Hike #1162; Randolph and Mendham Loop
9/22/18 Randolph and Mendham Loop with Justin David Goldberg, Joe Tag, Shane Blische,
This hike would be a large loop in the area of Randolph and Mendham, and a variation on something I had done in the past with a different starting point, and a few different things added along the way.
The parks and trails through the area have great main routes in the two branches of the Patriot’s Path and the Randolph Trails System, and plenty of side trails make it even more extensive.
The loop I had done a few times was between the main Patriot’s Path and blue blazed Patriot’s Path, connecting in the middle through India Brook Natural Area, which comes out to about thirteen miles. I had some other stuff in the area I wanted to have a look at, and so I came up with a similar route starting at the Acme supermarket in Mt. Freedom, which is part of Randolph Township, and just off of the trail system a bit.
Clyde Potts Reservoir
I met the group at about 4, and from there we started walking. My route took us out of the Acme parking lot and onto Millbrook Ave heading up hill to the north. We made the first left turn into a development on Valley Road and continued to a right turn on Ryan Court.
Clyde Potts Reservoir
When this road intersected with Church Road, part of the Randolph Trails system went straight. We followed it into some nice woods for a short bit, and then turned to the left at the first fork. This took us back out to Church Road and ran parallel with it.
We continued out to the intersection with Sussex Turnpike and crossed. From there, the trail continued into woods between Devonshire Drive on the right and the post office on the left. It continued gradually up hill into deeper woods, on a wide gravel path. It was quite a relaxing and easy walk through here.
Patriot's Path
Another side trail came in on the left, with blue blazes because it’s a Patriot’s Path side trail. We then came to where the Patriot’s Path’s main route joins the system. The westbound trail continues straight on the wide paths, but the route we were taking, eastbound, went to the left down hill somewhat steeply.
This was always a really tough section of the trail for the county to maintain. It at one time used a power line clearing to head down hill, and then later it switched back and forth down the power line from one side to the other multiple times. Now, it’s far nicer than it ever used to be, and only crosses the power line twice. It remains on the west side of the power line the majority of the time through woods, over some old roads, and crosses at an easy spot to the east side.
Dismal Harmony Natural Area
On the way down, we came through a section of trees that had rather recently been cut off the trail. In the mess of stuff was a really high quality tree felling rope like the ones we use where I work. I figured some of the Morris County guys must have forgotten it, so I left a message for the special projects coordinator, Russ Nee, because I figured he wouldn’t want to lose that. We then continued back across the power line where I hid the rope by a pole, and reached Woodland Road.
The trail turns right to follow Woodland Road along the edge of the fences blocking Clyde Potts Reservoir, which was quite pretty on this occasion. We continued down past this, then followed the trail to the left after the dam spillway onto Woodland Terrace, from which the Patriot’s Path turns off to a former scout camp of sorts or something.
Before the building collapsed
Today, the buildings there have collapsed and barely look like anything. I told everyone how they were still standing the first time I had come through. Somewhere further down, there are some stone ones as well that are pretty cool.
Before the house was down
We continued walking along, and the preserve is always stunning with the incredibly high trees, many of which are Yellow Poplars.
My first side trip plan on this one was to follow the side trail to the north. The yellow blazed trail makes it’s way further up the valley of the Dismal Brook (the preserve takes it’s name from the confluence of the Harmony Brook and the Dismal Brook).
We followed the trail to the north, but it appeared to be spuratically blazed. We didn’t see the yellow blazes after a while, and it appeared as though a trail continued to the north.
Another side trail went off to the right at one point, down toward the Harmony Brook, and so Joe checked it out to see if that was what we needed. It turned out to be the one. I was checking out the upper one and found no blazes. We headed down hill to the brook below, and then it was even more confusing because another trail came from the other way and also appeared to be blazed.
This ruin was barely visible, because it's above the Harmony Brook
We continued along the creek until it intersected again with the Patriot’s Path. We saw one other couple walking through, but that was it. We crossed the brook on a foot bridge, then continued down hill toward Main Street in Mendham.
Dismal Harmony Natural Area
We stopped to get our group shot at a giant cairn, or stone pile at the intersections of two trails along the way.
Once we got to Main Street, we turned right briefly, then left on the Patriot’s Path heading down hill to cross the Whippany River on a foot bridge.
Once on the other side, the trail joined the right of way of the long abandoned Rockaway Valley Railroad, which was built in 1888 to haul peaches between Morristown (Watnong Station) and Whitehouse Station on the Jersey Central in Hunterdon.
Pile
The railroad struggled almost from the get go. In 1890, the peaches were all killed by a blight, and so the railroad struggled to keep going without the industry it was built for.
It suffered bankruptcies and structural issues, because it was built rather poorly. It earned itself the nickname “Rockabye Baby” because the tracks would lift up and the trains would sway because of the poor grading on the line. Derailments were reportedly common.
The railroad was abandoned by 1913, although an effort was made to revive it and replace bridge structures after that. Even that was given up on by 1916, and it was sold for World War I scrap.
Efforts were even made to connect it further east into Morristown, but despite grading work, the job was never completed and the right of way was abandoned.
Rockaway Valley Railroad map
We continued to the right from the railroad bed. To the left, the Patriot’s Path follows pretty closely the old railroad bed to Morristown. To the west, the blue branch of the Patriot’s Path follows the line out toward Mendham and Gladstone, but it peters out near Ralston.
Rockwaway Valley RR engine
The trail does have to deviate somewhat from the old rail grade because it’s either developed over or swampy.
In the first section, the trail immediately turns away from the grade up hill to the left, because the grade goes into some messy swamp land.
It was already getting pretty dark, and I was concerned about moving along so we could be on the easy stuff. I knew by this point the entire India Brook area would have to be done in the dark, which was the most concerning area, but we’d have to deal.
Historic image of Rockaway Valley Railroad
When we reached Cherry Lane, the trail resumed on the railroad bed and went right behind the police station. I didn’t want to continue on until we were all close together. We walked right by a running police car, but nobody said anything to us.
Wreck on the Rockaway Valley line
Somewhere along the way, I didn’t remember following a section of the railroad. I think the trail might have bypassed it at one time and gone around, because there were brand new bridges on some of the spots, and it seemed new to me.
We continued out to Cold Hill Road, and an apartment complex was built on the grade ahead. I didn’t see where the blazes went from here, so it got confusing. I tried to follow a berm ahead that appeared to be the old railroad bed. We ended up near a club house building and then somehow ended up back on the trail and I don’t remember how.
The trail goes around and off of the railroad for a bit around development, and then returns to it. It passes through Mountain Valley Park with a pond, goes across Mountain Avenue, and continues through woods all on the railroad grade. We went by some house where there appeared to be a live band playing, but they finished just as we were walking by.
There were a couple of water crossings using concrete cylinders in the creeks, the last of which was the India Brook. Right after that, the India Brook Trail turns to the right. We turned here, followed the brook up stream to a parking area, and then crossed Mountainside Road.
The trail from here was a narrow footpath. This was going to get a bit tricky up ahead.
Rockaway Valley RR trestle near Gladstone
The trail crossed over where a bridge used to be as well as a forge. It then followed the mill race for a bit, and eventually came to where we had to cross the India Brook on large rocks. That was a rough spot. On the other side, the foot path became rockier and harder to follow. Fortunately, at this point we had to just follow along the right side of the creek.
We continued until we reached Buttermilk Falls, a lovely spot in the middle of the woods. I was the only one that wanted to go for a swim in it. I needed to cool off too, after going through all of the mess in the woods.
We continued up stream from here, and I told some of the group that went ahead to wait for me at the foot bridge back over the India Brook. I think it was Shane and Justin?
When I got to the bridge, they weren’t there. I was concerned that they might go the wrong way. Just after the bridge a bit, the trail forks. Even before that, there is a trail that goes up hill away from the brook to reach Calais Road as I recall. It’s important to keep to the white trail at the end of the park in order to get back out of India Brook Natural Area.
We continued through, and somehow lost the trail in this section. We looked around through the woods and worked together until we found it. Eventually we got through okay, and made our way out to Combs Hollow Road. From that point, it was all easy trails to the end.
Rock pile
We turned right briefly on Combs Hollow Road, then left onto the wide trail heading up hill. This section of trail led out to an intersection with the Patriot’s Path. From there, we turned to the right to follow it eastbound again.
We crossed over the old abandoned route of Calais Road where it’s now a development road to the left, and passed the house that’s lived in. The trail went from crushed stone to occasional paved section for runoff, and went only slightly up and down on the way to where the Patriot’s Path turns off, where we had first followed it.
Once we got to that point, we continued on the Randolph Trails to the next intersection. We turned right, opposite the way we came from, which leads to Old Brookside Road. We followed that road to the north, back out to the Sussex Turnpike, and then followed that back east to the Acme Supermarket.
The route through the India Brook area was far more brutal than I had been counting on. The hike was kind of a wake up call that it wasn’t Summer any more. Even though I was still swimming and it felt like Summer, the days were shorter, and we’d have to do hikes that were less ambitious in terms of exploring new trails. We’ll have to do some more tame stuff, but we can make the best of it and cover as much new as possible.
Awww
There are still tons of trails around I’ve never done, and plenty we can do or re-do during the after dark hours that will work out fine. There are also plenty of those lovely woods roads that are all worth walking. There’s no shortage of good stuff out there.
HAM
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