Hike #1066; Rockport to Changewater

Hike #1066; Rockport to Changewater

8/16/17 Rockport to Changewater with Justin Gurbisz, Brittany Audrey, Cupcake (Chris Kroschinski), Karl Franz (Red Sean) Reardon, Celeste Fondaco Martin, Stephen Argentina, and Ken Zaruni.

This next hike would be the next night hike, this time between Changewater and Rockport, because I wanted to try to incorporate another local trail system I’d yet to do, and because I hadn’t done a hike where we swam in Penwell yet for the Summer.

Canal bridge at Cherry Tree Bend

We met at our end point, which was the site of the Changewater Trestle on the old Lackawanna Railroad main line, and then shuttled to our start point, at part of Rockport Wildlife Management Area across from the Rockport Church, near the intersection with Washburn Road. Brittany and Cupcake met us there
We started walking rather quickly, parallel with the historic route of the Morris Canal along Rockport Road heading to the west. We turned to the left on Cherry Tree Bend Road, which is a splendid, lesser used road that sort of parallels the canal a bit. Just before that I pointed out the old mill wheels from the Penwell mill that Don Mayberry had pointed out to us on the last canal hike through here.

Canal access trail

There was something odd about our trip along Cherry Tree Bend, but I can’t remember quite what it was. Certainly people would be wondering what we were doing. I seem to recall talking to an older couple who were walking the opposite direction from us along the way.
We continued until we got to the access trail to the left, which leads down hill to the Morris Canal and towpath, using a nice little wooden foot bridge to get there. This section is known as the Dennis Bertland Heritage Area. Mr. Bertland is author of an historic architecture of Warren County book among other things, which I grew up reading. When I was in early elementary school, I remember filling out the cards, and when my brothers went through the same school, my name was still the last to have checked it out. In the case of my youngest brother, that was over ten years later.

Morris Canal towpath nearing Port Murray

When this section of the Morris Canal Greenway was dedicated, Mr. Bertland was present, and I was in attendance. I had the pleasure of doing a radio interview in which I mentioned the book I used to check out in that.
We turned right on the canal towpath and followed it to the east for a while until we came to where there used to be a house, which was demolished, then two more that are still there. There is a large canal basin still watered at this point, and then the canal is filled in, the towpath used as their driveways. We continued from here to the east, and soon reached Port Murray Road.

Basin in Port Murray

At the road, we reached the old Port Murray canal store, which is now a provate residence, but retains almost all of it’s historic integrity. I pointed out to everyone where the doorway was that they could load and unload goods directly from the canal boats to the store and vice versa.
From there, we turned to the left on Port Murray Road. Ahead of us was the Harry Pool property. Mr. Pool was a good friend of my grandfather’s, but he passed away in recent years and his estate was a major problem. He has an extant and lovely section of the canal and towpath, but it’s become a problem to try to get it as public land.

Historic image of the canal store in Port Murray

It’s looking like the county is getting closer to purchasing he pool tract, but even if they do we would probably still have to do the road walk anyway.
It wasn’t too long before we reached Mayberry Sales, and I figured I couldn’t walk by without stopping to say hello to our friend Don Mayberry.

Port Murray Canal Store.

I went into the store and chatted with Don a bit, and we of course got talking about history. He said “Oh wait, here let me show you something...”.
He led me out the back door, and pointed out a culvert in the back that went under the former Morris and Essex, later Lackawanna Railroad. He said this was the original main road into Port Murray! I was blown away because I had thought the current route was always it.

Don Mayberry with the old culvert

He mentioned that a railroad guy was out to inspect it, and that he dated it at 1858. That would make perfect sense, because originally Morris and Essex Railroad was planning on building through the Delaware Water Gap, and had reached Hackettstown around 1853.

1858 culvert

The Warren Railroad got their plans approved first, and built the line through to the Water Gap in 1856, and so Morris and Essex had to change their plans. They opted instead to build to Phillipsburg to connect with lines out there. The construction date year of the culvert is spot on. Morris and Essex became part of the Lackawanna system soon after.

Old stairs

Don pointed out a few other historic sites there, including an old pair of steps that go down to the old roadway, and where there used to be a coal siding from the tracks just to the east of where we were standing, now long gone.
The road through the back of this place must not have been used for all that long through the culvert, probably because it is kind of small. Maps from the 1880s show that the road was sent off to the current access road, and do not acknowledge that the culvert was there. Today, the old road is now the access road to the Columbia II junkyard off of Route 57, and then part of the Mansfield Twp. park.

1888 map s howing the old road to Port Murray

Don told us he didn’t mind if we headed down through the culvert to get to the park land, and so we changed our route to head down and check it out. The stone work was in really pretty good shape.
It’s an interesting point that Warren County was looking for access to these properties, but Norfolk Southern, who own the railroad today, would not allow us to have a trail go under one of their stream culverts, so we turned down one of the acquisitions.

The culvert

The discovery of this old road culvert could be a game changer when it comes to properties on the other side of the rail line, because it’s probably still a paper street.
On the other side, we turned to the right further into township land. To the right of us was the old creamery site and tile factory. I remember these buildings standing when I was little.

Abandoned in Port Murray

My brothers and I used to go in them while out exploring with my grandfather. Today, there is one abandoned building still standing back there, but the buildings along the tracks are long since demolished.
Red Sean and Stephen were both to join us at about this point. I thought we’d meet them in the lot of the post office, which was closed by this hour, and then we’d just meet them there, but the old road Don showed us changed our course a bit more. I talked to both of them, and directed them on how to get to us. We waited around a bit, and soon they came running from behind the foundations.

Lenny with his new puppy in Port Murray

We got walking along the trail system in the Mansfield Township Park from here, to the left of where we were before. The trail goes a bit down hill along field edges, and then enters a section of woods. It then picks up the right of way of the old road Don was telling us about and follows it for a time. When we got to the bend in the road, a figure with a little puppy appeared walking toward us. It didn’t take too long after he was in sight to see who it was. It was my old pal Lenny Hengst, the farmer I worked for in high school!
I had met Lenny randomly before ever working with him. My old friend Andrew Hughes lived a few houses down from him years ago, and one day I was visiting Andrew, and we decided to go visit people. He said “Let’s go over Lenny’s house”. I was expecting it to be some kid my age or younger, and it turned out to be Lenny, who at the time was in his forties. We ended up hanging out and watching MTV with him with non stop hilarious commentary.
When the Summer of 1996 rolled around, and I didn’t have a job, Andrew called me up and asked me about hauling hay with Lenny. It sounded like a great time, so I went for it and worked the whole Summer of both ‘96 and ‘97 on the Hengst Farm, and even a little in ‘98. The world got even smaller for me when I found out that my fifth and sixth grade teacher, Linda Watters, was Lenny’s sister. I’d been hearing stories about Lenny and his family through two years of elementary school starting when I was only ten years old.

Port Murray with a view of Point Mountain

I had to stop and chat with Lenny for a bit. It had been a long time since I’d seen him. When I lived in Port Colden, Lenny would drive by between fields he worked, and if I was heading out to work or getting home, he’d often be going by and we’d chat a few moments.
Lenny mentioned something about working with his dad recently, and I realized that I was working on the farm on the day of old Ray Hengst’s 69th birthday...and that was twenty years ago! Sure enough, Lenny’s father is about to turn ninety, and he’s still driving the farm equipment around like it’s nothing. Farming really keeps you young.

Highway taxes at work...

I said goodbye to Lenny and we continued on the trail around the outsides of the fields, and then made our way past the police station to the elementary school property. When we got back out by Port Murray Road, Lenny went by us in his truck and shouted something silly at us I don’t remember.
When we reached Rt 57, we turned right for a bit. There was a humorous broken highway taxes at work sign alongside the road that merited a photo. We continued past the old Anderson Hotel, built in I think 1795.

Wattles driveway

We turned to the left on Asbury-Anderson Road for not too long. After a section of fields we turned to the left on the driveway of the Wattles Stewardship Center, part of the NJ Audubon Society.
This property had been there for quite some time, and I had gone back to look around with Jillane once, but for some odd reason I have never gotten around to incorporating this into any of my hikes. It seems kind of shameful since Point Mountain, right across the river, is pretty much my favorite park, and the site of my first hike at the age of three.
We headed down the driveway to the parking area, where there was an old stone house.

Old stone house at Wattles center

The house was quite beautiful, but we didn’t approach it because someone lives there. To the right of it was a spring kitchen or spring house, also masonry and in pretty good shape. I didn’t want to hang out too long, and I’m not sure on their pet policy, and Celeste had Benny, so we kept on going ahead.
Our next turn was to go to the right onto their trail system, which was at the end of the parking lot heading along the edges of the fields to the right. We first followed a bit of field edge, and then cut into a section of woods on what appeared to be an old farm access road, and headed gradually down hill a bit.

Old spring kitchen

The trails were very well mowed, probably with a zero turn mower. We got down to the bottom of a field section and turned to the left, onward toward the Musconetcong River. The trail took us out to a very nice outlook spot on the river across from an area of cultivated fields, but the trail just dead ended. There was nowhere else fo rus to go except back to the parking area we had started in, unless we went in the wrong direction from where we needed.
We had to turn around and go all the way back we came, on the mowed path and back out to the parking area. We then looked around for the next trail going in the direction we wanted.

Wattles trail

We eventually found the way we were looking for, and continued on ahead, toward the river once more.
This time, the trail did not dead end. It turned left along the river, through a section of woods as well as along the perimeters of fields. This was a very beautiful section I was thankful to see. Unfortunately, the trail does not yet officially connect with the fish and game property or with Point Mountain. I watched the aerial images on my phone to where the trail turns up hill through more of the Audubon property, and we bushwhacked down stream along the Musconetcong.

One of the Wattles trails

I fought through the underbrush for a bit along the river, and it was manageable for a time, but then started getting bad. I opted to just get in the river and start wading up stream. Ken followed me immediately, and some of the others in the group just after that. A few intrepid ones stayed up to fight through along the trail.
we soon approached the Point Mountain Bridge. Everyone was mostly behind me, so I took my shirt off and jumped into the river at the bridge, which is a nice deep spot since they moved all of the stone out as part of a river restoration project.
The old pony truss bridge is still scheduled to be demolished, and replaced with a new atrocity, but work hasn’t yet begun on that.
From t here, we continued on across the bridge, or simply out of the water, depending which route we took, and got on the orange blazed Ridge Trail at up Point Mountain.

Musconetcong at Point Mountain

Point Mountain is really a rather steep climb, to 934 feet above sea level. I love climbing it and seeing the paint blazes I put up in 2008 and 9 still holding up well while the plastic logos have had to be replaced several times. In some cases they were never replaced.
We made our way up Point Mountain and reached the overlook well before the sun was set, which is a great time to take in the overlook. It’s a great time to take in the view, and really the only time you can read the graffiti by a guy named Armstrong from the early 1900s on the rock in shallow etchings.

Point Mountain

We enjoyed the overlook for a bit, then moved on along the ridge trail, past the intersection with the yellow trail, which is the short one down to the pull off parking on Point Mountain Road.
The route along the ridge was really pretty easy to follow despite it being dusk. We continued along as it descended from the ridge briefly, then climbed again to the top heading east. I waited up for everyone at the intersections to make sure no one went the wrong way.
It wasn’t long before we reached the intersection with the woods road that goes to Camp Bernie, where the orange blazes turn left down the hill toward the fields.

Point Mountain. Graffiti there keeps getting worse.

When we reached the fields, we kept to the right, heading out toward Penwell. It was a really beautiful spot to be at that moment. When everyone was back together, we headed down the drive toward Penwell Road.

Red Sean on the point

While we were walking in the fields, we were discussing how great it would be to have some pizza. I suppose everyone was pretty hungry, and we’ve ordered pizza and had it delivered to the trail or something like that in the past (the first time we’d ever talked about it was November of 2005 but didn’t go through with it).
I figured Dicola’s in Washington would probably do it. I’ve been ordering stuff there for over thirty years, so I’d be awfully surprised if they didn’t. I called them immediately to see if we could work something out for a delivery to Penwell.

PIZZA

A girl who’s voice I did not recognize answered the phone. I asked if Ro was in, because she’s been working there since I was little and I figured I’d be most likely to be appeased from her.
Ro got on and first said they didn’t deliver this far, and then she talked to someone else who said we did.
I gave exactly where we could meet the delivery person, and we ordered two pies; one with mushrooms, one with garlic. We then moved down the road to the Penwell Road bridge over the Musconetcong River. I walked across on the old gas line route which is parallel with the road bridge and stood on it chatting with Cupcake till the driver arrived.

Pizza fire!

The guy showed up and I gave all the cash I had on me. I think Red Sean covered most of the expense, or Cupcake, or both, I can’t quite recall. We carried the pizzas off the bridge and turned right on the abandoned old Penwell Road that was cut off in the 1990s. It used to turn back to Rt 57, and is actually the earlier main route.
We sat down on the pavement out near the water, just before getting to the rope sing, and dug into the pizza. It was absolutely amazing. The garlic slices in particular really hit the spot this time.
We didn’t give much thought what we were going to do with the boxes when we were done, just that we were hungry and wanted food! I think Justin had the big torch lighter thing, and we decided to just light them up and have a pizza box camp fire!

Pizza box camp fire

We had a nice time warming up by the fire; I even went and jumped off the rope swing a couple of times before we moved on. I don’t recall anyone else doing it this time because they said it was too cold, but I was glad I went in. I felt much fresher.
Someone put a log on the box so it burned for just a bit longer, and by the time we left, the box was just a tiny pile of cinders. We headed from here back the way we came to what used to be the Rosen Farm, and took the blue blazed trail through the fields, past where we came from, then down along the Musconetcong River.

Historic image of Point Mountain Mill

It’s a really beautiful and secluded section, and one of my favorite places in New Jersey in fact. The river is rocky and has some nice deep spots. We headed on along the river to the Point Mountain Bridge again, and I pointed out the old mill site.

The mill and dam site today

Pidcock-Skinner Grist Mill it was called, and very little remains of it today. Historian Doug Kiovsky told me that the remains of the mill foundation had been bulldozed in long ago. There is however a foundation of a house out behind where the mill used to be.

View of the dam and a homestead on the north side of the Musconetcong at Point Mountain

There was also once a house on the other side of the river from the site. When the leaves are off the trees, it’s possible to see the framework of that old house on the other side.

Looking at the back of the old mill

We continued past the mill site to the bridge again where we turned to the left. It’s amazing that someone once farmed this area and had cows wandering among the boulders. If I didn’t have photographic evidence, no one would believe it.

The farm site today

We turned left here on Point Mountain Road, and then veered to the right on River Road when Point Mountain Road started going up the hill. It wasn’t too long from here till we passed the house where my dad’s side of the family grew up.
Stephen decided he was going to walk back to his car, because it was similar distance to the end or to his car, and Red Sean decided to go with him. Soon, Justin and Brittany opted to do the same thing, leaving only the few of us left to finish.

My mom in eighth grade

My dad lived in the house in the woodlands near the intersection of Mountaintop Road, and my mom lived at the other end of Mountaintop Road where my grandfather lives now. The entire area has a lot of personal history for me. The route of Mountaintop Road from my grandfather’s house to the Point Mountain bridge was my very first substantial hike when I was three years old, so we were walking a small part of that. Ironically, my work buddy Darryl brought in an old yearbook which had my mom’s eighth grade picture in it just this same week.
We walked past the house and Mountaintop Road, and then continued on along River Road, soon to pass Mowder Hill Road which went down into Butler Park.
Butler Park was in it’s day a very popular amusement park on the shore of the Musconetcong River from 1929 until 1953. When I was little I remember seeing the base of the carousel.

1920s view of Butler Park parking!

The park had amusement rides, and a popular picnic grove. They even had a ferry called the Robert E. Lee that brought people across the Musconetcong River.

Butler Park with the Robert E. Lee boat, Aug 16, 1933...amazingly the same date as our hike!

The Herschell-Spillman Carousel at Butler Park was a mainstay at the park, and in the later years it was altered from horses to other rides and such.

June 11th 1932, Butler Park

Today, the road that used to cut over from Mowder Hill Road back to River Road through Butler Park is so overgrown and pitted that no one can drive it any more. The NJ Department of Fish, Game, and Wildlife took it over and stopped maintaining.

Historic Butler Park postcard

I used to drive the old road past the park site the first few years after I got my driver’s license. It was still a dirt road. Last year, I was feeling reminiscent, and so I headed to drive down the road, and I could not get through.
We didn’t try to walk that section this time either, and instead just remained on River Road heading west.
We walked by Darryl’s house, and it was late so I didn’t want to bother him. Barely any cars went by the entire stretch we were walking, which was nice. We passed Deery Run Road, followed by Forge Hill Road, and soon reached the site of the Changewater Trestle where we we parked at the site of the old graphite mill, which was torn down in the 1990s also.

Historic image of the graphite mill at Changewater. Only the block portion to the right still stood in my life time.

This was really a great fun night with a lot of old memories for me to share, and there were even some places I’d never been despite the fact that it’s so close to home. The relaxing pizza campfire was both relaxing and epic. This is how Summer nights should be spent.

Kitties