Hike #1101; Spruce Run and High Bridge Area

Hike #1101; Spruce Run and High Bridge Area

1/1/18 Van Syckles/Spruce Run to High Bridge with Jim “Uuncle Soup” Campbell, Captain Soup (David Campbell), Craig Craig, Daniel Trump, and Ellie Zabeth

Our next hike would be a point to point, and my annual First Day Hike for the new year.
I realized on the previous hike when one of our newcomers had mentioned to me about doing a “fifty hike challenge”, and what an undertaking it was, that I hosted 100 full day, long hikes in 2017. Fifty seems really like nothing in comparison.

Highlands Trail blazes shot all up

The year has been off to a really rough start for me, and I really didn’t even want to do this hike at all, truth be told. I had committed to it through work, as I usually do for this event, and so I felt even more obligated than ever to just do it.
Surprisingly, I found out through my Superintendent that most of the first day hikes had apparently gotten canceled due to the cold and wind. On top of this, I usually get a great showing, but meetup.com has changed their layout and now it’s quite crappy. I can’t even post the correct locations because they eliminated that feature. I put some blame on meetup because no people are not as quick to RSVP.

Old Van Syckles Road

Still, Uncle Soup, Captain Soup, and Dan Trump showed up at the meet point, and Elizabeth showed up at the start point, so off we went.
We started walking from a parking area on Van Syckles Road to the west of Spruce Run Recreation Area, in Clinton Wildlife Management Area. My starting route was actually not the Highlands Trail, but rather a route through fields that I’d never done before to get to it. I really wanted to do something new if I was to do this, because I know the area all too well otherwise. We eventually got to Highlands Trail and started going east.

View to Spruce Run with the tower and club house

The teal diamond trail blazes were all shot up when we got on the trail by people using them for target practice. What’s worse, they are doing it to ones that are facing the nearby road.
We continued on, and passed the Joseph Turner House museum. I’d contacted Bill Honachefsky to see if he wanted to meet up and do some history talking, but he was away at a golf tournament thing or something I think in Far Hills. We continued past there, around a large pond that sits in from the reservoir, then continued along a driveway and then along woods and field edges to the east.

View to Old Van Syckles Road

The trail eventually comes to a spot where there used to be a house years ago, before the early sixties and the start of the reservoir. I think it was pretty much clear for it by 1963.
From here, the Highlands Trail turns left to follow the old route of Van Syckles Road, from before the area was flooded. We followed that down hill and to the reservoir bed, which is probably below fifty percent capacity at this point. Besides that, it was nearly frozen solid, so we could walk right over some sections. I just didn’t want to take too many chances with it in case it broke on us.

Along Spruce Run

We headed down to where the old road went into the water, and we turned to the left. The Black Brook flows into the reservoir at this point, and even when it went under I was worried it might not be that thick where it’s running.
We continued from here along the shore to the east, and then came to another outlook where we could see the road going in and coming back out of the water. Ahead we could see the tower and club house at Spruce Run. Both were reportedly built in the 1930s by the Civilian Conservation Corps, and were allowed to remain up when the area was turned into Spruce Run Recreation Area.

Spruce Run

Tower and club house are the oldest buildings in the park, and the tower has been converted into a restroom. I told everyone to shoot for that because it would be heated and open year round.
The old Van Syckles Road route actually goes almost through where the control building and toll booth are today.
I tried walking out on the water for a bit, but then I started hearing some cracking. Uncle Soup was following me at first, but then when he heard it he opted to go onto the land. Along the edges, we could see there was no ice in some spots, especially near the Park Police dock, which was now well out of water.

Spruce Run

Beyond there, the old road follows on or close to the boat launch road to where the closed former boat launch access road is. That former road is the old Polktown Road, and to the right, the Union Road used to continue. Van Syckles Road from that point was an off set intersection where through travelers heading east would once have to turn left, then right on Van Syckles CORNER Road, not Van Syckles Road straight through.
We had a little break at the restrooms, then continued on the concrete walkway.

Along Highlands Trail at Spruce Run

At the corner, an intersection with another walkway is now the route of the Highlands Trail, which used to simply be a crummy road walk through the boat launch road area. It now uses the pathway along the water and goes right by the beach complex. We followed the trail route through the trees, then out to the beach area.
When we got to the beach complex area itself, we left the walkway and headed directly onto the beach and toward the waterfront. There is a long peninsula that leads around the lower Picnic Area #2 site, then cuts back to the north. We stayed along the water heading parallel with the camp grounds.
It’s actually quite a long ways around following this route, but very pretty. Just past the camp grounds, we made our way to the boat rental area. The docks here were totally out of the water. Just beyond there, the old Union Road could be seen coming out of the water.

Spruce Run

The Union Road was described as the road that went from William Trent’s House, in Trenton, to “The Union”.
The Union was the thirteen thousand acres of land purchased by William Allen and Joseph Turner in 1742 to power the iron furnace also constructed in what is now the recreation area. Charcoal was needed at the time, because it was before the advent of the hot blast furnace, so much acreage was necessary. Spruce Run’s confluence with Willoughby Brook was chosen because it had good sand for the casts, another very important part of the process.

On the boat launch dock

We continued walking, and got onto the macadam of the old Union Road. We were able to follow it pretty easily from here along the lower end of Picnic Areas 3 and 4.

Old Union Road

We soon passed the foundation of the old building built in 1934. It is reportedly now the state office building at the end of Van Syckles Road. It was moved when the area was to become the reservoir.
We could also see some other former masonry foundations along the way, but I have no idea what any of them had been.
When we started approaching the boat launch area, and the Union Road went back up into the trees to the north, we could either walk all the way around, or cut across the body of water on the ice.

Old Union road

We even noticed an old culvert on the old Union Road, which carried a spring beneath the road.
I decided I would try to cut across this one. I followed by a recently frozen crack, thinking it would likely be more solid than the rest of it, which was probably accurate.
Captain Soup started following me as I recall, but went back. The others went all the way around, and I could hear some cracks around me, but it ended up being fine. Actually, I think Uncle Soup went with me the entire way, because we walked to the boat launch restroom and hung out waiting for the others to show up where it was warm.

Perverted ice fishermen

Once we were all together, we headed back to the waterfront and started walking the shore back toward Van Syckles Road.
Celeste Fondaco Martin was unable to do this hike, because she was obligated already as a Sierra Club co leader for their event, but she wanted to stop by and see us.

Union Furnace

She parked at the parking lot off Van Syckles, second from Rt 31, and walked out to meet up with us.
We chatted for a little bit, and we headed to see the remnants of the historic Union Furnace, which were now much more out of the water than they’d been earlier. We could make out the round shape of the kiln area very easily. Most people fish off of the thing and have no idea what it is. I suppose it’s better that way.
I had another historic 1930s image of the ruins I needed a comparison shot of.

Union Furnace ruins as they appeared in the 1930s

It came out pretty good. The water around it was frozen enough, and the former wall was just barely out of the water at this point, so I was able to get a good comparison.

Union Furnace today

Celeste had to head out to do her Sierra Club hike, and so we continued on along the shore a short distance to where old Van Syckles Corner Road broke off to the right.

Old Van Syckles Corner Road

Prior to the reservoir, the parking lot near the furnace was actually the road. In the early 60s, the road was moved to make way for the reservoir, and redubbed simply “Van Syckles Road”. The original Van Syckles Corner Road continued into the present reservoir, and went to a four way intersection with the predecessor to Route 31 (Spruce Run Turnpike) and Cregar Road, which now connects with 31 just to the east of the original spot.
We could see the old road bridge that used to go over the tributary or mill race for Union Furnace on the old road, and headed to walk over it.

Van Syckles Corner Road

There was still a little bit of the old road still under water, but the short distance of that was completely frozen over, so we were able to just continue on until the pavement started back up again.
There was another spot with an old culvert pipe under this road as well, though it was much more beat up.
We followed the road to the east all the way to the former bridge site where it used to cross the Spruce Run itself, which finds it’s course again in the dry reservoir bed.

Van Syckles Corner Road

The area around the bridge was subject to a lot of digging over the course of the previous fall.
The quarry in Glen Gardner had left pumps running all night long, and it ended up putting all sorts of silt and such into the Spruce Run. For days on end, huge trucks with pumps worked the tributary from at least five different locations between Glen Gardner and the reservoir to get the fine silt out. The sediment was so fine that it would get into the gills of fish and invertebrates, causing major impacts. I would see them pumping every day on my drive in to work at Spruce Run.

As part of their remediation, they repaired and cleared off the jetty that goes out to the reservoir from the large parking lot off of Van Syckles Road. Normally, I would walk up to the jetty and then head across the regular road bridge to cross Spruce Run, but this time it was well frozen enough that we could walk right across the creek at the former bridge site and get on the old Spruce Run Turnpike route from the former intersection site (it was also Rt 30, then Rt 69 before it became Rt 31 many years ago.).

Old Van Syckles Corner Road bridge site

We turned left on the old road and crossed the beat up old concrete bridge over Willoughby Brook, which flows out of Voorhees State Park, and is also usually under water.
We continued on the old road out to the fish and game office building, which reportedly was once along Union Road and moved to this site, and turned to the right out to the parking lot for the italian restaurant near the intersection on Rt 31. We walked behind it, then turned to the right onto the access road to ball fields.

Old road along Willoughby Brook

This was another part of the hike I was excited about because I’d never done it before. I had been wanting to explore some more of the property back there, much fo which is now state park land, but just hadn’t gotten around to it.
About a month or two ago at work, I was up at a farm clearing some fallen trees with Forest Fire Service from a private land, and we parked across from the Central Railroad of New Jersey culvert that carried the Willoughby Brook beneath. I walked through the thing and looked around, which was when I decided I wanted to make this a part of a hike really soon.

Willoughby Brook

The route had been proposed years ago to be the main route of the Highlands Trail before it was instead routed along Buffalo Hollow Road, but this plan never came to be, mostly because NJ Transit, who owns the old CNJ line, will not allow for the trail to cross the tracks at grade.
I personally believe a good walkway could be put along the water beneath it, and the Buffalo Hollow Road route could be an alternative high water route.
We continued along the ball field road to the fields themselves and walked east.

Willoughby Brook

When we got to the far side of the fields, there was no good way of continuing. It was all stuff like multi flora rose and Autumn Olive. We had to backtrack a bit, go through an opening in the chain link fence, then bushwhack through a few weeds to the south to the edge of Willoughby Brook.
It was like an old road once we were through it. There was a substantial stone row along the way which allowed for rather easy walking to the east. We followed it as far as we could, then I decided to try my luck on the creek itself.

Willoughby

It had been insanely cold lately, and the wind chill made it even worse. Even the creek bed looked almost frozen solid. Except for a few areas where the water showed through the ice, we could just walk on top of it. I did this for a bit, and a couple of times fell through and got my feet a bit wet. I was only wearing sneakers, which I know was stupid, but it wasn’t that bad. I dried off pretty quickly and there was really no problem. For the most part, we followed the creek right to the fill and culvert for the former Central Railroad of NJ.

CNJ Willoughby Brook culvert

The Central Railroad of NJ came through the area about 1853. It was born out of the Elizabeth and Somerville Railroad’s merger with the Somerville and Raritan Railroad, and the combined companies continued to expand west to Phillipsburg.

Willoughby culvert

From Phillipsburg, the CNJ absorbed the Lehigh and Susquehanna Railroad, thus gaining it’s out route into the Anthracite region of Pennsylvania, which made it a major competitor to the other coal hauling railroads seeking the same service. It remained up there with Delaware, Lackawanna, and Western, Lehigh Valley, Reading, Lehigh and New England, and more pretty much until the Conrail years. The original main line in New Jersey is still in place except for the western Warren Co section where Rt 78 severed it.

Willoughby culvert

The section from Cranford area to Elizabeth is now out of service, but everything from there to High Bridge is still active NJ Transit. The crossing of Willoughby Brook is just beyond that end of service, but trains are still backed into the area, and I witnessed the replacement of ties and such on the section just in 2017. There have been talks of test trains running out of Lehigh Valley, which would result in the reactivation of some of this section. How commuter service on this was ever let go is beyond me, but maybe we’ll see it again.

Willoughby culvert

Since I’d walked the culvert before, I knew that it could be done without really getting wet. Ice went from the west end just a bit in, then stopped. The floor is not even ankle deep along the edges. I got past the ice and started on through.

Willoughby Culvert

Always up for more adventure, Uncle Soup followed me on in.
It really wasn’t too bad at all. The floor of the culvert is a vertically oriented flat masonry which allows for waters of the brook to flow over top, and it has stood the test of time against erosion. The entire culvert facade is also in fine shape, which is amazing for it’s age. We came out the other side, while the others headed up to cross over the tracks and come back down on the opposite slope. I was a bit nervous because they were descending steep slope fast above the culvert.

Willoughby Culvert

A slip on that slope with too fast a descent could send someone plummeting over the mantle above the culvert and onto the rocky brook below. I warned them all from the ground that they should step to the side.
Once everyone was down, we had a pleasant walk through a swath of woods toward Buffalo Hollow Road, which is in this area maybe known as Poplar Road. It changes a couple of times from different municipalities. It can be confusing for those not from the area. It should really be Buffalo Hollow south or something.

Willoughby Culvert

Where we ascended to the road, we were able to go almost directly across to get on the Highlands Trail. It turnes on Poplar from the main Buffalo Hollow to reach a former driveway site, where there was a house apparently demolished, and ascends into Voorhees State Park. We climbed the driveway, then took to steps up into the park where it intersects with the pink plazed Vista Trail. We turned left on the co-aligned trails and followed them across a stream on a long bridge, then emerged on Observatory Road.

Mr. and Mrs. Andrew Jones

Craig was able to meet up with us at this point where there was parking. Just as he joined, an old work buddy, Andrew Jones pulled up to me with his wife, both decked out in full camos from having done some hunting recon. I worked with him for over a year when I first joined the team at Hunterdon County Parks Department, but he got a better paying job with Washington Township in Morris County and moved on from there (almost anywhere pays better than Hunterdon County parks). We chatted about some of his spots he’s using up at Voorhees and about possible future deer management on Warren Co Parks.

Pileated Woodpecker

As we talked, a large Pileated Woodpecker was tapping away at a dead tree across from us. I was rather surprised that it had no real fear of us, just going at it within close proximity. Usually these woodpeckers tend to be a bit more skittish. Not this one.

Gold Trail

We said goodbye to the Joneses and headed up along the Highlands Trail, co-aligned with Cross park Trail, across the power line and then through the most secluded section of Voorhees. We crossed the new SCA built bridge, then headed out to the start of the Brookside Trail, which I’d just moved a couple of months ago. I’d never used this part of the route in my hikes before. It was changed based on managerial decisions with the section of the park being questionable and poorly blazed. Nearly all trails in the park were reblazed by me during the warm season, and Hill Acres Trail and Brookside Trail were tweaked a bit.

Abandoned

We headed down hill and passed the access to my former boss, Walt’s house. He in the past repainted over blazes I’ve done with spray paint to make them look like blobs, but so far he hasn’t touched the good new ones at Voorhees.
We intersected Hill Acres Trail, which is the former Brookside at this point, and then continued on Brookside Trail down hill slightly and then parallel with Willoughby Brook again. It’s a really nice section, and we soon turned left off of this and onto the Gold Trail.

Abandoned

There’s a neat spot on Gold Trail near the start, where it crosses two flows of Willoughby Brook, and the trail is actually at a lower level than the brook itself. We continued across and turned to the right, through a meadow area and past a former farm pond. In the week to come I would work with my co workers to clear off vegetation around the pond, which made it look a whole lot nicer than it did on this trip. We then crossed to the right on another bridge which was built out of an old dock from Spruce Run to an open field.

Abandoned

We took to the field up hill to the group picnic area, and then followed the Highlands Trail from a second farm pond and past the old barn just off of Rt 513, where it leaves Voorhees State Park. We then followed the edge of Rt 513 to Bunnvale where we took a little break at the gas station mini mart and used their heat to warm up a bit.
The guy running the store was thoroughly amused by us being out there. I was getting pretty hungry, so I got myself two hot dogs, I think the last two left in their machine there.

Clearing of the pond later in the week

We hung out in the warmth for a while, but fortunately didn’t feel like we’d overstayed our welcome.
The store was in fact too hot. I was craving a Reeces Fast Break Bar, because I saw one on the top shelf just one aisle behind me, and reached to grab it. The thing was completely melted like liquid in it’s own wrapper it was so hot! I let them know about it and opted not to have Reeces Fast Break soup.
From here, we headed along Rt 513, the Highlands Trail route, to an old driveway to the right where it turns off. It then enters Ken Lockwood Gorge Wildlife Management Area.

Highlands Trail in the gorge

We turned away from the Highlands Trail and continued straight on the driveway because I was curious as to the condition of the abandoned house at it’s end. It was still in perfect shape several years ago the first time I saw it, but it gets more and more trashed every time I go back.
This time was the worst yet; the giant A Frame front windows, which were still part intact the last time I went through, had been smashed in completely. The rugs were a mess, and the walls were all kicked in my destructive idiots. Why anyone feels the need to just destroy a beautiful place so much I have no idea.

Gorge trestle

We left the house and returned to the Highlands Trail, which took us down hill into the gorge on some nice side hill paths and a bit of woods road.
We we reached the grade of the old High Bridge Branch of the Central Railroad of New Jersey, now Columbia Trail (a name that I HATE for the trail because it is named for a gas line rather than the historic line, and we have another rail trail in New Jersey that ends in the town of Columbia farther away. Should be illegal for government agency to name something with free advertising for a private entity); from there we turned to the northeast to the Ken Lockwood Gorge Trestle, which spans the South Branch of the Raritan River.

Historic photo of Gorge Trestle by John Dzibho, May 17, 1953

They try to claim a train that crashed off of this trestle’s wooden predecessor in 1885 was called “Columbia”, while the book published prior to the trail creation claims it was simply just “engine #112”. Some believe it’s fake history created to justify the trail name.

Gorge trestle today

There are many who believe the naming of the trail was some political payoff, as the minutes of the meeting claim “Hunterdon Parks suggested the name ‘Columbia Trail’...naturally, Columbia Gas is excited about this”.

Gorge waterfall

We turned from the trestle and headed toward High Bridge. We passed a frozen waterfall on the right along the way, crossed over the bridge at Readingsburg, and looked over Lake Solitude as we approached the intersection with the Taylor Steelworkers Historic Greenway.
We turned left at that point down hill on the yellow blazed trail which took us out behind the Taylor Iron and Steel Company Building, the oldest office building in the state of New Jersey. It’s been added on, but the main body of the building still remains with the facade like it had back in the day for the most part.

TISCO building

We walked out across the 1890 Carnegie Truss bridge over the South Branch, and I told everyone the story of how we worked to redeck it with the Union Forge Heritage Association one night in the Summer of 2009. There’s now a plaque with the names of those of us who volunteered on it.

Solitude House on one of our past trips when open

We walked from here along the greenway, and the gates were open across the Custom Alloy property, who granted the easement for the trail. We also noted that it was closed only one day per year: New Years Day! But the gates weren’t closed.

Historic High Bridge railroad image

We cut to the left on the other side, and then visited my old buddy Kyle Zalinsky’s grave. I wiped the snow back off of it, and recounted how I carried the stone across the bridge to the site, and then how my home burned down the very next day. It was a really rough time, and it seems so distant now. I’ve been having a lot of strange feelings. We continued from there up to the old Bloomery Forge ruin, which I believe was built around 1760, then continued up to the Solitude House, where Quaker John Penn was hed under house arrest during the American Revolution with Mr. Taylor to keep him from stirring up political trouble in Philadelphia.

Historic High Bridge image

Union Forge Heritage association used to run Solitude House as a museum, but they were pretty much ejected by the town. The town never wanted to have an historical society, but those who did started their own. Mike Gronsky and Bill Honachefsky pulled together an amazing organization and engaged outstanding volunteers to create their UFHA, and brought over one hundred thousand dollars in grants to the town. When the jealous town saw this, they wanted in on it, and caused problems including cease and desist orders to stop building the trail.
When the lease on Solitude House was up, they offered only a five year lease with the caveat that they could end it at any time. In order to be eligible for state and federal grants, these agencies require a “long term lease”, which is defined by minimum 15 years, to protect the investment of course. The town then had the ability to say their lease was rejected in truth, but there was no choice because UFHA had it’s hands tied with no funding source.

Historic High Bridge train image

I recounted more of the history as we walked on through, pointed out the company store and the slave quarters, then wandered on back toward High Bridge. We walked by the TISCO building again after recrossing the bridge, passed where the pond used to be at present day Huskies field, and then went to where the trestle used to be to the Taylor Wharton spur.

There was a bridge that went over the road, and the entire spur itself was really interesting, in that it squeezed through an unlikely tight spot in the middle of town.

Taylor Wharton spur bridge

When my grandfather efound out that the bridge was to be torn down in the early 1990s, he made sure to walk me across it. It had already been abandoned I believe for some time then, but the tracks were still there. I remember seeing them go between the buildings.

The spur bridge

We made our way to the main street, and my plan was to head to Casa Maya for some delicious Mexican for dinner. We walked up the hill, close to the historic old CNJ railroad station on the now NJ Transit line, but unfortunately the restaurant was closed.

Historic high bridge postcard

We headed back down hill, and found that another restaurant, called Circa. I was actually kind of disappointed with it, because the plates of food were so small. In other ways it was kind of nice because it was cozy and there was really no one else at all inside. The service was pretty good too. It just wasn’t much food at all for the money. I had two small empanadas that honestly weren’t better than what I’d get at Quick Chek for a quarter the price.

We hung out, and had some good laughs. I felt better having gone out and laughed at stupid stuff over some dinner. For not really being into it, I was still very glad that I’d gotten out. Something in my head feels like it popped recently, and I’m a different person. It’s like there’s literally a connection in my brain that blew a fuse and is no longer a viable pathway to sensible thinking, but I’m thankful for all of the good people around me that help me to remember how worthwhile life really is.
We walked back up the street to the commons lot where we’d met in the morning to close out the night. I’d get XP time for the entire hike portion from 8:30 to 5:30 because it was hosted through work, so that will be really nice when I want the time off.
And so another holiday season of horror and woe came to an end, hopefully for the last time.

Ham