Hike #1028; Tranquility to Oxford

Hike #1028; Tranquility to Oxford

4/12/17 Tranquility to Oxford with Rob Gearhardt, Jason W. Briggs, Sue Bennett, Richard Kowal, and Jennifer Berndt

This next one would be another point to point, a repeat of another old one I’d been doing since 2000, and hiking sections with my grandfather since before even then.
It was an easy thing to put on the schedule; I had done it already once this year, but the weeds wouldn’t bee too thick yet, and most signed up had not done it yet. I also didn’t know where I’d be transferred to with work.

Historic image of Tranquility Station

I’d been in limbo for months, and it just keeps continuing. Even after a state EEOC recommendation letter, I’d still been stuck in the mess at Spruce Run. The counselor I’d been instructed to see by the state via EEOC said that this was the first case she had ever seen of the state snubbing an EEOC letter.

The LHR line in Tranquility

With my stress level high, one of the only things going for me to keep through it was the fact that I can do a hike somewhat closer to home without the stress of a late night drive.
After meeting in Oxford, we shuttled and parked at the Tranquility Post Office, which was where the Lehigh and Hudson River Railway station used to be for that settlement, in Green Township.
We simply started walking from there on the railroad bed to the south. We had to weave back and forth between small trees a bit, until there was an ATV access from the Tranquility Farms properties, but it went by pretty quickly.

LHR line in Allamuchy Twp.

After the main farm crossing, it was pretty easy. We continued through a wooded section, and passed by a junk dump. We joked about how it looked like someone was looking for a place to dump off the remnants of an old chimney.
We continued south for a little while longer, then came out to the crossing and the old Allamuchy Freight Station. There was once a passenger station at this same site, but it’s long since been demolished. The current station is now in good shape, having been restored with funds from both the Warren County Municipal and Charitable Conservancy Trust as well as the state of New Jersey.

The former Allamuchy Passenger Station

This was the site that Roosevelt would park the Presidential trail when he stopped to visit Lucy Mercer Rutherford nearby at Rutherford Hall.

Allamuchy Freight Station, June 1963

When we had the Land Preservation Day at Rutherford Hall, Guy Rutherford told some stories, and he mentioned one about when he was little, one of his friends knocked out his front teeth, so Roosevelt took Guy and his friend for a ride in his Model T (or A? I forget) Ford.

Historic map of Lehigh and Hudson line

We continued past the station and through a section with adjacent fields and woods. The path narrowed for a bit in this section and we crossed over the first major tributary to the Pequest River.

LHR reaching Long Bridge

I always point out to everyone how we will see the Pequest River gradually grow from this point of the hike onward. It continues to get bigger, and outgrows the closed deck bridges for open deck girder spans.
Soon after crossing, we continued out to Long Bridge Road, another former station stop I believe. Here, Jen met up with us and parked her car off of the road at the pull off. There’s a giant lot at this point, but now parking is not allowed in case the fire trucks need to get in to get water out of the Pequest River. We continued on from here and crossed the Pequest on the next concrete, closed deck bridge.

Crossing at Long Bridge

There is still a signal post at the road crossing in Long Bridge, surprisingly.
From that point, and after the bridge, it was necessary to leave the railroad bed because it gets so badly overgrown. We were forced to go to the west a bit, out into a field, and then regained the railroad bed at the double underpasses which carried the line under Interstate 80.
We continued from here past some farm lands, and then past the new trail connection that goes toward the Allamuchy Municipal Building. This will be part of the Warren Highlands Trail eventually.

1946 view of the LHR in Allamuchy NJ

I still can’t believe how deteriorated this line is for having only been torn up in 1986. Lines that were abandoned in the sixties have paths on the right of ways in far better shape.

LHR line at Alphano

We passed by the parking area and ball fields near the new development and municipal buildings, then continued onward to the very open sod farms of Alphano.
I’m not sure if there was ever an Alphano station, or if it was just a flag stop. It’s one of those place names that’s sort of gotten lost to Allamuchy. It’s one of my favorite places on the entire line, because it’s completely open. Most railroad rights of way end up getting grown over, or end up in a line of trees adjacent to farm lands, but not here. This is an expanse of sod, with amazing views in both directions.
We continued across the next road, and then skirted fields only on the left, with woods on the right. Beyond, there is a superfund site to the right, and we crossed a beat up wooden bridge over an irrigation canal.

Pequest View in Great Meadows

The rail bed entered woods, and we continued over a driveway crossing ahead called Nykun Lane. Beyond that, we were simply in woods or parallel with fields all the way to Great Meadows. When we reached the state land access, we turned left there as not to have a problem. The state should own to the center of the next bridge over the Pequest, another concrete closed deck one, but beyond is a private bit. There was someone standing in their back yard looking at us, so rather than chance having a problem we went out to the road.

Historic image of Great Meadows Station

We took Alphano Road just out to Rt 46, crossed, and then headed down the road to the old Great Meadows Station, now well cared for as the home to Pequest Engineering. They’re also restoring a couple of old rail cars.

Historic image of the Great Meadows Station

When the tracks were removed in 1986, the owners of the station fought to have the section of track in town left in for ambiance, and amazingly won.

Great Meadows Station today

We got on the tracks and started following them parallel with Rt 46 to the west for a bit. For a time, they were all overgrown, but are now all well cleared enough to walk. We followed them to the next access road by the cemetery and turned right to make a pit stop.

Historic sixties image of Great Meadows station

We headed across the old cemetery and church yard, and out to Rt 46 a short distance to Nykun’s Store, my favorite little local general store and liquor store. It’s kind of a hole in the wall of a liquor store, but a great one because they carry so much strange stuff. I always try to show the place to people because it’s so interesting, and they make outstanding food.

LHR line in Great Meadows

While I was buying my stuff in the store, up walks my friend Tommy Ackerman! I hadn’t seen him in a while, and so we chatted for a bit inside and outside before he had to head out. He was now living in a different area, but still hung around locally. For a time, he lived in Townsbury, just down the road from where Jillane and I used to live.
We made our way from here back to the old railroad bed, but could not continue on it directly from the cemetery road. It gets far too overgrown these days to be able to follow it in the dark. Instead, we walked in the clear grassy field below, which is supposed to become part of the cemetery in the near future.

Old telltale

We walked through the fields for a bit, and I tried to figure out how to get everyone back to the rail bed. The spring peepers were very audible at this time I recall, and it was a very wet area. the field we ended up in was not the correct spot, so we had to backtrack in order to get back over to the railroad bed.
Once on it, we were clear to walk west. We left it once more at a field near a quarry property, but regained it again at the end. I mentioned to everyone that there is a telltale in this area, which is a very rare thing to find these days. I also noted that I can almost never find it. I always walk right on by it. This time, to my own amazement, I spotted it right away.
Telltales were used as a warning device for overhead clearance, and this one must have been for the Rt 46 bridge. When the railroad was first built, the predecessor to Rt 46 crossed the rails at grade. Too may car versus train accidents occurred so the bridge was built.
We got closer to Townsbury, which was almost a regular station stop, but a bitter rivalry with the town of Danville played a major part in the local history. Each town wanted a station, but Lehigh and Hudson River Railway was only willing to give one of the towns a stop. The rivalry was too much, and so LHR basically said “screw you both” and put the station smack dab between the two towns and simply called it “Great Meadows”. In the end, Danville was the victor because they changed their name to Great Meadows, thereby annexing the new station to their town. Today, only nearby Danville Mountain harkens back to the original name.

Bridge near Townsbury

Next, we crossed the first girder bridge over the Pequest. This was an open deck girder, with holes between the ties. Most took this one very slow as not to slip.
Once we were across, the route got far easier as we made our way along a low shelf out to the crossing of Pequest Road at Townsbury.
I pointed out to everyone where I used to live, and we moved on across the street in the section cleared as a trail in Pequest Wildlife Management Area. It was getting darker, but we were fine. We crossed the driveway with the weird signs along it, then continued on through woods until we crossed the Pequest yet another time, this time on a fully decked rail trail bridge.

Historic Oxford Furnace area scene

We continued easily to the west, across the access to the Pequest Trout Hatchery, and then past the site of the Pequest Furnace, now long gone. We crossed the through girder bridge over the Pequest here, then turned left onto the ATV path which goes under, then climbs up onto the old Furnace Railroad right of way. This took us just beyond to the old Lackawanna Railroad main.
We followed the old Lackawanna out across Pequest Road, then the paved pathway to the south. The path is first paralell with, then on the rail bed, then down to Lower Denmark Road where it goes to private land.
As we were walking, two guys were in a back yard nearby. One hollered at us saying that the path closes at dark. I told him not to worry about it, it was a full moon hike. The guy started yelling louder “I DON’T CARE WHAT THE F*** IT IS”. He was clearly drunk and wanted a fight, so I didn’t respond back and we kept on walking onward.

Historic Oxford Furnace image, likely 1890s

By the time we got to the former station site, we heard an engine revving heavily. The guy had gotten in his big white truck and started heading toward us at probably sixty miles per hour. He expelled some heavy exhaust on us as he went flying by, and nearly hit a couple of us. I was ready to beat the guy down if he tried something again.
I could hear him reach the end of the road and turn around, and then came flying back to make a second pass. As he went speeding by I flipped him off. He stopped as quickly as he could just past us, and then backed up. Rob was in the back of the group, and he didn’t make any kind of gesture, but the guy stopped to yell at him. I turned around and started walking back, but he didn’t have anything to say to any of the rest of us, and sped ahead again. I was about ready to call the police on this aggressive jerk off, but no one really wanted me to push it that far, so I didn’t. We were soon at the intersection anyway, and we turned right across the ball fields, then across 31.

1895 poscard view of Oxford

We were parked behind the businesses there, sort of out of sight of everyone.
As we reached the parking area out of sight from the buildings on the main drag, I heard the idiot’s truck revving up at the traffic light, then heading along Rt 31 north. Clearly, he was out looking for us again to taunt further.
Part of me almost wanted to see how far he would try to go, but it was smarter to just avoid any mess and head out. Apart from the drunk guy in Oxford at the end, it was overall a really good and relaxing hike in an area I’ve come to know and love.
I held off on making plans for the upcoming hikes because of potential scheduling plans, but had plenty of good ones in the works just ready to be posted at any time.