Hike #1144; Gladstone to Chester

Hike #1144; Gladstone to Chester

7/21/18 Gladstone to Chester with Joe Pinto, Tom Vorrius, Julie Marie Velasquez, and Red Sean Reardon

This next hike would be another night hike, this time between Gladstone and Chester. I’d done variations of this before, but this time we’d cover some more stuff I’d not done before.

I planned the route similarly to one I’d done with my friends Jason and Maryanne Korski, Action Adam Stevens, and Chris “Cupcake” Kroschinski back in 2010. On that occasion, I was tracing Rockaway Valley Railroad and we were covering a lot of back roads and such.
This time, I had heard that some of the Patriot’s Path system, in it’s southern blue blazed route, was completed and open. The section through the seeing eye dog property I think it is was under development the first time I tried to walk it in May of 2006.

Patriot's Path map

The section at the time dead ended and we couldn’t get any further and ended up bushwhacking. I figured because a map was available, it should all be in place now.

Gladstone Station

I planned the hike around that being the new piece for me, as well as a little near Gladstone, and then we’d visit the old Hacklebarney Pool, and pick some Japanese Wine Berries because they were just beyond their peak here.
We met at 4 pm at the Chester Hill Mall, which was once the little railroad yard for the Central Railroad of New Jersey. It was cool to see Joe Pinto again, the Kentucky native who grew up in Chester area and has been occasionally doing some property work locally.

Rockabye Meadows preserve

Joe couldn’t say no to this one because it was just so close, even though he had a long drive back to Kentucky the next day.
It was also cool to see Julie again, because I hadn’t hiked with her in years. It’s always good to see Tom as well, and he doesn’t make it out nearly as much as we’d like him to.
We shuttled in my van to our start point, in Gladstone at the old train station, the terminus of the Peapack-Gladstone Branch, formerly a line of the Delaware, Lackawanna, and Western.

Old coal tipple site

It’s a trip to me that this line is even in service. When I think of lines that were abandoned such as the Newtown Branch of the Reading or the Bethlehem Branch in PA, with direct connections to Philadelphia, the fact that this little interurban line that serves these small suburbs like a dinkie is still in use is amazing. It shouldn’t be; it’s well used enough and it’s an important connection for the community to have. Too many other lines that have justifiable service to large towns are still allowed to be abandoned.

Rockabye Meadows Preserve

We walked from the station north, along the Main Street. It wasn’t raining yet, but it was getting ready to. When we got to the intersection with Old Cchester Road, directly across was the Rockabye Meadows Preserve.
I had never walked through this before, and I didn’t even know it existed.
The trail into the park was a mowed greenway, and there were side ones that went closer to the Peapack Brook.

Rockabye Meadows

The name of the preserve is because of the Rockaway Valley Railroad, known somewhat affectionately as the “Rockabye Baby”. The railroad was built in 1888 specifically to haul peaches. Hunterdon and western Somerset Counties were the peach capital of the world at the time.
Unfortunately, a blight killed off all of the peaches in 1890, and the railroad struggled to keep going. It went bankrupt several times, and it’s long route between Whitehouse Station in Hunterdon County and Watnong Station in Morristown kept going hauling other farm goods, bringing in coal, and carrying some passengers.

Historic map of Rockaway Valley Railroad

The line continued to struggle beyond the turn of the century, and service ended on it in 1913, which is actually extremely early for a railroad in New Jersey.

Historic Rockaway Valley Railroad trestle in Gladstone

There was a plan to bring the railroad back one final time, and many improvements were made through the teens, but they were ill fated. The line was torn up by Frank B. Allen using a Motel T Ford fitted for use on the rails and sold for World War I scrap.
Some of the line was somewhat preserved in the later years because of a fiber optic line placed under the right of way, and then later Patriot’s Path was built over much of the eastern section.

This historic image of Frank B. Allen and the Model T he used to tear up the tracks posing for a photo at Brookside NJ probably dates to 1917. Photographer unknown.

My fascination on the line started when my friend Bob Bodenstein took me for a driving tour of where exactly it used to go around 2002. So much of it is obscure today.

Rockabye Meadows

My fascination on the line started when my friend Bob Bodenstein took me for a driving tour tof where exactly it used to go around 2002. So much of it is obscure today.ht of way was actually above the mowed trails to the left as we walked on through.
I know a lot of the railroad history, but Joe shared some information I didn’t know about as we entered the preserve. He pointed out an old bit of concrete, which he explained was a coal tipple that was never used. This must have been some of the 1916 improvements that never saw service before abandonment.
We continued through the preserve to the north, and we cut to the left behind some houses.

Gill Saint Bernard school lands

There was really no way through without going through back yards; on google maps I saw that there was some sort of easement, and it goes into a section of Gill Saint Bernards School, so we couldn’t pass through.
We turned back and tried taking another mowed trail route closer to the Peapack Brook. I found a spot I could cross, but it was a mess. I walked down the middle of the brook looking for a better spot, and I did find a deep hole on the small waterway I could surprisingly swim in, but it wasn’t a good crossing.

Big tree at Gill Saint Bernards School

We had to turn back to the entrance and leave the preserve, then head north on Church Street for a bit, until there was another mowed path section off to the left.
We walked through this, on the other side of the creek and continued to the north.
The trail here eventually ended also, and a side path at the end went into a private yard. It had a dog out, we found out later, so it’s a good thing we didn’t try to go through. We turned back slightly and emerged on Church Street, turned left, then continued on Mendham Road north.

Animals ate all the way around the logo but not the blaze...

We had to skirt the school property and turn to the left when we got to Saint Bernards Road. We followed the pleasant road to the west for a bit, and could see where the Patriot’s Path came in on the right side. This section is very little used.
Joe mentioned that he understood the Rockaway Valley Railroad crossed Saint Bernards Road close to the brook. Upon inspection, I found him to be right, but something that appears to be a grade also appears near an old quarry where Patriot’s Path comes out. Maybe a spur.

Patriot's Path at Daly Road, old rail bed

It wasn’t even possible to walk the Patriot’s Path where it was parallel with the road ahead. It used to take a route in a buffer behind trees and private yards, but that’s all grown in and might as well not even be there. We continued on the road to the intersection with Old Chester Road where the trail is supposed to go straight across, as per the map I posted above. Sadly, this was not in the least bit clear. I remember seeing a horse trail marker there many years ago, but there was no evidence of a single blaze this time.

Patriot's Path at Daly Road

I figured we’d try to follow it anyway, and we bushwhacked on through. We still saw no blazes, and it continued to get worse. It also started to rain. After getting out and cutting along someone’s yard, we opted to just not try to continue. I know a trail had been flagged off in the property out back there, but having not walked in in over ten years, I was not ready to continue to try to follow it. We made our way back out to Old Chester Road and headed north, following the edge of the road up hill past lots of large houses.

Rockaway Valley Railroad bed

It was kind of disappointing that we couldn’t get through. This meant a lot more road walking than I’d wanted to do. Fortunately, everyone was still in high enough spirits, so we continued on and turned to the left on Rogers Road through some woods. This road is lightly traveled, so it was alright.
When we got to the driveway to the seeing eye place, I pointed out where Patriot’s Path used to cross it. There were cuts in the fences on either side of the driveway where the trail was supposed to go across. I pointed out where the marker was supposed to be, and was surprised to see that animals had chewed through the entire thing except where the brown Patriot’s Path logo was!

Rockaway Valley Railroad bed

I couldn’t see a single bit of the other markings from here. Still, I figured we would try to follow the former trail route from at least this point out to where it connected with Daly Road and the regularly maintained Patriot’s Path.
We headed up hill through stands of Eastern Red Cedar, and then I eventually saw some of the old blazes. On these trees, they were almost impossible to see because they’d grown to more than double the size with the trees over ten years.
We made our way along what we could find of the trail, and then descended to the edge of Rt 206 from what I suppose we can call a power line “clearing”.

Rockaway Valley Railroad bed

The rain was still coming down pretty hard, and I just wanted to get back to the good trail route. We continued south along 206 to the intersection with Daly Road, where the trail turns off to the right and picks up the old Rockaway Valley Railroad bed. This section is really nice and makes up for some of the crap we had to go through prior to this.
The trail leads along a shelf, then a fill, then crosses over Longview Road where the railroad probably would have used a bridge. From there, we had to open the gate and enter Willowood Arboretum.
We continued along the rail bed for a bit, crossed over the main entrance road to the arboretum, and then the Patriot’s Path turned to the right to leave the grade.

Rockaway Valley RR bed

The right of way is not really a trail ahead, and it continues out of the arboretum into Somerset County and enters the village of Pottersville where it’s been made into a road.
We followed the trail as a mowed path through fields heading to the west, and then exited the fenced area by way of another gate.
We continued through and along the trail which soon took us across Bamboo Brook. At this point we were in part of Bamboo Brook Outdoor Education Center. The trail used to go right past the buildings of this, but now it continues on through just the fields. The blazing here can be a bit confusing.

Rockaway Valley Railroad bed

The last time I had done a night hike through this section we got off of the trail somehow, but this time I managed to stay on it.
We followed the very nice mowed trails to the north, and left the Bamboo Brook lands. We continued on a gradual up hill route through woods that were so inundated with vines it was incredible. We continued on up hill, back and forth until the trail took us out into a large corn field and skirted the side. I noticed that this was sweet corn. It very very small still, but you can eat these, cob and all, and they’re delicious. I ate a few of them and grabbed a couple to bring home to Jillane and the possums.
We continued along the fields until they came closer to Pottersville Road.

Rockaway Valley RR in WIllowood Arboretum

When we were close enough, we cut out to the road.
Pottersville Road is a very pleasant dirt road that is like a step back in time. It’s only lightly trafficked, so we had a nice time walking it.
We passed the intersection with Lamerson Road, and continued north on it to the first hunters lot for Hacklebarney State Park. This was where Red Sean met up with us. We all followed the trail I built with SCA a couple of years back from this point, down to the Black River.
The trail is getting a little rough; trees have fallen over it, and it’s still not blazed.

Rockaway Valley Railroad in Willowood Arboretum

Without it being blazed, people are making their own trails off to the river and ignoring the trail work. It’s already causing erosion issues.
We got past the fallen tree, and then we crossed the giant log over the Black River. Once on the other side, we headed up stream and out of the park property to the old pool.
I really love that spot. The pool was built by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s after the initial donation of land came from benefactor Adolph Borie.
After a few years, I think Borie didn’t like all of the traffic going by his front door. He offered the state another donation of land, of more acreage, if he could take back a section of his original donation, and that included the swimming pool.

Rockaway Valley Railroad in Willowood Arboretum

This happened, and Borie also gave a sum of money that helped to create the stone entranceway we see at Hacklebarney State Park today.
We headed across one more log over a tributary, and then reached the pool. This was a great little break spot, and we all went in and cooled off.
The rain had calmed down to almost nothing at this point, so it was fine. We left the pool and continued back to the park land, and to the main trail system. We turned right on the red blazed trail and followed it up into the park, where we continued past the closed restroom and up the steps to the main trail. We then used the main restroom for a break stop.

Big vines going nuts at Bamboo Brook Outdoor Education Center

From there, we walked the Main Trail to the picnic area fields parallel with the main road. We walked through this to the intersection with the Playground Trail, came out and crossed the main road, then cut through fields across.
The entire time in the state park, even while we were down at the pool, we could hear music blaring like crazy. I thought someone was out in the park partying, but eventually it was clear that there was a party going on at one of the adjacent private properties.
We skirted the edges of this and headed down onto State Park Road where we turned right, heading to the north, just a bit away from the main park entrance.

Historic 1930s view of Hacklebarney Entrance

We continued up the road from here for a bit, and soon reached the intersection with the cul de sac known as Wortman Way. The party we heard was clearly going on back there.

Hacklebarney entrance today

We decided we’d just wander up the road and see if anyone is partying out in the streets. It would be fun to end up at a spur of the moment party in the middle of a hike.
We walked up the road, and Red Sean got a ways ahead of the rest of us. When we reached the house, there were a few guys hanging out outside messing with their cars. It wasn’t a bunch of crazy kids partying; they must have been close to my age or older. They all came across as older than me, but I don’t see myself as my age at all, so that always happens.
They were having trouble doing the jump start of one of the vehicles that had died, and so Joe and I got in there and helped them get it running. One of the vehicles didn’t have the cables directly on the battery. They were contact points at different spots in the engine, so there was some confusion there. We got it to where he could jump it, and then started chatting.
It turns out, the owner of the house was a guy named Vito that Joe went to school with. He asked at some point if he went to school around here, and they figured out that they played sports together or something. It was a pretty interesting connection to make late at night on a random dead end road because we heard music blaring!
After chatting a bit, Vito invited us to head up to his house for a beer. This, we thought was really cool, since Joe got to reconnect with a couple of people he knew in school.
We went walking up the driveway and got to the front of the house where an older man was standing there. There was something said about “no randos” coming up there, and he asked what we were doing. Joe explained that he was a friend of Vito’s and that he had invited us up to have a beer.
“Well, I’m his father” he said “And I’m gonna say no.”
Joe tried explaining about the car briefly, and said we were just out hiking and helped them out. The old man would have none of it and he repeated “I’m gonna say no... and who hikes in the middle of the night anyway???”
At first, this was a bit of a let down, as we walked back down the driveway and all the way back out to State Park Road. But then, it all of a sudden got funny.
We had just been exiled from a party in a pretty funny way, and Joe immediately got a facebook friend request from one of the guys we had talked to, so it all worked out. We laughed and carried on for the next couple miles saying “I’m gonna say no”.
We continued to the bridge into the Kay Pond, of Elizabeth D. Kay, and the Hacklebarney Mine.
I had recently been looking into the history of the anthracite railroads in Pennsylvania, and I ended up reading into the one at Mauch Chunk again. Here, there was a mine known as the “Hacklebernie Mine”. I had heard the name at least one other time.
In the state park guides, it gives potential stories as to the beginnings of the name. One was that there was a heckling mine foreman named Barney. This was probably not true. Another says that it was an anglicized native American name. I thought that was more obvious.
Then, in reading about the mines of Pennsylvania, I found in a book that the mine on the Pisgah Mountain near Mauch Chunk was so named because Hacklebernie was a Scottish word for “Hell”. This sounded like the most reasonable thing. Scotch and Irish were the main mine workers, and a very deep mine might be named so if that was their word.

Nathan Cooper Grist Mill area

Whoever was writing the state park history to be put into the guide obviously wouldn’t have been reading about the anthracite industry, so I think my suggestion is accurate.

Nathan Cooper Grist Mill today

I’m sure the state won’t be too keen on their state park being “Hell State Park”, but regardless, it is looking like that is the more accurate translation.
We walked the trail north from the mine along Kay Pond, following the abandoned right of way of the Hacklebarney Mine Railroad. It deviated from this somewhat, and then came to the Nathan Cooper Grist Mill. This mill was built by Nathan Cooper in 1826 to replace an earlier mill, and is still in service as a county park facility.
We passed the mill and walked through the tunnel the trail takes under Route 24 and 513, and continued along the trail through woods, near the Black River until we came to the old Chester Hill Branch of the Jersey Central Railroad.

The old station that used to be at present day Chester Hill Mall

The trail simply follows the railroad bed east back into Chester and the Chester Hill Mall where the station used to be. We finished the hike here, and Joe took me back to my car in Gladstone.
This was just another incredibly fun and funny hike to add to our ever growing list.
Even though it was raining much of the time we were out, and the number of participants was so few, we made the best of it, and it worked out great. Julie said some of her favorite hikes with me were on really rainy days.
I wonder if people really know what fun they miss when they skip out on the rainy day hikes.
I’m gonna say no.