Hike #1099; Beattystown to Changewater Mountain

Hike #1099; Beattystown to Changewater Mountain

12/23/17 Beattystown to Changewater Mountain with Kralc Leahcim (Lerch), Stephen Argentina, Kenneth Lidman, Alyssa Lidman, Red Sean (Patrick Ó Ríoghbhardáin) Reardon, Ellie Zabeth, and Daniel Trump

Our next hike would be my annual holiday one where we visit my grandfather’s house.
As with the other hikes I do year after year as a sort of tradition, we have still not yet exhausted all of the hikable lands surrounding his place.

Beattystown

We met in the morning at my grandfather’s house. There wasn’t a big crew out for this one; the forecast was rainy, and so it scared a lot of people off, plus it was the Saturday before Christmas instead of a little earlier, so more people had things going on.
Still, we had a good showing, and shuttled from there on up to the Walmart in Mansfield, which is closest to the little village of Beattystown.
Beattystown was first settled in the mid 1700s, and formed itself around Beatty’s Mill, which still stands at the intersection of Rt 57 and Airport Road. Beatty, the miller, reportedly lived in what is now the yellow house across the street on the corner.

Fields

The area was also reportedly the site of a Revolutionary War encampment in 1777 when the Continental Army marched through on the Easton-Morristown Turnpike, predecessor to present day Rt 57.
We parked further back from the Walmart, and it started raining already. We walked to the store and Ken and Alyssa went in to purchase rain ponchos. Alyssa found one rather quickly, but Ken wanted rain pants, so he searched around a bit more. When it was starting to take a really long time, I went in searching for Ken. Alyssa was already out and said her dad had probably gotten lost in the electronics department. She’d found her poncho rather quickly.
I found Ken checking out, and so I went back out. Alyssa had removed her poncho already, to which I said “Really? Didn’t you get that because you needed it?”

Musconetcong WMA

She took the thing off and on, and ended up Incredible Hulking her way out of it the second time, so had to go back in and exchange it for another one.
When we finally got to moving, we walked out behind the store and then along the retention pond to the intersection of Airport Road. We headed from there into historic Beattystown heading west on the really too narrow shoulder to be walking on.
We kept to the right side and followed along next to the church, then switched to the other side. Beattystown is looking rather run down these days, and it’s currently I believe on New Jersey’s list of most endangered historic places.

View in Musconetcong WMA

One of my grandfather’s friends, Harry Pool, who has since passed away, had a run down house in the village. It’s a shame to see these historic homes falling apart.
When we got to the end of the patch of village, we reached the fire department on the left. We were able to turn there and follow along the boundary of that land, then cut to the west. We followed the grassy area with some equipment and such parked around to the west side of the property, then cut through a rough patch of sticks and such to reach Musconetcong Wildlife Management Area, a bit of state land abutting Rt 57 and the river.

Musconetcong WMA

The area was once the home of the tri county fairgrounds. That fair took place every Summer while I was growing up, until I was maybe 21 or so. I remember my last time going there was probably 2000 or 2001. It was really a good little fair with a surprising amount of rides for it’s size. My Uncle Mike and I used to ride all of them on band night, and no one else would ever go on them all back to back because they would get sick. They were good times.
We reached a former farm lane (the fair grounds were farm fields seasonally) and turned left toward the river. There’s a beautiful Sycamore along the way down hill.

Muscy WMA road

I once drove my Dodge Stratus down this way, and Jillane took her Honda CRV, but it’s tough to get down there since the old road is washing out now. We walked it to the river side and then continued to the west.
We kept falling in the mud, which wasn’t too terrible, and Ken and Lerch fell pretty far behind at some point. The rest of us sat still and waited for them, and in the meantime Red Sean and Stephen were falling in the mud or something, and Stephen was telling some sort of story where he impersonated a “Prehistoric Hominid” and crouched down in some sort of silly dance. Maybe that was what prompted the fall? I can’t quite remember for sure, but we were laughing.

Sycamore

When Lerch and Ken appeared, we continued along the path along the river side. There were two nice access points where we could reach the water, but it was not quite swimming weather this time. I already miss the warmth so much.

WMA road

We followed along the river heading to the west. The woods road remains pretty good for a while, and then opens up into sort of a meadow. At that point, it turns back and closes in a loop within the state land, but my plan was to continue further this time and see what we can come across. I knew the land was rather undeveloped because I could see from where the old fire house used to be just to the west of us. I figured it couldn’t be too hard to follow along fields and get there, and I’d never seen that stretch before.

Musconetcong River

We went slightly up hill on a sort of animal path through low vegetation to near the top of a hill, where there is a field, but we then cut to the left on a steeper slope that appeared at this point along the Musconetcong. There was sort of a path at some points, or deer trail, and not too much undergrowth, so we had to just navigate around a few blowdowns.
We continued on for just a little while and soon came across a long abandoned trailer out there. It looked at first kind of like one of those contractors trailers sat up at places where new construction was going on, so I figured it was a defunct development site.

Musconetcong WMA

There was a sort of path down toward the river, now melting back into the landscape, and a utility pole along the west side that brought power to it. This place has probably been vacant over ten years or more.
I knew it wasn’t a contractor’s place when we got inside, if you want to call it inside, and saw a bed laying there.
The rear walls were half destroyed and it was exposed to the elements except for the roof itself. We were happy to get in there to just be dry for a little while.

Muscy

We checked out junk laying around, which was slim pickings, and Lerch found some sort of a dead animal.
Upon closer inspection, this must have been a dog. It was not like any other animal. It really looked like it had been someone’s pet. We wondered if the pet had been left to die inside, or if maybe it’s owner had died and was found at the place. It was starting to feel pretty weird. The animal was just a skeleton now, but it was all firm and still holding together. I didn’t want to touch the thing, but Lerch took the skull.

Abandoned trailer

We hung out only a short time longer, then moved on. There was a little junk strewn about, like the remnant of an old trailer that at first looked like railroad wheels.
There was once a road that got back to this place, along side a now overgrown field. Invasive Autumn Olives have overtaken the field terribly. We were able to walk along the former road route for a while, but it was pretty difficult at times. There were a lot of weird angled branches to duck under. We got past some of this, and then cut to the left because the river moved off.

Abandoned

The field remains at the height of the land, but the flood plain is wider again, which made for a good walking area. There was minimal undergrowth, so we could walk it pretty easily. At one point, it looked like we were walking toward a private home, but it was on the other side of the river. There was a bend I did not know existed because there really is no seeing this part of the river from afar. We continued walking, and had to step over logs, and under some others, heading to the west and then north along the river.

Old trailer

We passed by people’s deer stands. The rain was coming down steadily, and I mentioned that it was a good thing it was so nasty out, because if it wasn’t, we’d likely have a lot of hunters to deal with out on these properties. It was after all a Saturday.
We stopped when we got to the edge of the flood plain and the height of the land where the field was came over closer to the river again. We were parallel with houses on a dead end road called Ruth Lane across on the Hunterdon side for a while, but when we got out of sight I recommended that we relieve our bladders because we’d be on roads for a bit.

Along the river

We continued ahead a bit, and there was a confluence with Hances Brook. Stepping stones were set up across next to where it joins the Musconetcong, and there were also fallen logs. Stephen almost tried to go over on the log, but everything was just too slippery to be messing around with that.
Once everyone was across, we made our way out to the pavement on the spot where the old fire department building used to be. I think the old one burned down sometime in the late ‘90s or early 2000s.

Branches

We never really had to walk Rt 57 again, because the lot goes right over to Old Turnpike Road, over a bridge that was just replaced a couple of years back (we hiked over it during construction).
The Old Turnpike is the original Easton-Morristown Turnpike, and a very nice back road for walking.
Just up stream from the bridge, there is the remnant of an old dam on the Musconetcong, so there must have been a mill here at one time as well. It may even be part of the very first house across the bridge on the right hand side.

Hances Brook crossing

We passed the intersection with Ruth Lane and continued along the Old Turnpike. We were within sight of the river, with old houses on the right, and after a little bit bordered a farm on the left side. I believe my brother Alex’s friend runs that farm, and I think this is the one that my grandfather is doing a survey on. He told us before we left that we might see lathe and flagging tape up around the property as we went by, but I don’t recall seeing any.
The farm is historic, with stone foundations and such, and Lerch wanted a group shot with the American flag and Mickey Mouse blow up thing out front.

Hances Brook crossing

There’s a sharp bend in the road by the farm, and the old masonry ruin of an old barn building still stands there. I’d noticed and taken pictures of it before, but on this occasion there was some sort of contractor in there repointing the masonry of the old structures.
We continued along the Old Turnpike to the west, at this point well above the Musconetcong where we could no longer see it. The character changed to more light residential from farm land ahead, as we entered the little village of Stephensburg.

Confluence of Muscy and Hances Brook

Stephensburg dates way back to colonial days like the other little settlements along the way. There’s an old grist mill along the Musconetcong just to the north that dates back to at least mid 1800s, and is now a residence. The Stephensburg Brook, right at the point where old Turnpike Road crosses, has the remnant of an old dam over it. Just a bit further up the stream from the intersection with Stephensburg Road, I observed a second former dam, probably for another mill at another time.

57 at former fire house site

At the intersection with Stephensburg Road, there was a cross and a Jesus as I recall, and a little thing for kneeling, right along the side of the road.
There was some sort of little piece of jewelery, and Red Sean liked it. He decided that taking that and leaving in exchange a large bottle of some kind of booze he had brought with him was more than appropriate. For a moment, he almost went for that, but then went back and returned the jewelery, but he did opt to leave the bottle of booze there anyway. Some lush will likely drive by and pick it up I suppose. I thought about it...but didn’t.

Old Muscy dam site from Old Turnpike

Although the road was more lightly traveled, there were more houses for a while ahead here. When we had to stop to pee, it was much tougher to find a place.
Roosevelt Ave and Cleveland Ave to the right both connect and they probably used to cross over the Musconetcong. I believe there is stil a disused footbridge over the river at that point, which was Cliffdale Park. Now Willy’s Weiners occupies the site on the Warren County side.
The road turned to being narrower and more rural as we made our way toward the Hunterdon County line and Point Mountain Reservation.

mail box

Just before the road turned right, to cross the Musconetcong again, the parking area for Point Mountain North is on the left, at an old house foundation and former east end of Hermit’s Lane, now a dead end road from the other side.
We hung out at the parking area for a short while until Elizabeth met up with us.
Stephen was pretty cold at this point, and Elizabeth lent him this sort of quilt thing, which Stephen wore as a burka or something or other.

Farm

From here, my plan was to follow mostly trail to the end. The white blazed trail leaves the parking area and begins to ascend parallel with the abandoned route of Hermit’s Lane. I’d always thought the trail should have been the rehabilitated road, but the other guys wanted to cut a new parallel one, so that’s what we did.
Much of this trail is over growing with Autumn Olives now, and obviously doesn’t see much maintenance since I left the county. Still, we were able to follow it for the most part, and left the overgrown area for woods. We then ascended for a bit on an old woods road.

Old Turnpike

Just as it started feeling like it gets steep, we turned to the left on the blue blazed trail. These were the trails I laid out with Tom L and Laura K at Hunterdon Parks. The blue trail at first uses an old logging road that gradually ascends and passes a rather nice seasonal vista to the north.
One of the other guys was trying to insist that we route the trail pointlessly down hill to a giant boulder because he insisted that people would bushwhack down to sit on it anyway. To this day, no one in my groups have done so, and there’s not even the slightest evidence that anyone ever bushwhacks down to it.

Old farm repointed

After a large blow down tree, the woods road disappears, and there’s one tough corner. When they reblazed this section with plastic markers, they didn’t do well because it’s hard to tell where to turn. Often times, my painted turn blazes, which are stil holding on strong after nearly a decade, are the only accurate way of finding the trail in this section.
We headed gradually up hill a bit more, and soon came to the intersection with the red blazed trail to the left, which leads to the highest point in this part of the preserve.

Stephensburg Brook and old dam site

I held everyone back when we got near the top to see the giant stone row that was found by former Parks Planner Bill Clother on a trip he did to further scout without me. It had a natural hole through it, and when he showed me I knew we had to use it.
The trail leads from here back to the white trail further up near the top. I think the height of land there is just over 1000 feet, which makes it higher than the actual tip of Point Mountain.
The trail leads down hill from here, on a slow descent toward Penwell Road.

Old Turnpike

The section was nearly lost for a while; many trees came down over this section, hunters who had a deer stand right in the middle of the trail removed multiple plastic blazes so hikers wouldn’t find their way to it, and many of them had just popped off.
It’s been somewhat cleared since that time, and we were able to stay on it mostly, though I did wander off of it at one point.
When we reached Penwell Road, at the intersection of the still used portion of Hermit’s Lane, the trail follows the Penwell Road briefly to the left. It then turns right back into more woods.

Matchmaker Matchmaker Make me a Match

We soon reached the edge of Beattys Brook, which is probably named for the same family as Beattystown, but I’m not really sure the history going back.
The trail followed the edge of it down stream and over the site of another former mill. The foundation is caved in, and one can barely make out where the water wheel and raceway might have been.
Just beyond the mill site, we crossed over the brook, then ascended to higher ground above the former Rosen Farm fields, now all part of Point Mountain Reservation. We remained on the white trail to the orange blazed Ridge Trail, which is on a woods road at the intersection.

Point Mountain north nearing Penwell

We turned right and followed the trail down to the open Rosen fields. The trail followed the left side, and cut through a line of trees to a second field. There, a wooden post showing the intersection with the blue blazed River Trail stands, which I installed almost a decade ago. There was another one down hill where the trail entered the woods, but the farmer knocked it out, and it was never replaced. The broken post still sits in the weeds where the trail goes into the woods again at the bottom of the hill.

Point Mountain Rez

We turned left and left the field area, then followed the blue blazes into the woods and back to the edge of the Musconetcong. We passed a couple of other hikers on this stretch, I believe the only other ones we saw all day. The rain had pretty much let up by this point and it wasn’t necessary to have the ponchos on any more.
We headed west along the river, and instead of remaining directly along it, I chose to take the upper blue path which leads closer to the parking area. Dan Trump met up with us at the main lot at the bottom of Point Mountain itself, to take in the major climb with us from the bottom.

Point Mountain view

The climb is always a great workout going up. It annoys me that someone went up there and touched up the blazing with spray paint, because it looks like hell now, but a lot of my old paint blazes are still holding on in this section too. Plastic ones are popping off.

Wrastlin'

We were having a lot of fun. Some sort of wrestling match ensued between Red Sean, Stephen, and Lerch, which I really don’t know what it was about, at the bottom of the climb. The climb itself took away some of that excess energy, to the point 934 feet above sea level.
The view when we reached the top was clear enough to see stuff, but still very foggy. The fields were all visible, but we could not see out to Mount No More in Warren County, and definitely not to the Kittatinny Ridge like we could on the clear days. Anderson and Port Murray were all that was in focus.

Wrastlin

From this point, we left the orange trail, which we took from the bottom to the top, and descended on the yellow blazed trail, which is the short trail to the pull off parking area. All of this is blazed only with the paint blazes I had put on, and they’re all still very clear.
We switch backed to Point Mountain Road, and then crossed to continue on the yellow blazed trail through woods and slightly up hill over some more rocks. Yellow terminated at an intersection with another white trail.

Point Mountain view

We regrouped at the intersection, and then it would be just the whtie trail all the way back to Point Mountain South, the former Wattles Fields at Mountain Top Road.
I as rather annoyed to see more of the white plastic blazes about ready to fall off the trees because they had been hammered in all the way. It’s really so easy to mark a trail if care is taken and it’s done right the first time, but it seems like sometimes people are just too stubborn and insist on doing it their own way.

Blazes ready to pop

The trail went over a couple of tributaries, which eventually make up the stream with the waterfall on it behind my dad’s old house, and then picked up an old farm road that makes it’s way to the fields. I pointed out one of the abandoned old trucks off in the weeds to the left, but somehow I missed the other two trucks and the old spring house to the left. It was weird because those features are far more obvious.
We emerged in the fields, cut from one to the larger one, and then kept with the mowed path directly back to Mountain Top Road. I pointed out the wetland restoration project on the right that I’d worked on when I was with Hunterdon on the way.

Point Mountain South

It was only just starting to get a little dark. We were making pretty good time.
Everything was good when we got to the parking area, and turned left on the road toward my grandfather’s house. Somewhere in there, Lerch hit a wall and needed help walking, which was odd because he was totally fine up until that point.
We followed the road with ease all the way back to the house, then ordered some pizzas for pickup for dinner. I believe it must have been Stephen that took Elizabeth and Dan back to get their cars close by, and then got the pizza from Dicola’s.

Wrastlin

Unfortunately, Dicola’s wouldn’t deliver that far, even though they had actually gone farther to Penwell for us in the past when we ordered to the trail.
Craig Craig showed up to eat and hang out with us anyway, but he missed the hike due to having truck trouble the night before.
We had a glorious feast of garlic, mushroom, and some sort of other stuff I don’t remember.
I was glad that I still had a reasonable showing of friends there to meet my grandfather. I really want as many people as possible to get to know him. Really, in order to understand me better, they need to know him.
He showed everyone his video of when he was in the Barbership Chorus International Competition in Indianapolis Indiana back in 1997. I was there for that too, and it was great.
After that, he took everyone up to his office and drafting board and showed us how he goes about doing a property survey. He’s the last of the land surveyors who still hand draws his maps. He’s really the last of a breed of surveyor from before CAD systems and digital.

My grandfather's drafting table

Everyone really enjoyed hearing all of his stories, about jobs, about court, about his time in the military, and about his time with the Barbershoppers. There were some stories even I had never heard before, like one about him and his army buddies passing around a bottle of peppermint schnapps in some European country, and then trying to act composed when a commanding officer went by, who ended up being more drunk than all of them.
We slowly dispersed as the night went by, and I took Red Sean back to his car.

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