Hike #1153; Hackettstown to Washington

Hike #1153; Hackettstown to Washington

8/25/18 Hackettstown to Washington with Jennifer Tull, Ellie Zabeth, Amy?, Mike Heaney, Ken Zaruni, Brittany Audrey, Jason Itell, David Goldberg, and Shane Blische.

This point to point hike would bring us between Hackettstown and Washington, where there was a party in Port Colden, at Mark Godfrey’s house.
Mark was pretty much my step father growing up, and he suffered a massive heart attack in June. It was a miracle that he’d survived. So, every year they have a picnic at his house for both of my brothers, Alex and Bobo (Mark Jr), and this time it was also to celebrate that Mark Sr. is alive. He told me I should have a hike ending at the picnic.

Development view

I had to work earlier in the day, so this would have to be another night hike, but everyone would still be up for the party when we arrived.
I met the group at the Port Colden Mall, and then we shuttled as few cars as possible to the starting point, the Weis Market in Mansfield/Hackettstown.
I tried to put a route together that would be some stuff I’d never done before, some that I had, and some spots for swimming.
For the first part of the hike, we would follow some development roads. It was a relaxing route, but I nearly changed it because it was so hot and there wasn’t any shade. Brittany voted that the more relaxing hike would be the one to do, and I think she was right.

Development view

We started walking from the lot out to Allen Road, and turned to the right. We headed up to Winchester Ave and followed that up hill, with some rather good east facing views. We then turned to the right in Wellington, which took us up hill a bit to the upper part of the development.
It’s weird thinking of how this area has changed so much. I’d been spending a lot of time in the area since my teens when I worked in the area at Walmart, and before that A&P, Radio Shak, JoAnn Fabrics, and Shop Rite.

The Winchester road development in 2004

I had hiked this development only once before, in January of 2004 when some of it was still under construction, and we cut through one of those lots before it was done.

Development park

We turned to the left on Cantebury Lane and continued for a while until we got to where a paved trail leads down hill into a little development park, with a nice view toward Schooleys Mountain beyond.
We headed down hill, and cut to the right on the lower part of Winchester Ave again out to Airport Road, From there, we turned to the left for a short distance, and turned to the right onto the abandoned, stalled development and extension of Brantwood Terrace. It’s sat unused for years.

Scenic development retention pond

I like using these little odd routes like the stalled development, because it’s very pedestrian friendly, and we just never know when work will start up again. It could be our only chance to see it in this state.
We walked along the road, around corners, and I noted a new paved trail going off to the left side of it when we got near where it becomes active again. Apparently that only goes out to Ryan Way out across from the Walmart. We continued on the road into the development around a ninety degree turn.

Stalled development

As we walked, I saw a yard sale again and happily announced that we needed to stop.
Hearing my voice, my cousin Tanner Zack shouted out to me unexpectedly!
It turns out, Tanner just purchased a house there, and we happened to be walking by. The last I knew, he was living in Panther Valley and I didn’t know he’d moved out there. We chatted for a little bit. His girlfriend is expecting a baby, and he’s keeping busy with work. Unfortunately, I could not convince him to join us.

Stalled development

We continued to the yard sale, and had a look around for things we couldn’t possibly live without. Fortunately, I could find no such things, but Elizabeth managed to find some clothing hangers she needed. Since they were free, she managed to stuff some in her bag and carry them the remainder of the hike.
I think others might have gotten something or another, but I don’t recall what it might have been. We continued from here out to Route 57 in Beattystown where we turned to the right. This was one of the busiest road sections, but fortunately it didn’t last too long.

Stalled development

We continued past the fire house, and then on the left is the start of the Musconetcong Wildlife Management Area property. We turned left on a former farm access road and followed it down hill for a bit.
We skirted the edge of the field near the lower end, and then cut out to a more prominent former farm road which heads down hill toward the Musconetcong River. These fields were the former home of the Tri County Fairgrounds, which had one of the great local fairs for many years when I was growing up.

Shane product testing

We headed down hill and passed by a lovely giant Sycamore tree, and then reached the river. There was a good spot to go over and take a dip. It was great because it was so hot out. I can’t believe more people didn’t want to get in.
Once we were cooled off, we continued following the old farm road along the river heading down stream. The path is good for a while, but then gets to be kind of overgrown and indistinct on which way to go. I tried to get to the river edge, but that didn’t work, so we headed inland a bit.

Musconetcong WMA

I was having fun with it, but I’m not so sure everyone else liked it that much.
I was fighting through the weeds singing Queen’s “Don’t Stop Me Now” and having a good time, as is the theme of the song.
When we got past the weeds at the end of the state land, there was actually a reasonable path along the steeper slope along the river, so we continued to follow that for a time. It wasn’t nearly as bad as I’d expected.

Musconetcong WMA

While we were on the slope, I spotted an old eel weir.
These are triangular mini dams in the river with an opening in the middle designed to catch eels. They would put a box in the middle and fishermen in the old days would drive them down river to them.
These are apparently techniques learned by the native Americans, and I pointed out that I believed these are likely to be some of the most prominent remnants of aboriginal inhabitants we still see today. This spurred an interesting talk on Native American heritage, as our new member is of this ethnicity.

Taking a dip

We talked about what the proper terms should be for native Americans, and Brittany brought up that the use of a word such as “shaman” really has nothing to do with the native people, and is more of an anglo word or something. It was nice to have someone of native American background weigh in on this type of topic.
There has been a lot of talk of Native American culture lately, and conspiracy theorists are muddying the waters at this point, but there are points of great interest that have been coming up.
I’d heard of a woman who was full blooded Cherokee, or believe to be so, who got one of those blood tests, and she came up to be 100% Hebrew.

Old eel weir

Talk of Lost Tribes of Israel end up coming up inevitably.
On a personal level, I was raised to believe that I was part native American, and my grandmother told me that one of her relatives was native. Someone in my family got their blood tests done, and they however found no Native American blood. I’ve been reading into the history of the aboriginal people, and supposedly our own government had been destroying documentation of language and culture among Native Americans as recently as the seventies. There are supposedly old journals by conquistadors that said when they arrived the natives were speaking an old version of Hebrew that they could only barely understand.

Stand

All of this had me wondering how much had been covered up. We really know so very little about Native American culture it’s crazy.
Since the time of this hike, a major museum in South America, where irreplaceable recordings of their natives languages were kept, was completely destroyed by fire.
It seems very strange that such a place would all of a sudden go up in flames just as interest is building in the potential ancient Jewish origins of at least some of the native American tribes. The fact that it was actual vocal recordings destroyed makes me extremely suspicious about how that fire happened.

Deer stand

We continued along the slope, and just when it started getting a bit too steep to continue on, we headed up hill to a better woods road along the top of the hill. This was rather clear, with some Autumn Olives encroaching, but much easier to navigate than the fast overgrowing slope.
We continued as the woods road lost some elevation, and then we could get down along the edge of the river in a wider flood plain near a bend. Shane found a deer stand to climb up out in this section.
It was pretty easy to wander through this section; we walked along the flood plain and then had to cross a small stream inlet known as Hances Brook. We then emerged where the old fire house used to be years ago in a vacant lot near the intersection of Route 57 and Old Turnpike Road. A large tree that used to stand along the lot had fallen since the last time I had been there.
We crossed the lot and made the left on Old Turnpike Road, which was formerly the route of the Easton-Morristown Turnpike, and crossed the Musconetcong River on the bridge that was replaced a couple of years ago.

Along the Muscy

There was a guy with his kid waking the road in this section, and he ended up walking with us for a little bit talking about some history.
It turns out, he used to be some sort of planner. He had been responsible for some transportation planning stuff in the past working for the state, but someone else took credit. He was disgusted by it, and so he quit and went into the private sector he said. It was interesting talking to him, and I gave him my contact info to join up on the hikes if interested.

We continued up Old Turnpike Road past a farm, and then on to Stephensburg. We crossed the brook of the same name there and passed intersection with Stephensburg Road.

Fallen tree

We passed Mt. Lebanon Road next, and the only other roads otherwise were pretty much shore development roads or home roads.
We continued past the entrance to Point Mountain North, and then turned to cross over the Musconetcong River again on the Wydner Farm Bridge. It was going to be dark soon, and I wanted to go swim sooner, so we didn’t go up and down the Point Mountain trail area from the lot.

Dam below Old Turnpike

Our only newcomer decided she wasn’t wearing the right
We walked across the edge of the Wydner Farm Bridge, and then turned left along Rt 57 heading to Penwell.
We continued to where the old Penwell Road used to cut off to the left side, and headed down that to the rope swing. I was surprised that more people didn’t want to go in the water from here. The temperature of the air and the water were both great.

Jason ringing a bell

I enjoy swinging off of the thing running to the side a bit. Shane went off probably as many times as I did and probably enjoyed it as much.
We continued from here along the closed off road out to Penwell Road, and then turned to the left to cross the Musconetcong again. I walked on the adjacent gas line bridge next to the road one. We then made our way past the old mill toward the access to the Rosen fields of Pount Mountain Reservation. I told everyone to stay close together, in case anyone was around.

Moonlight

It was a good thing I was watching, because a car was leaving the lot in the dark. I told everyone to go back and we’d walk slowly toward it. When the car was gone, we headed up hill on the driveway route to reach the parking area, and then started following the trail along the field edges. This was a particularly beautiful spot this time of night.
We continued to the end of the fields, then descended to the river edge and followed it toward the Point Mountain Bridge. No one wanted to go in the water at the nice spot here either.
It’s sad; when we arrived at Point Mountain the road was closed off, and the machine was already there to remove the old pony truss bridge I’d always loved. It had been an important place my entire life.
My first hike, at the age of three, ended at the Point Mountain Bridge. I sat there with my grandfather, and he accidentally had me sit in some tar. I got it on my new shorts and ruined them, and he was all afraid my grandmother was going to kill him.
I spent my entire life swimming and playing in the river at this point. We later filmed for Driving Jersey here, and I got together with my previous girlfriend at the spot. A lot of life changing things had happened at that bridge, so it’s horribly sad.
Further, it’s one of the last of the pony truss bridges spanning the Musconetcong. The only other one I know of still standing is in Netcong, and it’s much smaller and less significant. The two lane bridge they want to put in will endanger hikers because inevitably people will speed. I brought it up at the planning meetings, and they just wouldn’t listen. They told me that a bridge could not officially be considered a “traffic calming device”.

Moonlight over Butler Park

We walked the road from this point out to Mowder Hill, where Mowder Hill Road led down to Butler Park. This was a former amusement park on the shore of the Musconetcong.

Historic Butler's Park image

I remember the base of the merry go round still standing when I was little. I used to drive through the former park in my Camaro, maybe not so much as a short cut, but as an alternative to the paved road when driving home to my grandparent’s house.

Historic Buter's Park image with "Robert E. Lee" boat in 1933.

Brittany thought she lost her phone in this section, but fortunately it was in her pocket. We almost turned back for it. Fortunately everything was all good and we headed on.
I’d never actually brought a group on a hike up Butler Park Road yet, so this turned out to be a good route. We followed along the Musconetcong briefly, and then headed to the right up hill through the farm lands.

Butler Park in 1933

The moon was shining bright under the clouds, giving sort of the effect of a lamp shade. We continued to the intersection with Asbury Anderson Road. Butler Park Road continues from there through the Hengst Farm. I brought everyone across and pointed out the farm lands where I worked during high school. I loved hauling hay with Lenny and Ray Hengst. They’re still keeping busy, as well as their father who’s now in his nineties. A lot of the lands they farmed were sold off to developers, even when I worked there. Other sections of their lands were turned into a solar farm, which they got some flack for, but it was really the only lucrative decision they could make without going to develop it.
We reached Rt 57 and cut across to the tracks. Dave took a nasty fall on the way up, but he was able to get up and continue okay. We turned left on the tracks, then right out to the road built on the old Easton Washington Traction Company’s trolley line. Then we cut through Mark’s yard and headed back to the camp fire they were having in the back.

Fire

I immediately dove into the pasta salad and finished all that was left of it, and drank some of some kind of dark rum that was sitting out. Some of the group hung out for a while, but most ended up heading off to their cars at Port Colden Mall.
Last year during this event, Tea Biscuit ended up crashing his dirt bike and I had to take him to the emergency room. He ended up taking a photo of my humping the x ray machine, which remained on their google images for about a year, only recently taken down.
Tea Biscuit took Shane back to the parking lot on his dirt bike, which he probably should not have even tried, but oh well.
I hung out for a while and chatted with my brothers and my neighbor, and Alex’s girlfriend also named Alex took me home so I wouldn’t have to walk across town.
Another very fun night!

HAM