Hike #1002; Chatsworth Area Loop

Hike #1002; Chatsworth NJ Area Loop

1/7/17 Chatsworth Area Loop with Kralc Leahcim (Lerch), Gregg Hudis, Varsha Sarabudla, Robert Gearhardt, Diane Reider, Lara Nycum, Kellie Kegan, Daniel Trump, David Seals, and Kevin Gondek.

The next hike would be a loop in the Pine Barrens, which brought us back to an area I had not visited on a hike since 2002.
Usually, I follow through with things much quicker, and return to finish trail sections and such much faster. I had hiked the section on a trip Rich Pace arranged way back, and had connected to Atsion, on the west side of that hike, but never bothered to finish the Batona Trail. I’d been on a couple of bits since, but it was overall quite boring to me, and everyone seemed to have done it all.

Batona Trail map

The trail used to be about exactly fifty miles, but had been rerouted to pass through the Franklin Parker Preserve, which eliminated a road walk section. Someone at work had asked if I’d followed the reroute yet, and I hadn’t. Not only that, the fact that I hadn’t hiked the entire Batona was starting to seem sort of pathetic to me.

Batona Trail hike in 2002 by Rich Pace

Back in 2002, it was an unconnected section of stuff for me, so I worked for a long time to try to connect it to the rest of my hikes by way of the village of Atsion, but I never bothered connecting to where we started on that trip, at Route 532.
My plan was to do a loop hike, connect to where I’d left off on Batona Trail, and continue on the reroute to Brendan Byrne State Forest, and use the former Central Railroad of NJ to connect the two. On that previous hike, we used the old CNJ line to get to Atsion. This would fill in a little bit of that which I have not covered as well.

Batona Trail in 2002

I made the meeting point an on street parking spot in the town of Chatsworth, a really hole in the wall little community sandwiched between Wharton and Brendan Byrne State Forests. There’s really nothing there except the general store I put as a meeting point (which was closed), and a hot dog place (also closed).
The weather was looking good for Saturday most of the week but as the days went by, snow appeared in the forecast. It was staring to look grim. I wondered how many would end up cancelling on this one because the forecast went from two inches tops to between six and eight inches in the last few hours beforehand.
Thankfully, people were all still willing to go, and Gregg offered to drive. This was great since my car has been questionable, and we also picked up Rob and Varsha along the way down.
There was no snow for the way down, until we were just about to Chatsworth. Accumulation started happening fast. I was amazed that we’d end up with a group of 11.
Chatsworth seemed like the approprite place to start a Pine Barrens hike, because it’s known as the “Capital of the Pines”, maybe because it’s the home to the annual cranberry festival.
The Pine Barrens saw it’s peak population in the 1850s with the iron and glass industries, and at the time the town was known as Shamong (the name lives on in a neighboring township).
In the 1890s, Prince Mario Ruspoli married Palma de Talleyrand Perigold, who had inherited seven thousand acres of area land from her NY realty tycoon grandfather J.D. Beers. They built a Queen Anne style villa they named “Chatsworth”, after the English country home of the Duke of Devonshire. In turn, the town renamed its name to Chatsworth.

Buzby's General Store

Buzby’s General Store, where we met, was built in 1865 and later operated by generations of the Buzby family.
The railroad was in operation through town I believe starting around 1870. Central Railroad of NJ’s operation of the line for it’s famous Blue Comet train from 1929 through 1941 was probably the last big thing to happen to the town. It was part of the “all rail” connection from New York City to Atlantic City. The famous train was painted Packard blue and cream to represent the ocean, sand and sky.

Old Blue Comet Advert

It had plush carpets, fine dining, and windows hand etched with comets and stars. It is considered to be the “The Seashore’s Finest Train”.
The railroad did well for a number of years, but when the Great Depression hit, everything change. Posh members of society all moved away from Chatsworth. Financial disasters plagued the railroads, and in August of 1939, after a heavy rain, there was a train crash just west of Chatsworth at mile marker 86 (probably one of the places we walked by).
The villa was destroyed by fire in the 1930s shortly after the Prince moved to Belgium. Others moved from town as well, and the after the Central Railroad of NJ was taken over by Conrail, it was abandoned between Lakehurst and Winslow in 1978.
Woodland Township NJ, of which Chatsworth is a part, is the largest municipality with the smallest population in America.
While sitting in front of Buzby’s waiting for the group to show up, a guy told us due to plowing we’d be best off in the church parking lot. It didn’t take long for others to show.

We started off by following the road to the east a bit. We passed by the White Horse Inn, which was built around 1860, and originally known as the Shamong Hotel. It’s probably the oldest structure remaining in town.
It also served as a home to the manager of the Cranberry Bogs.
Much of the Franklin Parker Preserve, where we would be walking used to be these expansive Cranberry Bogs.
We continued to the former Central Railroad of NJ, which had a little sign with a picture of the Blue Comet locomotive, and a little piece of rails in place with lines around it blocking it off.

Old CNJ tracks in Chatsworth

We turned left at the tracks, following them to the west. The first bit had no rails still in place except for at the little display area.

Historic view of Chatsworth Station

The right of way crosses a wide grassy field at first, with no rails in place, but as soon as we got to the wood line, the rails were back in. For most of this line, the rails do remain in place the whole way.
Just within the woods, and off to the left, I was surprised to see that the old Chatsworth Station is still standing, repurposed as a private home. I’d wanted to get more photos of it, but I didn’t want to seem too invasive. There were lights inside rather obviously in the middle, and people obviously didn’t walk this section of right of way very often.

Old CNJ right of way in Chatsworth

We followed the tracks as best we could to the west. The snow wasn’t deep enough to even be an annoyance yet. There was sort of a path along the tracks pretty soon.

Overgrown tracks

We continued along from the station, and there were a few private homes to the right, but then we appeared to be in deeper woods. We crossed over an open deck bridge over a small tributary as we headed west.

Chatsworth Station

As we walked the tracks, we eventually came to a red blazed trail, part of the Franklin Parker Preserve. Lara had just said she didn’t want to be in front as not to make the wrong turn, but then ended up in front and missed the turn!

Bridge

We turned right and followed the red trail for a bit, and it took us into a parking area. In retrospect, we should have remained on the red trail from this point, but instead we turned left and continued back toward the railroad.

Franklin Parker Preserve map

We ended up back at the tracks, and there was an old sign that read to look out for the train. It was partly busted off, but cool to see because there are so few like it left.

Missing Bridge

We followed a path that went along the north side of the tracks, and soon we could see where the rail bridge was missing over the East Branch of the Wading River. Fortunately, we were able to cross on the roadway.

Historic 1939 train wreck image

It must have been in this area that the famous train wreck occurred in 1939. It makes sense because it would definitely be an area that would have washed out.

More former cranberry bogs

We didn’t make it too much further till we reached yet another missing bridge spot. No matter, we had to head to the north around this spot anyway. Lerch managed to cross unnecessarily, and then came back. We all walked along the east side of a trench for the former cranberry bogs until we got to a spot where there was a feasible crossing.
We crossed over a part of the bog, but I for the life of me could not figure out where exactly we were on the maps as per the GPS. We walked back and forth a bit until I could ascertain where we were, and then realized we had very few choices.

Where we got on Batona Trail with a good turn blaze.

The red trail came out to it’s farthest point right by here, and I didn’t want to head back south on that. Instead, we got on a sand road that headed to the northeast. That took us back out to Rt 532.
We walked along the shoulder of 532 for a bit, and only like two cars went by while we were walking it. One was a jeep or something with enormous wheels, and the other was a black VW, for which I muttered “idiot” as it went by. The roads were absolutely terrible by now. No plowing had been done and only a few tracks could be seen along the route. The trails were not very deep yet, but it was accumulating quite fast.

Batona Trail reroute

We followed the highway only as far as Ringler Ave and turned left to follow that. It soon became a simple sand road, though we couldn’t see the surface. It was a very nice way to walk. Only one car as I recall passed us on this road.
We passed a sign going down a private driveway that must have been a mile long for Apple Jack. It was tempting to go for the walk, and we joked about what the people would say if a posse showed up at the home looking for Jersey Lightning.
We continued down the road as it became Highpoint Road and New York Avenue.

After the second ninety degree bend, we got to where Batona Trail follows the road and goes into the woods. I had been on this section before, but I don’t remember it too well.
I was happy to see turn blazes along the route. Most of south Jersey has problems with land managers marking trails badly. They use carsonite posts far too often, and every time there is a forest fire (which is often in south Jersey), the things melt. Simple paint blazes always seem to work the best and they’d done a pretty good job on this section. We continued along the trail heading to the east.

View in Franklin Parker Preserve

I initially questioned whether we were on the new realignment or what I had seen before, but I saw old blazes that had grown out with the tree quite a lot, so I knew we were in the right place.
We continued weaving through the woods for a while until eventually we emerged onto the road again. Directly across, we could see where the trail used to go straight, but a new route led to the right.

It was obvious that the trail was much newer than what we had been walking. Much of Batona Trail on the Wharton SF side was rutted rather deeply from years of walking. This was much fresher.

Batona Trail reroute at Franklin Parker

The trail eventually came out to an old woods road section that was quite nice and easy. I recall passing some sort of parking area, but the memories of the place bleed together a lot because it was just so similar.
The cool thing about the Franklin Parker Preserve is that it used to be all old cranberry bogs. In most of the Batona Trail, we find ourselves weaving through pines and rarely find much change in scenery. This section does become different after a bit when it reaches some of the old bog areas. It follows scenic berms and crosses over very impressive little foot bridges that are 100% constructed from materials found on sight. The centers were braced with stick stanchions, and the bridges themselves were simply the same sized logs over the waterways, with half cut other branches sat on top to make for a good tread walkway. Most would probably walk right over these structures and not think of all of the work that goes into making them work.

Franklin Parker Preserve

The pink blazes remained easy to follow the entire way. Several more bridges took us across more of the wetlands around the former cranberry bogs.
We eventually came to the Rt 563 crossing. I remember thinking this was just a simple sand or back road. I couldn’t tell it was a main road because of all of the snow on it. Municipal road department drove by as we were crossing. These people must have thought we were insane being out there during this weather. We entered the woods on the other side on a wide trail for a bit, and passed along more cranberry areas.

Puncheon in Franklin Parker

One of the most impressive spots on the new trail relocation was a strange swamp area where the trail follows a narrow winding puncheon section. Newcomer David told me about some of the section and how he’d just been on it recently. He’ll be a good resource for stuff in the area as well as Lerch, who has done most everything in the Pine Barrens.
The winding board walk section ended, and soon we were heading across Rt 72. Here, we entered Brendan Byrne State Forest.
The forest is named for a former NJ governor, and used to be called Lebanon State Forest from the Lebanon Glass Works that operated there starting in 1851.

Batona

I’d been hearing a lot from a co workers who used to work at the park; some really fantastic stories including stuff about the former governor who lived there and lots of shenanigans.
We followed the trail into the park and came to an intersection where it said camp sites were to the right, but we continued on through woods ahead. I didn’t think this seemed like the way to go. My plan was to head off of the trail in the state forest on sand roads, through the camp grounds, and then return to the railroad line. Lerch and a couple others went ahead almost as far as Pakim Pond I think, but the rest of us turned back because we were still closer to the camp road. We followed that with the idea we would meet at the campground building.
We followed the road and then turned left into the loop road through the camp grounds were were found a bath house still open. It was heated and nice, so we were able to dry off pretty well. I couldn’t resist the urge to take a hot shower while waiting for the others to show up.

The group in Brendan Byrne

Somehow, Lerch met up with Dan Trump and they got really far ahead of us.
My plan from the park was to follow the Cooper Road to Cooper Road Extension heading to the southeast.
Coope Road is a drivable road, but the Extension really isn’t. It’s now designated a green trail I think it was. After turning onto Cooper Road Extension, which follows an arrow straight route to the southeast, we met up with Lerch’s fast group. Together, we continued on along the trail until we came out to the Savoy Road. This long road goes southwest all the way back to Chatsworth. We turned right to follow this.

CNJ line

I couldn’t resist the urge to get up onto the abandoned railroad. The CNJ tracks were also still in place here. It was a lot more overgrown than where we had first gotten on it, and then got a little easier. The snow was accumulating quite a lot, and we were up to maybe four or five inches, which made walking that much tougher. Varsha had fallen and hurt her knee, and the rest of us were fatigued from fighting through the stuff. Dan Trump, who came to our group because of his shared love for transportation history, was at first the only other interested in joining me on the old railroad bed.

On the Rt 72 bridge

Kevin, who came to the group for the same transportation history reasons, soon joined us up on the railroad as well. After not too long, we reached the old Rt 72 bridge overpass.
The tracks were overgrown on both sides, but on the bridge it remained clear.

Rt 72 rail bridge

Had we tried to continue on the tracks beyon the bride, it would have been a torturous long walk, and quite pointless because the road is directly beside them. The three of us came down to walk Savoy back toward Chatsworth from this point.

Dark Savoy

The road seemed to go on forever. It started to get dark, and I looked over a lot to see the tracks just in the woods along where we were walking.
The group was getting pretty segmented, and Kevin told me he could not feel his feet. This was a big concern. A group of guys in a truck stopped to make sure we were okay, and they were heading the direction we were going. We chatted for a bit, and Rob convinced him that it might be a smart move for him to take the ride back. Even though it wasn’t far, it could make a difference for his feet to get back and warm up faster.
Soon, we got back to the town of Chatsworth. Everything was quiet and dark. Just before town there were a couple of houses on the right. We started talking about food a lot. We’d all worked up an insane appetite.
Fortunately Lerch was already working out where we could go to eat. David confirmed that it was a good place as well, and so we headed just outside of Chatsworth to pig out o delicious burgers and such. Lerch and I shared Quesadilla appetizers, which were amazing.
I was really amazed so many showed up for this despite the weather. It was so much more interesting in the snow, and really a great fun time.