Hike #1455; Cove Valley to Cowans Gap

Hike #1455; 11/20/21 Tuscarora Trail; Yellow Trail/Cove Valley to Cowans Gap with Professor John DiFiore, Jennifer Tull, Diane Reider, David Adams, Mike Krejsa, and Neil Washington

This next hike would be the next point to point in our Tuscarora Trail series, the sixth.

We had finished the last hike in the series in Cowan's Gap State Park, right at the parking lot for Cowan's Lake. This time, we would do the next section to the south of there.

I really didn't know what to expect other than the fact that this just might be extremely difficult. It also might be easier.

This section was the first that was also part of the Great Eastern Trail, so I figured it might have a greater degree of maintenance than previous sections of the Tuscarora. The Standing Stone Trail is part of the Great Eastern Trail and it ends on the Tuscarora Trail in Cowans Gap, so I figured the surprisingly pleasant level of management we encountered on that trail might pass on with this one.

There was also the very real possibility that this could be extremely difficult, with rough terrain and heavy brush everywhere.

These and other questions meant I had to consider the details of this hike differently.
The southern end of this section was to be a yellow blazed trail that ascends from the Cove Valley through State Game Lands #124 to the Tuscarora Trail. I was uncertain about the condition of the road to the parking area, or if I could even find it. I didn't want to post that as the meeting point because there might be very limited parking. Instead, this hike would be the first in the Tuscarora Trail series to go from south to north instead of north to south.

 Cowan's Gap Beach would be a far better place to meet, that most of the group interested in this hike knew how to get to.

Also, once up the ridge, it seemed that we would remain on ridge top for a long while, and the majority of downhill walking would be at the very end. I wanted to try to make it as easy as we could because the days were getting shorter.
I also wanted to try to have some time set aside to stop for lunch at the Tuscarora Summit.

It seemed like this would be the best plan, and we would be able to deal with things appropriately from the start if we went about it this way.

We shuttled with as few cars as possible to the starting point, just two of them.

This brought us south on Route 456, Little Cove Road, in Cove Valley north of the little settlement of Sylvan.
There was supposed to be a dirt road that went part way up the Tuscarora Mountain, but it was not very obvious. I had to look ahead of time for it on the maps to know where I was going.

When we arrived at the road, I pulled in and began trying to drive my Honda Element up it. At first it was okay, but then it started getting really very bad. I wasn't going to be able to make it, or if I did, I might wreck the oil pan under my car. I ended up trying to back back down.

There was some room to pull off park along the west side of the road at the very sharp turn, barely enough for our two vehicles, but that's what we had to do. We couldn't chance trying to get up there.

There were some blue blazes down at the road to show that there is a trail that comes down here, so we took the chance that we would be okay to leave the cars there.
I was a bit concerned because this added a full mile to our hike. We would have to walk a mile on the woods road just to get to the parking area before even beginning the ascent to the main trail. I was just glad to get moving though as we started.

Neil and I got up in the front to move on. It had been a while since he and I had seen each other, and he was living down closer to Washington DC for a job he had just taken.
I had been getting more out of shape from lack of exercise, and I really needed this major climb at the start of the hike, but Neil smoked me on it. 

I had been home from work for over three months for child bonding time, a sort of paid paternity leave I got through the state. It was great, but the lack of exercise was weighing on me pretty badly. At least I was still able to get my son out on hikes with the jogger stroller during the week for exercise.

The woods road got worse and worse as we took on the slight ascent from Cove Valley. I couldn't believe anyone would bother going up there. Still, as we made our way up, there was in fact a couple of trucks in the parking area (if you want to call it that) when we got there.

From the parking spot, the blue blaed trail followed a more beat woods road into the woods to the west. 

We moved uphill very gradually just a bit more into the state game lands, and then came to the intersection where the yellow trail contineud ahead as a foot path, and the blue trail continued to the left following the old woods road. 

The blue would certainly be easier, but it was about a mile and a half to the top on that one, and the shorter yellow trail reached the top in only about a mile. I decided that would be what we would do this time.

I started out pretty strong with the climb, which took us across a little wetland, and then over the top of a little false ridge. Once over that, we had a short shelf, and then super steep.

The yellow trail just ascended the mountain with barely an angle at first, and was really rough .
It started to get a bit more gradual as we got closer to the top. The ascent was still kind of rough until we were right there.

Just before the very top, the blue trail came back in from the left. We continued the remainder of the distance on the blue trail to the Tuscarora Trail at the top, and turned right.

Immediately, it was not the rough mess we had been through before. Previous sections had been badly overgrown and full of briars, or full of loose rocks, or both, with vegetation so thick that we could not tell if we were planting our feet on solid rock or into a crack.
It was kind of rocky at first, but the treadway looked immediately almost as if it had been recently weed whacked. On it we were able to make some really good time.

We continued along and passed by the terminus of the Hells Hill Trail, a very steep one also up from the Cove Valley. I had initially planned on using this as the start of the hike, but noted that the further down yellow and blue connections would put us at the right spot to do our final hike in the Tuscarora north half.

A little past this trail, we passed over some rock outcroppings that jutted to the west a bit. There were some views to the west, but the best ones were from the upper level of the rocks looking back to the Cove Valley to the east.

The trail ahead got a bit more rugged, but it was never at all overgrown. I was able to move along pretty quickly still, and we went up and over several very nice rock outcroppings, but none of it was that bad.

After a series of outcroppings, I noted while I was walking ahead of everyone else that there was a hunter below us in the woods to the left, below a rock. I was really surprised to see anyone else out there. I just kept moving ahead and pretended like I didn't see him at all.

Just ahead, we reached the intersection with the Reece Hollow Trail, where there was a trail register in a mail box. I stopped and signed in on the register, and then waited for the rest of the group to catch up to me. 

As we were reconvening, the hunter and his son came walking up the trail from the direction we had just come from. I was thinking he was going to be the angry type, because we walked by the spot where he was hunting and might have scared away the deer he was looking for. 

He was surprisingly friendly and told us about how the deer come right up and over the right where he was sitting, and that he often has to tell hikers coming through that they should be wearing something bright. Most of the group had some orange on, and I was wearing an off white blazer with green pants and a bright orange seventies butterfly collar shirt, so I think we were probably okay in his book.

We continued along the ridge with more views, plenty more seasonal views, rock outcroppings, and even a few balanced rocks.

Through the later segment of ridge top, the trail got super wide, but not because it was an old road. It looked like there had been some fireline training or professional trail clearing going on. The foot path was widened to super wide, well more than it ever needed to be, and the treadway was very easy.

After a great series of rock outcroppings and splendid views, we began descending from the ridge rather steeply to the east side. After a bit, we came to a woods road. We followed this briefly and then turned sharply downhill on some sood bracing steps to reach Route 16, known as the Buchanan Trail because the former President James Buchanan was born just at the base of it nearby.

I had thought the trail would follow an easy woods road from this road to Tuscarora Summit, but it actually was mostly downhill from it to the east. We had to descend a bit, and some of the trail was old woods road, while other bits were foot path. 

We crossed a power line and meandered through the woods for a bit, reached a woods road, and followed it uphill to the a wider woods road in private property. The trail passed through some of this private land on their woods roads, some of which were logged around. The woods looked of a different quality since it was privately owned and timbered as the owners saw fit.

There was also a very nice little bench and seating area.

My guide book said the trail followed a woods road past a private home, but I think it must have been slightly rerouted and maybe lengthened through this area.
After the woods road bit, when the road started to turn to the right a bit, there was a large sign reading "trail" that put us over closer to the western side of the ridge on a foot path. I think this must have been cleared in order to keep hikers a bit further away from the private home. 

The trail meandered a bit, and we did come within sight of the house, but didn't go very close to it like my out of date guide book described.

We continued ot the north, and soon came to a small overlook and a plaque on a rock that must have been to the former land owner who allowed the trail to pass through his land.

It read:

"This plaque is placed in memory of John Castellar Simonson (1915 - 1998)
He loved these woods and this land, which his family has shared with the Potomac Appalachian Trail Club to carry out his dream that this viewpoint and environment will be preserved for future generations to enjoy."

We continued just barely beyond this point to the Hang Glider View. 

This was probably the best view of the entire hike, which is kind of off putting that it is within sight of and easily accessible from the Lincoln Highway just to the north. Still, there was no one there besides us taking in this awesome scenery.

I think the blazes came in further back behind this, but we got closer to take in all of the scenery. 
McConnellsburg was well within view as well as all of the beautiful farm lands to the west.

Before we reached this point, I called ahead to The Mountain House, just ahead, so that we could stop for a lunch break and have some burgers. I ordered two for myself I was so hungry.

Once were were done at the overlook, we headed out an informal side path into the back of the establishment, which was originally the famous Tuscarora Summit Inn.

I'd imagine this point would have been an even more refreshing spot if we'd have been coming from the north. It is a rare opportunity for food and drink for the famished hiker as far as Tuscarora Trail goes.

This inn was first opened in the 1920s when Leslie "Doc" Saylor, a pharmacist by trade, opened up the lunch stand at the point. The Lincoln Highway, the first major transatlantic automobile highway, opened in 1925, and with more traffic came more business. Back then, people's cars would overheat, and so the peak of the summit was a perfect place for people to stop for more water and take a break, as well as take in the view.

Also, because the ridge straddled by the inn is between Fulton and Franklin Counties, drinks could be served in Fulton while Franklin was a dry county back in the day.

The place basically was like a biker bar that happened to be on a popular trail. They were clearly used to hikers passing through, but it was apparently not the favored clientele based on the reaction of the one guy working. The lady who took our order after we were turned over to her was very nice. She also served us when we got to the establishment, and service was much better.

Just before we had gotten there, a large group of other southbound hikers, a much larger group, had stopped there on their way through. Maybe the guy who initially answered was annoyed because such a big group had already come through.

Either way, the food was great. My two burgers were awesome, and I also had a bottle of Troeg's Field Study IPA, which was quite tasty.

Once we were done, I figured the route would be super easy the rest of the way back, because I thought the trail just went straight across the Lincoln Highway and onto the road walk we had done at the end of our Standing Stone series. Such was not the case.

I figured it would just be a short formality to follow where the trail went, but it took us from the hang glider takeoff spot down over rocks, beneath a power line, and then onto a long abandoned old road that closely parallels the Lincoln Highway, only just barely downhill from it. It was probably a predecessor logging road or something.

We followed this road a good long while and lost considerable elevation before the trail turned hard right away from it, up a slope and then up some wooden steps that were kind of broken. The steps led to the edge of the Lincoln Highway, and we crossed directly and climbed steps immediately on the other side up a slope.

The trail continued as a foot path for a time, turned uphill slightly, and then reached the end of an old woods road that skirts the edge of the ridge. It turned left there and climbed gradually to the north.

Eventually, the trail turned hard right from the woods road onto foot path heading steeply uphill again. I was sweating up a storm trying to get up this, because it had some loose rock lots of dead leaves.

The land leveled off and we soon crossed over Aughwick Road. I had expected that the trail was going to follow the unpaved Tower Road directly from this point to Big Mountain Overlook. It just seemed on the maps that this was what the trail did, but of course it did not.

The trail went directly into the woods and meandered more. We came out to a nice grass area where people were camping, having entered Buchanan State Forest at this point. The trail then turned left and followed a grassy woods road to the north for a bit.

When the woods road ended, we continued straight into the woods ahead on good foot path. It was the illusion of deep woods, but we could often see to the left the clearings from recent logging.

To my surprise, the clearings to both the right and the left from recent logging were the next thing we saw. The trail followed an untouched swath of trees where all of the stuff to the right and to the left had all been heavily logged. It was quite impressive that the trail lands were protected from that.

We eventually emerged at Big Mountain Overlook, an amazing rock outcrop to the right which can almost be driven to. There is a road that goes just about to the site, and lots of people come and go to have a look around. There was a sign that reads "no graffiti", and it apparently works because there was none on the rocks, and the area is under surveillance in case anyone did. In fact, a ranger vehicle went by while we were admiring the view.

The spot kind of reminded me of the Indian Wells Vista on the Mid State Trail, and it was just about as good. We enjoyed the view for a bit, then continued on our way into the woods, on a foot path past some abandoned concrete ruins of some sort, which might have been some sort of comfort station.

The trail took us gradually down hill, and the sun was sinking in the sky fast. It was not much uphill left for the entire hike, but at this point I was already aware that we were probably going to be out just until after dark.

We took on a few switchbacks left and right when we hit woods roads, and then came to an intersection with a prominent woods road at the bottom. We turned right there, and then for a brief time we had another footpath section in woods parallel with one of these roads. We passed a couple of hunters walking on their way in at this time, and they were friendly with us.

The trail passed through a somewhat recently logged area through scrubby young trees, and then we came out to another prominent woods road. We continued straight to follow that woods road to the north.

We entered a very recently logged area next, with some logs still stacked along the old woods road. We went slightly uphill and then a gradual down hill for a while. Near the next height of land, the sun was setting to our left with brilliant pinks and oranges on the horizon.

When I looked back at the others trying to catch up to me, I could see Big Mountain Summit in the distance as we walked away from it, which would have looked very intimidating if we had been walking the other way.

I kept waiting for the others to catch up in this easy straight ahead section. We went slightly up again and then gradually down. The trail route we had to take was obvious. When the woods road came to an end, the Tuscarora Trail continued directly into the woods straight, where Geyer Trail went to the left.

I wanted to at least get some photos of the views and trail on the ridge top, and the others weren't in sight. I decided that I would just push ahead. Everyone with me was very experienced and knew how to follow trail markers, had flashlights, and and understood where we were going.

When I got into this woods section, I came across the most difficult section of trail of the entire hike. It was extremely rocky, often loose footing, and much of the rocks were just small enough to be easy to trip over.

There was a nice view at a talus slope to the right into the Path Valley. The footing switched from tiny rocks to very big rocks, and required a lot of attention to get over. There was one major outcropping along the ridge before the trail started dipping downhill on the final descent.

I reached that spot before the last bit of sunlight disappeared over the horizon, but it only afforded me the view of the crazy looking rocks I would have to contend with going down the Tuscarora Ridge.

The rocks became little again as I lost some elevation, which made tripping much more of a reality. I think this area was the site of another very major reroute because my old maps and guide seem to show the trail steeply climbing/descending here. Although it was steep at times, it got easier part of the way down.

The slope of the hill shifted from a bit of a slant to very steep, but at that point the trail was built as a side hill, going left and right with little bits of steps and such in between the turns. I was able to head down these switchbacks very quickly. I still had a tiny bit of ambient light left from the sunset to see the first of these, but then it was gone. I would occasionally turn my phone away from me, not with the flashlight on, but with the little bit of light emitted from turning the screen on. That was enough to guide me through most of that.

I could see steeply down below the headlights of cars going slowly down Richmond Road, navigation the bends up to the park or down to the valley.

The trail eventually reached a much lower level, very close to Richmond Road, and turned to the left on what was basically another old woods road. I followed it and weaved back into woods away from the road,

The trail soon led me out to cleared wooded areas of Cowans Gap State Park. I had to look around more closely for the trail blazes on the trees because I could no longer count on the route being delineated by treadway. I hit the unlock button on my phone and held it up to trees to determine which had the blazes on them and found my way out to Aughwick Road. I crossed and followed the trail route through picnic grounds, then out to the concrete walkway toward the beach complex there.

From that point, the cars were only a very short distance ahead, past the buildings in the lot. I didn't need to walk over there yet. I did pace back and forth from there and back a bit, but I wanted to stay on the trail to the southwest of the buildings to remain in the dark a bit more, and to watch for when the others were coming down the mountain.

The light on Cowan's Gap Lake was really nice, a deep dark blue in the dark with the silhouettes of evergreens around. The park was laid out by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s, and I had already walked all the way around the lake, and all along the ridges in the other direction I could see.

I really feel a greater love for a place once I get to learn it so intimately. Aside from a slight concern that I might be approached by a bear, I was not at all worried and actually felt a bit at home standing alone there in the dark.

I'm certain the bottle of Dogfishhead Palo Santo Marron I had just finished probably helped me to relax some as well.

I could hear some slight noises that I thought were voices, and in the distance on the ridge, I started seeing flashes of light along the top. I stood and watched them, back and forth. The lights were flashing toward me, then would stop, then would start again as they took on the switchbacks on the way down. I watched the group make every turn until they disappeared into the foliage of the trees at about the same level as the lake. From then, it wasn't all that long before they all came out of the woods to me.

This ended up being a really hard hike, not because the bulk of it was so hard, but because the distance ended up being over twenty miles because of reroutes and unexpected circumstances. The elevation gain, because of all of the ups and downs between these points, was over three thousand feet.

That last section with the rocks and the descent put us right to the edge of exhaustion, but overall it was great. I got a ride back to mine and Diane's car with John, or Diane drove John and I back. Whichever the case, my car wouldn't start when I got there, and John had to jump me. I later found out that there is a problem with the car that when it won't start in park, I simply have to try again to start it in neutral.

This put me behind on getting home at reasonable hour, but it was still a worthwhile trip and great to knock out that last really big section. I only had one more of the "north half" segments of Tuscarora Trail remaining to do to get to the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, and that segment would according to the maps be the easiest section yet.

Hike #1454; Trenton/Morrisville/Scudders Falls

Hike #1454; 11/16/21 Trenton, Morrisville, and Scudders Falls Loop with Shane Blische, Professor John DiFiore, Violet Chen, Charles Updike, Jennifer Berndt, and Everen

Just about done with my paternity time off since my son was born, I was trying to continue doing some bonus week day hikes with him while the weather was good, and there is always something going on.

On this date, there was the grand opening of the new Scudders Falls Bridge pedestrian walkway. There were to be a lot of people present including many friends through my job at NJDEP, and probably many others too.

I wanted to try to attend the event because it was sort of a momentous occasion, and it meant different ways of doing different loops around the area. I figured it would be cool to be the first group to actually do a loop around that area.

I wrestled in my mind about actually posting this through Metrotrails or not. I wanted to, but then Ev's mother didn't want me having him around anyone at all. It was really ridiculous, because if something were to happen to me, it is much better that someone is there to look out for the baby. Especially when I'm hiking through places like Trenton and such.

Because I was doing this event with the bridge opening, and I knew hundreds of people would be there anyway, I chose to actually post the event. It didn't matter. Maybe people would show up, maybe they wouldn't. If they did, good. It would do no harm.
Shane, John, and Violet all came at the start of the loop, and Charles Updike, who had hiked with us one other time previously, on the first hike of my Neshaminy Creek series. I'm always glad when someone comes on their second hike with us, because it means the first one didn't scare them off too much. People typically do come out again after one.

 I chose the start point to be Morrisville PA, at the Morrisville Shopping Center, a strip mall located on the corner of Trenton Avenue and Crown Street. From here, it was easy to walk down to the Delaware Canal, and it gave us enough time to get to the new Scudders Falls Bridge for the celebration.

Trenton Avenue took us right down to the Calhoun Street Bridge where we had finished our loop about a week prior, from Washington's Crossing. This time, we would do a very similar loop, but only up as far as the new bridge, and then head back down to Trenton and Morrisville. I planned to do some other stuff, some odd trails here and there, along the way.

We reached the canal towpath just before the Calhoun Street Bridge, turned northbound, and began hiking. I moved along somewhat fast from the start because I was afraid of missing something.

We headed onto the towpath to the north, which started to move away from the Delaware right after the bridge and crossed Ferry Road.
The section ahead was quite pretty, and still had plenty of nice autumn foliage to check out. More had dropped since the past week, but was still nice.

We continued up across Black Rock Road pretty quickly, and then on beneath the former Reading Railroad overpass to Lock 6 on the south side of Yardley.
We passed beneath the pony truss Letchworth Ave bridge, where the trusses were affixed to a newer superstructure for ambiance and do not bear any weight, then beneath College Avenue and Afton Avenue.

I've always enjoyed Yardley, because it probably has more of a "canal town" feel than other more popular towns like New Hope.
In New Hope, the canal is down in a cut and you can blink while driving the bridges over it and not even notice what it is. In Yardley, streets are right up against the canal. People live on the towpath. Edgewater Ave actually follows the towpath and we walk by the fronts of homes.
A lot of people would find this to be horrible because they want the nature experience, but for me, the historic and cultural aspects of these trail routes are at least as important as the natural ones.

We did get our share of nature however, as we left Yardley to the north.
As we reached Upper Yardley, at Lock 7, we saw a Great Blue Heron stalking a couple of Mallards.

This was really interesting. I don't know that a heron would kill full grown Mallards, but I have known them to attack ducklings. There were no ducklings present while we were walking by.

The heron was certainly more used to having people around, because it did not seem too alarmed that we stood watching him for as long as we did.

From here, it wasn't much farther to the new Rt 295/Scudders Falls Bridge where we would turn off.

A new foot bridge had been constructed over the Delaware Canal at this point, and this was the first time I'd seen it open.

There were tons of people walking around; public, officials, mingling around several pop up tents, and chairs set up preparing for a presentation and speakers.

The old stone house built in 1799 was still standing along the edge of the canal. I had thought buildings would be torn down for this, but it was good to see that it not only was left in place, it was restored and repurposed.
The house was originally from the Scudder family for which the area is named.
Often, when these buildings are restored, they basically sit around doing nothing. They'll be a "museum" that is open maybe one or two days a month, and that is it.

While I do love that these buildings are preserved in such a way, it is also a waste of space when you have a place with running water and electric, and all of the space isn't being utilized as the museum. Government agencies have countless empty houses with no one living in them.
This one is actually really cool.
The inside was redone so that it is now a dual use visitor center and restroom facility/comfort station along the trail. Old beams were exposed inside, the foundation stabilized, and stone facade repointed. I believe a twentieth century addition was removed from the building.

I pushed my way in, and I realized I had an empty bottle of Tiny Belgian style imperial stout in the stroller that I had to dispose of quickly before some of the officials noticed it!

As I mingled, the first person I recall recognizing was Jimmy Douglas from the NJ Trenton staff who handles social media stuff. I talked to him briefly, and then moved on through the crowd and came upon Patricia Kesseler, Superintendent of D&R Canal State Park, and Mark Texel, state park Assistant Director. 
I stopped and talked to them for a while.
Patricia had filled in as Superintendent where I work for almost a year, so we got to know each other a lot better, and I really love her leadership style and demeanor. I always liked her from the first time I met her, but having her as a boss really brought my appreciation to a greater level.

When I told her that I was going to be a father, she and my previous Superintendent Jenny were both supportive and helpful with advice and stuff that we could use when the baby came.

Now that I'm a dad, something has changed with a lot of people, where I'm in this sort of "parents club". So many friends and coworkers I had been close to for years were already ahead of me having children, and I had thought that ship had sailed for me until it happened.
Now, all of a sudden, so many friends and I are exchanging kid photos with one another of the things we're proud of and are bringing us joy. Patricia was the first of those to really welcome me to the parents club, and we still exchange happy text messages of the stuff our kids are doing.

As soon as Patricia saw me, she immediately wanted to hold Ev. He was practically asleep when I walked up with him to the event, but he had never minded being held. As time as gone by, I can appreciate how the passage of time and the growth of children can leave a void and holding another baby can reconnect to a past time. I kind of see that when I see other parent friends hold my child.

I have found that being a father, having a baby, really isn't difficult at all. It is just constant. It never stops, and it always changes. With these changes come some feelings of missing out on the way things were for a brief time.

 When Ev would sleep for a long time, that was nice and easy, for example. When he was so light that carrying him was like basically carrying nothing. 

I always watch people and read how they are absorbing their experiences, and it is very apparent that each of these moments are important ones that I have to enjoy to their fullest while I can.
I'm obviously way behind on writing journal entries for the hikes, simply because I only do it while the baby is asleep, during a nap or after he goes to bed, when I need to rest my body but not my mind.

Before Ev was born, I actually had a fear of babies. The fragility of them had always drawn me off, and whenever a friend had a new child and they would ask "do you want to hold him/her?", I'd quickly decline citing my apprehension about hurting or dropping them.
With Ev, I held him seconds after he was born. It might have been more shocking than it was amazing for me. I cut his umbilical chord myself, which was one of the thickest the doctors had ever seen.
I had this horrible fear of holding him wrong and accidentally snapping his neck.

But then it got easier. He got stronger, and I could have him on my lap as I typed on the computer. I could place him down with a bottle within sight and everything was okay. By the time I could bring him hiking, those fears were going away. It felt most better when he started turning his head and looking around on his own.
By the time he came on his first hike with me, he was already reacting to me with smiles. Genuine smiles that were a result of my actions and attention. I had been told that wouldn't happen until much later than it did, and it made appreciating him so much better.
The moment I saw Patricia holding Ev, I understood the "parent club" thing more. In the future, I knew I would be in the same position I was seeing her in, because I have a frame of reference.

That frame of reference is something I've brought up with the hikes for years. We build upon our memories and appreciate that which we have a frame of reference for.
Having Ev with me while I'm doing these hikes has enriched them so much more, and strengthened my bond with him beyond measure. 
I can't do a hike without him any more without freaking out thinking I'd forgotten him in his stroller somewhere.

I told Patricia that I wanted Ev to be the youngest one across the new walkway when it opened, and to be the first stroller over the multi use route. 

I got to chat with Mark a bit too about trees and how I thought we needed to adopt a policy of thirty second rule. We don't in the state have any particular policy on how to handle hazard trees by priority. It has been my feeling since working for Hunterdon Parks that we should look at these trees as a hazard if it is someplace we might stop for more than thirty seconds. That could be a bench, an overlook, a camp site, a grill, a sign, or various other things. He seemed to agree on that, but I don't think any policy has been adopted yet.

After a bit more mingling and seeing other friends, we were called out to be seated for the start of the presentation. I remained off the sidelines rather than sit down because I had the stroller. Ev fell asleep because I gave him a bottle just before it. He didn't stay asleep the entire time, but when he started shouting I took him out and walked around with him to comfort him.
Shane and John stood with me and the others mingled around I think a bit more for the presentation.
The Color Guard was called out next and we did the Pledge of Allegiance. Reporters were recording.

I'm sure Ev and I ended up on the news somewhere there, but I never saw any of it and I actually still haven't bothered looking it up yet.
There were different speakers through the course of this. The Mayors of either municipality, either side of the river were among them. I think there were other local representatives I can't quite remember.
A man spoke on behalf of Delaware Canal State Park, and on behalf of New Jersey parks, John Cecil.
I had met Mr. Cecil once before at Spruce Run and had a nice talk with him, but I didn't get around to talking to him while I was there this time.
Mr. Donnelly from the Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission and others were also up there, and I regret not having had the opportunity to meet him at this time.
Mr. Donnelly follows the Metrotrails facebook page and leaves excellent commentary on historical points with regard to the bridges, so I do want to meet him.
Some talk was made on the 1799 house, and there was a cover over the front of it.
A small piece of the predecessor bridge at Scudders Falls was placed on a piece of concrete in front.

With the conclusion of the talks at the podium around chairs, the group moved off to the walkway up to the bridge, where there was a ribbon cutting. Several of the dignitaries stood together to cut it.

Once cut, the public moved up the ramp onto the bridge. John, Shane, and I were up front and I stuck kind of close to Mark and Patricia going across and taking in the view.

The ramp was a long bridge over a wetland, which I think is part of a wetland restoration project there, and then turned left onto the multi use walkway. This was one of the widest walkways on a bridge I've seen.

One of the points that was brought up about this walkway was that unlike other bridges, it was not one where they had signs to dismount bikes. The width allows public to legally remain on the bikes.

There were good views going over the bridge. Scudders Falls itself isn't really a waterfall, but rather a riffle of rapids in the river where it drops several feet in a short time. There is a big island in the river just downstream from this drop off.

I chatted a bit more with Mark and Patricia going across. Shane got a chance to finally meet Patricia too, which is good because of his expertise on the Bel Del Railroad, and the fact that so much of the signage both along the trail and on local roads have incorrect dates and information on them. He really wants to be a part of the re-writing of these with the correct information.

We continued to the other side, and the walkway turned to the north to head down and connect with the old Bel Del Railroad grade, beside the Delaware and Raritan Feeder Canal.

The canal here was built in 1834 to provide water to the main canal, which went from New Brunswick to Trenton, then down to Bordentown. It would supplement the water level in the canal, but also provide a freight route to the north as far as Bulls Island in Raven Rock NJ.
The Belvidere Delaware Railroad was built in 1850, and much of the original towpath was used as the track bed. At that time, the towpath was switched to the east side of the canal.
The public erroneously refers to the Bel Del rail grade as the "towpath", when in fact the rail bed was only the towpath for some twenty years, and it never went further north than Bulls Island.

The trail continues north from Bulls Island to Frenchtown, but from there on up it is strictly railroad. There was never a canal on the New Jersey side until the Morris Canal for a brief time in Phillipsburg.

When we got to the New Jersey side, Patricia and Mark and others got to the bottom, and then turned back on the other side. The Metrotrails crew turned to the right at the bottom of the ramp to start heading south on the NJ side.

I found out after a bit that there were people looking for me on the other side of the bridge when they expected me to be coming back. One of them was Mr. Donnelly, and not sure who else.
We made our way along the trail beneath the bridge, and there was still some construction equipment around the area. They must have had some more work to button up.
We soon crossed Upper Ferry Road, followed soon by Wilburtha Road.

Wilburtha Road was once the site of a station on the railroad, although its rather long forgotten.
There is an abandoned house at the road crossing which served as offices for a quarry operation.

I think the house dates back to the days before the quarry, and I think it might have been originally a bridge keepers house associated with the canal before even the railroad, but I can't be sure. It certainly looks like it was built as a house and not a quarry office at all.

There was a lot of junk out in the woods near the house, and I had never really explored around it before. I had gone into it during a night hike years before, but that was all.
Shane told me that there was a large abandoned earth mover still back in the woods among all of the trash, so I wanted to get a look at that.
He led me through the woods and out to the thing, which looked like an old style drag line.

Jen met up with this at one of these crossings to continue the rest of the hike with us.
There was a long pleasant section ahead with a more wooded feel, and we passed beneath the former Reading Railroad which crosses over the Delaware nearby.

This was the section that was built as the National Railroad under Delaware and Bound Brook Railroad to compete with the Pennsylvania Railroad controlled Mercer and Somerset line, which didn't even last a decade of service.

We continued on across Lower Ferry Road and parallel with the Trenton Country Club. Beyond that there were some abandoned buildings across that canal that were once a part of a hospital complex. We soon crossed Sullivan Way on an aqueduct structure, probably built around 1910.

Pretty soon, we started to approach the property of Cadwalader Park, on the opposite side of the canal from where we were walking.

This land was previously the farm of Thomas M. Cadwalader, who sold a strip of his land for development of the canal in the 1830s.
He retained rights to have a bridge to access his farm lands on the other side by way of a bridge that swung when canal boats would go by.

In 1841, the 148 acre property was purchased by Henry McCall, who constructed his mansion above the canal. He had a tree lined access road known as Lovers Lane and a bridge went across the canal to access that property.

The McCall property was sold to the City of Trenton for the development of Cadwalader Park in 1888. Hundreds of trees were planted here to block the view of the bus transportation corridor of both the canal and adjacent Belvidere Delaware Railroad.

Despite the efforts to keep these things separate, the draw of the canal was unavoidable, and the canal and rail line were well utilized by park patrons. A dock was even installed on the canal.

Further, the Bel Del/Pennsylvania  Railroad began operating a station stop for Cadwalader Park in 1903.

The railroad was torn up in the 1980s.

We made a little stop at the park and walked across the bridge. I think I gave Ev another diaper change here like I did the last time we went through because there was an easy table area to do it on.

Just after the park, we passed over the Parkside Ave Tunnel, which is a concrete bridge installed in 1910 to carry both the railroad and canal in aqueduct style over the road of the same name.

We continued to the east from here and crossed over Hermitage Ave along the canal, and then a short distance beyond that point, reached the point where the Bel Del Railroad bed continued into Trenton to the left, and the old Delaware and Raritan Canal continued off to the right heading into the lower portion of town.
We had done a good amount of the canal on the previous visit, so this time we continued on the old Bel Del line to the east.
We passed beneath Prospect Street in a cut pretty soon, followed then by Calhoun Street. We then reached an at-grade area where Belvidere Street was to the left of us, and Summer Street was to the right.

We crossed Fowler Street followed soon after by Willow Street, and then came back to the edge of the Delaware and Raritan Feeder Canal.
The railroad again rain alongside the canal in this section.
Just ahead, we reached the crossing of both the north and southbound lanes of the Lincoln Highway.
We had gone to the south side of the canal, and we crossed back to the north side and then walked up the park median between the two lanes of Rt 206, a short distance away to what was known as the "Five Points", and the location of the Trenton Battle Monument.

The "Five Points" were where five streets come together at a strategically higher elevation, American artillery was placed here during the Battle on December 26th, 1776. 

The battle, along with battles at Princeton and Monmouth, considered to be turning points of the American Revolution.

The Cornerstone of the monument was placed on the 150th anniversary of the battle in 1891.
The hollow, granite Roman-Doric fluted column structure on pedestal was designed by John H. Duncan, architect of Grant's Tomb, and modeled after "The Monument", a 1671 structure in London England built to commemorate The Great Fire of London that happened in 1666.
The top of the monument is adorned with a statue of George Washington, depicted at the start of the battle.
An electric elevator inside took visitors to a platform overlooking the city in the area of the battle. Unfortunately, the elevator is no longer in operation today.
The monument was dedicated October 19th, 1893.
The monument is actually under management of Washington's Crossing State Park, and I had to head down there for work at some point before.
We continued back to the rail bed and continued to the east from here.

We crossed North Montgomery Street, and then to a fork where the original trail went to the left and dead ended at Southard Street. The first time I led a hike on this stretch, we came from there.

It used to require almost twenty blocks of walking on streets to get to the next section of park on the D&R Canal to the east, but the section was connected around the time that I first got hired by the state.
The trail now skirts the former railroad yard to the east for a bit and requires only about a block of road walking to get under the highway in one section.
We weren't going that way this time, though. This time, we would be heading south where the main Delaware and Raritan Canal used to go. This fork in the trail we had reached used to be the connection point. The main canal is now obliterated, built over by Route 1.

It's still possible to walk trail, which I think follows what was originally the Camden and Amboy Railroad at this point, south parallel with Route 1. We continued on to to Perry Street.

From that point, we turned right and crossed over Rt 1 on the bridge, and then turned left onto a trail into Roberto Clemente Park, named for a famous ball player. A mural of him was on the wall with his quote that read "Any time you have an opportunity to make a difference in this world and you don't, then you are wasting your time on earth.".

We came out to Academy Street and had to turn right because it was a dead end, and then came out to Stockton Street where we turned to the left. 

It was about ten blocks to the south on Stockton Street where we came to a trail along the Assunpink Creek to the right, which continued into Mill Hill Park.

Charles Updike was a great source of history and information from this point on for this entire hike. He knew these areas far better than I did, and the greenway along the Assunpink was for me one of the coolest parts of the entire hike. Not what I was expecting.

The foliage along the way was absolutely stunning, and the grounds kept very well. 
Charles led us from the creek side up to South Montgomery Street to a very nice statue of George Washington in a square that I had no idea existed. It was all part of a very nice historic district.

The reason for his statue being here, as Mr. Updike described, was because General Washington and the Continental Army were encamped in that exact area, on the north side of the Assunpink Creek. 

When they departed, they left enough soldiers still encamped on site to create the illusion that they had not moved, while the majority of the army moved ahead to victory at the Battle of Princeton on January 3rd, 1777. 

Montgomery Street crossed the Assunpink Creek on a lovely double stone arch bridge built in 1873, and rehabilitated in 1950. 

Also adjacent to the park was the Mill Hill Playhouse, which was also built in 1873 as the Messiah Church of Trenton. It was sold to the Lutheran Church of the Saviour and later merged with other congregations before eventually closing down. The vacant church was then gutted by fire in 1977, after which it was rehabilitated and converted for use as a live theater that continues to this day.

We continued onto the south side of the Assunpink, and then moved ahead to the old Jackson Street Bridge, which is a Pratt through truss single span built in 1888 by the New Jersey Steel and Iron Company. It is only open to pedestrians today and is well restored. Up until around 1900, there was a mill dam at about that site. 

Just downstream from the bridge is now am amphitheater built along the creek edge. 

The site was once a mill works that started with a grist mill constructed in 1679 by Mahlon Stacy.
William Trent took over the land and mills in 1714, and it became known as Trent's Mills.
A paper mill was also constructed on the site until it burned down in 1872. 

In industrial years after that, the creek was enclosed over top and industries were built on top, known as Assunpink Block. Those buildings have now been removed, and the site is part of a wetland restoration project.

We continued out of the trail at its end, and then continued on Assunpink Drive parallel with the creek ahead. We turned left when we got to the Department of Taxation and Department of Labor and Workforce Development building.

All this time, we could see the NJ Department of Health building under demolition. Machines were all parked around it, but no work was going on at that moment.
They were basically dismantling the building from the outside, chewing away at it slowly until it was nothing more than a pile of rubble. It was really interesting to see it coming apart.

While looking at the building, I felt like it was kind of a symbolic mess for the Department of Health, particularly due to the covid management and all of the constant contradictory guidance. 

We walked around on the sidewalk at Department of Labor building, which was totally clear, and provided us with some really great views of the building demolition. We went around the east side of it to the south side of it, and then headed to the west.
As soon as we got out there, there was a guard that frantically came up to us, telling us we couldn't be there. I engaged with him dismissively stating the fact that there were no signs saying to stay away from that area of the building, nor was there any caution tape. He angrily noted that someone keeps knocking it down.

There was indeed caution tape on the south side, heading west, but going around that bit led out to where public was allowed to be again, so we got to go that way. I let the guy know that there was no tape like that on the other side either, and that he might want to go over there and put some up or there will very likely be more people coming around in the same way that we had just done.
Actually, the only signage anywhere around the building that we could see were those saying "no smoking".
We continued around the west side and then to the south through the parking areas where we had some more great views of the building under demolition.
Some of the parking lot we were walking through was one that my group had gotten special permission to use on the final hike in my perimeter of New Jersey series.
We headed south and passed by the William Trent House.
The historic home, which now serves as a museum, was built in 1719, and is the oldest building in Trenton.
The building was built for William Trent about five years after he purchased the property, on approximately the same site as the 1697 home of William Stacy, the previous land owner.
We headed south from here to Bridge Street, where just barely to the south was the old wharf and ferry landing. Washington took this ferry in 1789 on his way to New York for his first inauguration.

We continued across the "Trenton Makes" Bridge from here into Morrisville. This occupies just about the site of the very first bridge over the Delaware, which was erected in 1806.

That original bridge, a covered structure, was purchased by the Camden and Amboy Railroad in 1935, and through that action became the first railroad to travel across a bridge between two states.

The railroad moved to its own bridge in 1903, and damage from heavy use of the railroad was the major contributing factor to the replacement of the original. The bridge piers are still extra wide from previous incarnations of the bridge.

The current bridge, officially the Lower Trenton Bridge, is a through truss structure completed in 1928. The bridge is currently adorned with the statement "Trenton Makes the World Takes" on the downstream side, and has been since 1935.

We saw a train go across the adjacent railroad bridge while out there. It is odd that New Jersey Transit has yards in Pennsylvania for the maintenance of its equipment.

We got across the bridge into Morrisville, and went by Williamson Park. Mr. Updike explained how all of this used to be wetlands, and I think he said that the area there was originally an island, but that the river section was filled in.

There was an old mill wheel on display to our right. The wheel was made in 1773 and belonged to the first industry of Morrisville, built by Adam Hoops. Later, the mill was owned by Morrisville namesake, Robert Morris and George Clymer, signers of the Declaration of Independence. We continued west to Pennsylvania Avenue where there was a statue of Morris.

We continued just a little bit further west across the Delaware Canal, but we did not turn right to head back on it. We continued to Morris Avenue and turned right, then straight into Patriot's Park.

The right side of the park was until somewhat recently a sort of elementary school building, but it has been completely removed.

At the height of the hill, to the left of the access road, is Summerseat, a Mansion house that was built in 1770 for Thomas Barclay, and used by General George Washington as headquarters in late 1776.

After the war, it was purchased by Robert Morris.
Morris is regarded by many as second in importance to American Revolutionary War history to George Washington thanks to his financial support of the war efforts. His support helped the Continental Army to secure victories in strategic battles of 1777. He also was signer of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.

Morris nearly succeeded in making Morrisville the Capital of the United States.
Morris fell upon financial troubles leading to debtors prison, and sold the house to another Declaration signer, George Clymer, in 1806. It was he that named the home Summerseat, and resided there until his death in 1813.

The house was restored and used as a school administration building in the 1930s, when the elementary school was built nearby on the property.
Today, the home is a museum operated by the Historic Morrisville Society.

We walked around the house to look at it from all angles. It was quite impressive, and there was a beautiful giant tree around the other side of it.
From here, we headed down Hillcrest Avenue to get back to the Delaware Canal towpath where we turned to the left.
It was a pleasant walk, and the first street that came across the canal from our access was Maple Street.

We turned to the left here, walked a couple of blocks, and then turned right on Crown Street to head back to the shopping center where we'd started to finish out the day.

I thanked Mr. Updyke for his awesome history, and for changing the trajectory of our hike to include some awesome stuff we wouldn't have known about otherwise.
The hike started out with so much greatness, but it also finished with this inspiring and interesting serving of history that left me wanting so much more.
That's exactly the way a hike should end, not just at a predetermined destination, but in a place in our minds that will enrich the days to come with inspired research and discovery.