Hike #471; Northampton to Schnecksville

Hike #471 2/28/10

2/28/10 Northampton to Schnecksville with Jillane Becker, Chris "Cupcake" Kroschinski, Eric Pace, Kyle Zalinsky, and Amanda Rosenblatt.

Yes, Chris is indeed wearing a skirt. Regarding the sign, don't ask, I don't know.

Some party pics...

Buckettfest 2010

Buckettfest 2010

At Buckettfest 2010

Strong like el burro fuerte

Buckettfest 2010

Buckettfest 2010

Paige wrestles men to the ground and sits on them

Mr. Buckett ALMOST gets a kiss.

 My next hike would be following Buckettfest #3 at Jim "Mr. Buckett" Mathews' house in Bethlehem PA. Another crazy party as always, we expected to have a good turnout for the hike, but this was not to be.

Surprisingly, from the party crew, the only one up and ready to go besides Jillane and I was Chris "Cupcake" Kroschinski, by far the most enebriated of anyone at the party the night before! Also, Eric Pace, and Amanda Rosenblatt were ready to join, in addition to Kyle Zalinsky despite the fact that after partying he had to go into his job at Newhardt's Pharmacy in Northampton early to do inventory. In retrospect, the reason he may have "needed" to be there, sadly, was probably to manipulate inventory for the drugs he had been taking from the place.

 We used Newhardt's as the meeting point for the hike, after spotting my car at the end point, Lehigh Carbon Community College. Jillane, Cupcake, Amanda, as well as Shelly Janes who helped us spot the cars but could'nt hike, went in to visit Kyle who was just getting off of work. We got to meet some of Kyle's co workers, guys up front, a lady named Romaine in the back (1,2). We got together outside, and I got in trouble for peeing behind a dumpster and some lady saw me. Oh well.

 We walked down the street to the former CNJ railroad tracks to the former Ironton Railroad trestle over the Lehigh. We all crossed except Eric who decided to take the road bridge and catch up, I helped Jillane while Cupcake went rather slowly (2a-8).

Once on the other side we descended to an ATV path into the former Thomas Iron Works site where we'd hiked before (8a-8c) and out to the building ruins (8d-8f). Kyle was not feeling well and decided he did'nt want to do the hike, and so Amanda went with him. Next, we came to the mouth of the tunnel which came out under the large roofless building next to the former Lehigh Valley Railroad right of way (9,9a). We went in and continued through to the other side (9b-17). Eric joined us on the other side.

At abandoned Thomas Iron Works

 We continued out and slightly south, then west cutting up hill a bit to the paved Ironton Rail Trail. We took the south fork of that ahead (18-18b) around the bends, over a nice fill, saw a woodpecker (18c) and Jillane rested on a couch someone put out (18d). We did'nt take the north fork because somone told me the huge concrete tower we'd climbed through our previous time here had been torn down.

 Soon, we came to the junction with the other part of the Ironton line, and we continued westbound under Rt 145 where the trail switched from pavement to crushed stone. Again, we went past the ruined rail car (18e) and then to the long abandoned building on the right, which since our last visit had had it's windows cinder blocked shut! Still, we were able to get through to have a look because either end of it was open (19-21).

 We checked out the building across as well as the frame of one that was turned into a bird blind (22) and continued west. Sadly, the many old fashioned gas pumps lined along the trail had also been moved since our last visit from alongside another stone ruin (22a). Still, it was nice to see an active business utilizing some of the old structures (22b-22c).

 We soon crossed Chestnut Ave and checked out some interesting signage (22d-22f). By the time we got to the next road crossing in I guess an area known as Egypt Eric was ready to head out. He called DJ Ray who was still resting from the party at Mr. Buckett's house to come and get him. We did'nt wait up for that, as we had a long way to go. We paralleled another road, then crossed Bridge Street near the edge of another abandoned cement place (23-23d). We then came to the old series of row houses we'd gone in before right alongside Quarry Street. The first couple that we had'nt been in I guess it was were locked, so this time we went around the back, and to our surprise they were left open! We went in and scavenged around, and found all sorts of great stuff! I got a nice jacket and vest in beautiful condition, cds, a hat, and Jillane got a whole bunch of old biker tee shirts. We found som garbage bags and just loaded them full of stuff and took them out.

In retrospect that must have looked really crazy (24-28). The other weird thing was the lack of indoor plumbing in any of the houses. they all had out houses (29). We got back on the trail as quickly as we could, and then headed toward it's end. There was a small abandoned building over off the trail to the right very near the parking area, so we hid the bags of stuff along it until we were ready to move on.  We could see other abandoned buildings in the vicinity but had no time to check them out (29a-29c). The trail ended and so we had to walk along Quarry Street for a bit (29d-29g). Soon, the rail bed came back across the road to the south side, so we followed it. We could see where the spur line continued on to Orefield which we'd followed the previous year (30) but this time we were folling the main branch directly into Ironton (31).

 The rail bed came back to cross Quarry Street and I tried on my nice new suit I'd gotten in the house (31a), but I did'nt leave it on for long because I did'nt want to ruin it in the snow and ice. The rail bed was still clear to the south (32) to where it crossed Mauch Chunk Road. We crossed directly and had to go past some business in order to get on the rail bed continueing north (33). We soon saw horses on the left hand side. To my great surprise, Cupcake had never pet a horse before, so of course he had to stop for a bit. He fed them something, I don't remember what, but it was amusing watching him with them (34-36c). The rail bed skirted a pretty pond to our right and then seemed to abruptly end. There was a ball field at the end, at a much higher level than the rail grade. The grade either went left a bit or straight ahead. Either way, it had been covered over. We ascended over the rocks leading up to the park area, then sat at a picnic bench for a bit to eat our lunch, leftover Eggplant Parm Cupcake had made for the party the night before (37).

mmmm eggplant

 Before we were ready to go, Cupcake put on a goofy looking skirt he'd found in the abandoned house and wore it the rest of the hike (38)! The park access road took us to Levans Ave next to a pond that I think was called Grouse Lake (39) or something in Ironton, then we followed Levans Road, stopping to look at interesting things along the way (40-43) until we crossed the PA Turnpike and reached Rt 309 next to a CVS. I remember going in for something but I don't remember what.

 Directly across 309 from Levans Road was an abandoned paved road, the predescessor to the newer road to the north.

I think this one was called Old Packhouse Road. Now it was being used as some sort of a trail. It was still striped, but lots of branches and stuff were on it. Even signs were left in. It was just a little tough walking due to the snow which was still rather heavy (44-49). All of the fields around us were well terraced which was interesting (50). I soon found a giant tractor tire and tried to roll it all the way down the road which was getting steeper. When it stopped it did'nt fall over in the snow so I just left it standing (51-54).

My sweet Jillane

The road ended at the intersection with Grist Mill Road and County Lane according to google Earth. We turned right on the now paved road (55) which took us to a newly built up section of road which must have cost millions (56,56a). Still, it was incredible. I knew I had to post a hike in this area when Jillane and I first discovered it while driving around in the months prior.

 We followed the Old Packhouse Road to the left and then right onto Orchard Road where the views began to open up onto the Trexler Game Preserve, a place I'd been wanting to hike in for quite a while. This hike opened us to it (57-65). It seemed like forever till Lehigh Carbon Community College appeared on the right, but when it did we tried to cut across it's campus to get to my car. We made a couple of wrong turnes because construction was going on that made normally accessable places a bit tougher, but we got through.

 The three of us were able to get back to Ironton, pick up our bags, and then get back to Northampton and Cupcake's car with no problem.

My sweet Jillane

Hike #470; Highlands to Red Bank

 Hike #470 2/20/10

The group in Hartshorne Woods

 My next hike would in part be some repeating of past hikes, but also some new stuff I'd been interesting in exploring. I decided to post this hike because my friend Steve Rogers, of Driving Jersey notoriety was having a party that night which the hike could end at. So in the morning I met my posse in Red Bank NJ, at a parking lot on the south side of White Street. We then carpooled as few cars as possible to Highlands NJ at a parking area along Shore Drive. Joining me were Amanda Rosenblatt, "Major Tom" Conroy, "Connecticut Joe" Bukowski, Bernie Lieberman, Al MacLennan, Jack Lowry, Susan Dawson, and "DJ Ray" Cordts who was running a little late and had to park his car a couple blocks from where we started walking (0b-0ca)!

 We headed to the bridge where Rt 36 crossed the Shrewsbury River, only to see that it was almost completely gone and a new bridge replaced it high above, a second structure apparently for opposing traffic under way! I'd remember taking pictures of it years before while it was lifting because I was told this historic structure would'nt be there much longer. Now I'm so glad I did. And on this date I got pictures of them tearing it down. DJ Ray met us underneath the bridges (1-5). From here, we headed up Highland Ave (6) to Lighthouse Road and ascended to the Twin Lights with fantastic views of NYC, Sandy Hook, and the bays. Unfortunitely the lighthouse was closed due to ice so we just had to take in the view below and check out the museum (7-12).

Inside the Twin Lights museum, Atlantic Highlands NJ

 We continued to the south along ball fields (12a-12b) to Hilltop Terrace and then down to the hill to the Hartshorne Woods parking lot off of Portland Road. We walked a short distance through Battery Lewis, a gun emplacement of the past. I was able to squeeze in through some of the metal a bit, but there was very little to see (12ba-14a). I also went to the top of it to get the view (14aa-15ab). We looped around the outside of the Battery and then through another tunnel in it (15ac-16) and then took one of the trails heading west.

Giant tree in Hartshorne Woods

 Major Tom told us that this was one of the biggest places for tree diversity around, and I did'nt remember noticing before, but he was right as I began to pick out all of the different species as well as the very large and strangely shaped trees. One had even fallen but had new vertical branches coming off of it, perfectly healthy (17-22, 24-25aa). We had a good time wandering and singing along to Jack's new carbon fiber guitar he was carrying, and we checked out a cabin along the way briefly (23-23ac).

 There was at one point a side trail that said it led to an overlook over the Navesink, but it was'nt much of anything, even without leaves on the trees (26,26aa). we continued on a short distance and were soon joined by Chris "Cupcake" Kroschinski, who came running down a crazy snowy embankment to join us. As it turned out, the trail made a crazy sharp turn which he had skipped. He ended up having to backtrack with us for a bit.

 We soon cut to Hartshorne Road and turned right for a bit. Eric Pace joined us late at this point, after parking his car at the nearby A&P in Atlantic Highlands and road walking to us. We then bushwhacked to the left through a piece of property along a tiny creek toward Locust Point where there were old buildings (26ab-27c). I'd wanted to go back to this location for a while and finally got to it. The first house was a mess, but we were easily able to get in an open window. The place was a wreck, a lot of water damage. Cupcake found a bunch of stuff he liked, and I found a bunch of old barbershop music magazines my grandfather would like.

Abandoned house

Abandoned house

Abandoned house

DJ Ray took a huge box of stuff out but ended up leaving it on the lawn because he did'nt feel like carrying it. Too bad. Amanda ended up with a great leather jacket I think it was (28-49). I found out later that a ranger from the county thought he recognized me going into the house stealing stuff, but there was no way of that because the barbershop books were in my pack. Still, it was unnerving.

Locust Point abandoned

 We wandered out of there, followed the dirt road around old farm buildings and the huge house on Locust Point. It was a beautiful structure, but Cupcake and I, despite our efforts, could'nt find a way to get in (50-60).

Taking a break at Locust Point

We turned off the dirt road left to cross the Claypit Creek on Locust Ave (61-61ba) to Locust Point Road and went left. We stopped in an antique store there and talked to the owner, who's grandfather operated the Twin Lights. I'd talked to him on a hike before but the group had'nt the chance to meet him, so I made up for that this time. He even had an old postcard of his place from way back (62,63). We walked by a highway sign and got a reflection picture (64-64b) and then turned right heading up into Huber Woods Park. We took the Claypit Run, Valley View, and Fox Hollow Trails (65,66) to the visitor's center of Huber Woods where we stopped for a nice long break and met up with a newcomer, Karen Marie who was Amanda's roommate in college . We hung out for a bit at this place and a naturalist gave us a presentation on snakes (66a-70).

Amanda and Karen at Huber Woods visitor center

 When we were on our way again we took Fox Hollow Trail (70a) to Browns Dock Road (71), a dirt road, turned right briefly and then left onto the Meadow Ramble Trail. All of these trails were very snowy, then hit Bowne Road and turned right (72).

Along Bowne Road, Middletown NJ area

We followed this a short distance to a left turn on Cooper Road and continued. It was a dirt road at first (73-77) but it soon became paved. It was still nice though, it skirted a golf course and had lots of large and unusual trees along it (78-81).

Along Cooper Road

 We turned left off Cooper Road when we reached Bodman Park on the left. We cut through heading south, and Cupcake had his mom come and pick him and Karen up. I clutched onto him and hugged him, trying to get him to fall over in front of his mom (81a-81d). We then took to the roads and headed basically southwest toward the main part of Red Bank (81e-81f). I think we took Neversink River Road to Victoria Place. We were able to see the remnants of the former Red Bank Branch of the Central Railroad of NJ as we passed by where it crossed (82). We then followed Conover Lane to Rt 35 and used it to cross the bridge (83-83b). I was able to see this time by way of the utility line where the CNJ railroad once had it's bridge across the Navesink River (84,84a).

 We continued into Red Bank, walking the streets to where we started. When we arrived back at the parking lot, we decided we were going to go out to dinner at a mexican place that came well recommended from someone, I forget who though. Bernie and Al decided to head home. I actually forget the name of the place at the moment too, which is strange because there were a couple of places in town with that same name. We hung out in Dunkin Donuts for a little bit, then Jack and Susie went home, while the rest of us all went out to dinner at this mexican place. Major Tom and I walked the distance to the place, but we first found the wrong one on the opposite side of the tracks. We also stopped at a liquor store so I would have somthing to drink at Steve's party (86). We wandered for a bit, and soon enough found it near the station (85). My buddy Kyle Zalinsky soon showed up to join us for dinner and goofing off. The food was great, and Connecticut Joe, such an awesome guy, picked up the tab for everyone!!!!!

Goofing off at the restaurant

All of the food was great, and Kyle and I had a good time wandering through the restaurants making dumb faces and wearing our napkins on our heads. we even walked right through their kitchen (87-95)!

Kyle and I being silly in the restaurant bathroom

 When we were done eating, we walked south on Bridge Ave a short distance to Steve's house where the party was already going on (96-98). Karen showed up as well Carol Creamer and we hung out for a while.

Party at Moses Butterworth's

Kyle did a crazy dolphin inspired dance. Everyone stayed later than Major Tom and I who decided to head home a bit earlier.

At Steve's Red Bank Party!