Hike #1080; Hackettstown Area Loop

Hike #1080; Hackettstown Area Loop

10/10/17 Hackettstown Area Loop with Justin Gurbisz, Brittany Audrey, Jessica M. Collins, Celeste Fondaco Martin, Varsha Reddy, and Red Sean (Karl Franz) Reardon

Our next hike would be a loop in the Hackettstown area, with a sort of re-hash of some other stuff we’ve done, but with the addition of a few others that I’d been wanting to explore.

Happy paths

Since Justin had just moved to Hackettstown, I told him I’d do some more hikes in the vicinity. This one was right by where he lived, which made it pretty easy for him and Brittany to get there.
We simply started off at the Weis supermarket parking area, and then headed up through the apartments. I concocted a route through that earlier in the season, which involved following sidewalks and development paths and such on the east side. We made our way behind buildings, up steps, and between others out to an open grassy field owned by the Mansfield Village apartments. By walking across that field, we reach a path that takes us through to the next apartment complex.

Field stuff

When we got over by their pool area, there was another section of paved pathways that go along the north side. We followed this with a bit of a view to the east, and then skirted the path on the north end of the open fields to the next foot path, which connects to the third separate apartment complex (all of these complexes are independently accessed from Allen Road in Mansfield). As we walked the section to the east in the last development, two women riding horses came by, which seemed a bit off the wall. Centenary College, just to the east, is a major equestrian school, but their center for that is up on Schooleys Mountain.

View at State Fish Hatchery

I saw the horses as a prospect; they must have gotten there from somewhere, but I didn’t know where. I asked if we could get over by the college by walking that way, and the riders said “yeah! There’s a path right over there!”.
I had thought we might be able to cut right through the State Fish Hatchery somewhere. Such was not the case. That hatchery is not open to public to walk around in the way that Pequest and other hatcheries are.
Sure enough there was a path, but it led out to College View Drive. I think that was the mix up; I thought they meant “college”. Still, we followed it through, and walked the road to Carter Terrace. We turned left to a power line, then turned left to follow it’s mowed route. That took us right out to Grand Avenue, and we turned right to follow that for a bit.

Path to the high school

We headed gradually down hill to cross the Hatchery Brook, which is also known on some maps as Trout Brook. There’s no way into the hatchery there, and if there was there’d be no way out.
We continued across and then turned to the right on Robins Court. At the end of the cul de sac, we walked straight across a wide open field to the Hatchery Hill Elementary School. We skirted the yards to the far right along the hatchery fences, and then across the parking lot. At that point, there is a paved trail that skirts the hatchery property and heads over to the Hackettstown High School.

Pond at the hatchery

I hadn’t gone out to this area in a really long time. When I was dating Stephanie Dias when I was 18, I remember being there with her, and to her graduation, but I probably hadn’t wandered back there ever since.
It turned out to be not a bad walking route. The path took us down hill and past where we could see the ponds of the state fish hatchery. When the path cut to the right over closer to the high school, we continued straight along the edges of the grassy fields. We crossed an access road, passed the Hackettstown Community Pool, and then crossed into the Greenview Gardens apartments.
I’d hung out at this area before too. I never exactly lived in Greenview Gardens, but my ex girlfriend Cathy was living there when I started dating her when I was 19.
It was kind of weird walking back where I used to park, and even the dumpsters were still sitting in the same places they were back in 1999. I remembered getting a combination tower set music system out of that dumpster and giving it to my brother, Alex.

Historic postcard image

We left the apartments and headed one block to the east to cross Mountain Avenue, and skirted the Musconetcong River across from Hackettstown Union Cemetery.

Cemetery bridge in 2004

I looked on at a the Cemetery Bridge, which accesses the Hackettstown Union Cemetery, and was kind of disappointed at how badly the vegetation had grown in.

hackettstown Cemetery scene today

No one seems to be keeping the brush down any more. We used to be able to see the old bridge over the river while driving along Mountain Avenue, but not any more.

Postcard of the bridge

The Union Cemetery is located on grounds purchased from Isaac W. Crane, David Crane and William Rea in 1859. The stone arch and ornamental iron gates at the entrance were erected in May 1898 by the firm of Van Sternberg and Clark.

Ephriam Marsh, David Crate and Alpheus Clawson were the first to purchase plots in the new cemetery. The first burials included Robert D. Ayers (1859), James Drake (1860), Phebe Sutton (1860) and Julia Ann Clawson (1862).

Historic postcard image; 1910

The Union Cemetery Association, incorporated in 1857, continues to maintain the cemetery and its records.
I ran out into some traffic to try to get some good then and now shots of the entrance.

Historic postcard image; 1954

I didn’t quite succeed in lining the photo up the way I wanted to, because I didn’t get the bridge perfectly through the opening. I’ll have to try again soon.

The entrance today

We walked through the archway and crossed over the lovely pony truss bridge over the Musconetcong. Of course, Justin had to climb up and walk the tops of the trusses.

Pony truss cemetery bridge

Once on the other side, we headed to the left. We followed the cemetery roads around the outside, which I’d been wanting to do in the daylight for a while. The last time I’d been through was in the Spring on another night hike, but after dark.
We continud around the outside even after the roadways ended, and passed where stuff from graves was dumped off the sides and such. In following this route along the outside, we inadvertently came across a strange grave along the edge of the woods.

Historic Hackettstown Union Cemetery

The grave read only “John P” for the name. It noted that he was born in May of 1899 and died in April of 1954. A Veteran’s flag was placed in the grave with the years of World War II. The writing on the grave was sloppy, not like the normal engravings one might normally see.
I wondered if this was maybe a potter’s field section of the cemetery. Was John P a poor man who couldn’t afford a grave elsewhere? It amazed me that a World War II veteran would be placed so far away from the rest of the cemetery. It didn’t make any sense.
We continued around the cemetery and tried to cut through a section of woods to a lot to the north, where they sell pools or something. We managed to get through, and came out on Rt 46 at the intersection of Drakestown Road.
We crossed the highway, and then found Red Sean ready to join up with us. He parked his SUV in this area to complete the remainder of the hike with us. He was dressed in his British military get up, with the safari style hat.

the strange John P grave

We continued on to turn left on Drakestown Road/East Avenue to the northeast, which is the route of the Patriot’s Path.
We followed this to Mine Hill Road, which eventually becomes abandoned, and followed it up hill. Both Patriot’s Path and Highlands Trail come together just up the hill at this point. Patriot’s Path comes out of the area near Target and the nearby development, while Highlands Trail follows Mine Hill Road from the other direction currently. When Patriot’s Path went to the left, we went straight.

Red Sean

I had originally intended to go off trail in this section because I wanted to get closer looks at the waterfalls along the brook below Mine Hill Road. However, it was getting dark too fast and if we did that, it’d surely take way longer than anticipated. Instead, I decided it’d be smart to just follow the road and get through the other questionable sections before dark.
We continued gradually up hill on the old road until we came to a power line crossing. There, we turned to the right and started following it up hill on a rather little used ATV path.

Along Mine Hill Road

As we were heading up hill, it started lightly raining, and then gradually got a bit worse. I had brought my umbrella, and Justin still had my other one I’d loaned him on a previous hike. I was hoping it wouldn’t last too long, but it continued for a while.
At the top of the hill, we reached an abandoned paved driveway route, and then came across Saunders Lane. The path remained clear slightly up more on the other side to cross Saunders Lane again. From there, we continued on further on a slightly more overgrown path.

Power line view

This section got kind of crummy. Not only was it raining, we reached a metal gate we had to climb over. We managed to get over it, but it was wet and slippery, and the weeds on the other side were higher than before.
We walked the swath of property and came to yet another metal gate on the other side. Fortunately, we were able to get over it, and then it was just maybe fifteen feet of bullying through some non abrasive brush to come out on Janice Drive, where we went straight.

Power line walkin'

The next section was clear, and then became a mess of an ATV circuit. I figured we’d get to the next road easily with this kind of use, but such was again not the case.
We came out near a fence, and then had to turn right to skirt it out to Stephens Park Road. Fortunately no one gave us a hard time for going through there, but there was one guy in a car that drove by us at least two, probably three times. I’m sure we looked like lunatics out in the rain, walking along the power lines.

Abandoned paved road thing

We turned left on Stephens Park Road only briefly, then to the right on Dorset Drive, which forms a sort of lollipop loop route. We turned left on the start of the Dorset loop, and when we got to the north side where the power lines cross, we got back on them to head north and then abruptly east.
There was a pretty good path along them through this area. We remained on the power line to a side path to the north, which we followed until we got to an open field. The path remained sort of clear, but with plants hanging over that I didn’t want to deal with, so we went back to the power line.

POWER LINE!

We continued ahead for a bit more, and under one of the power poles I thought I spotted a path going to the left. It had hunters’ bright eyes pins in the trees, which we followed for a bit, but then we weren’t getting close to the trail I wanted to be on. I chose again to backtrack to the power line.
The previous time we’d been in this part of Allamuchy Mountain, it was such a horrible mess of weeds that I didn’t want to take any chances having to fight through them again. Going to the easier route would pay off.

Development in Mt. Olive

I got stuck in a bit of weeds coming out to the power line the second time, but I don’t think anyone else did quite so bad.
Once we were back on the power line east, it didn’t take long before a woods path led in to the left. This was the way we wanted (there was also one that connected with the first path we followed; I made sure to skip that one).
Not far into the woods, we came to the white blazed trail of Stephens State Park. The blazes are tags rather than paint, but they all have turn blazes at the corners. They are very well marked, because at any questionable point I could look and find the correct way.

Power line

The White Trail weaved around a lot, but for the most part it followed relatively easy routes, often on old woods roads. The rain let up while we were on it, and it got much more pleasant. Just being under the canopy of the trees made it so much better.
There were bits of up and down, but it wasn’t too bad. We continued on the white trail until we got to the intersection with the orange blazed trail. We took that off to the left. I was originally thinking of doing a more creative route through the park to the right on orange, which would then require going left or right on red, etc. At this point, I wanted to eliminate any kind of confusion. So, we went left on orange.

Development fun

The upper part of the orange trail is mostly foot path and slight woods roads, but the lower eastern part actually follows the abandoned portion of Stephens Park Road. We headed down that and hurried across the bridge over the Musconetcong. On the other side, we climbed steeply up the stairs to the park’s camp ground area. We then headed to the restroom building to take a break. I thought Jillane was going ot meet up, so I stalled to take a break there, but then she decided not to.
Jess wasn’t feeling well, and so it was better to try to head more direct from this point anyway. Justin and Brittany wanted to do a road walk back to the other side of Hackettstown, but that’d have been awful. I made a couple of decisions that would make the walking easier. Jess is one of the toughest hikers around, and can deal with just about any adverse situations, so I knew if she said she wasn’t feeling well it must be serious.
We exited the camp grounds, then turned to the right on Bilby Road as I recall. We headed down from the end of the road to the shopping center near where the Morris Canal used to cross and I got a slice of pizza.
From that point, Justin and Brittany opted to just follow roads back. Jess decided to stay with us on the more off road route, which really isn’t that much further if at all.
By heading along Countryside Drive, we were basically below the Morris Canal. I decided not to try to follow the new trail section because of the uneven and more difficult terrain, and walking it with flashlights would cause a disturbance to the trail neighbors.
We cut in back of the church when the road ended, and came out to 4th Street and Hamilton Drive. A right turn here and brief climb brought us to the Morris Canal towpath. We could follow it clearly here, and then as Canal Lane, a small road, out to Rt 46.
We went direct across Rt 46. A business and home owner there had shown us how to walk direct across from there to continue on the canal, and so we did that rather than go all the way around.
Once we got to Harvey Street, we were on clear canal trail for just over a mile out to Buck Hill Road where the Cuff House used to be. The section went by very quickly, and we were to Buck Hill Road in no time. We followed it down, then crossed Grand Ave to College View Way. A short bit up that took us to the same pathway we’d followed earlier in the night.
We backtracked from here the same way we had gone earlier, through the development and along the different odd paths back to the cars.
The rain and sometimes rough terrain made it a bit tougher than I’d anticipated it would be, and some of the stuff I’d had in mind for this one we’d have to forego until a future hike, but overall it went pretty well. I was glad to cover some new ground for the hikes including the power line and high school area. I’m sure we’ll do more out that way and discover plenty more.