Hike #1100; Atlantic Highlands

Hike #1,100: Atlantic Highlands

12/30/17 Atlantic Highlands Loop with Jennifer Berndt, George Gonzales , Mr. Buckett (Jim Mathews), Tamara Sapilak, Nicole Waker, Greg Battista, Tom Vorrius, Brittany Audrey, Justin Gurbisz, Red Sean (Patrick Ó Ríoghbhardáin) Reardon, Craig Craig, Captain Soup (David Campbell) and Serious Sean Dougherty!

Our next hike would be a really great loop in the Atlantic Highlands vicinity. We’d repeat some favorite old places I’d gone, and add a lot that have been on my “to do” list.
I had once done a sort of variation on this hike, in July of 2007. I’d been back to some of the parks since then, but never tried a variation of the same. This would of course have new stuff added on top of that.

Old seashore branch spur

We met in the morning in Atlantic Highlands, at the Super Foodtown grocery store along Route 36. I chose this point because it was roughly the junction point where a branch of the Seashore Branch of the Central Railroad of New Jersey used to have a branch down to the Claypit Creek. The main branch went off to the waterfront. My plan was to follow the spur line to the southeast, then pass through trails and such in different preserves including Hartshorne Woods, and return via the Seashore Branch main line to the east.

Atlantic Highlands map with the old rail lines

As it turns out, right about where we parked was where the railroad used to come across what is now Rt 36, at the intersection of West Avenue, and it came right through the parking lot for the grocery store. We all met on the west side of the lot.

Old rail spur

It was bitterly cold out. I figured I’d have to wear a hat in order to get through it. I had originally had a ton of people signed up, over thirty. As the weather was looking colder and snowy, people started to drop. We did end up with fifteen in the end though.
After using the grocery store, we started walking across the lot east to 1st Avenue. We crossed, and the railroad bed went to the left along the back of an apartment building. We walked around the front of the building, and then beyond behind it to 3rd Ave and came out on 36.

Old rail bed

The rail bed was blocked off by a fence to the backs of the next yards and such, so we walked the highway for a bit.
The next street to cross the right of way was 7th Ave, but there was no access there either. We kept on 36, then turned right on Central Avenue, which ended at more apartment buildings along a stream known as Many Mind Creek. I couldn’t really pick out the rail bed, but it was right along it. We tried walking around the buildings, but there was a fence and yards beyond, so again we had to go back out to Rt 36 and walk a distance to the east. I think I had the wrong spot, and it was further up.

On the rail bed

We took the right on Grand Ave, and there was a dirt driveway road to the left on the old railroad bed. We followed that for a little bit out to Navesink Ave. It went into yards and such beyond there, so we turned right on Navesink a short distance to Columbia Ave and turned left. I wondered if our numerous newcomers this time were having a good time with this, but it seemed to be going alright actually. Tom in particular made them feel pretty welcome by relating stores of past craziness including the 63 mile hike we did a few years before.

Path to the rail bed

We reached reached East Ave and continued across into an apartment complex on the other side. The rail bed would have been along the backs of the northernmost buildings.
When we got to the end of that complex, there was a bit of sidewalk angled off between them. We followed this out back and then could see a foot path heading up hill to the grade of the old railroad. There was a small tributary to the Many Mind Creek, and it still had a cast iron pipe beneath it for the railroad. We ascended and headed through some weeks to the east.

Rail bed

The foot path on the right of way sort of ended, and we had to go through some thicket. These plants were kind of awful, because they seemed to aim right for the eyes. One good hit and I’d lose a contact lens, so I had to have a hand up to bar them for a bit.
We emerged from the mess out to Sears Ave. There was a guy in a white van there, apparently to work on utilities or something. We headed directly across, and a service road continued on the old rail bed, which had overhead lines on them by this point.

CNJ grade

We walked right by the guy parked there, and he didn’t tell us not to go on any further, so we just walked on through.
The gravel driveway went back to some sort of power conduit station surrounded by chain link fences. We decided to walk around to the right side, because I thought it looked most clear, and then continued on the rail bed on the other side, which didn’t have nearly as much of a path along it. It was overgrown, but not too terrible that we couldn’t bully our way on through.

CNJ grade

The rail bed was down in a rather deep cut, so we weren’t immediately visible from yards or anything. We managed to just make our way out to the next road, which had an appropriate railroad related name: Miller’s Crossing.
The end of the right of way, maybe the last fifty or sixty feeet, was mowed into someone’s back yard area, from a house to the right. I don’t think anyone was paying attention with snow coming down and on such a cold day, so we made our way out casualy.

CNJ grade

From this point, the rail bed went onto private land ahead. We had to turn to the right on Millers Crossing, then went left on Monmouth Ave a short distance.
Then, we turned right on Osborne Ave, right next to the former railroad crossing site. Osborne Ave is parallel with the old railroad bed just to the east.
We stayed on Osborne Ave for just a little bit, and then came to the intersection with Locust Ave. We turned to the left here just a little bit, and we could see where the railroad used to cross over.

CNJ grade

This was kind of an odd area because my maps show that the line went straight on to a point out on Claypit Creek, but this area appears to have evidence of a wye, a sort fo place where trains could turn around and face the opposite direction. A separate grade went off to the left, toward a lovely old stone church building.
Rather than try to follow the road to the right, we opted to try to continue following the railroad bed to the east a little. It was pretty overgrown, and we had to parallel it a bit to the north.

Old rail bed parallel with Osborne Ave

There was really no good way of staying on the rail bed. It was flat, but not clear. Multi flora rose and such was all on it, and other parts of the woods had too many blow downs. I led everyone a bit to the north and through interspersed forest with hardwoods and nice American Holly.
In the woods, we came upon an official cleared trail, which was not shown on my map, and turned right to follow it to the south. We didn’t continue to follow the old railroad bed any further, although I’d like to return to do so in the future.

Old railroad wye?

The path emerged at Linden Ave, which was an old estate road that went out onto Locust Point, which used to be an amazing site before Monmouth County razed all of the old buildings.
This is an area that’s been of particular interest to me.
Typically, when a building is razed, especially an historic one, there is a public uproar and plenty of articles written about it. In the case of the giant house that used to stand overlooking Locust Point, and the smaller one adjacent to it, I can find literally nothing.

View of Claypit Creek at Locust Point

It’s my opinion that the public was not heard much on this matter and that the entire demolition at the property was rather swept up. There is definitely some corruption at Monmouth, and I’ve been told of a lot of it from some of my former co workers.
The main house was an enormous, beautiful structure, which was probably an earlier farm house. It had a main frame that looked to be possibly colonial in origin. To the south side, there were two additions, or one that looked like two, coming off of it to give it triple the size.

Locust Point house

The area was an obvious choice for a house. Hartshorne Woods is named for it’s first settler, Richard Hartshorne, who first sailed to the area in 1670 and purchased the land from the Lenape tribe for thirteen shillings.

Locust Point house

While much of the land remained in the Hartshorne family right up until the first sections were purchased as a park, many other sections were sold off to private owners and to the government.
Starting in World War II, the site was seen as a strategic location to protect the New York harbor. It became the Navesink Military Reservation, and had batteries for anti aircraft and such. Some military operations continued at the site through the early 1970s in the Rocky Point section, and became park in the ‘80s.
I am uncertain where Richard Hartshorne settled his English Quaker family, but Locust Point does appear to be a good spot because it was protected a bit inland, and it was where Claypit Creek began to get narrower, allowing for crossing.

Locust Point house

I just know there was something more to this historic house, and that Monmouth County and whoever else was involved with it’s demolition don’t want the information out there.

Locust Point house site

When we emerged and walked to the Claypit Creek, we could see the old truss bridge going across, and good views out to the waterfront. It was depressing when I looked to the left and saw the beautiful old house was gone except for one small pavilion thing that was on the side.

Claypit Creek

The house had a southern plantation style porch that looked off at the widening Claypit Creek, at a really beautiful site toward it’s confluence with the Shrewsbury and Navesink Rivers.
The pavilion thing or well was still sitting with one of the trees that was against the old house, and beyond they decided for some reason to keep the old carriage house. I’m glad it’s still there, but to choose this and not the main house is really sad.
When were were at this point in 2010, even the carriage house had peeled paint and looked rather shabby, but was far from impossible to save obviously.

Carriage house in 2010

We walked past the carriage house on the looping road around it, and then approached the site of the second old house. I’m not sure exactly which one was older, but I think it was probably the main from of the one closer to the water. This other house was certainly built well before 1900, as the foundation and basement were all rather rough masonry and the shape of it was old.
This house was in worse shape when it was still standing than the larger house. I thought it might have been workers quarters at one time or something like that. It was still pretty big even for that.

Carriage house now

It was a larger, wider framed building, which would have looked more antiquated if it had had a long porch on it’s front, which it obviously once had. It had a lot of rot and was deteriorating, but far from not being salvageable.
Still, this house was torn down too. I was informed, I think by my old friend Doug at Hunterdon Parks, that both houses were removed shortly after we visited in 2010.
The county did leave one small remnant of the house; a stone lower wall to the east side.

Second old house in 2010

Right where the house stood, there was the wall with a roof type of structure over it. There were two windows in the wall, which helped me to determine exactly which angle it was, and it compared correctly with the photo I had taken from that angle of the building seven or eight years ago.
I looked around the site, and nowhere to be found was a single historic marker saying anything about the buildings that used to stand there. The remnant wall of the house just looks like a stupid novelty because there is nothing in place to say what it was. If this truly was done in 2010 or shortly thereafter, one would think they’d be able to put up something of significance. But nothing.

The house in 2010

There were some information signs at the parking area to the south of the old house site, but nothing on the buildings. We had to wait a short bit for Tamara, who was meeting us late here. There was also a restroom, so people took advantage as we hung out.

Remnant of the home from the same angle now

Once Tamara arrived, we headed around the loop to close it and got back on the trail we had walked in. This was not on my map yet; it was a new trail called Locust Point Trail that connected the old house sites with the rest of the park.

Locust Point Trail

It looks like the county sunk most of their money into this rather than historic preservation, because the wide trail had prefabricated bridges and such on it.
On line, Monmouth has not even updated their maps to show the new trail connection, but the hard copies at the parking lot had it. It just goes to show more of the mediocrity that goes on sometimes in this business. It should take a few minutes to put accurate material up on line, and it will take someone getting lost and hurt before it does.

Giant tree in Hartshorne Woods

We followed the new trail to it’s intersection with Laurel Ridge Trail, in the Buttermilk Valley section of the park.
Monmouth County Parks trails are marked like garbage. They use no turn blazes, and the trails are only marked every so often. There are so many side trails that are unofficial, you just don’t know when you’re going on something the right way or not. They have good signs at some places, but just won’t adopt something simple and proven to work. When I brought up that they were marked badly in the past, they shrug it off. A friend mentioned the same and was yelled at saying “WE WIN AWARDS FOR OUR TRAILS!”. They just don’t want to hear any of it, and it continues to be horrible.

Battery Lewis

We continued on the Laurel Ridge Trail to the south, then north on the little ridges. It’s not really a direct route, and I fell behind a lot of the group. There were side paths, first to an overlook (which last time I was there was overgrown and no longer an overlook), then to the maintenance area. Everyone fortunately waited at intersections or we could have serious problems in this park.
We turned off of Laurel Ridge Trail to the right when we got to Grand Tour, another trail, and passed beneath a giant bent tree, which could be done by Native Americans.

New gun emplacement in Battery Lewis

We hung a right at an intersection in Grand Tour, and Serious Sean joined us. He walked right by the rest of the group and just said “hi” to kind of see what they would do. A couple recognized him, and said “HEY!” as he walked by. When he found me at the back, we continued to the next intersection where there was a lot of low brambles. We had a really good time walking from here along the Grand Tour route to the Command Loop intersection, and then just walked the access roadway to the east in order to catch Red Sean, who just arrived.

Big gun

Both Red Sean and Serious Sean were parked at the lot by Battery Lewis, part of the old military reservation.
We walked along part of the Battery Loop, and checked out Battery Lewis. We used to be able to walk right through the thing, as it was always open. Now, it was closed off with bars so we couldn’t even walk under.
The one cool development since the last time we’d been there was the placement of a sixteen inch cannon from surplus of the US Iowa Class battleships, like the Battleship New Jersey.

Battery Lewis

The guns used on those ships were similar to those that were placed at Battery Lewis, and so it was an opportunity for interpretation Monmouth jumped on. It looks pretty cool in place at the site.
This one battery was one we could walk into, but not through. We checked out the gun, and Sean tried to climb through. There was no getting all the way through it because it was just way too thin. Silliness ensued with piggy back rides and such to look into it. After that, we moved on around the outside of the battery back to the lot.

At Battery Lewis

We crossed over the parking lot, and then headed back along the access road we had just followed for a short bit. We then made the first right hand turn on the Cuesta Ridge Trail.

Snap!

There was a bit of up hill, but it was overall a pretty relaxing path.
I believe the trail, which followed a gentle slope, is part of a glacial terminal moraine like we have seen on Staten Island just to the north. The name “cuesta” is from Spanish meaning a gentle ridge.
Serious Sean was in rare form, and after I feel down once on the ice (I was wearing these bologna skin sneakers Lerch had just given me in a happy bag), he started comedically falling down again and again. He also ran and grabbed onto a tree, snapped and fell.

Cuesta Ridge Trail

The snow had been coming down pretty steadily all day. It wasn’t too deep, but it was just enough to make us a bit frigid, and the trails very slippery. Craig’s beard was creating an impressive assortment of ice-sickles from it all.
We passed the intersection with Grand Tour, which went to the north a bit, then comes back down to rejoin at the intersection with Laurel Ridge Trail and Cuesta Ridge Trail. We continued straight on Laurel Ridge Trail from here. The trail leads out ot the Buttermilk Valley parking area on Navesink Ave.

Ice beard!

A park ranger showed up while we were there. In Monmouth, all maintenance guys carry a badge and are technically rangers as well. One of the former Hunterdon guys showed up flaunting his badge when he moved over there I recall.
He was a nice guy, we didn’t have any trouble, though he was probably wondering why this big group of people laughing and carrying on about stupid things (Justin in particular) were leaving the parking lot and walking up Navesink Ave.

Silliness

We only walked Navesink Ave a short distance, and then turned to the left on Pape Drive, a small development road to town houses or apartments or something. This was another of my weird moves that no one else would consider doing on a hike.
While we walked, a guy cleaning snow off his car was at first defensive asking what we were all doing. After we said we were hiking, he changed his tune and became very friendly. We continued to the last building on the north side of the loop, then cut into the woods directly.

Climbin

The wooded section took us right up to the guard rail on Rt 36, where we crossed over directly to ball fields on the other side, perfectly as planned. Serious Sean, Justin, and Red Sean all climbed onto some of the batting cage structure while we walked along.
We headed west on an access road known as Beaman Blvd, which led to another building or apartment or something, and I could see a routed sign off into the woods for one of the trails I was looking for. This was apparently part of the Lenape Woods.

Into the Lenape woods

This section was the Two Valley Trail. I had done some of the main trail in the past, when I last hiked it in 2007, but this was another bit I had never done. It was great to cover so much interspersed new stuff.
We followed the trail up hill a bit, and I fell behind again. The stress level I’ve been dealing with has been often times debilitating, and twice during the course of this hike I’d felt very sick and had to pause for a few moments before going on. This was one of those times.
When I caught up, there was a hiker pile forming, with Serious Sean, Red Sean, Justin and George. Quite hilarious.

The trail continued just a bit ahead to the Old Oak Trail. From there, we turned right just a bit more up hill to emerge on East Highland Ave. We turned right at the top and followed the pleasant back street to the east.
This road was sort of a dead end to the east, so it got next to no traffic and was very nice along the top of the last ridge before the Sandy Hook Bay. At the dead end, we simply were able to walk across Ocean Blvd to Mount Mitchell Scenic Overlook, another Monmouth County Park.

Brisk, baby

Mt. Mitchell is named for Samuel Latham Mitchell, a Quaker physician, teacher, and naturalist born in New York in 1764. He was involved in politics and industrialism including the development of the Erie Canal. The “mountain” is named for him because it was he who determined the height of the land, 266 feet above sea level.
Mount Mitchell is the highest head land of the entire eastern US coast, including islands, south of Maine. There are no higher points until down to the Yucatan.

Mt. Mitchell view

From the top, we could see all the way out Sandy Hook, and on a clearer day Long Island, Staten Island, and the New York City skyline are all very clearly visible.

View on Mt. Mitchell

Sean climbed up on an eagle statue, and the same Monmouth ranger we saw before showed up and told us not to do that. I had to let Justin know not to laugh too hard any more because we didn’t want to have any problems.

Off trail Mt. Mitchell

I pointed out some of the features beyond, including Spermacetti Cove, which is an interesting point on southern Sandy Hook.
I wanted to get out of there at this point, and so we headed to a little cover of woods, and then headed off trail, or rather an informal trail, that took us through the swath of woods down to Ocean Blvd to the south.
We turned left on the road, and soon reached the Quick Chek, so we took a good break.
I saw the sign said there were special three dollar sandwiches, so I got some turkey ham thing, which was actually outstanding. I was still hungry after and got empanadas.

Mt Mitchell sunset

We hung out here for a while and warmed up. Once everyone had fiinshed with whatever they needed, we headed on down hill on Ocean Blvd to Memorial Parkway (36) to Linden Drive down hill. While we were almost to the bottom of Linden, Serious Sean decided to opt out and walk back to his car at Battery Lewis, because he didn’t want to do the final waterfront with the bad wind potential. The rest of us continued on out to the shore line. The sun was starting to set behind the highlands and Mt. Mitchell, which looked amazing.

On the beach

We couldn’t as easily walk the beach waterfront this time as in the past when I’d done it. It was blocked off by fences and such to the west from where the boarding is on the Sea Streak Ferry.
We managed to get over on some sections, and walked some back streets. Brittany got sick and said she couldn’t do beach hikes with me because this happened the last time as well. We moved inland to Shore Drive, which is partially built on the old Jersey Central Seashore Branch, and followed it to the parking area at the end, where the rail bed is now a trail. The last time I’d been there, it was not open yet, and some work was started.

Henry Hudson Trail

We walked out to the beach directly first, because it was so pretty. The wind was no longer bad, and we had a much better view of Staten Island, Sandy Hook, and even the Verrazano Narrows Bridge. The NY skyline was there, but it was still rather obscure.
Jen and Mr. Buckett decided to Uber out because Jen had to be somewhere later, and Jen had already done this section many times before anyway. So the rest of us continued down the old railroad bed heading west.
It’s now Henry Hudson Trail, named for the explorer who first sailed his ship, the Half Moon, into the bay in 1609 looking for a passage to the west.

Verrazano Narrows in view

The railroad through this area was rather obliterated when I’d seen it before. Some sections had a bit of grading remaining, but right on the waterfront it was very much gone from weather battering it over the years.

The rail bed before the formal trail

It’s amazing that a whole decade has gone by and I’ve just never managed to revisit until this time. it was really a tough time in the NJ perimeter series trying to fight along this shore line in it’s former condition. It was a pleasure walk this time.

The rail bed now

The line started out as the Freehold and Atlantic Highlands Railroad. It was built in sections, with Freehold to Matawan in 1877, Matawan to Keyport in 1880, and to Keyport Pier in 1881.

The railbed before the trail

By then it was “Freehold and New York Railroad”. Atlantic Highlands and New York Railroad connected to Highlands, and Central Railroad of New Jersey eventually took over the entire route.
Abandonment of the line happened in phases starting in 1973. It was slowly cut back through the 90s, and NJ Transit considered using some of it out near Matawan for service, but instead opted to lease the right of way to Monmouth County for trail use. The line is rail banked, which means they can come back in and rebuilt it at any time should they deem it necessary. Monmouth County has a lease through the year 2020.

Along the bay

If NJ Transit should decide to reactiveate commuter service on the line, it would be the first instance in US history of a trail reverting back to rail use. Personally, I have no problem with this at all if it were found that this infrastructure would be to economical and transportation benefit. The highways are already too clogged, and rail service has been proven time and again to be a superior way of moving people and goods from place to place. The fact that rail is not embraced more for freight boggles my mind. A single train with 100 cars stacked double high (a not uncommon thing to see near my home) means 200 less tractor trailers out on the highways.

I’m not too optimistic about seeing restoration on this line because it’s so close to the water, making it a maintenance nuisance, but maybe on the western portion. I also know that someone will end up fighting against it tooth and nail.
We continued as the rail bed moved inland a bit. I’d never walked this before, because it was too wet and overgrown. We walked the adjacent beach the last time through.
The trail was developed on board walks in this section, which was really nice. I was happy to see that they did not pave this section, but rather used a crushed stone.

I’ve spoken out against the crushed stone aggregate in other cases, but on this section there absolutely had to be some sort of surfacing. Those rocks would be hellish.
The trail emerged in the boat storage areas, and then weaved around the fence lines. We had to open a gate at one point to go on through. This section actually had been developed the last time I was there. The railroad continued south along Hennessey Blvd after going out onto a waterfront bridge section, which obviously is gone and the trail had to circumnavigate. It then headed west away from the road.

The CNJ line at the pier

Serious Sean drove up in his car as we were walking by hooting and making faces. I thought he might meet us at the end and have dinner with us, but he ended up disappearing and we didn’t see him when we got to the parking area.
There was a sign directing Henry Hudson Trail users to turn right on one of the streets, but we continued ahead to get back to the grocery store parking lot to close in our loop.
We got some food at “On the Deck” very close to where we were parked, after I drove Red Sean and Tamara back to their cars close by. The hike had gone really well, and was a good one to close out 2017 with. With each chapter it still seems to get more interesting, and I’ll expect the same of 2018.

HAM