Hike #1070; Phillipsburg Mall to Riegelsville

Hike #1070; Phillipsburg Mall to Riegelsville

8/30/17 Phillipsburg Mall to Riegelsville with Jason W. Briggs, Shane Blische, Joe Tag, Kevin Gondek, Red Sean (Karl Franz) Reardon and Dan Asnis
Historic dissertation from Shane in italics.

Our next hike would be another point to point, this time in the area between Phillipsburg, Alpha, and Riegelsville. The idea for the hike came about years ago because I loved the little back roads around Still Valley and the old Jersey Central Railroad line, and I only ever posted a hike on those roads once in 2004.

At P Burg Mall

I had recently gotten a ticket for my break light being out (I didn’t have the Metrotrails signage on my car yet either), and had to get to the township office to pay it, which was just down alongside the Pohatcong Creek. I found myself driving around after the payment was made reminiscing.
I noted that near the double arched stone culvert in Still Valley, there were some big fat women swimming in the water. It was deep, and I wasn’t going to pester them, but I knew I wanted to come back, and that this should be incorporated into one of the upcoming night hikes before the weather starts getting too cold.
I decided to start the hike at Phillipsburg Mall again, and go to Spin Me Round looking for books and music. My friend Stephanie Nagy owns it, and she has found some outstanding history books for me in the past, so I try to check the inventory from time to time.
Sure enough, we got in there, and I found a great one to add to my collection, which was an overview of eastern rail lines. It goes for something like forty bucks new, and it was in great shape.
While walking through the mall, Shane, Dan, and Kevin were talking loudly about some sort of craziness. I walked up front with Jason, trying not to laugh at how silly they were being. I don’t remember the argument, but Shane was making some point and Dan was disagreeing loudly. We continued straight on through the mall to the opposite side and exited.

P Burg Mall

The place is really looking very vacant. It looks like Spin Me Round is the only really good thriving business within the place save for the new antique mall section. I wonder how much longer the mall will last honestly.
We continued out of the lot past Foch Blvd, which took us south just a bit to Liberty Blvd, which we took briefly and then crossed over to the next area of strip malls. In back of them, just down Rt 519, there are a few retention ponds in mowed areas which we were able to walk along heading to the east.

Retention pond

We passed along the edge of this out to New Brunswick Ave, and skirted the hillside to the right until we didn’t have a choice but to walk along the road. There is a beautiful house on the right side of the road, and on the left there were some pillars to an estate entrance, but no sign of a house out there.
When we got to Industrial Ave, we cut off to the left to get over toward the former Central Railroad of NJ, which still has tracks in through this area of Alpha. There was a large monument at the start fo the road reading “Safety Follows Wisdom”, erected in 1930 for the perfect safety record of one of the industries. I don’t know that it specified which one.

Historic monumnt, 1930

From there, we only walked down Industrial Blvd for a short distance before turning right to cross over the old CNJ tracks. There was no path following them at this point, so we had to parallel them. Last time I was on them, we ended up walking Industrial for further, but this time we cut into the adjacent corn fields to the south, which had a wide and well used ATV trail going up between several of the rows. We followed this for a little while, until we found a cut over to the right, which led up to the old railroad tracks.

The area where the path joined was a wide section of the CNJ. There must have been two tracks and maybe a scale or something for the nearby Vulcanite quarry. There were some foundation ruins up in there which I’m not sure what they were for. We turned right to follow the tracks, which are still in place to the east.
The path followed the vacant right of way of the former eastbound track, and the former westbound is still there. We continued along, and took a brief side trip up hill to view the Vulcanite quarry from another path.

The old CNJ line

We continued on the tracks out to where the right of way is severed by Interstate 78. The line was abandoned when the highway came in, and I remember seeing the article in the paper, pointed out by my grandfather, when the last freight train came through Hampton on it’s way to Phillipsburg.
From that point, the path went to the left, soon parallel with 78. I had never tried to go this way before; I had always gone south and crossed the highway on the still active former Lehigh Valley Railroad route. This time, we would be heading to the north for something totally different, so we had to try something new.
We followed the path to where it abruptly ended near a billboard on 78. I had planned to cut inland before that, but we didn’t quite get there. I was going to use a commercial property with it’s mowed grass to head north, but I suppose this was more interesting.

Fence fun

We bushwhacked down hill a bit, and came to a chain link fence. There was a spot we could squeeze beneath, then head through a swath of woods to a corn field. It looked as thought someone was making a corn maze in it, and we had to push on through to the north. We tried just walking through the corn, and I was following my phone GPS on my phone to try to get us through. Shane was running through the corn like a madman, which is a lot of fun, but at some point he tripped and then sliced the inside of his arm pretty bad. One wouldn’t think that a corn stalk could do that much damage, but it was a pretty deep slice.

Shane's cut

When we got out to the commercial land grass, we sat Shane down, and Joe helped a lot with his first aid kit. Mine ended up out of the pack I was using somehow, so it was a good thing he was prepared with something. I think others also had stuff that helped too.
Red Sean was meeting us late, and we would have used him to get him to a safe spot like a CVS that wasn’t so far off, but he had already walked a good distance away from this car to join us at this point and wasn’t really a good idea to go back.
Fortunately, it wasn’t too terrible, and Shane was able to continue on without much problem.
We skirted the edge of a Solar Farm for a bit, then ended up on Edge Road. We turned right there and used the little used road to cross over Rt 78. We took this to Still Valley Road, which is closed to traffic now and would have made a good route, but nearby Ravine Road is far better. We turned left, then continued up Voorhees Road to Rt 173 where we met Red Sean. He again brought his horse head and fanny whacker and was walking alongside the road with the thing looking menacing. Drivers by must have had crazy thoughts.

A horse of course

We turned to the right very soon onto Ravine Road, one of my favorite roads in Warren County.
The road closely parallels the Pohatcong Creek, which originates in my home town of Washington, or the area at least. It flows up into more of Mansfield and such as well parallel with Jackson Valley Road. It finds it’s farthest head waters closer to Hackettstown, up on the Pohatcong Mountains parallel with Valley Road. It’s much like the Musconetcong River in this section we walked, wider and deeper.

Ravine Road

The road narrowed almost immediately after we got onto it, and the surface went from rough pavement to dirt. This road is actually narrower in places than many of the outlandish rail trails we have hiked.
There were a few houses along the creek, but pretty soon it became completely secluded, and we approached the double arch stone culvert that carried the Central Railroad of New Jersey overhead. I believe the culvert was built about 1853 or shortly thereafter. We stopped for a group shot in front of it, and Red Sean suggested we pick Ken up for it (that’s the cover photo on this journal).

The group.

Jillane always likes to tease me about my hiking friends, and likened us for some reason to a B Move called “The Buttercream Gang”, which I recall being outlandishly stupid.

So, our group shot rather resembled this a bit.
We walked through the big stone arch culvert, and immediately on the other side was the deep swimming hole I had had in mind. Unfortunately, no one but me wanted to go in at all as I recall. I think Sean might have now that I think about it, but that was it.
It was getting pretty cold. I recall this August being among the coldest I’ve experienced. I figured this would really be the end of Summer celebration. None of us would have guessed it would get so hot again into September and October, but it did.
We continued past the culvert on the road, and then crossed over the creek on a nice through style Pony Truss bridge built in 1938 by Warren County, as per signage.

Ravine Road culvert

The pony trusses are disappearing from most of the rivers in the area, the Musconetcong most notably so. This pony truss was not as old as many of the others, but still retained the same kind of ambiance.
We continued on the road, and it soon took us out to Municipal Drive, where we made a right turn.
Municipal Road was a much busier road than what we had been on before, but it still wasn’t too bad. We passed the intersection of Still Valley Road, which I think is the actual historic location of the settlement of Still Valley, and continued straight on Municipal Road.

The swimming hole

Soon, we reached the huge double stone culvert that carried Municipal Drive beneath the former Lehigh Valley Railroad, and before that the Easton and Amboy Railroad. This line came after the CNJ, around 1870 when the tunnel was completed at Pattenburg. The culvert is larger, but the same style in that it carries the road on one side and the Pohatcong Creek through the other. Once through it, we cut to the left into a grassy area.
There is a mowed trail that parallels the Pohatcong Creek in this area, which was a nice and pleasant way to get off of the busy road section for a little while.

Old bridge sign on Ravine Road

When we came out behind the town hall, we cut over to the right and walked directly through their parking area. No one bothered us or even asked what we were doing, which seemed kind of odd. We cut between buildings and back onto Municipal Road rather quickly, and then followed it further to the southwest, until we reached Rt 519. This stretch from the court house to Rt 519 was particularly comical, because there were idiot kids yelling out the window stuff to us. Jason hollered something back at one of them, basically laughing that they wouldn’t dare stop and pull any of that crap.

Municipal Road underpass

We only turned left on 519 a very short distance. We then turned to the right on Creek Road, which was an outstanding walking route.
Creek Road leads along the Pohatcong Creek pretty much the entire way from this point to the Delaware River. It’s very lightly used, and really the perfect route for a night like this.
We started walking the road through the dark. It was never too dark that we couldn’t see, but the only real light we had was the occasional one from one of the houses we passed. I’m pretty sure we didn’t even pass 15 houses during the entire stretch of the road.

Culvert underpass

One of the homes we passed closer to the road was nice old stone one on our left. We were talking as we went by. It wasn’t quite 9 pm yet, or if it was it definitely wasn’t after 10 pm. Still, we scared this local farmer enough that he came out of his house with a dog and a double barrel shot gun! I think I said hello before he even said anything to us, and he asked what was going on. I told him we were doing a night hike, just heading to Riegelsville. It was about that time I saw the double barrel and I made a comment “Hey, whoo, a shot gun!”. He said “Yeah, you never know...” or something. He explained that he used to be the chief of police for the neighboring township and was just playing it safe. A pleasant guy overall. I bade us good night and we were on our way down the road.

Historic image of the Bel Del north of Riegelsville, early 1900s. Note no tie plates on the track.

At the intersection of Mountain Road, Creek Road turned to the right to cross Pohatcong Creek, and continued on it’s journey out toward the Delaware River on the north side. The section went by for us pretty quickly, and we intersected with the River Road, which also crossed Pohatcong Creek to the left by way of a handsome through truss bridge.
Shane was adamant at this time about holding everyone up to go over some history of the Bel Del Railroad, his main area of expertise. The entire remainder of the hike was parallel with this historic rail line which spanned along the Delaware from Trenton to Manunka Chunk NJ.
While Shane was speaking, a cop pulle up to us from River Road. This happens all the time; no one is ever out at this hour of the night doing a history talk! The cop looked rather amused at what was going on, and I invited him to stay and listen to Shane’s history lecture, but he laughed and said “Naaah, that’s ok!” , and then moved on.
When Shane was done giving all of his historic notations, we were on our way to the south, through the Delaware River narrows in the area known as Pincher’s Point.
The group got a bit more segmented as we headed along the final stretch beside the Delaware River and the railroad tracks.

Black River & Western Railroad EMD GP9 #752 heading north along River Rd. just south of Pohatcong Creek trestle bridge. Taken 1998 by Dan Vaccarella.

The Belvidere-Delaware Railroad was built to Riegelsville in 1853, then to Carpentersville in 1854. Passenger stations were built in both villages during those years. Originally Riegelsville station was called Musconetcong. The name changed to Riegelsville in 1876.

Black River & Western Railroad EMD GP9 #752 heading north along River Rd. just south of Pohatcong Creek trestle bridge. Taken 1998 by Dan Vaccarella.

Two other stops in between were established during the 1870s; Edinger and Pohatcong. Edinger flagstop was at the end of Pincher's Point Rd. while Pohatcong flagstop was at the end of Creek Rd. in southern Carpentersville. These stops disappeared after the 1910s.

Historic image

TO RIGHT: Diesel #752 heading south with freight at Riegelsville's north crossing. Taken by Dan Vaccarella in 1999.
Pennsylvania Railroad took over the Bel-Del in 1871 and renamed the line their Belvidere Division. In the early 1940s, Carpentersville station was torn down for reuse of its lumber and replaced with a shelter. The shelter continued to be an active passenger stop until April 20th, 1952. All passenger service on the Bel-Del was terminated October 25th, 1960. Riegelsville station was the last of five stations to be in active use. Riegelsville station continued to be used primarily as a freight depot for the next few years in the early 1960s. By 1969, the station was shuttered. It was destroyed by fire of unknown origin that year. The Bel-Del line remained a busy freight line until April 1st, 1976 when Conrail launched and took over the line from the bankrupt Penn Central.

Historic image

Above: A Pennsylvania Railroad freight train heading south passing through the same crossing back in 1969. Taken by Charles Houser Sr.

Historic image

Above: Another Belvidere & Delaware River Railway Co. freight heading north in 2001. Taken by Chris Moyer.
The Bel-Del was then renamed the Delaware Secondary. On November 11th, 1995, the Black River & Western Railroad purchased the Bel-Del through Carpentersville and Riegelsville and launched a spin-off railroad named Belvidere & Delaware River Railway Co. to operate the line.

Historic Riegelsville Station image

Freight service south of Carpentersville ended in 2005. Today the line through Carpentersville and Riegelsville is used by the New York Susuquehanna & Western Railroad Technical & Historical Society for scenic tourist excursion trains.

Historic Riegelsville Station

Former Riegelsville station. Photos by Ed Webber in 1956.

Historic Riegelsville Station

We continued south along the river and tracks in the dark. Dan and I think Shane both got behind somewhere in this section I think.

Historic Riegelsville image

It wasn’t too long before we came out to the little town next to the Roebling Riegelsville Bridge, which replaced the original covered bridge at that site in 1904.

Historic view

Above: : 1952 view of Blue Knot general store at Riegelsville

Historic Riegelsville image

Early 1900s scene of Riegelsville station area, general store and paper mill

Riegelsville Roebling Bridge

I think Jason was already out by the time I got back to the lot, and Dan was going to get Shane back home. I think I had driven to the start, and I forget if Joe or Kevin got us back. Probably Kevin because he’s in Washington.

Hoot's

It ended up being a really pleasant back road jaunt in the Pohatcong and Delaware Valley, with our typical branch of memorable moments.