Hike #825; Turkey Point to Fortescue

Hike #825; Turkey Point to Fortescue

1/25/15 Turkey Point to Fortescue with Gregg Hudis, Larry Phillips, Dan Lurie, Sue Olivar, Dan Lurie Jr., Bob Sidoti, Mike Heaney, Omri Afir, Rob Creamer, Ric Giantisco, Lyz Hagenbuch, Serious Sean Dougherty, David "Captain Soup" Campbell, and Misha ?.

Group shot at Newport Landing

Our next piece of the NJ Perimeter series would take us between Turkey Point and Fortescue. The section is one that relies heavily on road walking, but we again would find a lot more interesting stuff to make the whole trip worthwhile. The part of the state we had now reached has a lot of dead end roads leading out to the Delaware Bay, and these have required some more complicated planning in regards to how we'll make them fit together for the perimeter hikes.

NJ Perimeter completed so far

This is the part of the state where it will take us the longest to close in the gaps missing for the perimeter. We can't just walk a direct line along the coast, this area is all estuaries and often times the closest we can get to the bay side is the nearest road or causeway over the wetlands. We covered a little extra ground on this hike, but it was also an illustration of just how much more we have to go in terms of completing the perimeter.

We me in Fortescue, by the post office where there was no parking. I had set this up as the meeting point a while before, and decided not to change it for convenience, but we moved the cars from here to the Fortescue Marina, which I checked with the Southern Region Superintendent of State Parks, Tom Keck for, and he said it was fine. After getting the cars in place, we shuttled with as few as we could to the starting point, which I made Franklin Road near Turkey Point. We had already hiked the Maple Ave Trail, which connects it's namesake road with Franklin Ave, but there was a shortcut section we hadn't followed. I figured we'd tack that on the beginning and get a little nice woods walking in before starting with long road walking.

Maple Ave Trail

The Lurie posse was running behind and they would meet us at the other end of this trail. We wandered into the woods and took the right fork, as we'd already done the left fork on the previous hike. This led us to where the two trails came back together, and we walked on to the estuary areas where the trail crossed on a foot bridge. I stopped the group to give a brief ecological talk, then we continued on the the former house site. I asked everyone if they could figure out how the house disappeared. It was evident by the one standing utility pole that the house had burned to the ground, as the side of it facing the foundation was obviously charred. Had it been a forest fire, the whole thing would be burnt.

We continued on past the house site, and the Lurie posse was coming on to the trail. Dan and Sue were there, as well as Dan Jr., and his friend Bob. Bob and Misha were the only newcomers this time, and both handled the hike very well.

Together, we continued straight ahead, up Turkey Point Road, where previous hike had taken us down the road to the end. It looked as though this was actually the continuation of the road we had been on. There was one house on the corner of Turkey Point Road and Maple Ave, but the rest of the road was pretty desolate.

We passed a lot with a shed on it to the left, which looked like it might once have been a house lot. Then we came to an abandoned house on the right. We decided to check it out; inside it was a wreck, but not too terrible in a couple of the rooms. The first room was alright, but straight back, the room had collapsed completely into a deep crawl space. The front room to the right looked as though whoever lived here had left in a hurry. There was still a bed, shelves and, lamps inside. The shelves still had folded towels on them upon which birds were making their nests. It was gross and creepy, so we left rather quickly to continue up Turkey Point Road.

Next, we came across an area where other houses apparently were once located. There was a line of outhouses along open grass with no houses, then a platform where a house obviously used to be. I assume this must have been the community of "Turkey Point". There was a sign there that read "Turkey Point; One Man's Vision (though it was missing the apostrophe); Tony Swan 2/7/43-3/3/02". Perhaps he was the community founder. There was one occupied house across the street from this point, but nothing else. We continued north along the road with some estuary views to the left.

Abandoned

Soon, we reached the Warfle Farm Trail. This trail made a sort of lollipop loop. We headed out, and it too was quite wet. We had to walk around some puddles, keeping to the left at two forks, which led to a dead end. There was a view out to the right of Hollywood Beach area, which has an abandoned house on it. I had wanted to go out to this point, and the access is just north on Turkey Point Road, but we must have gone by it without seeing it. I suppose this means yet another trip I'll have to do to this part of the state. We'll make it worth it somehow. It's just frustrating that however closer we get to the completion of the NJ perimeter completion, there's always something more I miss.

Warfle Farm Trail

We turned back from the end, then took the left fork to do the loop section. This was insanely wet. I ended up walking right through the water, as did many of the others in the group. A few went around through the weeds to stay dry. We eventually got back out to Turkey Point Road and headed north. We passed another unoccupied house on the left where we were on a strip of land with water on both sides.

When we reached Rt 553, I felt like crap because I'd realized we missed the abandoned house out on that weird strip of land. I knew I wanted to see it, and we'd have to come back. It would be an out and back walk, but I feel like I have to do it.

We turned left briefly on Beaver Dam Road, which was the old road route, cut along the woods and headed along 533 west to cross Oranoaken Creek. The wide creek was similar to all of the others we'd crossed on south Jersey bay areas. There was a sign with the regulations, but all of the things had been ripped off of it save for the word "NO", making the sign read "NO NO NO NO NO". We continued along the road, which was main street into Newport. We continued to Sharpe Lane and turned left to follow it.

Omri joined us here. He parked along the road, and we went as far as we could until a private house with a gate deterred us. We then cut into the woods to the right. I figured we might be able to get through to more municipal land, but the little woods road we had followed disappeared rather quickly. We skirted a town lot area, but had to turn back to the road, then head out and cross some of the town lot land, past the piles of crushed stone they used on roads, and back out to 533.

We forked to the left on Methodist Road into the town of Dividing Creek. We turned left into the cemetery at the church to check out some of the very old graves. They dated back to the mid 1800s, but I can't find much historic info on the town at all. It was certainly an old town, but it just doesn't have much mentioned about it on local online pages. We wandered on from the church into the middle of town.

Amazingly, there was not one convenience store or place to get food within the town.

Old house in Newport NJ

Old house in good repair, Newport

The town was pretty interesting, despite it's lack of places to eat. Most of the houses were mid to late 1800s, some of them in a rather dilapidated shape, others in a wonderful state of repair. We continued into the middle of town looking for where we could get some food. Looking on Google maps, the only place we could find was down Landing Road. This was an out and back area, and really should be done as part of the NJ Perimeter, so I put it up for a vote and most wanted to stop and get something to eat. So off we went, down Landing Road. We had determined that there was a restaurant at the end that wasn't too fancy where we could get something to eat. I called them up and we were in.

When we got there, it was on the shore of the Nantuxent Creek, called Newport Landing. The restaurant we ate at was simply called "The Landing". Like so many places, we couldn't even find a facebook page for them, but they were really good. We had a nice sit down lunch on their patio area, with windows so we could see out all around. The food was really tasty, and I ended up eating what seemed like everyone's french fries in addition to my food. The people there were interested in what we were doing and patient when it came to serving all fifteen of us.

After eating, we headed back out the road we way we'd come in. I accidentally forgot my phone batter, and they were good enough to put it in a bag for me to pick up after the hike was over. We walked back out Landing Road to the town again, then turned right on Fortescue Road. We began heading back out of the town of Newport to the south.

My stomach was killing me; I had had a lot of food lately, and was still stuffed from the night before when this hike started, but still ate lunch. Now I felt like I was going to explode.

WHOA!

The road walk was long, and we spent it chatting about music and such. We made a stop at a private driveway, where we met some other walkers, then continued on to the start of the last regular trail section, the Tat Starr Trail. This started as a woods road, then headed into the woods as a foot path.

The sign was not kidding when it read "seasonally wet" at the trail head. It was alright at first, but soon became something of a wet mess. I waded through several sections of watered trail into those woods. There were a few sections of puncheons, but not nearly enough to stay dry.

Tat Starr Trail

We continued along the trail, and much of the group got behind because they were trying to avoid getting soaked. Serious Sean helped out with the people toward the back. I ended up just walking through the water. We eventually got to a bad spot where it looked like there was nowhere to go. Ric went right on through looking for a way out of it, and ended up getting into water up to his hips!!

Wet

I walked right on the official trail route, which was a mess, completely under water. Most of the rest of the group went to the right, some of them went to the left. Eventually we all made it through, and the trail reached an old woods road. We would use this as a return route to Fortescue Road, but first the Tat Starr Trail continued to follow it out onto the wetlands of the creek known as the Iron Branch.

The road gave way to foot path once more, heading out into the estuarine wetlands. It first had a stone pathway through the reeds, then had elevated wooden walkways that were among the most interesting we'd seen in the bay area. The trail went out to an observation platform with views in all directions.

Tat Starr Trail

Sheepkill Pond was to the north of us, where the Iron Branch spilled into the estuaries. Iron Point was to the south of us, with the Wallens Pond section of the estuary. We waited for everyone to catch up, and we got everyone out onto the platform. It was quite lovely. We found an empty turtle shell there too, probably got stuck up on the platform. Dan Jr. ended up with that I believe.

We headed back out to the woods road section, then out to Fortescue Road, turned left and hiked down Fortescue Neck toward the main beach area. The sun was beginning to go down, and I wanted to catch it at the beach before it was gone. I always like to end these bay area hikes with the sun setting on the waterfront. I can think of no better way for these trips to finish.

As we walked, there was an impaled Spider Man mannequin out on a pole to the left. It didn't take long before we crossed the Oyster Creek. To the left of the road bridge was the earlier road bridge site, which had some planks set up on it to a fishing platform out on the creek. I made my way out to it, which was nice. The water was moving very swiftly underneath, which meant the tide was either coming in or going out.

On the other side of the bridge, Creek Ave went to the right. We were parked just over there, and so some of the group opted to cut out at this point, having done about 14.3 miles.

The rest of us continued on, and Fortescue Road became Downe Ave. We continued to the post office where we'd met, then turned left on Pennsylvania Ave. We took this out to Jersey Ave and continued south. We had no access to the beach for a bit, but when we did we could see the sunset in all of it's glory. We'd made it on time to see what I'd wanted, but we weren't finished just yet.

Sunset over Fortescue Beach

We continued along the beach south. I wanted to get to the bottom of the island, as far as we could reasonably walk and then turn back. Raybins Beach is the name of the southern end of it, and we had a bit more to get to it. We continued on until the Oyster Creek, or Fortescue Creek, depending on what map you're looking at, made it's way into the Delaware. We went up to the road here, which runs right along the beach anyway, and crossed over a little wooden bridge. The road was only sand surface at this point. We continued along it until it ended at a little turn around, but a path went through a fence and then off to the right to regain the beach. There was a cross set up on the beach at this point.

Sunset at Raybins Beach

Rob and I had gotten a bit ahead, and we waited for the others to catch up. Rob was rocking out to Journey music, and was in rare form, dancing around and being overly silly. We continued along the beach to the south from here, which had tufts of grasses and such we had to step around. The sun was almost done setting over the bay, and Lyz and Ric went out to the farthest rock jetty on the water they could get to. I stood back and watched the last of the sun going down with the others before heading back the way we came over Raybins Beach, then out along the beach and Jersey Avenue. There were a few houses, maybe four or so, at Reybins Beach, and then a long unoccupied stretch back to Fortescue.

Jersey Avenue became Delaware Avenue back to beach area and then to State Street at the northern tip. It was a few miles of extra walking to put us at just over twenty miles at our end point. We sat down at a nice spot near the northern end at a beach access for a last break.

Fortescue night

State Street went over to Creek Avenue where we were parked, to finish the hike. I was slightly concerned that we'd not have enough cars at the end to get everyone back, because so many of the group had cut out, but we had just enough. It worked out just perfectly.

Some of the group went out to eat, but Gregg, Larry, and I opted not to because we were still full from lunch.

It was a good thing Gregg drove because I must have dozed off on the ride back again. It went by very quickly. So have all of these bayside hikes. Only five more full hikes remain to connect where we'd left off at Abbot's Meadow south of Salem to Newport. Further, five more hikes that have partial perimeter sections remain to fill in all of the rest of the south Jersey connections. There is still always the possibility that more of them could be added, based on what we discover on the journey north. These "partial" perimeter hikes have even more potential to be interesting because they can be whatever we make them, the the only guideline being that the include that missing section.

The perimeter series rolls on, and many more interesting experiences certainly await.