Hike #829; Sea Breeze to Newport

Hike #829; Sea Breeze to Newport

2/22/15 Sea Breeze to Newport with Gregg Hudis, Jen Berndt, Wilma Vargas, Marion Barbado, and Serious Sean Dougherty.

The group having some pizza courtesy of Serious Sean

"What is the secret to happiness?", "What is the key to success?"

Questions often heard. The answer is irrelevant because it's the wrong question. Ask yourself instead "What is the secret to MY happiness?"

When you find it, realize that happiness is best shared.... any claims to the contrary only come from people who haven't found their own answer, or perhaps haven't even asked the right question.

Organizing these hikes has been the most fulfilling thing that's ever happened to me. The experience, the history, the people I meet and places we explore together. The intertwined subject matter is truly the perfect activity to me. If I didn't organize these things, I would most certainly fall into deep depression because I rely on the arbitrary obligation to keep myself active.

It is coming up on eighteen years of running these hikes, and I cannot let anything ever take this joy away from me, even though as of late some are trying to do just that.

For this hike, I carpooled down with Gregg, Wilma, and Marion. It snowed overnight rather badly, and so the roads were not great on Sunday morning. On the drive there, we passed a lot of accidents on Rt 55 due to black ice. The day turned out to be quite nice though, with a lot of melt off. Unfortunately, my boss wanted me to show up for work on Sunday morning apparently, despite my previous plans, and also despite the fact that he expected six people to come in to plow for two hours, and we only had four trucks with plows on them. There really is no need for a whole crew to come in for two hours of work, and I'd had these hikes planned far enough in advance. Because of this, he's proposed scheduling me to work all Sundays. I flat out told him I won't work any of them, and I've been written up for insubordination. There is not often I dig my heels in and refuse to compromise, but where my livelihood is concerned I make no compromise.

Perimeter of NJ completed so far

We got to the meeting point late, and only Jen was there. Serious Sean was coming but running late, and two more people were in a car accident trying to get there. They were alright, but would have to wait for their car to get pulled out. Sean met up with us at the beginning point. We all piled into Gregg's car and headed toward Dix Wildlife Management Area, which I figured would be our start point, and we got some food/snacks along the way at a little store.

This section of NJ is still very secluded. There are few towns, and nothing off the back roads. There are no bridges over the Delaware, and the nearest escape from the state is the Cape May-Lewes Ferry to the south. This was still off to the southwest side, the really secluded and hard to reach part that no one ever thinks about save for maybe a few local fishermen and birding groups.

We drove down the back roads to reach Dix Wildlife Management Area, but we simply could not get in. It was far too snowed shut. We would have to take the Sea Breeze section, which was supposed to be the start of the next perimeter hike, and make it part of this one, which would add a little mileage. We drove down the road across the causeway to the beach section and what seemed to be a few abandoned houses left of the town. The state Blue Acres program was buying out all of the storm damaged houses and removing their remnants through here. It was now pretty much a ghost town.

Ghost town of Sea Breeze

We walked on from the cars; Sean pulled up in his but stayed put for a bit. We had to step out of the car directly into a large puddle. I headed onward to the first abandoned house on the left. The snow and ice made it difficult to access, but I got up onto the porch by climbing under the railing and went on inside. The house was obviously left rather abruptly. There was stuff all over, some furniture still remaining. All sorts of stuff was bagged up on black garbage bags and left along one side of the house. I had a look around a bit and left rather quickly. There was something uneasy about this place. When I got out, the first house we came across on the road had a man standing on the porch, taking pictures of us. I didn't think anyone actually still lived in Sea Breeze. I hurried on out, but not so quickly as to raise suspicion. I moved on along the old road out to the waterfront, and followed it to the left, heading south. This former main road made access to all of the houses that used to line the shore line, but are now gone, torn down by the state. One house still remained close to the water at the end of the road. Beyond, there was what appeared to be the remains of a porch, with the rest of the house gone. Off in the reeds to the east of us, in the wetlands, was a small out building that had presumably been washed out there but was deemed too difficult and/or insignificant to pull back in. We passed more house foundations, steps, and deck ruins as we reached the southern end of the former community with a waterway reaching the Delaware Bay. Tweed Creek, Middle Marsh Creek, and others are the named estuaries in this area around "Back Neck", but not sure which one is which. The Delaware was murky and visibility was not far, but the view was incredible, with chunks of ice freshets floating down or up stream with shifting tides.

Sea Breeze, NJ

We headed back and Sean was turning his car around by the beach. We followed the same road in as went out on, and then saw a pickup truck parked at the end behind Gregg's car. At first, I thought the guy might be there to block us in somehow, or demand to know what we were doing. I went up to introduce myself and found him to be quite pleasant and full of information I'd wanted to know. He said that the area was indeed bought up mostly by the state because of the storm damage, and they had destroyed most buildings. He had lived in the area his entire life, and his family had been in the area for 300 years. His name was Ron, and he was basically just out for a ride. He told me the guy that was taking pictures of us was just looking out for the area because a lot of scrappers came in and stole all the copper out of the houses following the storms. He confirmed that the houses further down Sea Breeze beach were owned by Philadelphians and used as Summer homes. The guy we saw on his porch was the only remaining year round resident of Sea Breeze.

I told the guy what we were doing, which he seemed interested in, and I gave him my business card. I asked him to let me know if there were any issues, and that Gregg's car would be there most of the day. Since the area had lots of "not trespassing" signs, we didn't bother to go to the Summer home section and continued up Sea Breeze Road away from the river.

Sea Breeze Road was now plowed, and really had no traffic on it. We moved along to the east and away from the estuaries to more of a farm land. Ron passed us, and then after a bit the other guy who photographed us passed. We waved, but he payed us no mind and continued on. We went around a ninety degree bend in the road to the left, and then another road appeared on Google maps that seemed like it would let us through. We turned right onto this road to pass a beautiful old brick home with "1781" built into the facade, at a place with two more ninety degree bends in Sea Breeze Road. As we were walking, a guy came out and asked "Can I help you?".

I told him we were just hiking through, and that it was shown as a public road. He told us it was all private and we couldn't get through. He wasn't too much of a jerk, and so we headed back to Sea Breeze Road and continued north.

1781 house

We headed through a section of woods, with state land on the right, but it ended at another wetland and we couldn't get through. To the left was more state land, part of Dix Wildlife Management Area. We'd cover this as part of our next NJ Perimeter hike down in this area. For this time, we stayed no the road to the intersection with Middle Marsh lane, which is where we will go in the next time. We turned right to continue on Sea Breeze Road, which had some nice farm land along it. Eventually we reached Back Neck Road. By the time we got to this point, the sun had com out and much of the snow was beginning to melt off of the road. We continued straight on Back Neck Road through lovely orchard properties and such. Serious Sean had been following us in his car the entire time, slowly behind in case anyone wanted to cut out.

We followed Back Neck Road until a right turn on Flat Top Road. We turned right on this little used road, which took us into a slightly wooded section, then out to the intersection with Rockville Road. Several big trucks were parked off to the left down this road, but we turned right, and the road crossed Bridges Sticks Creek, then opened back up into  more farm lands with interesting field to the left, with giant vertical sticks.

Rockville Road took us south through farm land to a three way intersection. Husted-Bateman Road was to the left, Husted Landing Road to the right. Husted Landing was one of the out and back sections I had planned, a section to the estuaries that I'd wanted to cover as part of the perimeter, but it wasn't worth coming back and doing another entire trip just to do the small distance to the end. We turned right and walked down the road.

This road wasn't plowed much, if at all, and had some observation stands off to the left side closer to the water. As we neared the end, abandoned boats layed out in an area visible across the estuarine wetlands. Husted Landing itself was an abandoned spot.

Husted Landing

The spot was situated on Blew's Run, and appeared to be a former boat or yacht club, or fishing area. There were docks out on the Blew's Run, but they were in poor condition. I went out onto it to check them out. It was a really cool little spot. There were other docks as well as several more vertical sticks stuck into the mucky bottom of the creek further down stream. I figured these were for fishing. Two rusty troughs, I assume for cleaning or simply storing fish were set along the dock. Boards were rotten and only one real building with a roof remained here. Perhaps the area is used seasonally for boat rentals or something, but it looks as though it hasn't been used in some time.

Gas pump at Husted Landing

There was an old gas pump by one of the docks that obviously had not seen use in a very long time. We sat down and had a little break  here. Sean got out of his car and had a look around too. After the break we headed back onto the road we came in on and returned to Husted-Bateman Road. The road passed some sort of boat type place with "husted" written on it, then the road turned ninety degrees to the right, heading south. The road curved around a bit in some nice farm land, then reached the intersection with Sayre's Neck Road, where we turned right.

The road took us through more farm lands, a lot of which was very pretty and interesting looking. There was an abandoned building on the right, then some farm  houses.

Interesting farm lands near Sayre's Neck

As we reached the main farm house, a girl was trying to pull out of her driveway with no success. I went over and helped push her car out. Her biggest problem was she was turning the wheels far to the right or left rather than focusing on getting straight out. Her dad came out and we got the thing out by pushing. I was way ahead of anyone else in the group here, and so I waited up. Serious Sean had gone ahead and bought pizza to bring back, and ironically found a place to park here, at the corner of Shepphard Davis Road and Sayres Neck Road. We had a break there and ate some pizza before continuing on. Sean opted to walk with us for the remaining distance rather than drive any more!

We took Sayres Neck Road south to a left turn on Bowers Creek Road. Sayres Neck Road continues south into farmland and to a dead end on farms we might not even be able to get into. We took Bowers Creek Road across it's namesake tributary, then left on Mulford Ave and right on Iron Bridge Road across Cedar Creek. I got really really far ahead of the group at this point, and so I waited on the bridge admiring the wide stream.

On the other side, we turned right on Jones Island Road and headed south. We didn't go too far, and turned left on New Road through a wooded section. The turn was by an interesting tributary that the side of it had been mowed off for some reason I'm not sure of.

Weird half mowed tributary

On a future hike, we will visit Blizzard Neck Gut, Jones Island, Bay Point, and Nantuxent Wildlife Management Area originating at the point further down this road, but this time I just wanted to get this section out of the way. We followed New Road to the east.

The road was another strange example of what it's like down there: strange run down moneyless area with wrecked or abandoned homes. It didn't take long before we passed a couple of abandoned houses. We passed one collapsed house with a lovely calico cat on the rubble. One particular occupied house was kind of strange in that it was tiny, with plastic making up ninety percent of the roof. The place was in bad shape, but very obviously lived in and full of stuff.

home sweet home...

We took New Road out to Rt 553 and turned right. This was the busiest, widest road we would follow for the entire hike. We continued south on it and I got far ahead of the group yet again. We continued along, and passed one more abandoned house before reaching our right turn on Back Road.

I was disappointed that this time I wouldn't be catching a sunset out on the bay like we had on so many other perimeter hikes down in this area. Many of them were bay point to bay point, but as we complete more of them there are less bay sections that we need to cover.

Along Rt 553

We walked along the road, and we all got back together again. We passed an interesting house and a barn that read "restaurant" on it, with a painting of a giant cow on the side. Probably the strangest "restaurant" I've seen. We then crossed Page's Run on a road bridge and took a little break there. We could see all the way out to the bay here, as the sun was setting. I was happy that I sort of got my wish after all. It was a very beautiful spot.

Sunset over Page's Run and the bay

We continued across the bridge out toward the intersection with Baptist Road, but first turned right into a cemetery that went along the high bank of Page's Run. We walked on through the cemetery to it's access road on the other side, then turned back out to Baptist Road. We followed the road to the right, out into the middle of the town of Newport and reached the intersection with Methodist Road. We had now connected this hike with the previous one we had done. It's always a relief to me when we finally accomplish the goal in this way.

I had felt on edge for the entire first half of the hike because of the issue at work, and then because of stress of the guy taking photos of us. I want these things to be as positive as possible, but I am admittedly over sensitive and too susceptible to negativity. We took Methodist Road southeast, retracing our steps from the previous hike here, back out to Rt 553, and on to the municipal parking lot where we'd met in the morning.

I've worked very hard to have the life I wanted, and to make my dreams a reality. My efforts are the reason I have my job, my public service appointments, and responsibilities with which I've been entrusted. It's looking like it may be a hard road ahead due to recent events, but I'm still attaining my goals one step at a time, and I'll continue to focus on that.