Hike #841; Clinton to Bloomsbury

Hike #841; Clinton to Bloomsbury

4/10/15 Clinton to Bloomsbury with David "Captain Soup" Campbell, Joe Tag, Larry Philips, and Dan Asnis.

The group at Hoffman Park

The next hike would be another night trip, and one I had put on hold several times starting last year.

The idea was to do another hike through the abandoned Musconetcong Tunnel, and the rest of it would be stuff I'd just add on that I thought would be interesting, with the tunnel as the main attraction. I decided on a route between Bloomsbury and Clinton, parking on West Street as a meeting point in Bloomsbury. I figured this was a good spot to meet because my friend Rich Pace had parked there to do an early out on a hike way back in 2001. The old Central Railroad of NJ would provide an easy walking corridor into town off of roads for after dark.

I had rescheduled the hike several times because of other obligations or weather, and then I couldn't do the tunnel until it got warmer, and so pushed it off until April.

I met with Captain Soup and Dan at the end point, and Dan drove us to the beginning where we'd meet up with Joe and Larry. On the way, I hummed the melody to an obscure Billy Joel album cut called "Root Beer Rag". I was surprised that Dan knew it, and started having his phone play it in the car. We stopped for drinks, and most importantly to get poor Captain Soup some coffee. I had been up way too many hours and I couldn't believe he made it so well through this hike.

We parked near the Wal Mart in Clinton and headed down in front of the Cracker Barren restaurant where we could use their restrooms to meet up. Once we were ready to go, we headed down the access roads and underneath Rt 78.

In this short stretch of road walk, we some man pulled up and said "Hey, aren't you Kyle Zalinsky's friend?". For those of you who don't know, Kyle was my best buddy who passed away about five years ago. The man who pulled up was Kyle's uncle, who I hadn't seen in quite some time. We chatted for a moment before moving on.

 To the left here is Bonnell's Tavern, now closed for like thirty years. The building was built in 1738 on the original road between New Brunswick and Easton. The first regiment of "Minute Men" during the American Revolution were formed at this tavern in 1775. It's in a state of disrepair and has been abandoned for some time. There are concerns that the vibrations from Rt 78 are shaking it apart. Hopefully it can be restored one day.

We turned left on Rt 173 after the underpass, and continued to Lingert's Pond, one of the little parks I had never incorporated into a hike  yet. This was a good opportunity to do just that. We turned right to follow the east shore of the lake, with tons of goose crap everywhere.

Lingert's Pond

It was a pretty pond though, and I saw what appeared to be two Green Herons sitting on a tree that was on a tiny island out in the middle. We kept to the right side of the lake, then turned onto a mowed path after some sort of compressor building, which led us up hill to yet another smaller lake. This one was more of a retention pond. We turned onto a parkway style road heading through a development for a bit, then headed to the right up hill to another small road. We could easily cross the grass throughout this because it was all apartment style places with common yards. We turned left to follow Overlook Drive, then crossed Village Road again to a paved path through more of the development. Some of the path was closed due to construction, and there was a new wooden frame of a building going up as we walked through.

We came out of the development on Bank Street, turned right then immediately left onto Ruppell's Road. The road gained some elevation, and skirted the edge of what was likely a former quarry, now with businesses and such built in it, including the rental center off of Rt 173. At a few locations we got some good views to the west. The road was very small, and so it was a nice and easy walk, perfect for what we were doing. We also passed an abandoned barn and possibly house on the right hand side, with no other out buildings around it.

Ruppells Road came out to Rt 173. We crossed directly and then crossed Interstate 78 to the Frontage Road on the other side, and turned right. The frontage road is pleasant enough to walk. I wanted to cut off of it into more woods, but there were too many "no trespassing" signs so we opted to just stay on the road. it didn't take too long on this route to reach the Perryville exit off of Rt 78 and the Bagelsmith to get some snacks. I got  a giant cookie and some Reece's pieces.

Old Perryville Tavern

Across from this was the old Perryville Tavern, later known as the "Brick Tavern". The place was built in 1813, named for Admiral Oliver Hazard Perry, the navy commander credited with the victory at the Battle of Lake Erie over the British in the War of 1812. Perry was known for his flags reading "Don't Give Up the Ship", and is referred to as the Hero of Lake Erie. The victory was highly publicized, and many ships and such took Perry's name. The tavern was just another example of this. It was later known also as the "Brick Tavern".

The tavern was moved from it's original route along the old road from Easton to New Brunswick in 1916 when it would otherwise have faced demolition with the construction of Rt 78. It was used as a private residence for many years, but now bears signs reading that it is for sale and with a liquor license.

We continued from here down Perryville Road and crossed the railroad tracks on a bridge, formerly the Lehigh Valley Railroad. I told Larry he should throw his giant wad of cream cheese he was carrying at the bridge, but he wanted to eat it.

After the tracks, we turned right into Hoffman Park. This was the first time I think I'd been back in the park since 2010. We turned onto the access road, called Lehigh Lane, which led us over the branch of the Mulhockaway Brook. This was the site of a stream restoration project many years ago. When I worked for Hunterdon I would jump in the water there and catch giant crayfish. The stream was now grown over amazingly with little Bakers Willows. I would never have thought they would grow so densely.

Captain Soup got on the phone with his cousin or something and walked really far ahead, so he missed the turn initially that we took onto Owl's Roost Trail, another road. This took us to Heron Road, where we turned right, then right again on Birch Way. We reached Lehigh Lane again and turned left, then left again on Crow's Road past a little pond on the left. We continued up this old road back to Heron Road.

These roads were all part of the Hoffman Estate, owned by Albert and Joyce Hoffman. Albert was one of the brothers who owned Hoffman Beverages, which was once one of the main competitors to Pepsi and Coke. The roads provided his access to the property. The other Hoffman Brother's mansion and home is now the Schermann Hoffman Sanctuary of the Audobon Society near Morristown, but unfortunately Albert's house was torn down, despite our efforts to try to save it.

We turned right yet again from Heron onto Power Line Road, a paved one out through more of the woods. We continued on this and went straight on Lower Lane, past more ponds and such, and a stream going under the road. We came within view of some of the older barns next to a house that's still lived in, then looped back to the south on Manny's Pond Road. We turned left off this onto a wooden foot bridge to start Pond Trail. We followed this one along the pleasant edge of Manny's Pond out to another piece of Heron Road, then turned right and continued on Hairpin Lane.

We didn't go far on Hairpin before we cut off to the left through cleared sloped fields often used by sledders, and climbed up to where the old Hoffman House used to be.

Hoffman House site now

This was the first time I'd come back and saw the site without the house there. This beautiful old house was something very different than other area houses. The original frame of it was built in the 1830s, but then added on and changed by Mr. Hoffman. Additions were put on early on, but additions otherwise included a Mahogany staircase and stained glass doors.

Hoffman House when still standing in 2010

We tried convincing Union Township to allow us to try to fix it up, and turn it into an open space library. They didn't want to hear it. The whole thing was a huge farce.

When I started working for Hunterdon, Mrs. Hoffman was still alive. She had life rights to the property. Once she was gone, the building sat vacant. I got to see the inside of it through work, and it was stunning. When Huntedon County acquired Hoffman Park, they didn't want the buildings, so that part went to Union Township. The township didn't want them any more, and the simplest thing for them was to simply demolish it, but that wouldn't fly. They had to justify it first.

They did some assessments that said it was going to cost X amount of dollars to fix everything up, put in a new septic, etc. Then they submitted an RFP (Request For Proposal) to area non profit organizations who might be interested in occupying the building. The problem was that this RFP was written specifically to exclude any non profit in the tri state area. Professional grand writing friends and non profit managers told me there was no non profit organization they knew of who could conform to this RFP, and their opinion was that it was written specifically to exclude anyone from answering it. Several non profits came and looked at the property, and might have been interested, but the township wrote it up that the organization would have to maintain every building on the property. This was far too much, and so none of them went for it.

We decided to push Metrotrails from the State level Non Profit status to federal 501C3 in order to try to save the building and make an open space library, but the town said "no". My friend Deb Hirt from DOT had also gotten her own estimates done on the buildings that came out far far less money than what the township had. We also had a great number of people willing to put sweat equity into it. The township still denied us the chance.

After this, I suggested that if they will got give the property to us, at least re-submit the RFP with the new information we brought to the table, showing how it would be far less money than originally anticipated. The only man on the board with any foresight (who ironically bears an uncanny resemblence to Benjamin Franklin) made a motion to resubmit the RFP. None of the other members of the board would second it. The next motion made was to put out bids for demolition. The process disgusted me; how could elected officials possibly make such brash and illogical decisions to destroy a piece of our history? My friend Deb left the room crying.

Hoffman House in 2010

Now, there was barely any sign that an amazing house ever sat on this location. I could barely recognize the turns in the branches for a frame of reference for these before and after shots, but they are pretty much right on, with the new photo being a bit further back.

Hoffman House site

We passed the house site and continued on along the road. There was another old building still standing on the right, in deplorable shape and with the roof caving in. There were stairs to access part of it from the top. Why the township, who has jurisdiction over all the buildings, saw fit to tear down the non issue in terms of liability and leave this death trap up is beyond me.

We continued down the road to the garage building that was left up because someone thought it might make a good nature center or storage one day.

Abandoned garage building

We went into the second building and up the stairs to the second level. It was still in really good shape, and quite sturdy. This one could certainly be used for something still. We left this building and headed up hill around the hairpin turn, then past the back of the former Hoffman House site. We reached the parking lot and greeted a guy who had finished fishing at Manny's Pond. The carriage house to the old Hoffman House was still standing, though I'm not sure why they decided to leave that and not the house itself. These out buildings are certainly more of a liability than the house was.

Giant Ash and Musconetcong Mountain view in Hoffman park

We continued out the main access road, and cut into the fields to the right where we had a good view across the valley of Spruce Run Reservoir and Musconetcong Mountain. In the field is one of the largest Ash trees I'd ever seen. I always loved admiring it while I was working, looking across the field.

Jillane and I both love giant trees, and we had only been together less than a year when I talked to her on the phone and said "I just saw a giant Ash tree that made me think of you". She had thought I said "giant ash tray" and replied "WHAT??". I sent her a photo of the tree reminding her that it was my favorite ash tree/ash tray.

We walked down the hill and across field to reach Baptist Church Road. We turned right, then left onto Main Street, which heads into Pattenburg. I love walking these old roads that I'm familiar with from driving, but never got around to walking. Not far down the road, one of the old farm houses on the right side was of stone construction at one point but then had a later addition (and by later I mean 1800s). I assume the original masonry frame of the building might be from the 1700s, but I can't really know for sure.

Main Street had a few ninety degree angle turns, and the little old town is pretty. Captain Soup and I ended up way ahead, and so we waited up when we got to the intersection with Rt 614. I told Captain Soup to go on ahead and he could get a beer at the Pattenburg House Hotel while the others caught up. It didn't take too long, and we passed narrowly beneath the former Lehigh Valley Railroad underpass, and headed over to the bar. I went in and checked on Captain Soup. Just after I went in, the place was closed to people just walking in. There was a band and cover charge from that time forward, so Joe, Dan, and Larry couldn't go in.

Pattenburg House logo and historic shot

Captain Soup randomly met his cousin at the bar, not knowing he would be there, so we chatted a bit. The band started showing up and setting up while we were in the door, and I actually recognized two of them. We were chatting with the guy at the door about our hike, and I think those guys might have recognized me as well. They were very familiar.

I asked the guy "Is this band "Only Living Boy"? The guy confirmed that was who they were. I had met them years ago when I was performing with my friend Ervin DeJesus at local bars. They definitely had talent, and at some of those earlier things we got along just fine. Then Ervin invited them to one of my annual hikers' hootenannies, maybe in 2008. They showed up and asked what kind of party this was, and I told them about the hiking group. They saw my friend Christina Manley dancing with Chris Herbig in the living room very closely, and "I'll join up....but I'm quitting tomorrow!". There has always been music at the parties, and this time was no exception, but they started trying to shred on them and were basically just showing off, and bragging about all the places they played.

Then, the lead guy tried lighting up a join on my front lawn. No one at the party really smoked, and I asked him not to do it there. I was only a block from an elementary school, and police pretty regularly showed up at my annual party. I didn't need any of that problem. The guy gave me an attitude, and no one comes to my home or my events and pushes such arrogant disrespect. I told him if he lit up there he'd be leaving in an ambulance, so he complied, but it was obvious he wasn't happy about it. Two of the band guys hung around for a couple more hours, not because they liked us, but because they were trying very hard to get with my friend Paige Foley. She wanted no part of it and left to drive her mom home, and the guys left when they thought she wasn't coming back.

As soon as she was gone, their bassist said "Thanks for letting me come to your party I guess....but I'll never come back". And so that was my last contact with "Only Living Boy" until this moment, and I didn't bother saying hello.

Joe on the log crossing

We made our way back toward the railroad and toward the tunnel. We had no problem getting to the abandoned railroad right of way that approached the old Musconetcong Tunnel. I had forgotten to follow the active tracks to a better ATV access to the tunnel, and we followed an odd route to the right of the right of way. This proved more difficult and had lots of weeds. We then had to wade across water to get to the old rail bed. Joe managed to cross on a good log a bit further down than the others.

We made our way to the entrance, and Larry took his shoes off to go through. I knew that wasn't a good idea because of broken glass, but he tried for a while anyway. The water was brutally cold, much colder than I'd anticipated it would be by April.

In the tunnel

After we got to the first dry section, I had Larry put his shoes back on. It already took us a long time to get to the mouth of the tunnel, and a long time to get to where we were. The tunnel is already 4,893 feet long, so this was going to take us a while. We continued on through with it being pretty dry for a while, but then we got to more water. It was very strange this time, because there was a slippery layer of ice under all the water. It made footing quite difficult. Captain Soup and I got pretty far ahead walking on this. We had a bit more dry area, then some ice we walked on top of. There was quite a bit of that for most of the remainder of the tunnel. Flashing lights down, we could see the depth and down to the rocks on the floor of the tunnel below.

I knew when we reached the west portal, we would have to worry about falling through the ice. Sure enough, it happened to me first. This was unnerving because it wasn't only falling through, it was trying to get out afterwards. Even though the water wasn't deep, the slant created by the collapsed ice was too slippery to simply walk out of. We had to go to our knees and use our hands to pull forward out of it. Most of us got pretty soaked just trying to get ourselves out of the tunnel. I helped Joe and Dan get through at the end, and we took a break at the portal. I knew a train would be coming soon, and I was not looking forward to climbing the steep slope to the right to reach Tunnel Road and the Highlands Trail route. I decided it would be smartest to just walk the road access route up. We hurried up the road, which went directly above the mouth of the new Musconetcong Tunnel, built in the 1920s for greater clearance of trains, and then headed up to a driveway that reached Tunnel Road above. We took a break at the corner of a guard rail where we wouldn't have any problems before moving on.

When we were ready, we walked on the road, which is the Highlands Trail route, back out to Rt 173. We crossed onto the old 173 route and passed another former coach stop, then turned right onto Asbury-West Portal Road. We followed this for a little bit, then went left on Valley Station Road. Some guy pulled up to Captain Soup ahead of me and told him we should be wearing brighter clothing.

We soon reached the former Central Railroad of NJ tracks where we turned left. There is always a good ATV path following this old line, so it was easy for us to continue on through. We crossed over 173 again, and passed under Rt 78. When we were up on a fill at one point someone was flashing a flashlight up at us, but we didn't have any problems.

I'd gotten a text message from my friend Gabe Franklin while we were walking, asking if I was in Bloomsbury. I responded that I was hiking nearby, to which he replied that he saw a car parked across the street from his house with the Metrotrails logo on the doors! I knew he lived in Bloomsbury, but had no idea it was right there! Kind of funny  how things like that happen.

The streets of Bloomsbury began to appear to the right of us first, then some old industries before we finally crossed Rt 579. From here, we just turned right onto North Street, and followed it to West Street to complete the hike.

I was glad to have done the tunnel again, but I will definitely hold off before making any other attempt on it until the weather warms, possibly May or June. All in all, it was a good time to get out and revisit some places from the past that had changed so much, and to cover a little bit of new stuff I'd been wanting to do.