8/19/17 Flanders to Mt. Olive Station with James Quinn, Karl Franz (Red Sean) Reardon, Brittany Audrey, Sarah Jones, Jonathan Wilson, April Hamilton, Ken Zaruni, Jim Dolan, Gina Zuvich, Leena Beenah, Marc Gersh, K, Kevin Gondek, and Anthony Auriemma.
Our next trip would be a point to point between Flanders and Mt. Olive train station I’d put together, using a lot of stuff I’d never done before. I was quite excited for this one, and it went absolutely great save for the very end of it, which was the toughest night hike stuff I’d done in years, and very frustrating.
Rocky ascent
After meeting at Mt. Olive train station, we shuttled to Flanders, where we parked at the strip mall across from the golf place on Rt 206. I’d used this location a few times now, and figured it worked out for timing to do these hikes, so why not do more.
I thought the first part of the hike would be the toughest. We walked from the parking lot through some weeds to an upper level parking lot where there’s a dentistry place and such, accessible via a separate roadway. Not everyone followed me up through the mess, some went out to 206 and walked that way to make it easier.
Once we were in the lot, we headed direct across and into the woods. There was only a little scrubby undergrowth, mostly pretty easy to walk.
Old road crossing a stream above Flanders
We made our way over to a small stream which had a very rocky bottom going up the hillside to the north. I decided to try to follow that. I wanted to know if there were waterfalls or something on them, but it soon was obvious there weren’t. We only followed it up hill a bit, until we go tto where a road used to cross over it. The grading for the crossing was rather obvious. From that point, we turned to the left to follow the woods road, which gradually ascended a bit to the west, away from the stream a bit.
The woods road led us up hill to a rather level and open area that had been used for a camp site for a number of years, probably by farm kids or something.
Little camp area
I checked the aerial images on my GPS to be sure of where we were going. There were orange ribbons flagging a route up there I can only assume will be part of a trail system in the near future. The area is shown on maps as public land, known as Silver Spring Farm.
There was apparently a French restaurant on the property, and the land was sold for either a park, or the development rights were bought. I’m not sure what. I think it was some time ago, and I just never got to checking it out until this trip.
Silver Spring Farm
I figured we’d follow the edges of one of the fields, and my plan was to come out near the corner of the property on Flanders-Drakestown Road across from Theresa Drive. This was the first mishap of the hike, because it ended up being a bit harder than anticipated.
We followed a long section of field to the north, which had corn growing rather closely right to the edges. From time to time, we had to actually get into the corn rows to walk, which was really itchy. We turned right at the north side, and headed to the east. By the time we got to the east side of the field, I figured we’d cut through the tree line to get to the next.
This was not an easy endeavor. We went into the weeds, and I got to a mess of brush that was impenetrable even for me. I could have forced my way through it, but not without a rather serious mutiny. We went back out and headed south along the other side of the field.
Silver Spring Farm
We made our way south to where there was another cut through to the next field. We turned left and got to another field we had to go around. I saw a way out of this one, so we went right across and through to the next field, then skirted the following one to the left I recall. When I didn’t see a way through, I cut through a section of woods, but Brittany saw a better through route to the south of me, and most the group followed her that way.
We skirted to the north of the last bit of fields, which took us out to Flanders-Drakestown Road, with only a short woodsy bushwack. The orange ribbons in the trees resumed just before the road, and I could see where they intend for the trail to go. We’d have had an easier time if we’d just have tried to follow those, so now I know for next time.
We came out onto the road, and crossed to Theresa Drive, a development road. We continue to Victoria Drive and turned left, then right on Corey Road. Shortly, we went left on Schoolhouse Lane.
Schoolhouse Lane was where we had inadvertently come out on one of the last Mt. Olive hikes. The trail emerges from the area of Maiers Pond. I didn’t know it at the time, but the trail goes across the other side, and skirts Mt. Olive High School. When everyone was back together, we crossed on that trail and emerged behind the high school.
We continued from here behind the ball fields and such, and then cut into the woods to the left on the Turkey Brook Trail system. At first, it followed a woods road straight ahead.
Turkey Brook
When the Turkey Brook Trail itself turned to the left, we followed it down to the edge of the namesake stream. This is a really beautiful one, as the small creek meanders a bit in a wide flood plain. We continued to follow it to where it spills into Maiers Pond.
The trail led us out to the white blazed trail, which is the main through route, and we all turned left for a side trip to Maiers Pond itself. It was pretty hot out, and there was no one around, so we went for a dip in the pond. It felt outstanding.
August was turning out to be cooler than normal, and there were cold spots out in the water, and then very warm ones.
Approach to Maiers Pond
After we were all refreshed, we got out and got back on the white trail, which follows a section of the access road up hill to the main part of Turkey Brook Park. When the white blazes turned right, we continued up hill, because this time we would do a different route and follow the more open park area to change it up from the previous trip.
We reached the open field area, and there were giant piles of gravel and such. I remembered when there was construction going on up there, and there was no vegetation on the hills, which would have been around 2010.
Maiers Pond
We continued around the outside and came to a nice section of road that went into a wooded section to the east of the ball fields. It was in this area that the white blazes came back out of the woods to join the road. We continued ahead to a construction area.
Maiers Pond
There was a large building, probably a Morton Building, being built at the edge of the park, probably for a new maintenance facility. I was surprised they didn’t have any signs saying to stay away from it. We just walked right on through the thing and checked out the work they were doing.
The building is very large. It will be an impressive place to store and work on equipment. I wonder if it’s really just a park building or maybe a new municipal road department building, base on it’s size.
The group paused in this area to use a restroom before moving on. Red Sean met us in this area as well, and parked on a side road across the street from Turkey Brook Park.
From this point, the trail comes out to Flanders Road by Elias Drive. We turned right on the road, left on Elias Drive, then back into the woods heading north. It goes through the developer’s incentive property which has a few little loop trails mowed into it, and then enters wider woods. The trail is never too far from development, but it has the feeling of extreme seclusion, so it’s a really special area. The second growth forests are beautiful, with a bed of hay ferns all along the forest floor. We still had a good amount of daylight left, so we could see just fine walking through this stretch still.
Hay ferns
We stopped at one of the lovely wooded sections to get a group photo. Leena and Marc didn’t realize how long we’d be going for, and decided they were going to try to cut out some time soon.
We continued to the north, past a few other trail junctions, and in not too long we reached the trailhead on Gold Mine Road.
I had walked this section several times before, but since those times, the trail had been extended north all the way to Rt 46. I absolutely had to see this section, which is one of the reasons I scheduled this hike.
The group
Anthony was plum tuckered out, and so he decided to get a ride out also when we got to Gold Mine Road. Everyone else continued on ahead for the stretch out toward Rt 46.
The trail went through pleasant woods at first, but then skirted an absolutely lovely section of swampland that I had no idea was out there.
We followed the edge of the wetlands, and at times the trail skirted the muddiness of it very closely. The sun was starting to go down, so there was an eerie look about it that was quite amazing. We continued on past this, and soon the trail emerged from the woods at Old Budd Lake Road. Marc, Leena, and her daughter all left us at this point, which was a good stop since we were to go over and get some dinner at Dino’s Pizza.
The lovely wetland
We walked to the left onto 46, then into the parking lot by the Home Goods store, past it over to Dino’s where we got some food. We hung out here for a bit before moving on, and got some more drinks as I recall. I was pretty tired, but handled it alright.
Lovely wetland
I was originally planning to cut into the woods to go to the west out of this area, but then it was getting far too dark and I didn’t want to chance another bushwhack. We instead followed 46 the short distance to Woodland Road and turned right. It was a very pleasant back road, and hardly any cars went by us at all.
We continued when we got to Waterloo Road, as it’s shown on google maps, and at a conrer it becomes Lozier Road. We turned left there, and everything was going well. We continued to Fire Tower Road where we turned to the left heading north, where we’d get on the trail system.
Lovely wetlands
It was getting really dark at this point, and I really wanted to go for a swim, so I figured we’d try to take the easiest way we could on down into the valley.
When we reached the entrance area, I decided we could cut the corner by going left on the power line clearing. I was thinking to follow the back roads to Station Road, which would have gotten us to the woods, but that woudl have been out and around a bit. We could have also gone further into the woods on the trails, but that was less direct. The power line was much easier and quicker. We took this and got to Station Road, then turned to the left.
Mt. Olive trail
We turned left on the second turn on white, and then continued to the right on another trail at some point. Because the next section was such a mess, it comes as a sort of blue to me.
At some point, I was following my phone GPS, and we were getting pretty close to Waterloo Valley Road and the railroad tracks. The trails in this section are mountain biking ones, and they are a menagerie of turns all caked into a tight area. I figured we’d cut a corner and just get down to the road as quick as we could. Unfortunately, this did not work as planned.
We went down hill steeply, which was really tough. Red Sean slipped and hurt his leg.
Wetlands!
At some point on the way down, we came across an obvious old woods road, but it became overgrown in short order when we tried to follow it to the east. We ended up going back down hill further from there.
Eventually, we were close to the railroad tracks, but too far from the turn in Waterloo Valley Road where it crossed them. We went to the west a bit, but the weeds were getting too thick. It was just too hard to keep everyone together, and we were all miserable fighting through these weeds. Every time I thought we’d be out quickly, we were in another wall of thorns. We tried to go out by way of a wet stream area, but that didn’t pan out and we came to more briars. A side trail that was supposed to lead to the road as per the maps actually did not exist, and we were certainly in the right place because we were using a trail conference map with GPS.
We eventually did find our way onto a trail, which came very close to the railroad tracks, but then weaved away. When we got to where the GPS showed we were closest to the tracks, I decided to bushwhack it straight on to it. I still wanted to go swimming, but no one else was going to be into it after this.
The relief I felt being out on the tracks was beyond compare. This had been the worst bushwhacking debacle I’d had on a night hike in years. Probably the worst since around 2005.
I must say that every participant on this hike was a GREAT sport. I can’t believe we didn’t have more bellyaching from everyone, because it was THAT bad. I could see newcomers never wanting to come out with me again after the difficulty of this near end section.
We just stayed on the tracks back to the Mt. Olive station, which went by kind of quick.
Red Sean and I were feeling just about toasted and we both layed down on the grass next to a curb when we got to the lot. I think I recall someone saying goodbye to me there.
A M'ke and Red Sean tradition
I woke up some time later, probably by two or so hours, and looked around to see no cars other than mine. I looked to my right to see Red Sean, looking almost dead. I yelled out “Sean!!! It happened again!”
Sean opened his eyes, “What what?” he said. We had to get out of there before someone came and tried to take us to a hospital!
I got Sean back to his car to finish the night. Fortunately, the mess of this hike wasn’t enough to scare people from ever attending again. I’d still rather deal with natural problems than drama from people, and everything has been pretty good in that regard. I don’t think I’ll make any attemps at doing any north Mt. Olive area stuff after dark again!
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