Hike #810; Tuckerton and Little Egg Harbor Loop

Hike #810; Tuckerton and Little Egg Harbor Area Loop

11/4/14 Tuckerton and Little Egg Harbor/Mystic Island and Shores with Brandan Jermyn and "Major Tom" Conroy.

Silliness

Our next hike would be another in the NJ Perimeter series. I had off for Election Day, and decided to make the best of the day by posting one of the hikes in the series that was was less excited about. As usual, these trips where I don't have much interesting looking stuff end up being a much better time than anticipated and this was no exception.

In the previous journal, I detailed my need for doing these hikes. The next aspect of them is setting it up for success.

Some tell me that I just lower my expectations, and in that way everything will be 'amazing'. I feel it's more in depth than this. I accept that if we have too many hopes, dreams, anticipations, we are setting ourselves up for disappointment. I will anticipate what I have coming up, but I can't get too hung up on it and all of the details because I'll ultimately find myself disappointed.

There's an attitude that's necessary to get the most out of this and any aspect of life. A perfect example is when I met the husband of one of my hiking friends. I'd heard about him, and that he might actually come out on one of the hikes sometime soon. Talking to him, he said "Let me know when you have a good one". This makes me laugh; everyone likes different things. Some people only come out on rail trail hikes, some like mountains, others prefer only beach hikes. I tried to explain this, and he went on to say "Just give me the greatest hits". I could tell after the short conversation that he wasn't someone who would enjoy or appreciate what we do.

I have other friends who plan out every aspect of their day, planning on only the most incredible points but not the time to have good experiences with them. I read disappointed posts following, stating that things didn't go as planned.

My biggest disappointments early on were that no one was showing up at all. I would plan out a trip, and then spend a couple of hours waiting at the Port Colden Mall for my friends to get there, only to find out that they were not coming at all. For years I would have the fear of disappointment that no one would should up. Fortunately, I worked toward the goal of a good base group, and I have not been faced with that situation for my regularly scheduled hikes since early 2004.

Still, there are many other aspects of planning that can lead to disappointment. Some of these things can only be mitigated in our own minds. When I planned this particular trip, I had a few people signed up for a while, but then they started dropping off as the date neared. Fortunately, I reached out to Brandan who was going to be free.

NJ Perimeter series finished so far

The trip I had planned was another in the NJ perimeter series, one of only two or three full day hikes remaining to cover the entire eastern perimeter of NJ. The route I planned out was between Forked River and Waretown, both off the Barnegat Bay (when I'd hiked these sections before, we followed old railroad beds rather than the roadways closest to the bay.

Other than Brandan, Major Tom, and I, two other girls were signed up. I had a notion that they might not show, and so I planned a backup hike, also on the NJ perimeter for nearby, that could easily be done as a loop. I picked up Brandan, and took him to the polling place to vote in the morning, then we picked up Major Tom at the Washington A&P and headed southward. While driving, both girls dropped off of the hike, leaving messages that they could not make it. The trip I had originally planned required a car shuttle, and so it was a good thing I had the alternate loop planned.

The route we would do ended up being a really good time, and it was in the same area as Brandan's first hike with Metrotrails. It's always nice to share experiences in places where we have a common frame of reference. We're not dwelling on the past, but rather embracing and appreciating how they fit into our lives as they've become.

Historic Tuckerton

We bypassed the original planned meeting point in Waretown, and continued south to Tuckerton to do our loop hike.

Tuckerton is an historic town, settled in 1698 on the shores of present day Tuckerton Creek. The lake in town is called Pohatcong Lake. I wonder what connection that might have with the Pohatcong name we have home in Warren County. There is supposedly still a grist mill here built in 1704, thought I don't recall seeing it.

We parked at a lot on Green Street near the middle of town, then began walking out to the main street. We headed north to the Wawa on the northwest corner of Rt 9 and Green Street where we got some snacks and drinks, then moved on.

I was directionally challenged at first. I was watching my phone's GPS, but somehow missed the correct turn. We headed north on Green Street a bit, and passed an old cemetery on the right. I walked in to have a look around, and there was an historic marker to Ebenezer Tucker, for whom the town was named in 1789 after he had hosted a clam feast for the town. Tucker was a Revolutionary War veteran, as well as postmaster and other titles. His grave was an obelisk out behind the sign we saw.

I realized soon that we had gone the wrong way, but it didn't really matter. We soon reached Railroad Avenue and followed it to the right. This was the site where we passed through Tuckerton on one of the previous hikes, tracing the old railroad right of way. The Tuckerton Railroad was completed to it's namesake town in 1871, between here and Whiting. The last Tuckerton Railroad train passed through in 1936, and all of the rails were removed from the line by 1940. The right of way is barely recognizable today, but we were able to walk much of it in the previous hike.

Historic Tuckerton Railroad

 We continued to Wood Ave, turned right, then followed it to Rt 9 and went left. We followed 9 to a right turn on Tip Seaman Drive. We turned right on Brigantine Terrace, left on Cedar Street, and right on Cox Ave to a left on Marine Street, keeping as close as we could to the perimeter here. A short distance ahead, we followed an unmarked dirt road going off to the left, along part of Edwin Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge. The roadway led to an abandoned white house. We didn't bother with it because it was too close to other people's back yards. Instead, we cut into the woods to the left.

The woods looked like they would be easy enough to pass through, but they were overrun by some really sharp and green briars. We fought through them as best we could, and made our way out to an overgrown field. We followed the field on out to South Green Street again where we turned right, heading north.

We soon came within sight of some of the ports along the Tuckerton Creek to the left. We walked closer to them for the lovely views of the tidal wetlands and Atlantic White Cedars. I went into one of the places because I'd had an idea: what if we could get a ride on a boat out to the end of Great Bay Blvd, and then walk back rather than have to do another hike out this way? If it were cheap enough, it'd be worth it. I ended up checking a couple of places but neither would work out.

We continued walking and turned left onto Water Street, a narrow northbound road heading back to Rt 9. Once at 9, we turned left to cross Tuckerton Creek, and followed the dam area of Pohatcong Lake to the right. On the other side, we turned left into the parking area of Tuckerton Marina. The entrance was a maritime museum in a replica of the Tucker's Island Lighthouse. I had known that this was a "reproduction" of an historic light house that was lost out to the sea in October of 1927. I'd read a little about it, but didn't know much else. The new building was sort of authentic looking, although wider than the original structure would have been.

Tuckerton museum, light house reproduction

As with most of these places, and history in general, it becomes more interesting when we build a common frame of reference. I went into the marina building and talked to the people inside about my perimeter of NJ trips, in which they were very interested. I couldn't get a boat ride, so the trip would progress as planned. There were several historic buildings around, one of which was nicely restored, and quite large, and another with chain link fences undergoing restoration.

Historic Tuckers Island Lighthouse

The area we were in was historic in it's own right of course, but some of the area was put together in the 1950s by mariners who wanted to preserve some of the history of what was Tuckers Island.

Tuckers Island was a barrier island, and the southern end of what is now Long Beach Island. The first light house was constructed there in 1848 to guide traffic into what had become a little resort community. It was then known as Little Egg Harbor Lighthouse. Next to it, a keeper's house was constructed. The original light house was converted into an oil shed, and another light was fitted onto the top of the keeper's dwelling in 1879. Originally, the beach was attached to Long Beach Island, but the ocean cut between and turned it into Tucker's Island around 1800.

Tuckers Island

As time went by, the island got smaller and smaller. Efforts were made to protect the buildings by placing beach barriers, but to no avail. The island, which once had hotels, a school, and other dwellings would soon be no more. The lighthouse was formally abandoned very shortly before the Oct 1927 storm which toppled the old house into the sea.

Historic Tuckers Island Lighthouse claimed by the sea

Other structures soon followed, and the island continued to disappear. By 1952, the island had disappeared completely. I overheard some people saying that at times some ruins of the old buildings could still be seen from afar. I had assumed that these structures were out at the end of what is now Great Bay Boulevard, but what I found out was much more interesting.

1933 Tucker's Island wreckage

Looking at the maps from the 1890s, and then the ones from early 1950s, I was able to compare with current aerial images that not only was Tucker's Island again out of the water almost completely, it was now completely reconnected with the shore of Long Beach Island the way it was prior to 1800, and is actually longer now than it was then! Even greater, I had already  hiked it with Ric, Lyz, and Gregg!

Tucker's Island on my hike on LBI at the end of the Summer

When we hiked to the southern tip of LBI, we walked across the former Tuckers Beach. Of course, there were no remnants because this had been completely under water not so many years ago. Still, it's interesting that we'd been able to visit this site, and I didn't even know it.

We continued on past the old houses, and entered the woods on what looked like just an access road, but it turned out to be a trail. It was covered in wood chips, and there were no blazes to tell us this was any kind of trail, but we managed to weave through the lovely woods on it for a while. It eventually came out again near the seaport we had just visited. The only thing to show us it was a trail was a small kiosk at the trail head and one interpretive marker about one species of plant along the way. We turned back, then decided to bushwhack south to another private port area. We emerged and followed the edge of the port out to it's access point at Bartlett Ave. We turned right and then left on Kirie Road, which took us into a development. We turned left here, following the development to the end.

We went around a retention pond at the end of Santa Cruz Road, then turned left on the extension of the same road out to tennis courts. We kept to the left of them and then found a trail going off into the woods! This was interesting, so we followed it. It led us into some lovely woods with some benches and such, and a nice mowed trail.

Trail along the estuaries

The trail led us to an intersection, so we continued right. There must have been a way out to this point from the retention ponds or something that I had missed somehow. We headed back the way we came, and then turned to continue around the outside of the tennis courts, then around yet another scenic retention pond. There were signs saying not to swim in it or the mucky estuaries on the other side. The second dumbest no swimming signs I'd seen other than the one fixed on the composting toilets in Wissahickon Gorge.

We continued back out to Great Bay Boulevard and followed it south, to the left. We immediately crossed Grassle Marsh, with a "recently preserved" sign on it. There was a lovely wetland to the right of the road, which looked different than some of the other ones. It flowed beneath the road and on toward more ports to the north.

Continuing down the road, we passed Holly Lake on the right. There was a nice new dock on the right side. It sounded as though the spillway for the lake was beneath the docks. Creating the dock probably serves to eliminate some liability while still providing for recreation. A young couple was there when we got there, and I chatted with them a bit about what we were doing. I got in the water, which felt great. I thought to swim, but standing in it was good enough for me. It was abnormally warmer than it had been, but probably not that warm to keep me comfortable.

BOOM!

Even though it was just the three of us, we always find ways of keeping ourselves entertained. It often doesn't take very much. We passed a street called "Boom Way". Anyone that knows Brandan knows that one of his signature things is calling someone out when they're incorrect, or making some other clever remark, then striking a pose and stating "BOOM!". I had to get his photo with it.

Brandan is also known for his clever or interesting tee shirts, and he had a "Back to the Future" one this time. In the same fonts, we passed a truck reading "Fast Forward" just after the Boom Street.

FAST FORWARD

It's great that we can keep ourselves entertained enough even though it looks like a hike is going to be rather boring. Fortunately, I was never really bored with this one yet, though the wrong group could certainly find the bad in it. We were having a good time pretty quickly.

I'll do a future trip where we'll walk the length of Great Bay Boulevard from this point, but this time I still wanted to get this backroad section out of the way. We turned right on Atlantis Blvd into a development in Little Egg Harbor Township. We continued out to the intersection with Country Club Blvd to turn left, but first checked out the outlet of a pond in the golf course through a short path on Ocean County Park property. We continued on the road around a long route near the golf course. There were homes still damaged from Sandy along the way.

Silly mirror shot along the road

We had no access to the waterfront here; this was as close as we could get. We continued on the road and turned left on Cedarbrook Lane, sharply left. This led us around a sweeping corner and continued heading northwest. We didn't have to follow it long before there were a couple of benches to the left and an old roadway leading into the woods.

I wandered into the woods to see if this would work out for us, and decided this would be a good route for us to take. After all, we might get through, and it might be a shortcut, or at least more interesting. We followed the road as it lost elevation and made it's way parallel with the backs of the homes we had just passed on the road, though not really in any close proximity. We also crossed a small tributary where a nice little footbridge had been fixed over it.

Trail in Atlantis section of Little Egg Harbor twp

Watching the GPS, I decided we needed to cut off of this road and to the west to get to the next bit of development. We'd be inundated with wetlands if we waited too long before cutting off. We descended to the tributary headed toward the bay, and I found a good spot to cross where we could put our feet on tree roots, then on a dead log leaning into the water. The forest was lovely, with a nice canopy still in place, and American Holly trees growing lower. There were also some awful briars that were like vines unlike what we have in north Jersey. They were extremely sharp and cut my legs rather badly when we'd try to push through.

The briars got pretty bad, and we  had to fight our way through some really dense stuff in order to reach the next road, Sycamore Drive. We came out in a wide area between two homes. Brandan pulled a tick off of Major Tom as soon as we came out. It was quite thick (Note though that there was no tall grass, this was just woods with briars. It's a misconception that ticks will be most common in tall grass). We got to the road and continued south. We continued on Sherwood Drive, then left on Harbourtown Blvd, left on Rosemont Lane, then left again on Harbourtown Blvd. This took us to the intersection with Radio Road where we could get some food and drinks. It was very happy to see a pizza place on the corner too. We first went to Mystic Island Casino, where we got some drinks. We then headed back over to the mini mall where we had some great pizza at the Portifino's Pizza Restaurant.

PIZZA!

We had some great slices and enjoyed the food, but then I realized my phone had died. When I went to pull out my spare batteries, I was shocked to see that I'd forgotten to put them in my bag! I couldn't believe it. I've become so reliant on my phone that I no longer bring hard copy maps while hiking. I usually have enough battery power for days...when I remember my spares. I asked the lady at the counter if she had a map, but she did not. I then went over to the 7-11, and they amazingly do not sell them. I didn't know what I was going to do.

When I got back to Portofino's, a customer came in and was chatting with us about our hike series. She'd heard of Metrotrails before, and was interested in it. More importantly, she suggested that I head across the street and down the road a little bit to the Little Egg Harbor municipal offices because they might be able to give me a map. I thanked her and took off running to get there before they closed.

I went inside the building, probably looking ridicules in my kitten tee shirt, and asked at the counter if they might be able to help me. They sent me to the left, where there were two ladies behind another counter and window. They said they didn't have anything. They recommended I go talk to the tax assessor the next door down, but he was not there. I went back and asked them if there was even a map I could look at to write down street names so I'd know where to turn. They did have one, and I was able to write some stuff down. Even better, the one lady made me a xerox of the section that I needed in order to get through the remainder of the hike. 

My map!

I would have to go over the rest of the hike old fashioned style. We left the restaurant and continued to the left, down Radio Road. We made the first left turn on Pilsudski Way, but that road didn't go through. We made another left on Pulaski Blvd followed by on on Koskiusko Way, but that too was a dead end even though my map showed a route parallel with Pulaski out Mystic Island. We just stayed on Pulaski south, and passed a Revolutionary War marker. I'd no idea there was ever a skirmish here, but this place, and this road was named after the Count, Brigadier General Casimir Pulaski of the Continental Army. Apparently some of the Legion was massacred here in a skirmish in 1778.

We continued down the road and came to Cala Breeze Way, where we turned right. We made a left on Radio Road again, and on the right we came upon a Circle K convenience store. Brandan and I immediately got into quoting "Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure", with "My friends...I believe trouble is afoot at the Circle K..."

Trouble is afoot at the Circle K

I always loved that movie, and on my first trip to California, I saw that Circle K was actually a real store. I had thought it was a made up name that was used for the movie and nowhere else, like a rip off of K Mart or something. I hadn't seen them anywhere else (actually, the place I first saw it was in San Dimas, where the movie took place). The place had just switched over to becoming Circle K, as there was sort of a tarp with the logo on it over top of the old sign.

The entire area here was designated as "Mystic Island" according to my map, though there didn't seem to be many historic buildings anywhere.

We went around a block and headed back out to Cala Breeze to continue west, following as closely as possible the perimeter (but not heading out and back the pointless development roads that can't be made a loop. They don't go far). We walked across the lot of the Little Egg Harbor Community Center, and continued on the road to a right turn on Center Street. This bordered more national wildlife refuge land, lovely estuaries to the west. This area is known according to the map as Mystic Shores. We followed this to the north, then we passed some sort of outpatient or old folks place on the left. We cut across the property on their access road, Lake Crystalbrook Road. In the rear of the building was a pond, which we walked around and continued through open field areas that were kept mowed down. A gate at the end of an access road here led us out to Alden Court. We turned left off of this onto Lexington Drive, then left again on Valley Forge Drive, to another small community park area with yet another pond behind development houses. There were no trespassing signs on the edge of the water, but it seemed we could keep back and get around the thing. We followed the perimeter of the pond heading north, then cut through a section of overgrown field, which led us out to the cul de sac at the end of Lexington Drive. We followed this and turned left on Danbury Drive, then left again on Hancock Drive. A final left on Madison Ave led us to a cul de sac at the northern tip of the development. We cut into the woods here behind a chain link fence, with a meadow beyond. The area narrowed to a woods road heading to the north.

Woods road

We followed the woods road and passed two long abandoned trailers. One of them had a routed wooden sign on it, with some sort of registration direction. This must have been left over from when the development was first completed, as a spot where people would have gone to register for homes. There were trees growing around these trailers now. One of them was open and Brandan got in to have a look around. Someone had been staying back there, as we passed a nice tent to the right of the path.

We continued on the woods road which went into much thicker woods head. It was quite nice to follow. It became very bumpy, and looked as though people were at one time using it for ATV jumps and such. One of the humps had an old plastic kids trike sitting in it. We continued on the woods road until it was petering out to nothing, and turned right onto a power line right of way.

The power line on google maps is designated as "Seawind Blvd". We were able to follow it very clearly north, circumventing many large puddles. There were pull out areas along the left side, one of which had a truck parked in it, at intervals along the way. These were rather obviously hunters. I was thinking it was a Sunday, but forgot it was Tuesday, and so they'd be active. I was happy to be getting out of the woods now knowing this. It didn't take very long to reach Rt 9 where we'd turn right to head back into Tuckerton.

The road walk on 9 seemed to go on a very long time. We'd already hiked this before, actually on Brandan's first Metrotrails hike. He was saying he remembered some of the features as we went by. We were having a pretty good time still, even though the last leg on Rt 9 really kind of sucked. Brandan climbed on a religious sign right as a cop was pulling out and he figured we'd end up getting questioned what we were doing, but we didn't. I checked out a sandy road on the left side on state land, thinking there might be an abandoned house, but I didn't find anything.

We managed to get back into town rather quickly. Major Tom and I kept making moose faces.

In the end, it turned out we did just about sixteen miles. Despite getting a late start, we made good time, had a lot of fun, and got a section of the NJ Perimeter series out of the way that I just didn't know where or when to post. I'm glad it was just the three of us for this section, because it worked out so well. We couldn't have done some of this hike with a big group with nearly as much ease, and I don't know that this one would have been as enjoyable in a big group. This was just right.