Hike #1081; Bloomsbury Hatchery to Hampton

Hike #1081; Bloomsbury (Hatchery) to Hampton

10/14-10/15/17 Bloomsbury to Hampton with Kralc Leahcim (Lerch), Jennifer Berndt, Tom Vorrius, Scott Helbing (Tea Biscuit), Sy P. Deunom (Martyn), Craig Craig, Red Sean (Patrick Ó Ríoghbhardáin) Reardon, Daniel Trump, Brandan Jermyn, Aaron Young, and Ellie Zabeth

Our next hike would be a point to point between Bloomsbury area and Hampton, a Saturday night hike on the last weekend I was scheduled to work at Spruce Run for the season.
It’s been a rough ride for me, sacrificing my big hikes because I had to work, and one of the most disheartening situations I’ve ever been involved in, and so it seemed only right that the last one be somewhat celebratory.

Muscy watershed event

I had not yet met Michael Fox of the Musconetcong River Watershed Association, and there are others involved now. Beth Styler Barry left the organization or which she has for years been the figurehead for a position with The Nature Conservancy. They’re involved in a dam removal project on the Paulins Kill, which is similar to the efforts she has championed on the Musconetcong, so her position there was an obvious fit.
When I found out that Musconetcong Watershed Association was having a fund raising event with a wine tasting at a private fish hatchery near Bloomsbury, I realized I could help.

Wine tasting!

This was local, it was an organization I have respected and deeply appreciated for a long time, and it was wine! It just happened to be on the right day for me to organize my final late day and night hike with work.
I looked over various routes, and settled on a variation of one that I’d done somewhat recently, and would allow Lerch to see the old tunnel he’d been wanting to see under Musconetcong Mountain. We’d also have some rugged terrain and some easy stuff, a really good mix. If things went over too long, there was always the old rail bed closely parallel the entire way. It seemed just right.

Entertainment at the event

I had to work until 3:30 pm. I’d wanted to get out early, but things are just too crazy in the park for me to get out. Fortunately, we’d had a recent meeting and Lerch and I hashed out a few ideas for hikes that would work out for us. He agreed to work out the car situation for this hike, so that all I had to do was get out of work and drive to the wine tasting.
We were able to leave cars there later, after the event was over, and so we could walk directly from there. Otherwise, I’d have done something from nearby Bloomsbury.

Mr. Leavens of MWA helping with tasting

I arrived to find a lot of the group already there.
Not only that, we had several more people attend than I had thought we would! Some even showed up that saw the event and weren’t going to attend the hike. The Metrotrails group alone, only counting the hikers, brought in a total of $385, which is an awesome showing.
When I arrived I started heading around the tables to taste some wines. I had a lot of catching up to do. I arrived just before 4 pm, and it was to end at 5:30. I missed a couple of hours of fun. There was a live music duo and snacks at one table, plus tons of wine.

Mr. Fox addressing the crowd

I made my way around, and the best one I recall was the 19 Crimes, which was what I got my friend and lawyer Conrad Blease for his last birthday.
I chatted with Bill Leavens about the dam removal projects and how good it’s going to be for the river, and finally got to meet Michael Fox, whom I’d only interacted with on facebook before.
I also finally got to meet Alan Hunt, who’s taken Beth’s reigns with the organization. He’s of a local generation farm family, and after seeking education and career beginnings elsewhere, he’s brought his expertise back home, so it was nice to meet him as well.
I chatted with others friends too, like Julie and Rob, and so many others.
When the live music was over, the guitarist went to Red Sean, who was dressed in his British military outfit, and started telling him he looked like a hunter.
Indeed, the outfit did include a helmet that looks to be a safari hat, but he denied such.
The guitarist kept egging him on “No? You don’t hunt nothin?” and continued. Red Sean finally replied, “Well...there is one animal I do hunt regularly, but I will not say such because we’re in the presence of ladies”

"Beavers, sir"

“Oh C’mon!” the guitarist pleaded with him. Just then, a lady standing to Red Sean’s left said “Go ahead and say it, no one cares”. The guitarist concurred and continued to egg him on. Red Sean looked cautiously around for a moment, then glanced back at the guitarist, nodded his head, and said “Beavers, sir”. I nearly fell over laughing. The woman turned her back and walked away saying something to the effect of “I should have known”. The guitarist was thoroughly amused.
The event was coming to a close and it was nearly time for us to head out. I’d come up with a route directly from the hatchery that wouldn’t require any road walking.

Tea Biscuit in the river

Not everyone was prepared, but my route took us directly through the Musconetcong, and then into Heritage Park which is directly on the other side.
Heritage Park has very nice mowed trails along the edge of teh river and up around the old farm fields. The only tough part would be getting up to them.
Lerch and I got across really quick. Most everyone else did too, except those who bothered to take their shoes off to do it.
Once on the other side, we headed east along the river just a little bit, then came to the mowed pathways. We followed those up to the north in a short bit.

River crossing

There were some pumkins laying around, which Tea Biscuit was messing with. He sat it on the back of his pack, and then while we were walking Red Sean pulled out a knife and began to carve it. Even though we were moving around at a pretty good pace, he managed to carve a jack o lantern rather quickly!
We gained more elevation along the fields, and just before we got to the height of the land, we must have kicked up a Yellow Jacket’s nest. Tea Biscuit, Tom, and I’m not sure how many else all got stung. I got nothing, but Tea Biscuit’s Tinkerbell The Dog got stung pretty badly. The had welts all over her underside over the next few hours from so many stinger marks.

Group silliness

We continued up from here to the abandoned Central Railroad of NJ right of way, built about 1853. The section is still used occasionally to the east as an industrial spur.

Old CNJ line

On the way up also, I felt something touching me. I had no clue what it was. When I turned back, I couldn’t figure anything out.
Then, I caught Brandan red handed. He had something, which he adamantly denied. We kept walking, and then someone else was behind me. I kept thinking I was seeing or feelign something. It turned out to be glitter. Lots and lots of glitter, but I didn’t know where it came from.
Just when I finally caught Red Sean I think it was with it, everyone revealed that they’d had a vile of glitter and proceeded to dump it all over me.

Silliness

I was completely covered in the stuff. It was so badly in my hair that it wouldn’t come out. Red Sean apparently bought lots of viles of the stuff and passed it all out to the group when I wasn’t looking. I ended up with glitter all over me for days, and it hung around in my house and on my stuff for well over a month!

The CNJ tracks

We reached the former Central Railroad of NJ trackage and turned to the right along it. It was abandoned as a through line in 1986 with the development of interstate 78 which severed the line just outside of Alpha. We followed the overgrown tracks to the east for a little bit, to Vliet Farm Road. We turned left here and followed it up to Rt 173, which is old Rt 22. We turned left on that, then immediately right onto Turkey Hill Road. Turkey Hill Road isn’t all that steep, but it gradually goes up hill and passes through a mostly stone culvert beneath the former Lehigh Valley Railroad line. We continued gradually along the road heading up hill until we got to the Highlands Trail.

The Highlands Trail follows Turkey Hill Road for a bit to the east, and we reached it where it enters the Deerpath Sanctuary of the NJ Audubon Society. We took a short break at the intersection of the trail and road and went over plans.
We followed the trail up hill over the knoll toward Tunnel Road. It was dark by this point.
I wanted to show Lerch the old Musconetcong Tunnel, built originally in 1870. It was originally the Easton and Amboy Railroad route, which became the Lehigh Valley Railroad.
I had everyone regroup again when we got to the other side. I wasn’t originally counting on getting to this point after dark. I had wanted to explore more of the Audubon property and take a path to the north portal of the tunnel, but that wasn’t going to work in the dark. I’d have to go the easier way instead.

Plannin'

Elizabeth met up with us at this point, along side the road while we were working out details.
We made a plan and decided not everyone would have to go through, and instead we would go through and back like we had done the previous time.
Tea Biscuit realized that Tinkerbell was not doing well after all of the stings, and so he offered to take Elizabeth’s car back to the start point.
We then had no cars sitting mid way, which was nice. We were able to just head to the access road and down over the top of the tunnel to the mouth of the original one.

1927 tunnel construction image

The original tunnel was a bit smaller, and it was made for single tracks. The new tunnel would be double tracked. It opened to trains in 1928.
Today, it’s no longer double tracked through it, but it’s large enough to take the double decker stacked container cars at high speeds.
The original tunnel remained in service simultaneously for a time, but was eventually abandoned at a date I do not know. After that, it went into use as an underground mushroom farm for a time. That operation closed in the sixties or seventies.
I had seen the tunnel with my grandfather when I was little, but I don’t remember it all that clearly. We never went through it. It wasn’t until I was maybe 17 or 18 when I was on a job with him and he pointed out where the mouth of the old tunnel was from the road. I asked him to pull over, and I’d run down to have a look. Sure enough, I reached the mouth of the tunnel and made plans to bring friends back to explore.
I came back with Sandy Boehm and Aaron Marques, and we went through it, plus explored abandoned quarry ruins that are all gone today.

1928 tunnel image

Once we reached the mouth of the tunnel, we started heading through. Lerch, Jen, Tom, Craig, and I started out. We didn’t realize it, but Martyn wanted in too, but didn’t have time to change his shoes, so he couldn’t catch up.

Construction of the new tunnel

The tunnel had a good amount of water in it, and typically I don’t try to walk along the edges inside these things. This time however, Lerch went for it and managed to stay along a good stone shelf for longer than I remembered it going, so that was nice.

The 1928 tunnel

We continued through to where it got dry, and it became very easy to walk for quite a while.
We had a very nice time walking through, and when we arrived to the other side we had to walk through a bit more water again. Lerch got there first, and was sitting atop a big tire.

Big tire

We didn’t hang out at the east portal of the tunnel for too long. We went back in and started to head back. I am pretty sure we did the return trip even faster than the trip out.
Once back at the other side, all together we headed back up the way we came on the access road out to Tunnel Road, and then turned to the left. I couldn’t believe we didn’t pass even one train the entire time there.
We followed Tunnel Road, which is the route of the Highlands Trail, on out to Rt 173, and then rather than continue up the Highlands Trail over Jugtown Mountain, we continued down hill and turned right on the old road route, then turned right on Asbury-West Portal Road. It was a much less busy, pleasant road.

In the tunnel

The tunnel road stretch was a bit slow going; I don’t know what happened, but at some point Lerch tackled Martyn over the galvanized guide rail along the road, and then he had to be fished back out. I only caught some of the tail end of whatever was going on.
We followed Asbury-West Portal Road for a just a bit, then turned to the left on Valley Station Road.
I seem to recall a police officer stopping us at this point to ask what we were doing. This happens very often on the night hikes, so it was no big surprise. The rest of the group caught up, and we continued on Valley Station, past the old building ruin sites, and then turned right on the old CNJ line again.

Silliness

From this point it was just a matter of walking back. We crossed over Asbury-West Portal Road on a bridge, and then crossed over Ludlow Station Road at grade, followed by Iron Bridge Road through an underpass. The group got kind of segmented, and it was a peaceful, reflective route back to Hampton. I drank lots of Lerch’s orange stuff so he wouldn’t have more of it, and Red Sean and I did a lot of laughing.

Final bushhwack

Lerch kept stopping, even though he was totally in the front, and hanging back to scare whatever stragglers were behind. He got me at least once.
Toward the very end, where there are houses along the grade and it’s used as a driveway, most of the group got way ahead. It ended up with just Red Sean and I taking up the back of the pack, and then when we got to the old Hampton yard, we bushwhacked down to get to the parking area below the tracks. We headed out into Hampton where Lerch had car parked, and we piled into his car. Fortunately, I was able to drive it with no problem as I recall. It was well after midnight, and I was surprisingly not really tired at all.
Unfortunately I would be in the morning; I had to be to work at 7 am for the last Sunday of the year, but at least I was in charge of maintenance, which meant menial tasks like water system reports to start the day, perfect for my tired body and mind. And after this, I could focus on more good stuff for the next six months.