Hike #1075; Ironia to Far Hills

Hike #1075; Ironia to Far Hills

9/16/17 Ironia to Far Hills with Jim “Uncle Soup” Campbell, Sarah Jones, Daniel Trump, Mike Merunka, Dan Asnis, and Captain Soup (David Campbell).

Our next hike would be another point to point adventure, this time ending at Far Hills, with a route I had devised originally as part of a day hike back in 2006.
I had spent many days either at work on breaks or wherever going over maps and laying out hikes that I’d eventually do, sometimes years off.

First co blazed bit of 911 Memorial Trail

I had this idea to connect the Patriot’s Path system and more with Far Hills by using some pleasant, lightly used back roads. Because it was road walking, I abandoned the idea pretty quick in favor of stuff I just deemed more interesting, but I figured I’d get to it one day.

Patriot's Path in Ironia

This really turned out to be the perfect day to do it. I met the group at the Far Hills Station, and they ran behind a bit. We then shuttled to the north, to the Pizza Pub where we’d had a nice stop on our previous Patriot’s Path/911 Memorial Trail hike. We were able to go inside and get some snacks, get permission to park there, and then head on our way directly.
The owners of the Pizza Pub were happy to have us for our business, and Captain Soup got some beer. We headed directly down Ironia Road, and the trail cut into the woods to the left.
This would be the first time I’d followed this section of the Patriot’s Path eastbound. It felt different than it was previous times, but I’m sure it must be the right way.
It was kind of upsetting to see that some of the neighbors were throwing their yard trash over the trail to block it, especially since this is the first co-blazed 911 Trail section.
We continued out to South Road where we crossed into Heisteins Park. The trail then followed paved pathways through the park’s south side. Unfortunately, it started to rain rather heavily at this point. I wasn’t counting on it raining at all, nor was I really prepared for it, but we made the best of it. We continued out of the east side of the park, past the pond which used to be a swimming area, then down the side of Doby Road.
Mike met up with us here. He parked on the edge of connecting Kingsbrook Road. Once together, we all headed down to Combs Hollow Road and directly across where Patriot’s Path enters the woods on a wide former road route.

Don't have to worry about hunting till 2107!

We had a little laugh at the sign in the parking area that read hunting starts in the year 2107.
From that point, we hung out under a tree next to the trail kiosk for a bit, hoping for the rain to let up at least a little. When it wasn’t, we finally decided to just move on.

Patriot's Path

The trail follows the old road route to the east for a while, but our route would turn off to the right prior to that. A trail connection, which I had hiked before it formally opened with my ex, Cathy back in September 2008, heads from the Patriot’s Path down the east side of Combs Hollow before reaching Combs Hollow Road near it’s bridge.

Ahh...that kid...

On that hike, I remember walking the new trail, and Cathy and I came upon a new kiosk at Combs Hollow Road being constructed. The parents were building the kiosk, and the kid was sleeping on the hood of their car. I remember having a laugh about it, how kids rarely do much of the work themselves any more.
That hike was on September 1, 2008, and it’s dated September 29th. I’d forgotten all about that incident until we went by and I saw the plaque on the sign! We continued from here across the Combs Hollow Road bridge on the road, then turned left on the white blazed India Brook Trail.

India Brook

The trail was a bit more grown in than it used to be, which is pretty sad because this is a wonderful route, and with the newer connection to the Patriot’s Path it could make a great loop with it and the blue blazed Patriot’s Path piece below, for about twelve or thirteen miles.
We continued to where a yellow blazed trail joined in from the right. I remember a Hike Mendham website had come out when I was working for Works Data in 2007, and I saw that some new trails had been added, so we did a group hike on them on New Years Day, 2009. I’d only returned to India Brook one time since on a night hike.

Buttermilk Falls

The co-blazed yellow and white trails continued across a bridge over India Brook, and eventually the white ones sort of disappeared. Yellow ones had mostly been painted over them. We continued across the former breast of a dam on the brook, and then came to Buttermilk Falls, a lovely cascade that photos really can’t do justice to. I’ve always loved the spot, and I can’t remember if I went for a swim in it this time or not. I think I did.
We moved on from that point and I chatted with Mike a bit about the Loyalsock Trail and the intense races he’d been doing.
I met Mike when he showed up to give me a hand with a few trail marker posts on the Warren Highlands Trail in Harmony Township, I think as a result of some of my postings.

Buttermilk Falls

After leaving the falls, I couldn’t remember where the trail was supposed to cross India Brook. It had been a while since I tried going down stream through the hollow, and I knew the southernmost crossing was without a bridge. When I saw a path across the way, I crossed and started heading up, then saw “no trespassing signs”. I’d crossed too early, and had everyone else slipping over the wet rocks in the rain to do it. Fortunately they didn’t seem to want to kill me too badly.
We continued down stream further, with some of the group trying to stay on the opposite side for longer, and then got to the actual crossing site. We all got across and continued southward, past a former road bridge site, and out of the natural area to Mountainside Road in Mendham Township.

Brook crossing

When everyone caught up, we continued across through an open area then into the woods. A police officer drove by when we were in that vicinity, and it was just about dusk. I was just waiting for him to come back and question us, but it didn’t happen.
I was getting a little nervous as people were taking a while to get off the road and then get away from it. I also wanted to try to get Captain Soup back to his car so it wouldn’t be in a park that closes after dark for too long. I think the park has a gate, and didn’t want trouble.

Trestle on the Rockaway Valley line near Gladstone

We all made our way through more woods on the gravel base trail, still beside India Brook to where it connected with the blue blazed branch of the Patriot’s Path.
This bit of the Patriot’s Path follows the long abandoned route of the Rockaway Valley Railroad. That line was built in 1888 to haul peaches, but they were killed by the blight in 1890. A series of stalled attempts to rehabilitate the line, as well as bankruptcies eventually led to it’s fate as World War I scrap.
We turned right to follow Patriot’s Path on the right of way west for a bit.
We crossed over Ironia Road, then continued out to the crossing of Rt 24 near the fire department. We’d left Captain Soup’s car at the Ralston field just to the south.

Thomas Tabor image of Rockaway Valley line

Captain Soup had wanted an early out, and was discussing ways of turning back, but no matter what we he did it, it would be a crummy return on the roads, and further than he’d want to go. Nothing connects the areas of Ralston conveniently with Ironia.

Shadowy figures

I got my obligatory group shot using the back lighting of the fire department, and then saw a car, pretty sure a cop car, in the lot over near Captain Soup’s car.
Captain Soup left us here, and he never said anything about having any problem for being parked there, so I’m assuming it was alright.
My original plan was to remain on the old Rockaway Valley Railroad bed to the east from here, but the connecting trail to the Schick Reserve, which was my next plan, crosses over the North Branch of the Raritan River on concrete cylinders, and the trail can get pretty weedy. Doing this in the dark could be bad.

Shadow people

I opted instead to do the road walk to the next bit. We headed down Rt 24, then turned right onto Roxiticus Road.
We followed the road onward to the original access road, which in part was originally a colonial road. It is said that the hills in Schiff were used by Continental Army troops from 1779-80 to protect the Raritan River pass, though these claims have not been verified. In later years, different families own the property, and the largest tract was donated to the Boy Scouts of America by Therese Schiff in memory of her son Mortimer Schiff.
It served as a boy scout camp, which Uncle Soup attended, for almost fifty years, from 1932 until 1979 when it was sold and became part of Schiff Natural Land Trust.

Historic early image of a group at Schiff Reservation

I had not been expecting to use the road route up; I had assumed it was now part of a new development or something and just off limits. It was the perfect route to get us up and over the hill. We gradually ascended for a bit, and crossed a couple other trails.

Historic Schiff postcard

We opted to keep with the main access road. At one point we came close to the new developmnt, at Brookrace Drive, but were back into some deep woods shortly after that.
We continued on the road to emerge at the wide open meadow area known as Great Meadow. In the early days, even before the scouts took over the property, this was a horse racing track.
We walked along the outside of the track to the right, and continued into more woods on a trail from there. This took us down hill toward the steep drop off to the hollow to the east.

Historic Schiff postcard

We didn’t head all the way down. We came to a low area and then found an old scout lean to. I’m rather sure this was one vintage to the original camp, and we went in and sat to take a break.
When we were done, rather than remain on trails I could see it was a very short distance to tha access road down hill from where we were, as per google maps. I figured it would be easier for us to just go directly down; I did not know there was another trail that went almost the same way to the east of us because it wasn’t on our maps, or online maps that were available.
It was a little tougher than I’d anticipated it would be, but we finally emerged onto the access road. We followed it to the right, took the switch back, then continued to descend past the lights of the main building below. We continued down the access road, then quietly crosses the bridge over the brook below us.
We turned briefly right on Pleasant Valley Road, then turned left on Mosle Road. We continued south to Branch Road, where we turned left. I am pretty sure this was the road that was completely closed to traffic, so it was just the perfect night to walk it. I think only one car passed us the entire way.
The road was closed due to some sort of work on a bridge spanning a tributary of the North Branch of the Raritan. Branch Road in particular was narrower than many of the trails we regularly follow.
At the next intersection, we turned left on Willow Avenue. It was busier than what we’d been on, but not that busy. Especially when we turned on Lake Road, we barely saw anyone again.
Lake Road was particularly beautiful at night. It went by the very large Ravine Lake, which in the dark was really something else. The rain had ended by the time we were in Schiff, and the rest of this had been really very pleasant, almost euphoric for me. The outlines of the mountains behind the lake were just stunning.
At the southern end of the lake was a really weird spot, where the road broke off in two.

An old Blairsden gate house?

The southbound road was to the right, but if you were going northbound you had to be on the other side, up hill. The lower route appeared better to me, and so that’s what we walked.
Uncle Soup mentioned that he knew of a good way around without being on the roads, but then I realized he was referring to the lands around Blairsden. This mansion property has been in Weird NJ so much that it’s well guarded, and even the property on the outside of it has cameras and security. I wasn’t going to try to go through that. In fact, I’d considered going this way once before from the other side, from within the Natirar Park. We ended up having a ranger following us while we walked.

Statue

To the right side of the road was a handsome gate house, now a private residence. I figure this must have been one of the gate houses for Blairsden, but I’m not sure. It had statures out front, and was very well lit.
As we continued down Lake Road, before we emerged on Rt 202, we finally did get stopped by police. I was surprised it hadn’t happened earlier. It happens so often when we’re doing night hikes, and understandably so. They have their job to do, and they’re always just asking if everyone is safe.
We turned right on Rt 202, and from there it didn’t take long before we got back to the cars at Far Hills. It was a weekend so we were able to leave cars right there rather than on street like I have to on week night hikes. This would be the second to last weekend I’d have to work, and my schedule returns to normal again, which is a relief for the hikes.

Far Hills Station

We shuttled back to our starting point from there, and everyone dispersed rather quickly, so I didn’t even get to say goodbye to everyone.
It would be my last group hike before going on my backpacking vacation, for the first time in a year. I felt kind of weird, because I usually come back from those feeling like a different person. I kind of forget who I am and where my place is in life, with work, the hikes, the other activities I’m involved in. I also get an unreasonable fear that no one will want to come if I stop posing hikes for a couple of weeks. Fortunately, Lerch would be filling in for me on the next one.
So many of the recent hikes had involved a lot of reminiscing that I really couldn’t wait to get out and do totally new stuff. I can’t even quite describe the feeling of wonder I’ve been getting, whether I’m near home or far away, everything seems so interesting lately.