Then, it would no longer start half the time while in park. I would have to shift it to neutral with the key turned, then turn it over, and I would be able to drive away. Also, in trying to get my hood open, they broke off the hood release tab.

I really appreciated all of the effort that went into all of it, but no amount of good was really going to make me feel less stressed out with the circumstances either. I just wasn't able to relax, and my back started hurting even more.
Nothing would ever be the same in my life again, mostly for the better, but some for the worst. Fights and disagreements I knew were going to be a big part of what lies ahead, regarding how to introduce my son to the world. I really want my group of friends to know him and be a part of his upbringing, because there is so much good to be had with all of these positive connections, but it's going to be a battle to keep that going.
I feel that eventually, as long as good times continue, my son will choose to do things with me on his own. I'm aware that as he grows older, he will drift away from his parents, but I hope to show him a way that he'll make his own, with the kinds of values that only come with experience.